Fondue or FunDo

Sometimes the best traditions start when you just try something new. And, we love to try new and interesting things at our house. Years ago, I started a "party" tradition with the kids of having FunDo night, our version of fondue. Fondue provides an evening of fun, yum and lots of friends.

Years ago, we started out using the ceramic fondue pots with little burners or candles underneath. Our FunDo has gotten more sophisticated, though, so we invested in electric pots to keep things warm, and giving us more time to spend with guests. Typically, we do a three course fondue event including several cheese sauces, a stock broth for meats and seafood, and two different types of chocolate for dessert.

Preparation takes a little time, but it's worth it! We start the day before and cut up all the vegetables that we will dip and store them in the fridge. Our choices include things like carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, red potatoes, mushrooms, and especially apples (but cut those up the day of). We also do some dessert prep by finding things we would love with chocolate and getting them ready. Some of our yummy choices include marshmallows, pineapple, strawberries, bananas (cut the same day), rice krispie treats, chocolate brownies, cookies, wafers, anything that would taste good in chocolate.

The day of the event, I prepare a big crock pot of stock broth. I've tried many different types, but tend to like a beef based broth with a bit of soy, garlic, onions, green onion and lots and lots of seasonings. Using the crock pot when you are serving many folks allows the broth to be hot, tasty and ready to refill an empty pot at a moment's notice.

Cut up your meat and put it on big platters. Great choices include a nice steak, chicken breast, shrimp (precooked is better with kids), scallops, fish, and lobster. Often, I will season part of the beef and part of the chicken with rubs to flavor them for more variety.

Once the food is ready, you need to focus on making the cheese fondue. I have made them from scratch, before, but typically like to start with what I call a starter fondue cheese, a Swiss variety, and create my own from there. You can buy packets of fondue starter cheese at most grocery stores. Typically, they can be found with the gourmet cheese and it may require you asking someone to find the small boxes. Prepare your cheeses ahead of time (shredding them) so you can make the fondue quickly. I try various ingredients in my sauces from wine, beer, nutmeg, finely chopped pecans, garlic and many different spices. Try a spicy variety by adding crushed red pepper, cumin, tarragon, a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce and some garlic. Complete the sauce by adding some pepper jack cheese. Or how about making a sweeter variety using a Riesling wine, nutmeg, tarragon, and mozzarella?

Fondue night is a great way to have a long engaging evening of fun, conversation and interaction with your family and any guests. When done well, it easily can last two to three hours depending on the number of recipes you use and the number of courses. Our girls love it and often beg for a FunDo party. And, if you don't really want to make it yourself, just check out a local fondue restaurant, like the Melting Pot where you can enjoy the pleasure without all the work.

For fondue help check out these sites:

Recipegal.com

Wikipedia

Recipe Goldmine

Find electric fondue pots at Target where we got ours.

Turkey Traditions

Soon, I will be sharing my thankfulness with family members like many of you. This year we will have members from both my husband’s and my family gathering at the table. We usually have 20 or more people, bringing the noise and activity level up.

I love Thanksgiving and the joy of being together with family. I love it more than Christmas. For me, Thanksgiving maintains a preciousness free from much of the commercialism, expectations for gifting and harried schedules that black Friday brings upon on.

For years, I have been the “noodle maker” in the family, creating egg noodles from scratch and making a crock pot overflowing of a chicken dumpling noodle recipe. It is a 3 day process to make and hang the noodles up to dry. Various family members call weeks in advance to ask if I will be making the noodles in line with tradition. Their mouths start watering the moment they think about the dish. The family doesn’t know it, but one year I cheated. I bought cans of chicken and noodles because I did not want to let them down and I did not have time to make them. I seasoned up the canned goods with flour, more chicken and lots of spices. My family never knew. My kids and I smirked and holding back laughter every time someone commented on how good they were.

Every year we have had a gravy issue for as long as I can remember. Apparently none of my siblings or spouses learned how to effectively make good gravy. One year someone put powdered sugar in the gravy amidst the madness of too many cooks in the kitchen. Another year, the gravy was so lumpy we could do nothing but make fun of it. And then there was the year we got the gravy "just" right and my nephew dumped it all over the carpet while carrying to the table. Last year we just bought the gravy in a jar. Ahh, some things create a different kind of tradition to look forward to.

In preparation for the big day, the girls and I gather in the kitchen and whip up a bakery’s worth of products to serve for dessert. We make cherry and pumpkin pies, brownie and cake recipes and add in a few specialties like pumpkin rolls. We always have a table or two dedicated to desserts. We usually eat the desserts in “phase 2” of our turkey feast after we've made room for more.

Some families take naps, watch a movie or watch a game after their turkey meal. My siblings are pretty active adults and we often will head down to the basketball court near our home and engage aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews in a rowdy game. Or if the weather does not cooperate, we engage in lively board games full of lots of smack talk. This year, I am predicting a rock band tournament in the basement lounge. I can hear the squeals of “Roxanne” now.

My family is also goofy and growing up with five siblings, we learned to entertain ourselves with very little. So lots of silly play happens when we get together at Thanksgiving. Last year we made up a song and sang it rappin’ battle style to my mother. It was our very own version of “I’m getting nuttin’ for Christmas” full of lots of funny statements about our behavior as children. Verses included lines like, "I pushed Brian down the stairs, accidently cut his hair, dressed him up to be a girl, broke his collarbone with a twirl...Oh, I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas...." Of course all these things were mostly accidents! It was pure comedy as each kid one-upped the other.

Whatever your Thanksgiving traditions and plans hold, I hope that you will infuse the joy of thankfulness into everything you do.

Peace out,

Sandy

Creepy Food for Families

Looking for some fun things to do for Halloween? How about getting in the kitchen with the family and making fun food? Every year I get the kids in the kitchen, with the notion of making creepy, creative, theme-based food. We make lots of fun stuff from radish/olive eyeballs inside of icecubes, to ghoulish, breadstick bones. It creates traditions for celebrating the holidays and great memories! Here are links to several sites where you will find everything from mummy dogs to witch finger sandwiches. Have fun!

Pillsbury
AOL Recipes
Family Fun

Some personal favorites:

Melon brain
Kitty Litter Cake
Mummy toes
Worm Sandwiches
Bug juice