Fudgy Chocolate Fondue

Fudgy Chocolate Fondue

Warm chocolate fondue made with cocoa, evaporated milk and butter is perfect for dipping just about anything!

Ingredients:
● 1/2 cup butter
● 1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa Powder
● 3/4 cup sugar
● 1/2 cup evaporated milk
● 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat; immediately stir in cocoa. Add sugar and evaporated milk.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is
smooth. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla extract. 

Serve warm with assorted fondue dippers i.e. Strawberries, pineapple, banana, pound cake, marshmallows, and graham crackers.

Coq Au Vin Fondue

Description:

A cooking style favored in the French countryside. It combines the flavors of fresh herbs, mushrooms, garlic, and a hearty Burgundy Wine

Coq Au Vin Fondue

Origin: Diane's Favorites

Yield: 2-4 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
● 3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
● 1/2 cup Burgundy wine
● 1/2 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
● 1 Tbsp. fresh garlic, minced
● 2 green onions, sliced
● fresh herbs, to taste

Directions:
Heat vegetable stock in fondue pot until it begins to simmer. Add all other ingredients, bring to simmer. Place individual pieces of desired meat or veggies on fondue fork and put in pot until correct temperature has been reached. Lobster and shrimp may take under a minute to cook while beef, pork and chicken will take slightly longer. Also use a slotted spoon to put halved red potatoes in bottom of pot to cook as you are cooking your meat and seafood. Take the necessary precautions so you don't eat raw meat!

Cheddar Beer Fondue

Cheddar Beer Fondue
Origin: Diane's Favorites

Ingredients:

● 1 lb. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
● 1 Tbsp. flour
● 1 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
● dash cayenne pepper, or add a dash of hot sauce to the melted mixture
● 3/4 cups beer
● 2 tsp. worcestershire sauce

Directions:

In bowl, combine cheese, flour, mustard and ground cayenne pepper; mix to blend well. In fondue pot, combine beer and Worcestershire sauce. Set temperature to 375℉ and heat to bubbling. Gradually add cheese mixture and stir constantly until cheese melts and mixture is smooth, about 5 minutes. Reduce temperature to 200℉ and serve with crusty bread and other dippers i.e. green apples, raw carrots and raw cauliflower.

I like Salt!!

Okay I am slacking again!  I'm trying to keep up with my blog, but I get so darn busy all the time. 

Let's see, Santa was very good to us this year! Steve gave me a beautiful white gold ring with 7 diamonds and some Gwen Stephanie "Lamb" Perfume that I had asked for.  Oh, also his annual Victoria's Secret gift! I got him a Garmin GPS, which he loves!  Santa was good to the kids also..my daughter got an electric scooter and my son got the Nintendo ds Lite that he wanted.

  

I already told you what occurred once we got up to Red River, but I wanted to share this picture with you, so you could see that my prayers were answered. We had lots of snow!

This is a view from the porch at our house.

This is a picture of the city of Red River that I took on my one downhill run skiing from the top!

Well it was fun while it lasted!

We came back to Albuquerque and tried to get everyone well for New Years. Our tradition with the kids for New Years Eve is to do fondue. We go all out and do a cheese fondue, an array of meats and seafood fondue, and a chocolate dessert fondue. The kids love it and it is a good way to keep the old folks ( yes, I am talking about me!) awake until midnight!  I will share some of my recipes for fondue in the next post.   I have 5 fondue pots that I use. One for cheese, three for the meat (one peanut oil and the other two for a broth based cooking), and one for dessert.  It's alot of work, but I enjoy getting everything together and spending the evening with my family.  

After New Years we were off to lower ground!  We ended up staying in Scottsdale for two nights as my daughter came down with a fever and sore throat. We did manage to make it out to two really good restaurants while were were there. 

The first one the hotel recommended to us and told us it was kid friendly. Well it wasn't, but because both of kids were tired and not feeling all that great, they

 did not eat, but mostly slept on the booth beside us. So it worked out okay. The restaurant was called, The Salt Cellar, and was located underground. Very Cool. 

Here is a picture of the outside of it.... It doesn''t look like much from the outside. When you walk in the door you walk down a case of stairs and you enter a very quaint restaurant. They serve very fresh seafood. I had Gulf Shrimp and Filet Mignon. It was delicious! Highly recommend if you are ever in Scottsdale, but leave the kids behind!

The next night we went into Old Town Scottsdale and ate at a restaurant called The Salty Senorita.  Don't ask me how we came up with two restaurants with the word "salt" in them, but we did. Anyway, it was another winner!  The food was excellent. I have never seen such an extensive listing of Margarita's. 

So that does it for our trip. We made it home all in one piece and somehow managed to get all our loot home also. All and all, we had a nice holiday, in spite of the illnesses of my family. Now if we can just find a place to put it all!