fondue dinner

We invited friends over for an oil fondue dinner. Such fun!

They brought a spinach salad with strawberries, walnuts, and an herbed
Greek cheese.

To cook in the oil we had buffalo and beef cubes (from, as they call
it around here, Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods), but man was it good),
plus breaded mushrooms and cheeses (Edam and Haloumi).

The dips were mango chutney, dijon mustard, sour cream + horseradish,
cocktail sauce, and a thick teriyaki sauce with lots of ginger and
garlic.

To complete the travesty, we hit up Coldstone Creamery just as it was
closing for some extra-fatty ice cream.

Our friends have a massive collection of board games, so we played
some of those until it got late enough that our brains couldn't
interpret the instructions anymore (a lot of board games are in
German, with hit or miss translations of the instructions).

Fondue is such a great way to eat and hang out -- just the logistics
of the skewers provide plenty of entertainment. It does get very easy
to eat just as much food as is on the table, though.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

It sounds like a great evening!

Joy

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...

We invited friends over for an oil fondue dinner. Such fun!

They brought a spinach salad with strawberries, walnuts, and an herbed
Greek cheese.

To cook in the oil we had buffalo and beef cubes (from, as they call
it around here, Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods), but man was it good),
plus breaded mushrooms and cheeses (Edam and Haloumi).

The dips were mango chutney, dijon mustard, sour cream + horseradish,
cocktail sauce, and a thick teriyaki sauce with lots of ginger and
garlic.

To complete the travesty, we hit up Coldstone Creamery just as it was
closing for some extra-fatty ice cream.

Our friends have a massive collection of board games, so we played
some of those until it got late enough that our brains couldn't
interpret the instructions anymore (a lot of board games are in
German, with hit or miss translations of the instructions).

Fondue is such a great way to eat and hang out -- just the logistics
of the skewers provide plenty of entertainment. It does get very easy
to eat just as much food as is on the table, though.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
We invited friends over for an oil fondue dinner. Such fun!

They brought a spinach salad with strawberries, walnuts, and an herbed
Greek cheese.

Probably Feta Delicious! Makes a great addition to spinach quiche.

To cook in the oil we had buffalo and beef cubes (from, as they call
it around here, Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods), but man was it good),
plus breaded mushrooms and cheeses (Edam and Haloumi).

I've heard Whole Foods called that before. There are none around here.

The dips were mango chutney, dijon mustard, sour cream + horseradish,
cocktail sauce, and a thick teriyaki sauce with lots of ginger and
garlic.

Yum! and Yummer!

Fondue is such a great way to eat and hang out -- just the logistics
of the skewers provide plenty of entertainment. It does get very easy
to eat just as much food as is on the table, though.

I love a good fondue! I've never tried doing the meat in oil fondue but the
traditional Swiss cheese fondue with veggies and bread cubes is just as much
fun. Years ago (that is, before Y2K) I found a fondue pot on sale at Bed
Bath & Beyond and my friend sent me to pick one up for her. We wound up
doing fondue at the office but she did a chocolate fondue and brought in
fresh strawberries, bananas and pineapple chunks to dunk in the chocolate.

Oh mine isn't an electric fondue pot. Sterno is your friend Denatured
alcohol burners can be dangerous. I can attest to this!

Glad you had a great time!

Jill

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

Our friends have a massive collection of board games, so we played
some of those until it got late enough that our brains couldn't
interpret the instructions anymore (a lot of board games are in
German, with hit or miss translations of the instructions).

Oh, are these games similar to Settlers of Catan and that type?

Your dinner sounded fabulous!

Joyce

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in
:

Fondue is such a great way to eat and hang out -- just the logistics
of the skewers provide plenty of entertainment. It does get very easy
to eat just as much food as is on the table, though.


I once tried a fondue party but didn't take into account the logistics -
I invited a dozen people. Think of a dozen people all trying to get at
the pot, and you'll see the problem. :-(

Chak

--
In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In
our actual society, we insist they be cheerleaders.
--Steve Allen

On 2006-04-16, jmcquown penned:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
They brought a spinach salad with strawberries, walnuts, and an
herbed Greek cheese.

Probably Feta Delicious! Makes a great addition to spinach
quiche.

It definitely wasn't feta. Some kind of goat cheese (maybe it wasn't
Greek at all; are there non-Greek goat cheeses?). Herby, but not
pungent in the same way as feta. I do love feta, though.

I've heard Whole Foods called that before. There are none around
here.

The meat was very good, but I don't want to say what we paid for those
two pounds. One of the topics of discussion was organic meat, as one
friend's parents raise cattle. He said they don't qualify as organic
because they use antibiotics on sick animals. They liken completely
non-antibiotic meat to never going to the doctor, say there can be all
sorts of worms and who knows what. I would imagine it's more likely
that those cows aren't used for beef (which would explain a lot about
the prices).

I love a good fondue! I've never tried doing the meat in oil fondue
but the traditional Swiss cheese fondue with veggies and bread cubes
is just as much fun. Years ago (that is, before Y2K) I found a
fondue pot on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond and my friend sent me to
pick one up for her. We wound up doing fondue at the office but she
did a chocolate fondue and brought in fresh strawberries, bananas
and pineapple chunks to dunk in the chocolate.

