Fondue Party Ideas

If visions of a bubbling, harvest-gold pot of cheese take you back to the 70's, flash forward to today's fondue: a fun, unique and social centerpiece featuring all kinds of delicious dipping possibilities. From traditional hunks of bread dipped in melted cheese to today's trendy fondue options, imagine all the ways fondue could transform an ordinary meal into something special- without spending a lot of money.

For the first course of your fondue dinner, you can mix up your own concoction of cheese fondue. Try the following recipe:

Two Cheese Fondue

1 c. milk
1 Tbsp. butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. flour
2 c. Gruyére cheese, shredded
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together milk, butter, garlic and flour; cook for 5 minutes. Gradually add Gruyére and cheddar cheeses; stir until melted. Transfer cheese mixture to fondue pot. Keep warm.

If your looking for a nice, leisurely meal full of good conversation, cooking meat and seafood fondue-style is the way to go. It takes longer than typical quick-fix meals, but it's worth the time to gather around the 'fire' to cook a main course together. When starting with uncooked meat or seafood, you'll need to fill and heat the fondue pot with oil for cooking. Cut up your steak, chicken or fish into 1/2 to 1-inch chunks, which you'll spear individually and then cook for approximately 3 minutes in the oil. (To save time use cooked shrimp. Fill your fondue pot with a buttery oil mix, skewer the shrimp and enjoy hot, buttery shrimp fondue in seconds.)

Perhaps the best part of fondue- at least for those with a sweet tooth- is dessert. There are many indulgent choices when it comes to your fondue finale. Lots of goodies go well with sweet melted concoctions, from cubes of cake to marshmallow-crispy rice bars and beyond. Fruit is great because it allows you to enjoy something nutritious and tasty in combination with a little luxury like chocolate or caramel. One of the most popular fruits to dip is fresh Strawberries.

Mexican cheese fondue- meatballs, chips, cubed bread
Broths- seafood, meats
Chocolate- rice crispy squares, apple slices, strawberries, marshmallows, pound cake, angel food cake, bananas
Marinara- French bread, meatballs
Sweet and sour- won tons, meatballs

A Brief Fondue History. Fondue is a centuries-old Swiss creation born of a need to make the dried-out winter stores of cheese and bread more palatable. Village peasants would melt the cheese in a communal pot, add wine or brandy and dip the crusty bread into it. The first easy fondue recipe was born. The delicious concoction, named Fondue from the French word meaning to blend or to melt, became both a meal and a social event. Fondue is still a social event, but oh so much more than a peasant's meal. It's a festive dinner, an elegant dessert, a fun party dip. Even though chocolate fondue recipes were a few hundred years late getting here, it was worth the wait.

It was a Flippin' Sweet Party!

Crossman's

Goebel's

Gailey's

Thiriot's

Lundt's

Rigby's

Mora's





O.K. you would think that by party #3 we would be party pros. But we were still rushing around finishing up parts of the dinner long after the party should have started. We didn't eat till almost 45 minutes after the party started. Luckily everyone was a good sport and hung out and visited. Most everyone dressed up. We had some funky clothes and hair. Once the food all got on the table we managed to eat it up pretty quick. There were a total of 5 fondue pots- 3 with cheese sauce and 2 with sweet and sour sauce. Near the cheese was cooked brocolli, polish sausage, and french bread. Near the sweet and sour were homemade meatballs and chicken potstickers. If you want to know more of the decorating details then read the next blog that I will be typing up later. In the end everyone, but the Sellers showed up. They had to cancel today so I called the Lundts to see if they were free tonight- they were so they joined us! We had a total of 7 couples and all were so nice to have over. Since the tables were one long row we have learned that one problem in past dinner parties is that you only get to really talk with those next to or across from you. So to solve that I set a timer, and after almost half an hour everyone picked up their place setting and moved down 3 chairs. So we all got a new group of friends to talk to. I liked that. Anyway.... it was such a fun theme- but Fondue (I never would have guessed) is a lot of work. I would love to do this theme again... but it will have to wait until this 12 month partying is over with. We had chocolate fondue for dessert with sliced apples, strawberries, angel food cake, and rice crispy treats. At the end we played a get to know you game. Each couple had to write on a piece of paper one thing about them as a couple that no one else would know. We found out that:
1.One couple held hands for the first time in Disneyland
2.One couple has been in the Tokyo temple
3.One couple collects cars (real ones- not toys)
4.One couple's wedding date is recorded wrong on official paperwork-it's off by a whole week
5.One couple got together because she felt sorry for him thinking he was blind
6.One couple used a Swiffer mop to break into a car
Answers:
1-Thiriot's 2-Rigby's 3-Crossman's 4-Mora's 5-Gailey's 6-Lundt's

