Christmas Eve Fondue

For the past few years it's been a tradition for our family to fondue on Christmas Eve. I sort of demanded it, actually, when I was Great With Child and nobody had the will to tell me no. And I figured if we turned it into a tradition, it would be fine that we never use the fondue pots any other day of the year. It's a holiday gig now and rationalizes spending the money on the equipment.

Which by the way is not at all fancy. We have two of these Rival pots for the oil and cheese, and then we use a small crockpot for the chocolate. They work fine. The cords are really short though, so we have a multi-plug extension cord to run behind the table and connect everything. Otherwise the pots are way too close to the edge for little kids to be safe.

So. We have three pots going. One is for hot oil. This year we used high-heat safflower oil. The type doesn't really matter as long as you get one that can handle heat. And after awhile the kitchen is going to smell like you're burning things anyway, if you do this for a long time...

We use bites of chicken and steak in the oil, and also mushrooms. We make a tempura batter to dip the stuff in first so they end up with a nice crunchy coating. Ours is this one. If you're not gluten free, you can google a different kind.

For the cheese, we've tried a couple different ones. I think our favorite so far is a variation of Tyler Florence's recipe. Of course, I don't have any of the fancy ingredients it calls for. I always leave out the kirsch, and this year I did half white wine and half chicken broth because I didn't have enough wine.

• 1/2 pound imported Swiss cheese, shredded
• 1/2 pound Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cherry brandy, such as kirsch
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• Pinch nutmeg
• Assorted dippers

Yeah, this year I threw in minced garlic instead of rubbing the pot with a clove, didn't have any lemon juice, used about 1/3 wine and 2/3 chicken broth, left out the kirsch, and put in a shot of real mustard instead of dry.

Does that even resemble Tyler's recipe anymore?

With the cheese, I like dipping the meats and mushrooms in it, and we also had bread cubes. If your people like broccoli or cauliflower that would be good too. My people don't touch those things.

The chocolate fondue is a six pack of Hershey bars, broken up and melted in the crockpot with a half a cup of whipping cream. Light cream or half and half if you're feeling especially virtuous. So easy, and oh so delicious.

With that, we set out marshmallows, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, mandarin oranges, and sometimes pretzels or angel food cake cubes.

It's a little different every year, just depending on who is going to be there and what fruits are on sale and all that good stuff. It takes forever to do, but it's SO much fun!!

Strawberry muffins

I found a recipe for strawberry muffins on the inside of a Stonyfield Farms yogurt container. They looked reasonably healthy and we had all of the ingredients on hand, so Gabby and I tried them out. What I liked about the recipe was that it contained whole wheat flour, not too much sugar, plain yogurt in place of the oil, but still some butter for flavor. I really liked the texture that resulted from the yogurt...the muffins were moist, but not greasy. I thought the flavor was ok but a little flat, and I also wanted to reduce the amount of white flour in the muffins. I tweaked the recipe and made them again with my adjustments, and I thought they turned out fantastic.

Now, if you are used to the storebought muffins that are practically cupcakes, these might be a bit too fibrous for your liking. But if you like a whole-grainy, less sweet muffin that is nutritious enough for breakfast and not just snacks, you will love it! Not to mention, the recipe is simple enough to throw together that it makes for a fun afternoon with a toddler who is always asking, "MOM! Can I halp yooooooooo? I wan halp!" while leaning with all their weight on the Kitchen Tower that is parked right outside the kitchen.

Here is my adjusted (perfected) recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup oat bran
3 tablespoons milled flax seed
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt (I used Stonyfield Farms lowfat...which is where I got the recipe)
1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 a stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups chopped strawberries (blueberries are good too!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin pan with papers or use cooking spray. Combine the first 10 ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter, and vanilla. Toss the fruit into the dry mix, then pour the yogurt mixture in and stir just until combined. Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields 12 muffins.


The changes I made:

The original recipe called for 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of white flour. Instead of using the full cup of white, I used a half cup, plus a third cup of oat bran and 3 tablespoons of flaxseed. I use that ratio a lot...if something calls for 2 cups of flour, I use 1 cup of whole wheat, and the other cup is the white/oat bran/flax combo.

The original recipe did not contain salt, cinnamon, or nutmeg...those were all my additions because I thought the muffins lacked flavor. The cinnamon and nutmeg turned out to be just enough to give them some taste, but not so much to give them a "spiced" flavor. If I ever decide to sub apples or shredded carrot/zucchini for the fruit, I would up it to 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg, since I think those things would be good in a spicier muffin. Maybe throw a half teaspoon of ground cloves or allspice as well.

The original recipe contained 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda but no powder. And the muffins turned out a little on the flat side. I looked at some other tried and true muffin recipes I had, and most contained baking powder. So the second time I used a teaspoon of each and liked the results.

The original recipe just called for a cup of fruit, and I used a cup and a half. Just because I like a lot of "stuff" in my muffins.

Try 'em out, see what you think!