I worry about burning the chocolate or cheese -- it seems much more
involved. But maybe I'll try it eventually. There's a place called
The Melting Pot around here where you can do all sorts of fondue, but
I've never been there.

Oh mine isn't an electric fondue pot. Sterno is your friend
Denatured alcohol burners can be dangerous. I can attest to this!

My parents have a sterno one. I really like the electric one we got
(got it from Amazon about a month ago). It maintains an even temp,
and it's non-stick, so it's really easy to clean. One interesting
(weird) thing is that the cable is magnetic, so it can detach really
easily. I'd never seen anything like that before. It means that if
someone accidentally yanks on the cord, it just detaches rather than
pouring a liter of hot oil on everyone.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-04-16, Chakolate penned:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in
:

Fondue is such a great way to eat and hang out -- just the
logistics of the skewers provide plenty of entertainment. It does
get very easy to eat just as much food as is on the table, though.


I once tried a fondue party but didn't take into account the
logistics - I invited a dozen people. Think of a dozen people all
trying to get at the pot, and you'll see the problem. :-(


Eep! Yeah, I think you need one pot per four people, which would take
up an awful lot of room.

I like the idea of four people because it's nice and cozy, lots of
opportunity to gab =)

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-04-16, penned:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

Our friends have a massive collection of board games, so we played
some of those until it got late enough that our brains couldn't
interpret the instructions anymore (a lot of board games are in
German, with hit or miss translations of the instructions).

Oh, are these games similar to Settlers of Catan and that type?

They do have that, and in fact one of the rule sets said that it was
based on settlers of catan. We played my personal favorite game, which
is sort of like Uno with farm animals and buckets. Each of the five
colors is associated to a different animal, and you get three buckets
of each color and a bunch of cards. Someone plays a card -- say "2
chickens" -- and the next person has to be able to play at least 3
chickens. You can play up to three cards in one turn. If you can't
beat the cards, you have to remove the bucket of the appropriate color
(oh yeah, you have a pyramid of your 15 buckets), and all the buckets
supported by that one have to go, too.

Ah. It's called The Bucket King:

http://www.boardgamesusa.com/cgi-bin...oogle&kw=bgusa

That game has just the right mix, for me, of smack talk and silliness.
We added a "house rule" that the loser had to make the sound of the
animal they'd just lost to.

We played a few other games, too. One in which every player is trying
to be the first to connect their five cities via Railroad. Another
really odd one in which you're trying to seat people in a cafe,
matching nationalities and pairing male/female (that one had some
pretty disturbingly stereotypical pictures).

Your dinner sounded fabulous!

Very yummy, very fun!

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2006-04-16, jmcquown penned:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
I love a good fondue! I've never tried doing the meat in oil fondue
but the traditional Swiss cheese fondue with veggies and bread cubes
is just as much fun. Years ago (that is, before Y2K) I found a
fondue pot on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond and my friend sent me to
pick one up for her. We wound up doing fondue at the office but she
did a chocolate fondue and brought in fresh strawberries, bananas
and pineapple chunks to dunk in the chocolate.

I worry about burning the chocolate or cheese -- it seems much more
involved. But maybe I'll try it eventually. There's a place called
The Melting Pot around here where you can do all sorts of fondue, but
I've never been there.

We have The Melting Pot here, too. I've never been there. I remember a
couple of years back they advertised New Years Eve dinner "*only* $99 per
person including a complimentary glass of champagne at midnight!" I thought
to myself, heh, I can do fondue at home for a heck of a lot less than that
and have all the champagne I want, too!

Oh mine isn't an electric fondue pot. Sterno is your friend
Denatured alcohol burners can be dangerous. I can attest to this!

My parents have a sterno one. I really like the electric one we got
(got it from Amazon about a month ago). It maintains an even temp,
and it's non-stick, so it's really easy to clean. One interesting
(weird) thing is that the cable is magnetic, so it can detach really
easily. I'd never seen anything like that before. It means that if
someone accidentally yanks on the cord, it just detaches rather than
pouring a liter of hot oil on everyone.

That's a nifty feature if you have an electric one. A lap full of hot
cheese sauce wouldn't be much fun, either

Jill

On 2006-04-16, jmcquown penned:

We have The Melting Pot here, too. I've never been there. I
remember a couple of years back they advertised New Years Eve dinner
"*only* $99 per person including a complimentary glass of champagne
at midnight!" I thought to myself, heh, I can do fondue at home for
a heck of a lot less than that and have all the champagne I want,
too!

Ouch! I'd have to agree with you. Even after the cost of the meat,
the four of us ate for a lot less than that. Then again, there would
have been a lot of in-progress cleanup or several fondue pots
necessary if we wanted to also do chocolate fondue for dessert.

That's a nifty feature if you have an electric one. A lap full of
hot cheese sauce wouldn't be much fun, either

Not at all! Some people gave this fondue set negative reviews for
having this style of cord attachment, which granted can come loose
pretty easily. I think they must have a screw loose. The power cord
*is* awfully short, but it's easy enough to add an extension cord.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca