The Night We Almost Burned Down The Kitchen

It had been quite some time that my friends and I were talking about hosting a cheese and wine night and when Kadine told us she's never had cheese fondue we just knew we had to do that for her farewell. I mean, she simply couldn't immigrate to the Netherlands without experiencing a cheese fondue first. I suppose you could say it was both a farewell and an initiation.

It was basically my responsibility to take care of everything but everyone else supplied the dipping food and their own bottle of wine which ended up looking like this;

We started fairly late so I ended up only having the Saint Celine and Gewurztraminer (which I supplied). I wasn't too upset about missing out on the other two, though, as I'm still in training with being able to drink drier wines. I'm getting there. I'm trying.

Well, I've never made cheese fondue before so this was certainly a learning experience. Above all, I learned not to spill methylated spirits while pouring it into the burner and then lighting it. 

We put the fondue pot on top a sheet of newspaper. I can't remember why, but a friend's mom suggested it. I grossly underestimated what was happening in front of me, but after realising that the flames are growing I froze momentarily looking at the burning newspaper thinking, "What the hell?!? What do I do?!?!?!" until out of nowhere I jumped to grab a dish cloth and smacked the shit out of the fire. By the grace of the Gods there was no fire damage. Phew. 

Waiting for the chicken to finish frying, we killed the fondue's burner and left the cheese to stand. When it was finally time to eat we reheated the cheese only to find that it had made tiny little lumps and was a general sticky mess. Reapplying heat at least loosened it a bit, but the little lumps stayed. 

Panic. Again. 

Commence copious amounts of cream and heated milk and we finally had a smooth cheese mixture. 

At the end of the process, bumps and all, we had a pretty successful cheese fondue. The morning after, however, I woke up to the delightfully acidic taste of white wine all over my sore and tender mouth. I suppose we went a bit overboard with the wine we added to the fondue, haha. 

Chicken, cabanossi sticks, ciabatta bread, steamed long-stemmed broccoli and raw mushrooms. I was seriously cheesed-out and I can't wait for the next one.

Love, Light, Chocolate & Cheese,
Michelle