Food Ideas for Party

I had a chocolate fondue party a couple years ago, and I supplied chocolate, pretzels, strawberries, and the skewers. I asked my friends who were coming to bring their favorite food to go with chocolate, and here were some of the things I can remember:

marsmallows
angel food cake squares
graham crackers
pineapple
cherries
bananas
wafer cookies
nilla wafers
Hazelnut or almond biscotti
Sectioned navel oranges

As for the cheese fondue, here are some ideas to go with that:

lil smokies
any kind of crackers
Cubed country bread
assorted cooked vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and pearl onions
tostitoes or other tortilla chips

I would check at Kraft.com for some ideas. I get a monthky mailing from them for all kinds of great recipes. I imagine the compamy that has cheese would have some recipes! Sounds like a great party!
L.

Sounds like a wonderful party! Homemade cheese fondue is MUCH better than the packets and not very difficult. I use the same recipe Nicole gave you except when I can't find Gruyere or Emmantaler swiss cheeses or I don't want to splurge on them I use ordinary swiss cheese and it works out fine. I also use a cheap dry white wine. I have an easy chocolate fondue recipe that kids love: Melt 1/2 c. heavy cream in the fondue pot, break up 3 bars of Toblerone chocolate (triangular shaped Swiss chocolate bars, approx. 4 oz. each) and melt while stirring. Thin slightly with 1 T. of rum, Cognac or milk. I use the same Kirsch (cherry brandy) that I use in the cheese fondue. It's a small amount of liquor and it burns off so it isn't a problem for the kids. However, you can also use milk instead. We dip fresh fruit and pound cake or angel food cake in the chocolate. Bananas and strawberries are favorites, but apples, oranges and pineapple are great too. Have fun!

No, don't use the fondue packets, what's the fun in that!? Plus it will taste store bought.

Here is a great recipe:
1 garlic clove, halved crosswise
1 1/2 cups dry white wine (preferably Swiss, such as Fendant)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons kirsch
1/2 lb Emmental cheese, coarsely grated (2 cups)
1/2 lb Gruyère , coarsely grated (2 cups)
Accompaniment: cubes of French bread on fondue forks or long wooden skewers
Special equipment: a fondue pot

Rub inside of a 4-quart heavy pot with cut sides of garlic, then discard garlic. Add wine to pot and bring just to a simmer over moderate heat.
Stir together cornstarch and kirsch in a cup.

Gradually add cheese to pot and cook, stirring constantly in a zigzag pattern (not a circular motion) to prevent cheese from balling up, until cheese is just melted and creamy (do not let boil). Stir cornstarch mixture again and stir into fondue. Bring fondue to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.

Transfer to fondue pot set over a flame and serve with bread for dipping.

This gets better as the cheese on the bottom of the pot starts to form a crust! My family would try to beat each other to the "best part".

Have fun!

My Mom used to have fabulous parties, some featuring fondue. I haven’t tried to do anything (that ambitious) yet, but I would most certainly get the best cheeses possible (excellent free consultations available at E’s cheese in Mendota heights, and at Lund’s, Byerly’s and kowalski foods.)

Great food and good company may start a word of mouth craze! Good luck!

a friend of mine has a fondue party for us girls every year. She makes it pretty simple and has just hot peanut oil (careful if the kids are around...we do it without, that's what makes it a girls evening)
She serves a salad...then has cheese curds, chunks of steak,shrimp, chunks of chicken, breaded mushrooms,and for dessert she has cut in four the pillsbury biscuits we deep fried them then roll them in a sugar and cinnamon mixture..they are JUST like fair mini donuts.
And of course you must have a couple of diffent types of wine!
Makes for a fun evening!
Good luck, have fun, and dig out your good plates and glasses...it makes it even better!!
Have a great time

Your party sounds wonderful! I have a cheese recipe for you that I love. I find that Valveeta Cheese works best.

(1) small packagae (stick) of Valveeta Cheese
(1) Can Campbells Cream of Shimp
1/8 teaspoon of garlic salt or powder (I don't recall which one).

I serve it with french bread I cut up in cubes.

Ohhh...you're making me hungry!!! We use Emmentaler and Gruyere for our cheese fondue, and it works wonderfully. Add a little white wine, and a little nutmeg, and it's perfect. Also, we learned this by doing it wrong: coat your grated cheese with the flour; don't just throw the flour in. Coating the cheese makes it thicken so much more nicely. When we went to the Melting Pot (fondue restaurant) they did apples and chunks of bread with their cheese fondue appetizer.

For chocolate I don't have any great recommendations, but I do have a "don't do this" suggestion: I bought candy bars and melted them down, and it was awful! I bought two different brands, and one was too waxy, and it didn't melt, it chunked...so I'd recommend the purest chocolate, probably--maybe one for baking as opposed to one packaged to not melt and to taste good alone? I have not used the pre-packaged chocolate fondue, so maybe that's a great option (but I know they're often expensive). They served a ton of stuff with chocolate--brownie bites, angel food cake, strawberries, bananas, grapes, marshmallows, chocolate marshmallows, cheesecake...I think we ate 9000 calories that night at the Melting Pot, but it was wonderful!

This is how I would do a fondue party.

Appetiser: swiss cheese fondue
dip ham, brocoli (that has been blanched), french bread, fresh mushrooms, and anything else that is good with swiss cheese. Swiss fondue usually has wine in it. Serve the same kind of wine.

You could also do a chedder version which is called a rabbit and has beer instead of wine.

Dinner: Oil or Broth (broth is heathier but oil cooks faster)
dip small chunks of raw chicken, fillet, shrimp until cooked
several sauces: curry, tariyaki, garlic choose sauces that will be tasty for all meats.
You could have several wine options for this part.

Dessert: Chocolate or Carmel (I've used gavalia chocolate chips)
dip: marshmellows, bannana, oranges, apples, pineapple, strawberries, pound cake,
Choose a desert wines: greminsteriner(sp?), ports, duck, champagne

You will need several pots. I find the electric ones work well for cheese and dessert because you can control the heat better to prevent burning/scorching. The ceramic flame kind work well for oil/broth because they get hotter. You may want to heat you liquid on the stove and transfer it to the pot because it will be faster.

There are also all sorts of games that go with fondue. Like if you drop your food in the pot you have to kiss the person to your left. See if you can find these on the internet.

Good things for dipping in the chocolate are cheesecake pieces, pound cake pieces, fruit. I haven't ever done the cheese kind so I don't know about what types of cheeses work best. Sounds like fun.

Here are two website I have used to get started:
http://www.fonduerecipes.org/
http://www.fonduebits.com/

Hope that can help you get started. I have used wine in my cheese fondue, never tired the beer ones.

The fondue bites one I know gives you great ideas on what you can dip.