Fondue for you!

It's been a crazy week. My absence must be excused!

As I stated in my last post, I entered a song competition! Vote daily for my song! http://www.myairforcelife.com/contests/songs_frame.cfm?view=78&category=1 If I win, I plan on buying a baby grand piano with the prize: $2000 gift card to musiciansfriend.com.

I was not having a good day on Sunday. I woke up and started to make tea on the stove for Sam's daily dose of sweet tea. It started out normal-- a clean 3 gallon glass jar, a full saucepan of boiling water with steeping teabags, and sugar ready for deployment.

I let the teabags steep for about 10 minutes. I then grabbed the saucepan and slowly poured the tea into the glass jar. After pouring all the tea inside, I walked away with the saucepan and started to rinse out the pan. About 10 seconds later, I heard a few grinding sounds and cracking noises---I turned just in time to see the whole 3 gallon jar, half full of tea, shifting off it's base and cracking--tea flowing over the counter and all over the floor.

Thankfully, the jar stayed on the base but just shifted--the glass didn't break or fall onto the floor.

Happy Jenna.

I was so upset. Little did I know that later that night I would be receiving a glass shard in my foot.

ON TO BIGGER and more positive things!

A few months ago, my wonderful husband took me out on a date to The Melting Pot-- a fancy fondue restaurant. Ever since then, I knew I was in love with fondue. The whole idea of dipping so many fruits, veggies, and meats into a cheesy sauce or an oil boil makes my heart flutter.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Fondue, it's a whole meal experience. One has a cheese fondue with dippers such as bread pieces, apples, veggies, or chips. The cheese is melted in a fondue pot over a tealight or a stronger flame (or can be electric). The guests use long forklike sticks to dip said delights into the cheese. Another fondue is an oil fondue where a person has raw meat that they dip into the oil until the meat boils done (each piece of meat takes about 2 minutes). My favorite type of fondue is the dessert fondue--- melted chocolate! Basically, melt chocolate and whipping cream, add some peanut butter, flavors, or crushed up nuts/graham crackers. Dippers include strawberries, cheesecake, bananas, marshmallows, cake, or pineapples! You can really just go crazy choosing your dippers!

I bought a fondue set at a garage sale a few weeks ago for $7.00 (yay bargains!). Only problem with it was that it didn't have a ceramic insert or a nonstick inner bowl---it was all metal. Metal and chocolate/cheese fondue do not mix. I was craving fondue but needed that insert. I bit the bullet and bought an electric fondue bowl.

The recipe of choice was a simple Swiss fondue. After assembling the ingredients for the fondue and for the dippers, I started to prep.

Fondue takes a lot of prep work. A person must cut up everything they plan to use as dippers into bite size pieces. This means using about 6 mini baguettes for four people, boiling the broccoli and chopping into smaller pieces, cutting and cleaning the veggies too. For the dessert fondue, it doesn't feel like work! You can snag a couple of bites of strawberries or cheesecake...and call it even.

Original Swiss Fondue

(from The Fondue Bible, Ilana Simon)

8oz Emmentaler cheese, grated

8oz Gruyere cheese, graterd

1 1/2 tbsp flour

1 garlic clove, halved

1 1/4 C dry white wine (I used Mad Housewife Chardonnay)

(Refrigerate grated cheeses until you are ready to use them)

In a bowl, combine the grated cheeses and flour. Mix very well. Set aside.

Rub the inside of a saucepan/fondue bowl with the garlic clove. Discard garlic.

Add wine to bowl and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low.

Add cheese mixture to bowl by handfuls, stirring constantly after each addition in a figure eight motion until all cheese is incorporated and melted. Put pot on a warmer just enough to keep the cheese warm and melted, but not bubbly or boiling.

Enjoy!

I found that a whisk was nice to use when adding cheese, but it seemed to get the cheese tangled up inside the whisk hooks, so I used a bamboo long spoon instead and it worked great. Because I'm a fan of spices, I used garlic and some ground yellow mustard in the cheese as well. I stirred both in while the cheese was melting.

This Swiss fondue has a tangy flavor to it. It is strong but not overpowering. I found that my favorite dippers for this cheese fondue are apples (Yes!), bread, and broccoli. You could also use boiled potatoes, blanched red peppers, mushrooms, or even zucchini rounds.

Chocolate Fondue

3/4C Whipping cream

12 oz chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp kirsch, kahlua, or other liqueur (optional)

Heat cream until warm (do not boil or burn). Add chocolate and stir constantly until melted and smooth.

Dippers:

Apple Wedges, pineapple chinks, cherries, strawberries, bananas, pound cake cubes, marshmallows, rice crispy treat cubes, almonds, orange slices.

You could use dark chocolate or milk chocolate. Milk Chocolate is very sweet! I used milk chocolate morsels. It took a while for them to melt but I felt safer using those than a baking bar. If you double this recipe, you will have enough chocolate for 2 fondue gatherings or if you really enjoy chocolate, one!

Adaptations:

Rocky Road: Add 1-2tbsp graham crumbs and 1 1/2 c mini marshmallows.

Peanut Butter Chocolate: Add 1/2 c peanut butter and chopped peanuts to the chocolate.

White Chocolate: sub white chocolate for brown chocolate and add 1 1/2tsp coconut rum.

YUM!