The joy in making homemade cheese crackers can also lead to something unexpected – a delightful Friday afternoon dance party. The other day I discovered something amazing in our fridge, a block of parmesan that I didn't know we had. And I decided that as soon as the weather cooled down that I would make homemade crackers.

Normally when I cook, I listen to podcasts on my i-Pod. But today it still felt like an early summer day, even with the temperatures “only” in the sixties after our eighty degree heatwave.

In March. In Vermont.

So, I turned the oven on and opened the kitchen window. Then I found a music mix titled, “Sunny Summer Day Mix.”

And it was the craziest thing. Every song timed out perfectly for the step in the recipe that I was working on. Bonus: By the time I was kneading the dough I was singing at the top of my lungs and dancing in front of the butchers block.

At least I worked off some of the calories from these cheesy, delicious crackers. But, I should probably apologize to the neighbors.

Songlist:

Mixing the ingredients: Tell Me Why – The Beatles

Kneading: Kissed it – Macy Gray

Rolling out the dough: Who Are You? – The Who (NOT the radio friendly version.)

Cutting the dough: Hey Tonight – Creedence Clearwater Revival

Parmesan Cheddar Crackers

2 cups of flour

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

½ cup of shredded parmesan cheese

½ cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I used Cabot's Extra Sharp.)

2/3 cup of warm water

1 teaspoon of dry mustard

½ teaspoon of cayenne

Sea salt (I used coarse gray sea salt.)

Put music on and start working.

Oh, and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together the flour, butter, olive oil, kosher salt, parmesan and cheddar cheese. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes. Then, divide the dough in half and pull out 2 sheet pans. Roll the dough out on each pan until it's about 1/8 of an inch thick. Then, using a pastry cutter or pizza wheel, cut the dough lengthwise and then crosswise.

Sprinkle the sea salt over the crackers, and push the salt in slightly to set it.

Cook the crackers for 10 minutes then turn the pan. Pull off any crackers that are brown. Then start checking the crackers every couple of minutes or so, again – pulling off any that are done. The whole process will take about 15-25 minutes.

These little crackers taste far and away better than the boxed version.

Makes approximately 60-80 crackers.

(Photos by Launie Kettler.)