There's something about fondue that is just plain fun. Stabbing food with forks, dipping it in cheese or better yet, chocolate, makes eating an event. Got a picky eater? When they dip their own choice into the fondue pot, they'll eat it. My seven-year old daughter said it's the one meal where it's "OK to play with your food."
We had a chance to try some Emmi Fondue recently and it made for a super-fun family meal. For those of you unfamiliar with fondue, it consists of melted cheese (for dinner) and melted chocolate (for dessert). Dip different pieces of food into the cheese or chocolate and eat!
Hunks of bread are the traditional choice for dipping in the cheese, but apples, broccoli, carrots and more will work and are a great way to sneak some veggies into your kids. We also dipped hot dogs and meatballs into the cheese. For dessert, just about anything dipped in the chocolate will be a tasty treat. Fruits are a great choice, we dipped apples, grapes and bananas. Cookies, graham crackers and marshmallows (Winters S'mores!), pound cake and even Oreo's are other great dessert options.
We asked the pros at Emmi for some tips and they suggested the following:
- Use cookie cutters to cut bread or pieces of cake into fun shapes before dipping in cheese or chocolate fondue.
- Let kids build their own skewers of dippable ingredients for cheese fondue, like veggies, meat, or boiled shrimp.
- Using mini candlelight fondue pot lets you bring the interactive eating anywhere, from a living room picnic to lunch in the park.
- Build fondue s’mores by dipping a marshmallow into chocolate fondue before sandwiching it between graham cracker pieces.
- Instead of the Swiss tradition of kissing the person to your right if your bread drops into the cheese make it that if you drop your bread you have to do a silly dance or sing a song.
- Play a game that the person who tries the most adventurous or unique combination (like dipping broccoli into chocolate fondue) and eats it wins a prize.
As the winter settles in, try fondue night with your family and have some fun playing with your food.
