This was how my weekend went. On Friday I had a conference which took all day, followed by a Trader Joe’s trip (No, Dad, I didn’t see the chili lime spice.) Then frantic cleaning, because I have been sick all week and the last thing I wanted to do was tidy the house.

Saturday, I had my monthly staff meeting, followed by more frantic cleaning to get ready for the fondue party. The Husband and I had the following conversation as I was staring at my list of fondue dippers, 2 hours before the ladies were due to arrive.

Me: “I have strawberries, pretzels, apples, graham crackers, and croissants for the chocolate. Do you think I need a pound cake? I could make a pound cake.”

The Husband: Laughs hysterically before saying “I don’t think you need a pound cake.” 🙂

This then led to a discussion of whether or not a support group for Scandinavian people attempting to rein in the concern for having enough food at gatherings would be productive or not. We decided it would probably just devolve into the members just trying to outdo each other in baking skills. 😄

I called my Mom to check on the group idea and got my Dad, as my Mom had just gone off to her church lady meeting, carrying no less than four items for the potluck. I think I’m probably doomed…. Later she called me back to suggest I was remiss in my hosting duties for having no pickle tray and no pound cake. I love my family… 

The fondue party was fun and I completely forgot to take pictures. We watched a couple of chick flicks and ate just about all of the fondue. We had cheese and chocolate fondue. I’ll give you the recipes for both.

Chocolate Fondue– by Linnea Sieh

Ingredients: cream, semi-sweet chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate, chocolate/orange/kalhua liquor. (I used Godiva chocolate liquor.)

Heat your fondue pot, add 3/4 cup cream and let it bubble. Add about a cup of the semi sweet chocolate and a cup of the bittersweet chocolate. Let it melt and stir it in. Add more cream or chocolate until it is dippable consistency.

Wisconsin Trio Fondue – from Dip Into Something Different from The Melting Pot. (I based mine on this, I didn’t really follow it.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups shredded Butterkase

1 1/2 cups Fontina

3 T flour

3/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup dry sherry

2 tsp chopped shallots

1 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup Blue cheese

2 T chopped scallions

Directions:

Toss the Butterkase and Fontina cheeses with the flour. Using a double boiler (or bowl and pan) bring water to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and pour in wine and sherry. Stir in shallots using a fork. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring consistently. Add half of cheese blend and cook until cheese is melted, stirring constantly. Add remaining cheese slowly, stirring in a circular motion after each addition until cheese is melted. Fold in pepper and Blue cheese. Pou into a fondue pot and keep warm. Garnish with scallions.

Modifications: Subbed a chedder/Gruyere blend for the butterkase. Subbed more Fontina for Blue cheese. Used onions instead of shallots. Omitted scallions by accident.

It turned out very good. I apologize for the lack of pictures. We were too busy eating it.

We ate less fancy foods during the week. The Husband and I were still a sick at the beginning of the week, so we had a couple of soups and a crockpot beef meal. I received my Pampered Chef order, so two of the recipes involved things from the box.

We had Scotch Broth, from my recipe.

It was delicious, as usual.

I had bought a Carnitas spice rub blend from Pampered Chef, so I threw that on a flank steak along with some peppers, onions, and about a half cup chicken broth in the crockpot and let it cook for 10 hours. We had it in tortillas.

It was delicious! We might have the rest of the meat as nachos.

I’m trying to be better about repurposing leftovers instead of wasting them, so I used some of the jerk chicken to make this soup, Chicken ‘N Gnocchi Soup from 29 Minutes to Dinner- The Pampered Chef. 

I left out the sage, as I thought it might not play well with the seasonings, but it was definitely tasty. I couldn’t stop sneaking crispy gnocchi out of the skillet though while the soup was cooking.

The Husband really liked it and kept telling me that we could definitely have it again.  You’ll be seeing this cookbook a bit more too. It has delicious sounding recipes like Oven-Fried Chicken with Waffle Sticks, Asian BBQ Chicken Drumsticks, Savory Shrimp Rolls, Middle Eastern Beef Pops, and Japanese Steakhouse Pork Chops. 

I’m going to write my monthly review post early, as we will be on vacation during the normal time. I need to get some more sewing done too. I have a bag that I want to finish for the trip and a dress to make for the wedding that we are attending. Hopefully you’ll see some updates on Tuesday’s sewing post!