Black Friday Fondue was quite fun to do

Author: Dave

The day after Thanksgiving, while many other people were whisking themselves from Black Friday sale to Black Friday sale, we were grocery shopping for Fondue Night. My wife and I, looking for a different activity with the kids, thought that we'd try something that was both fun and tasty.

We've never done fondue before ... and I know why. It's not something you just decide to do at the last moment. But, cleaning our basement one morning we came across a couple of fondue sets that Kirsten's Grandma had owned. Next thing you know, we're pining for some fondue-fried fun.

Now, let me warn you: The fondue sets warn against doing this activity with kids. And, that's probably sage advice. Our kids listen to us really well at dinnertime. I wouldn't have done this if they were normally unruly -- and had they become unruly, we would have stopped.

Another warning: Follow all the instruction carefully. Do NOT use food that has a high moisture content -- a point we will be sure to remember next time. At one point, some shrimp popped hot grease on me and The Boy, 4. (We were both fine.) The shrimp just was not dry enough -- we should have patted it down with paper towels some more. That was the end of the kids cooking in hot oil.

We followed a recipe that turned a block of extra sharp cheddar into a melted bowl of extra sharp cheddar. In the other fondue bowl, we heated vegetable oil hot enough for meat ... yes, you can fry meat in oil with fondue, something that a few friends were surprised to hear.

On the menu: An insane amount of food that reflected our excitement more than our actual appetite.

The proteins were beef, bacon-wrapped beef, shrimp, bacon-wrapped shrimp, chicken, and (you guessed it) bacon-wrapped chicken. Oh, yeah. We also dipped Lil' Smokies in the cheese. Let me tell you, I didn't think the beef would be very good ... but I loved it the most. And, I thought my wife went way overkill by involving bacon, but what the heck was I thinking? Bacon's always a great add, and in this case made every meat better. Bacon-wrapped beef flash-fried in oil isn't going to make the ADA's list of heart-healthy alternatives, but it stole my heart during Friday Fondue Night. Kirsten and the kids preferred the shrimp, sans bacon.

To make things even tastier, we had three dipping sauces for the meat ... a choice of Schnuck's Select brand lime-chipotle marinade, Teriyaki sauce and a sweet red chili sauce.

You want to be really careful to cook the chicken and shrimp until done, but generally each of the meats took about a minute per piece to cook. Kirsten cut the shrimp in half and cut the beef and chicken into one-inch by one-inch cubes.

The vegetables were broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini. The zucchini was sliced thin. We also had some fondue fungus with a (mandatory, for us) batch of mushrooms. We either dipped them raw in the cheese, or we covered the zucchini and mushroom in a store-bought batter and fried them. The Girl, 8, and I were crazy for the shrooms after we realized you had to fry them long enough to really brown the batter (about 4 minutes) to fully cook the mushroom. We dipped the batter-fried veggies in Ranch dressing.

Yet another warning: Let each deep-fried food rest for a few minutes before eating them. Don't be a fool like me and try to eat them quickly ... I learned the hard way right off the bat. Fondue isn't as much fun with a burnt tongue.

For the cheese bowl, we had a Schnuck's bakery sourdough bread pulled apart into small pieces and some tasty Snyder's of Hanover pumpernickel onion pretzel sticks. Each went great in the cheese.

We couldn't finish everything, and had to dump the leftover fish and chicken, as well as the cheese. The leftover beef, veggies and bread items were saved for future meals.

We started the meal at 5 p.m. and took 2 hours to finish. It's easy to rush through meals on your way to do some other activity, but the great thing about fondue is that it's an experience that the family can enjoy ... and it forces you to slow down. We plan to do it again, soon ... probably after the holidays. (After skipping Black Friday, we've still got a lot of shopping to do.)