Being a quintessential Swiss dish, cheese fondue conjures up images for me of alpine ski huts, deep snow and 20°F weather. Well, we don’t get much snow or cold weather in the California central valley, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a good fondue party.

The trick to a successful fondue (other than the obvious one of having wonderful people around with whom to share it) is to ensure that the cheese dipping sauce stays smooth. Cheese has a propensity to get stringy or to “seize up” into clumps, the fat separating from the proteins. Food science author Harold McGee suggests several things in his book On Food and Cooking to ensure a perfect fondue.

Well-aged or moist grating cheeses work well in sauces. Don’t heat the cheese beyond its melting point, cheese tends to ball up at higher temps, and don’t let the cheese cool down too much before serving, as it tends to get stringier and tougher as it cools. Don’t over stir the cheese, doing so will encourage stringiness. Coating the grated cheese with a starch such as flour or corn starch will help stabilize the sauce. Also,

The combination of cheese and wine is delicious but also savvy. The wine contributes two essential ingredients for a smooth sauce: water, which keeps the casein proteins most and dilute, and tartaric acid, which pulls the cross-linking calcium off of the casein proteins and binds tightly to it, leaving them glueless and happily separate. (Alcohol has nothing to do with fondue stability.) The citric acid in lemon juice will do the same thing. If it’s not too far gone, you can sometimes rescue a tightening cheese sauce with a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of white wine.

Cheese Fondue Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound Swiss-style cheese such as Jarlsberg or Emmenthaler, shredded
• 1/2 pound Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 garlic clove, peeled, halved crosswise
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon kirsch (cherry brandy)
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• Pinch nutmeg
• Assorted dippers – cubed ham (skip for vegetarian option), blanched broccoli, carrots, or cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, chopped green bell peppers, cubed French bread (skip for wheat-free version), peeled and chopped apples or pears

Method

1 Place the shredded cheese and cornstarch in a plastic freezer bag. Seal, shake to coat the cheese with cornstarch. Set aside.

2 Rub the inside of a 4-quart pot with the garlic, then discard. Over medium heat, add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a gentle simmer. Gradually stir the cheese into the wine. Stir constantly in a zig-zag pattern to prevent the cheese from seizing and balling up. Cook until the cheese is just melted and creamy. Do not let boil. Once smooth, stir in kirsch, mustard and nutmeg.

3 Transfer the cheese to a fondue serving pot, set over a flame to keep warm. If your pot is thin-bottomed, a lit candle will probably do. If thick-bottomed, you can use a small Sterno.

4 Arrange an assortment of bite-sized dipping foods on a lazy Susan around fondue pot.

5 Spear dipping foods with fondue forks or wooden skewers. Dip to coat with the cheese, and eat.

Serves 4.

From Simply Recipes

Today there is no recipe, but check out this super sweet (pun definitely intended!) cake from the master baker Debbie Does Cakes. It’s Star War’s very own Yoda. Very realistic, it doesn’t even look like cake! And yes I think I just called Yoda realistic, whatever. This 16″ tall cake uses a glowstick for the lightsaber which is a pretty simple yet innovative touch. The light from the glowstick is only temporary of course but then again so is the cake especially if it’s anywhere near me. Save me the Yoda ear, I hear that’s the best part.

From Craziest Gadgets

I am a recent inductee into the world of Crock Pot cooking. Even before I started playing around with my slow cooker I was aware of how popular slow cooking really is. The fans of the Rival Crock Pot are legion. After searching out some of the more basic or easy crock pot recipes available out there for me to start with, I started to come across some more unusual recipes out there. After coming across a number of these unusual crock pot recipes, I decided that maybe I should collect them somewhere so that they would all be together and easier to find on a moment;s notice. I decided on posting them here for two reasons: first, i am a very disorganised person at home and anything I write down I often easily misplace, so I figured they wouldn’t be misplaced if they were online (even if my computer should crash!): second, by collecting them here I am making my observations available to a potential online audience that might feel curious enough to try one or more of them for themselves. (good luck with that)

I want to be clear about one thing: I am not claiming in any way that these are the strangest recipes ever devised for the humble Crock Pot, just that they are indeed strong contestants for consideration as some iof the strangest Crock Pot recipes out there

From HubPages

This is a weird recipe we have just came across. Anybody out there brave enough to make it?? If so please post your results on here.

Ingredients

3 Chicken breasts, cooked — (cut into chunky pieces)

3/4 c Celery, chopped

3/4 c Grapes, red; halved, seeded

20 oz Canned pineapple chunks –(in natural juice), drained

11 oz Canned Mandarin oranges — drained

1/4 c Pecans, chopped

1/4 c Salad dressing

1/8 ts Salt

Method

Lettuce leaves; as desired Toss chicken, celery, grapes, pineapple, oranges, and 3 tablespoons of the pecans together lightly. Gently mix salad dressing and salt with chicken mixture. Chill. Serve on lettuce leaves. Garnish with remaining pecans. Calories per 1 cup serving.

From The Recipe Box

These burgers are very tasty and this recipe is a must.

Ingredients

8 our pineapple slices

3/4 cup teriyaki sauce

1 pound ground beef

1 large sweet onion — sliced

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

4 lettuce leaves

4 onion or sesame seed buns, — split

and toasted 4 slices Swiss cheese

4 bacon strips — cooked

Method

Drain pineapple juice into a small bowl; add teriyaki sauce. Place 3 Tablespoon in a resealable plastic bag. Add pineapple and rotate to coat; set aside. Shape beef into four patties; place in a 8″ square baking dish. Pour the remaining teriyaki sauce mixture over patties; marinate for 5-10 minutes, turning once. In a skillet, saut onion in butter until tender, about 5 minutes. Grill or broil burgers until no long pink. Place pineapple on grill or under broiler to heat through. Layer lettuce and onion on bottom of buns. Top with burgers, cheese, pineapple and bacon. Replace tops; serve immediately.

From Cool Recipes