Seventies Party details

Why Fondue?
When the new Deseret Industries opened up on our side of town I bought a few fondue pots. Then a year ago I was talking to various friends and I found out that some friends had pots as well and we all wanted to have a party, but no one ever threw one. So last month when I was trying to come up with the theme for this party I thought that it would be fun to have the fondue party, wear some retro clothes and have oldies music. I really got excited as I started thinking of the possibilities.
Invites
I chose some puky brown cardstock and printed the invite onto it. I cut skewers out of shiny silver cardstock, made a handle out of brown textured cardstock and cut shapes out of colored paper then cut small holes in them and threaded them onto the skewer.

Decorations
I did a lot for the decor. First of all I got some items at Party City to hang on the walls and from the ceiling. For some strange reason the seventies party paperware was 50% off- I guess a 70's party is not a highly popular party theme. Anyway... I scored at the party store. I then went online and did a google search for 70's pinups. I found a website that had scans of those old Tiger Beat magazines from the 70's. So I saved many of the photos to my computer, then printed them out 5x7 size and framed a few and laminated a few. I used the framed ones (Maureen McCormick-Marsha Brady, Donny Osmond, The Brady Bunch, David Cassidy) on the tables as centerpieces. The laminated ones (Farah Fawcett, Tony DeFranco, Jackson 5, Donny Osmond) were used to decorate the chip and drink table. We had two 5 ft. disco figures on the wall, and some hanging spiral streamers.
Getting Ready

We really like to have assigned seating to make sure that people sit by couples they may not already know. But with this party being more casual I did something different. I had scanned a bunch of picture from the internet of different 70's sitcoms- The Jefferson's, Love Boat, Battlestar Galactica, Brady Bunch, Chips, Laverne and Shirley- then printed them out wallet size 2 of each, laminated them and put them next to the plates at the table.

I made sure to keep the matching ones next to each other so that couples would be sitting together. Jeff wrote the names of the shows on slips of paper, then had the couples draw a paper each to determine where they sat. It was great! That really mixed the couples up and then half an hour into the meal everyone grabbed their place setting and moved down 3 chairs to where they were sitting with a totally new group of people. I know that Jeff and I were able to talk to all but one couple (but they are good friends anyway... we talk all the time).

Food
This is where I discuss amounts of food and future food suggestions.
Food we served:
Wontons- I made 96 and all but about 12 were eaten (the girls ate them when they got home from the sitter)
Meatballs- Lauren went above and beyond and made them herself- I think around 60. They went fast! I would probably do more next time.
Polish Sausage- I made a full package of Costco sausages. I could have easily made half that amount. Just 2 of those sausage packs at the grocery store would have been fine.
French Bread- I had requested 2 loaves...but since the couple that was bringing it couldn't come- I luckily already had 1 loaf and it was PLENTY!!! We had a lot left over.
Broccoli- I got the 3 pound bag of brocolli florets at Costco and steamed about 1 1/2pounds of it. It was really yummy... butwe had a lot left.
And I bought about 17 mini bags of chips and had them next to the water. Only about 3bags were eaten. It ended up being decor.

I did the chocolate fondue. We put the fruit and cake into cute individual servers and each person got their own to dip into the chocolate fondue. In the servers were:
Pound Cake-For dessert we asked for 2 loaves of pound cake. And they brought 2 loaves of angel food cake which was yummy. Now I know that we only need 1 loaf. Each person got 5-7 small cubes.
Strawberries and Apples- We had way too much. I had 2 different people bring strawberries and apples. We only needed 3 strawberries per person, 3 apple slices per person
Rice Crispies- I got those at Walmart and cut up about 3 or 4 large squares and spread them out to all 14 plates.

Fondue Party- Guest List and Menu

I thought that for our "Do You Fondue? 70's Party" we needed to invite couples who would be willing to dress up in some 70's garb. So here are the 6 other couples I chose. I like to have a variety of couples and people who may not know each other very well. These are the guests I've invited and what I asked them to bring:

Susan and Bryce Thiriot- cheese Fondue
Lauren and Garn Crossman- 60-80 meatballs
Brooks and Josh Gailey- sliced apples and strawberries for dipping
Nahir and Jorge Mora- sliced apples and strawberries for dipping
Ashley and John Sellers- 2 loaves cubed french bread
Kathey and Kurt Rigby- 2 pound cakes cubed for dipping
Maggie and Jeff Goebel- polish sausage, brocolli, 96 potstickers and sweet and sour dipping sauce, chocolate fondue