Fondue Friday (cheese and chocolate for Valentine’s Day)
What says ‘I love you’ better than a communal pot of cheese and chocolate during the cold season? Probably a lot but we decided that if it’s good for Rei, it’s good for all of us. Or we were just rolling the dice and assuming that in hugging and kissing Rei, Rei already shared their cold-infested germs with us.
Muahahahaha! My evil plan is working! Everyone will be sick and miserable just like me and will not be able to enjoy the ridiculously commercialized holiday meant to entrap people into buying anything and everything with hearts and candy involved…look out, Grinch, there’s a new player in town!
Valentine’s Day fell on a Friday this year and all three of us (me, Zeke and Rei) planned to be home. We don’t have fondue often because, really, it’s not that healthy, but it is fun. It is fun to nearly stab someone with a fondue fork when they take the last piece of banana…*cough* Mom *cough*
We have two fondue pots thanks to my cousin Ray (wedding gift 23+ years ago) and my mom passing along her 1970s avocado green one that you can just imaging gracing the front cover of the September 1974 Sunset magazine. No, we didn’t have fondue a lot when we were kids so my parents must have enjoyed it with their friends along with strawberry daquiris.
Broccoli and cheese is a match made in heaven so I started by cutting up two heads of broccoli and blanching it in hot, salted water. Once those were out, I boiled some new potatoes until just tender. I snacked a lot on both the broccoli and the potatoes when we were waiting for the cheese to melt. I don’t get how some people don’t like blanched broccoli; it’s so good?
While the potatoes were cooking, I cut up some ham and dill pickles. We’ve had pickles with raclette but not with fondue and since there was a jar in the fridge I thought we’d give them a try. Spoiler alert: the pickles were not our favorite. They might have been on the edge of going bad so the chickens enjoyed a tasty snack. I don’t mind pickles on their own but the cheese was unnecessary.
We still had some of Rei’s sourdough bread left from Tuesday so I cut that into big chunks while Zeke tried to find the sterno and make sure we were all set for dinner.
I found a Martha Steward recipe for cheese fondue and we kind of followed it. It called for fontina, gouda, and Gruyere cheese. Zeke managed to find all three at our local market along with a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc.
I cut it up into cubes and tossed the cubes in flour along with some cayenne pepper and white pepper.
We brought some wine to a near-boil (probably too much) and added the flour coated cheese to the pot. It didn’t take long for the cheese to mostly melt but then it started clumping. It looked kinda gross if you ask me. I’m not sure what we should do next time but it’s not that.
We added some chicken stock and then decided it was good enough.
Oh, I forgot about the green apples. That went better with the cheese than the chocolate according to Zeke. I just ate them to cut down on the richness of the cheese in between bites. I probably only ate half of my bites with the cheese and the other half was plain. I don’t particularly like ham so I steered clear, but everything else was good.
Zeke cleaned up the kitchen while I got some work done. Then Zeke and Rei cut up the fruit and rice Krispy treats for dessert. Fun times. I have to say, rice Krispy treats are my childhood (we didn’t get them often but they were always a treat) and it was nice to have some again. I can’t remember the last time I had one. The bowl of krispies was eaten probably 70% by me. (Your childhood? You realize you are still living your childhood, right?~Terri)
We opted for bananas, strawberries, and pineapple along with the green apple that was leftover from the cheese course. We were tempted to also cut up some oranges but decided against it because we already had too much food. (And we decided not to put grand Marnier into the chocolate because we don’t like alcohol in our desserts.~Terri)
What was my favorite? The rice krispy treat.
Rei and I started our day by opening up some goodies from Zeke. Winner winner chicken dinner with these gifts…new aprons for us. Can you guess which one is for me and which one is for Rei? We may switch them up periodically because both are appropriate! Nah, I’m keeping a solid grip on mine — the fuck off one, if you couldn’t tell.
I ended my day as one happy mama with this Snapchat message from my son Adam who is away at college. He has a new girlfriend (they are cute as can be together) and seems to be very happy. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww *retching*
My heart is full especially after spending the day with Rei and two of my best friends yesterday. How about you, Rei? Any special thoughts on dinner? Dinner was pretty rad. It was nice to have a change of pace — I think the last time we had fondue was last Valentine’s, if I remember correctly?
Hanging out with Beth and Bonnie was also a blast yesterday. I got a new book, The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan, and it’s one of those books where you can just tell that the author is in love with reading and books. I’m only a little over halfway through but so far it’s one of those warm and fuzzy books like Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. I would recommend it so far but I haven’t finished it so I may change my mind (unlikely but possible).
Because, Rei, you know that, like your dad’s card said, nothing compares to you.
Fun times. I think my favorite part of dinner was probably the broccoli or the potatoes (cheese was optional), and dessert was either bananas or the krispies. I wish I’d had the foresight to make marshmallows, because they would have been awesome with the chocolate. Alas, I only thought of that on Friday morning, and there wouldn’t have been enough time for it to set and all that.
I’m thinking about making a brioche bread this week instead of sourdough. I’m kinda bored with the sourdough and have pretty much gotten the hang of it. Maybe after brioche I’ll tackle baguettes or ciabattas? Not sure.
Anyways, it’s time to feed my starter and my snake, so I’m off! Until next time, ciao, and have a ghruklews day!
Rei and Terri :P
