I have two favourite things about ‘Family Fondue Night’. One, is the chocolate fondue for dessert – which we’ll get to in just a bit. But the other – and perhaps the best, even better than chocolate – is the time we spend as a family.
I know you might be thinking… “You don’t have to be eating fondue to spend time as a family”. And you’re right, you don’t. But usually while your food is cooking in the fondue pot…you talk. You catch up on your day. With fondue night, you don’t constantly have a mouth full of food, so there’s more time for chatting, laughing, and bonding. Fondue nights are designed to make you slow down, enjoy the company you’re with and have FUN! Now, onto the fondue deliciousness!
So, most people think of the traditional fondue pot full of yummy melted cheese, which I fully support. But we do things a little differently at our house. Instead of cheese, we fill our fondue pot with beef stock. You could use chicken or vegetable stock as well. Simply bring the stock to a boil in a pot on the stove with some spices and onions, and transfer to the fondue pot. Then the dipping begins!
For dipping, we like to keep it pretty kid-friendly. It goes something like this;
Meats – cut into bite size pieces
Steak
Chicken
Pork
If you have seafood lovers in your house, you could also try shrimp or scallops! We like to dip vegetables into the pot too. Some suggestions include;
Veggies
Mushrooms
Broccoli
Peppers
Our guys love broccoli and peppers, the mushrooms are more for us. You can use any kind of vegetables your family likes, but we find mushrooms and broccoli soak up the flavour the best. Sometimes we dip the veggies by themselves, and sometimes we make little meat-veggie kebabs on our fondue forks! It’s totally up to you! Any combination you want! I’ve also heard of people dipping hard cheeses into the fondue pot! I haven’t tried it, but it sounds amazing!
While our meat and veggies are cooking in the pot, we talk about anything that comes to their minds. School, friends, sports, our next family vacation – you name it! It’s a great way to talk to your kids, relax and simply slow life down for an evening. You could also have an appetizer on the table while you’re waiting for the food to cook if you have impatient little ones.
The fondue fun keeps going for dessert too! For this one, we have a smaller fondue pot that you just light with a tea light. Fill it up with melted chocolate (we use chocolate chips in the microwave) and then cut up your favourite fruits for dipping. We like;
Fruits – cut into bite size pieces
Bananas
Grapes
Apples
Strawberries
Non-Fruit
Timbits
Bite Size Brownies
I’m a big fan of bananas and strawberries dipped in chocolate, but as you can guess…the boys are big fans of the non-fruit options!
We’ve done fondue nights with family, friends, and now that the boys are a bit older and (hopefully!) won’t poke each other’s eyes out with fondue forks or stick their hands in the pot, I’m hoping to make it a regular thing in our house, or maybe even a family tradition around the holidays when it’s just the 4 of us.
“Festive Family Fondue Fun” has a pretty nice ring, doesn’t it?
