Fond of Fondue

Wednesday night was an excellent office cooking club night--fondue. I had been quite nervous that an overloading of cheese and bread products would turn out dhastardly like when hubby and I tried all of the famous pizza joints in Chicago in a 3-day period. Dhastardly...

But, for the most part I escaped unscathed. Just a slight food coma at the end of the evening when I realized everyone was having enjoyable conversation but me. I just sat there glazed with brie rind.

It was remarkable how varied each of the choices were--ricotta and feta, a crab fondue, a baked avocado fondue, pumpkin and mushroom, and brie and wild mushroom. I contributed the brie and mushroom fondue which was extremely tasty and finished to the last dip. I had to cut most of the rind off since it most likely would not have melted, so I kept that for myself for snacks :) The pumpkin and mushroom was very earthy and wonderful, but not successful for dipping purposes. Perhaps if it had been pureed some it would have worked better. The avocado fondue was just trippy. A coworker combined avocado and dairy products in the illustrious Magic Bullet, and then baked it in the oven for a while. When you see hot avocado, you are afraid. Very afraid. From the very first bite I was trapped though. I could never explain what it tasted like, except that it was totally unlike anything my muted tastebuds could have imagined--slightly sweet, slightly avocadoey, nice and creamy.

For dessert there was a chocolate and butterscotch fondue with fruits and angel food cake. Much kudos go to MAR for conquering butterscotch. Anyone who has tried to make candy sauces knows the difficulties associated with it. I can't make caramel to save my life. Well, at least after failing twice, why bother any more!