Fondue With Friends

Our friends came over to hang out on Saturday night and, instead of ordering pizza as we often do, we decided to have a collaborative fondue/dipping meal. We've done many (more authentic) fondue parties in the past complete with the oil, cheese and chocolate fondue for meat/poultry, veggies/bread, and fruit/dessert. But nobody wants to volunteer their home to smell like a fried food restaurant after a night of oil fondue... and actually, we've struggled to find a cheese fondue that we really love. So this night was more of a "dipping party" of sorts, but still very yummy.

Here are some of the things we served:

Edamame Arugula Crostini

If you click the link to that recipe, I used the edamame instead of fava beans and left out the mint leaves. Then I bought one each whole grain and white baguette and they are toasted and rubbed with garlic ("crostini").

Spicy Chicken Tenders and Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce
The chicken are breaded with cornmeal spiced with chili pepper and cayenne pepper after being doused in an egg wash spiked with Tobasco sauce. They're actually not really that spicy to taste though. The chicken disappeared pretty quickly with a little sauce leftover... and I used that to dip pretzels on Sunday afternoon.

My favorite White Bean Dip with veggies and Pita Chips... again.
I can't get enough!

Brie served with crusty bread

This was my first time trying brie and it was super mild and creamy. I was very surprised!

And though I don't have pictures, we of course capped off our meal with a simple chocolate fondue. We had strawberries, bananas, pretzels and graham crackers to dip in it. And my friend Julie brought marshmallow cream and peanut butter for an AMAZING s'more type concoction. Try this: spread one graham with 'mallo cream, spread another with pb, drizzle some chocolate between, consider a banana slice or two and smoosh together. It's awesome. I promise.