real life test kitchen
Fondue is one of those things that sounds much better than it is. Reading the March issue of Domino, I was inspired to turn last Sunday’s Oscar night gathering into a casual fondue party. Following their advice, I picked up a couple of packets of Artisanal’s Cheese Fondue, $20, mix (ya gotta love anything w/ instructions that say “just add wine”), some crusty French bread, and WAY too many veggies. 
Though Domino suggested a $120 Staub fondue pot, that seemed a bit much for a new gadget I would use once a year. Instead I opted for this $20 stainless steel Trudeau number, from Bed & Bath Beyond. 
Everyone was duly impressed… at first. But after sampling a few bites of the exceedingly rich dip (look at the fat content and you’ll never try it), interest in the fondue dipped sharply. And, the cheap pot overheated a tad. Burnt cheese is not the smell you want in your living room on Oscar night. One thing that was a hit: Bites of cut up chicken and apple sausages were good w/or w/out the cheese accompaniment. Will I fondue again? Maybe next winter. — Angela M.
March 22nd, 2006 at 3:55 am
Fondue is bliss. My partner and I have a fondue party once a month, it seems, because it’s the perfect way to please a maximum amount of people around one table — and that includes children, especially ours. (Beware: Kids tend to shriek when they drop a cheese-soaked piece of bread back into the fondue pot.) Remember to provide a combination of breads and don’t serve so much fondue (most people can’t cram much down their gullets). But you’ve got to break up that surfeit of cheese with a salad. FYI: Great fondue recipes abound on recipesource.com, a fantastic searchable website of more than 70,000 recipes from around the world.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:16 am
[...] Now, we’re not gonna make a big deal of this, but… It’s our birthday! It was just about a year ago that Shelterrific was born, following a few crazy weeks that involved the demise of a great magazine, a swank getaway to the Adirondacks and a fondue Academy award party. We have a few things brewing that will help make our second year even bigger and better than our first, including a fresh new design in the works. But for now, we thought we’d just share a bit ‘o cake. [...]