Friends and Fondue

Marcus and I had some friends over last night.  I didn't get any pictures, because I never think to grab my camera during things like this, but I'll do my best to describe the scene.  I wanted to do something fun for my friends whose husbands are deploying in the near future.  I thought, what better than a fondue party?  Nothing.  We had a blast.  It took a ton of prep on my part, but fortunately you can prep for a fondue party over the course of a few days.

We started off the dinner with a cheese and cracker tray and the fabulous artichoke and jalapeño dip with pita chips from Costco.  I can eat the entire tub of this dip by myself in one sitting if I don't portion it out, it's so good.

Next it was on to the fondue.  We did a basic vegetable broth as our cooking liquid and I prepared beef tenderloin and chicken breast cubes as the meat dippers.  I also served pre-boiled bite-size potatoes, broccoli, and four colors of bell peppers to dip.  On the side was the Sturzinger family take on California Pizza Kitchen's Waldorf Salad; mixed greens, granny smith apples, green grapes, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and papaya seed dressing.  Sooo good!!

I also made several dipping sauces for all of the cooked food.  Soy-wasabi sauce, which is exactly how it sounds, some soy sauce with some wasabi mixed in.  Lemon Teriyaki sauce, which is soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar, and ground ginger.  A mustard sauce, which is mustard, mayonnaise, sour cream, and a dash of worcestershire sauce.  A horseradish sauce, which is horseradish, green onions and homemade whipped cream. This was my first time making my own whipped cream, I did it by hand - no cheating with the stand mixer - and it was easier than I thought.  The last two sauces were just store-bought BBQ and ranch.

Then on to dessert, which everybody was waiting for.  We did a chocolate caramel dipping sauce with a ton of dippers.  There were Krispy Kreme donuts, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, and raspberries.  There was also supposed to be pound cake, but I forgot it in the freezer.  Oh well, just means I have an excuse to have a mini-fondue party with my neighbor Heather with the leftover chocolate.

To top off the night, my friend Andrea (who I knew from Panama City) was on the island for work and was able to make it.  Her husband is in the Navy and is currently deployed to the Persian Gulf for 6 months, so it was nice being able to include her in our pre-deployment festivities.

All in all, it was a great night.  Good food, good friends and a whole lot of fun.