Kitchen Products

A fondue set says fun to me.  It reminds me of high school French class and trying to learn all the culinary words in that language, and of parties since then, where my friends and I sipped and dipped, made a huge mess, and enjoyed delicious food.

Fondue actually originated in Switzerland, but the word root is from the French “fondre”, which means “to melt”—a communal dish shared at a dining table, simmering in a pot on a portable burner.  Most of the time, fondue consists of bits of bread dipped in melted cheese, but other foods are also used in fondue, including chocolate sauces where fruit or pastry is dipped.  Yum!

…and you like to cook, you’ve got to have a Dutch oven.  One of my fondest childhood memories involves my favorite aunt, and how she would simmer homemade chili or stew in a Dutch oven all day long on her wood-burning stove.  It was a wonderful tradition for inclement weather, and the entire house smelled amazing for hours.

My aunt’s Dutch oven had belonged to her mother–my grandmother–so its origins were a good 50 years ago.   Predecessors of the slow cookers of today, Dutch ovens are traditional cast iron cookware that lasts at least one lifetime—and quite possibly, more than one generation.  (My aunt still promises that one day I will inherit her Dutch oven.)