Ringing in the New Year with the Fondude!

2020, you’re on the bench. 2021, suit up! Ben has a lot of hope pinned on the new year. When the world shut down last March, he was on the cusp of exploring some work opportunities through school. For a guy whose main interest in school has always been social networking opportunities and lunch, the switch to online learning was hard. Unless you are a student or a teacher working remotely, you have no idea how hard it actually is. But around here, we are trying to focus on the future. One way or another, Ben will graduate this year. After that? Who knows! Nowhere to go but up, we say!

Often, on New Year’s Eve, we celebrate by having friends over for fondue. Phil’s enthusiasm and fondue expertise led to his being dubbed “The Fondude,” a title Ben rivals on the enthusiasm front. This year, it seemed an especially fitting tribute to 2020 to skewer various morsels and thrust them into boiling oil or molten cheese, so we went ahead with both a cheese and a meat fondue, though it was just the four of us.

Cheese Fondue

1 1/2 – 2 baguettes or Italian bread loaves

1 pound Gruyere cheese, grated

1/2 pound Emmentaler cheese, grated 

1/2 cup flour

2-3 cloves garlic, minced with garlic press

2 + cups white wine

1 oz. Kirschwasser (optional)

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated

Salt and pepper

1. Cut the bread into 1 1/2 inch cubes and set aside.
2. Toss the shredded cheese with the flour, until the shreds are coated. This helps it melt evenly.
3. Heat wine with garlic in saucepan until simmering.
4. Add cheese, a handful at a time, stirring until melted and smooth. Add more wine or cheese until desired consistency is reached. Add Kirschwasser, nutmeg, salt to taste, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Reduce heat to low.
5. Diners are advised to follow fondue pandemic protocols whether you fondue it up in a time of Covid or during peacetime. Place bread cube on end of fondue skewer (preferably one that is 6 feet long), dip it into the fondue, and swirl it around so it doesn’t drip on the way to your plate. That’s right, plate, not mouth. Use a different fork to scootch it off the fondue fork. Eat and repeat.

Meat Fondue

2 pounds beef tenderloin, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

3 inches peanut oil in saucepan

Horseradish Sauce

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons prepared horseradish

Salt and pepper to taste

Curry Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 squeeze of lime juice (about 1 teaspoon)

Combine ingredients for each sauce and refrigerate until ready to use. Ben recommends using BBQ sauce instead, claiming the horseradish sauce has too much horse in it, but to each his own! Heat oil to medium high. Diners secure a piece of raw meat to fondue skewer and place that end of the skewer into the oil until it is cooked to desired doneness. Remove meat to plate, and douse or dip in sauce. Eat and Repeat.

Yule Log

2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

1 9-ounce package thin chocolate wafer cookies

Beat cream and vanilla in large bowl until soft peaks form. Combine and add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and espresso powder. Beat until stiff peaks form.

On a narrow, long serving platter, spread just a thin strip of the mocha cream down the center. This will keep your log from rolling. Spread a thin layer of cream on one cookie, top with another cookie, spread with cream, and repeat until you have a 5-cookie stack with cream on the top. Place it on its side on the cream base of the platter. Repeat with another stack of 5 cookies and cream, placing it against the first stack. Repeat until all cookies have been used. Carefully, spread the remaining cream all over the log. Using the tines of a fork, run lines down the log to make it look like bark. Chill at least 2 hours, and up to a day. Sprinkle with powdered sugar to look like snow, and serve by cutting the log in pieces about 2 inches thick.

What can we say about 2020 that hasn’t already been said? It was hard, and we look for better times ahead, but for our family, it hasn’t been all bad. Sophia moved closer to home and has a job she loves. We have spent some wonderful time together as a family. Like everyone, we have faced challenges, disappointment, stress, and isolation. By no means do we want to minimize the far greater sacrifices and losses that many others have suffered. Nor are we suggesting that coping with the pandemic is just a matter of keeping a positive attitude. I, for one, am plenty grumpy pretty often. I just hope that when our family looks back at 2020, we see beyond the obvious disaster, and remember the little pockets of joy we found together.