Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Chocolate Fondu for Valentine's Day















A new family tradition is born... chocolate fondu for Valentine's Day!

I bought this cute little chocolate fondu pot last week in anticipation of the holiday. Not that DH and I have ever ever done anything special for Valentine's Day, but we now have a Little Boy who just delights in every holiday, so what is a Momma to do? And, I want holidays to be centered around special foods and traditions and spending special time with loved ones - not ALL about gifts - so I thought the chocolate fondu pot fit the bill to a T!

This, being our first forray into the world of chocolate fondu - we tried a variety of fruits. No surprise - the strawberries were hands down the favorite, closely followed by the bananas. However, the apples, melon and pears also disappeared - actually - we had 2 fruit plates (with lots more strawberries and bananas) for 6 adults (2 of whom only nibbled) and 1 toddler and there wasn't a single piece left. And this was after we had all stuffed ourselves on a wonderful dinner - meat fondu with a variety of salads and breads (well, we are in Austria - no way to get around having at least 3 different kinds of breads with every meal!). So, all in all, the chocolate fondu was a huge success and definately something we will be doing again.

The recipe:

200 ml whipped cream
100 grams sweet milk or cooking chocolate (from the baking aisle)
100 grams semi-sweet chocolate

Heat whipped cream in pan on stove until hot, but not boiling. Add broken up chocolate and let melt - stirring occassionally - on very low heat. When it is all melted and nice and warm - put it all into the fondu pot with a little candle underneath.

Makes enough chocolate for 4 people - 2 fruit plates are better than 1! And that would be 4 people after a meal - so if you just want to have a chocolate fondu party, you would probably want more, which means you would need 2 fondu pots.

OK, Momma confesses - presents are nice too! We did get Little Boy a small teddy bear holding a heart and Tante (auntie) brought him a small bear and his cousin brought him a little wind-up snowman which he has latched onto in a big way. They also brought me some Valentine's themed napkins and a little candle. And, Little Boy had his own presents to give - we had a few photos printed at the camera shop and I put them in frames. Nothing elaborate, but a nice thought and Little Boy had fun helping to wrap them up and was very excited to give them.

Really, we all had a fun time! Believe me - much easier than trying to plan some romantic dinner at a restaurant with a toddler - is there such a thing?

And, an added bonus for inviting some family over to help us celebrate... a beautiful bunch of roses - a real surprise and aren't they lovely!


9 comments:

Patti said...

What a super way to celebrate the holiday - making a new tradition for the entire family!

Cathi said...

What a lovely valentines day and new tradition. We all got cards, but daddy is working away from the house during the week for the foreseeable future (we hope no longer than April or so...just need someone to view and buy our house!) so no big celebration this year...

Thanks for the comments on my blog...I keep trying to find an email to reply to your comments, as when I hit reply it goes to no-reply@blogger.com, can you list it on your blogger profile?

Thanks! Cathi in Ireland

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh it sounds like you had a wonderful valentines day! I guess mine was good too. I actually got home from work early and got to quilt on my liberated log cabins AND do some hand quilting - hey that is pretty nice!

Kairle Oaks said...

Oh, we love fondue, too! Did you also dip pound cake? That's good! So is angel food cake. My kids like to dip animal cracker and pretzels.

We're celbrating Valentine's Day today. Dinner and tickets to the ballet!
Kairle

Samantha said...

Happy V-Day! sounds like a lovely celebration. We agreed postpone valentine's this year until my ankle heals... But the kids got cards, at least...

Mary Johnson said...

Beautiful flowers and the fondue sounds good too.

Anonymous said...

you can't go wrong with chocolate at the holidays!! Looks like fun1

Anonymous said...

I love fondus but have never had a chocolate one - sounds absolutely delicious!!

Anonymous said...

Hello,
I served chocholate fondue at my Christmas Tea and the it was the hit of the party. The ladies loved it best.
Thanks for stopping by .
Hugs,
Elziabeth