Staying home has given us the opportunity to use our rarely used kitchen appliances. We rediscovered our fondue pot, and it turned regular dinner into a fun, family event!

Both my kids enjoy going to the Melting Pot, but my husband dislikes it, claiming that if he wants to cook his own food, he would rather stay home. Seeing as going to restaurants is unavailable at the moment, we decided to recreate a Melting Pot experience at home.

For the cheese fondue, I googled “how to make cheese fondue” as any person would. I found a simple recipe that used beer, cheese, and a bit of flour. I added bacon crumbles because why not? 

The kids decided what to place in the cheese. They wanted bread and crackers; my husband and I told them that we needed to add some vegetables to our meal. The kids broke apart the broccoli and cauliflower, and I taught them how to cut the baguette into dippable sizes. I enjoy apples with cheese fondue, so I cut up a few slices and added them to our plate. 

You can make fondue in a double boiler or a fondue pot. We have a 12-year-old Cuisinart that has probably been used three times. I know this because it is a wedding gift that has sat in our cabinets quietly unused. We took an extension cord to our front porch and turned on our fondue pot. We sat outside, and I proceeded to heat up the beer in the pot and add the cheese and flour. The cheese melted in about two minutes, and I wondered why we don’t use the fondue pot more often.

For dessert, we melted semi-sweet and milk chocolate pieces with heavy whipping cream. (I also googled the recipe for this and kept it simple.) The kids wanted strawberries, and they helped cut them and get them ready for skewering. My husband suggested pound cake, and I had some raspberries hanging around that I added to our plate. 

The dessert was decadent! I felt like I could have continued to eat chocolate-dipped strawberries had I not known the amount of heavy whipping cream I had used. My “sometimes-keto” husband tapped out early, and the kids both filled up relatively quickly. 

We had chocolate leftover, and I decided to place it in a container in the fridge. My thought was that we could maybe melt it again and have a “mini-fondue” dessert. The following day, I tried the cold chocolate mixture, and it tasted like fudge. Oh, man! I was able to eat the fudge (yeah, I didn’t share) for about five days afterwards. I would get a spoonful, add a raspberry, and it was like a miniature dessert!

For now, fondue may become a family staple. Maybe we’ll have Fondue Fridays? I would suggest splitting the fondue and doing only cheese or only chocolate so you don’t have to clean your fondue pot in between. 

Fondue was an enjoyable way to change up dinner and get the kids involved. It was fun dipping, and the boys ate their vegetables without a hassle. It was great to brainstorm with the family and find a new way to get the kids involved. 

I figured, since my kids are now my coworkers, I’d get them involved in the writing of this article. I said, “I need one last line.” My older son says, “Just say, ‘As you can see …’. That’s how I end all my writing assignments: As you can see …”

As you can see, including your family in dinner (or work) is fun, and fondue makes for quite the Fun Family Friday.