Happy with the New Year, and all that

[dr_tectonic]

Wow, I've been really lame about actually posting for the last week or so. I guess I was mentally vacationing. Yeah, thinking about my productivity at work, that's probably an accurate description.

Went to the Floyds' last night for the now-traditional "lame New Year's with fondue". Which means that it was, what, a dozen or so folks hanging out, socializing, playing board games and eating fondue. We made a token notice of the midnight hour, but otherwise it was sort of a standard get-together.

Well, except for the fondue. The cheese fondues were very yummy; apples are definitely better than bread for dipping. I like cheddar a lot better than swiss. The dessert fondue, though... The dark chocolate unfortunately broke and went weird in texture, but it was tasty. The plain chocolate was very tasty, too. But the killer was the raspberry sauce. My god. With brownies dipped in it, it literally made me do a little happy dance. So. Good. Still drooling about it.

Now I'm off to the Boulder Bookstore's special sale.

Happy New Year, all!

Comments

Re: Happy Dance

[drdeleto.livejournal.com]

You are clearly both more skilled and ambitious than I am in the kitchen. Heck, I was basically melting some stuff in a pot. It went really smoothly last year, but I think we only had one recipe for each cheese and chocolate, and we had half as many people, too. Not that I'm complaining about the turnout. Some humbling cheesy chaos is worth the company of so many good friends.

Re: Happy Dance

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

Well, we have few local friends, so I only was cooking for 2. If we'd had friends over, it probably would have been burritos and margaritas.

The ludicrously over-the-top New Year's feast was also one of my beloved's Xmas presents. Normal meals here are a lot simpler. (Last night's was homemade pizza and mussels.)

And fondue is hard, mostly because the emulsion is fragile, and most recipes are afraid of using big words like "emulsion." Bah. I still like the idea of raspberry sauce as a fondue-type dessert. Expensive, though!

Re: Happy Dance

[drdeleto.livejournal.com]

The imported Gruyere was more expensive than the bagged frozen raspberries. And you're right, keeping a fondue together can be a challenge. But as a fondue fanatic, I thought I had the basic techniques/chemistry down. I admit, I bore some skepticism toward the cheddar fondue from the beginning. It just ain't a melting cheese. To be clear, I love melted cheddar, but I love it for the reason it doesn't make good fondue: the resulting oil. Yum.

Re: Happy Dance

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

Actually, I liked the cheddar fondue the best. Its texture wasn't as smooth, but the flavor was great.

(Must remember, I don't really like Swiss -- though strangely, I love Jarlsberg...)

You know what I think would be interesting to see what it does in a fondue? Velveeta.

Re: Happy Dance

[drdeleto.livejournal.com]

Despite some misgivings, I'll concede your right to try velveeta fondue. But let's make clear that it is its own genus of fondue. There's cheese fondue, meat fondue, chocolate fondue, and VELVEETA fondue.

Re: Happy Dance

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

I was actually wondering if you added a little bit of it to normal cheese fondue (probably cheddar), if it might do SEEKRIT BLACK VOODOO and make the emulsion hold better.

Naturally, you could never tell anyone. But how do we know that it's not the Melting Pot's dirty little secret, eh?