New Year’s Eve is one of those weird quasi-holidays that sometimes gets us rallied and sometimes finds us sleeping through the whole thing. This year we invited Suzie’s family over, as has become somewhat of an occasional tradition, for an eclectic meal of whatever comfort food is on hand. Years past we tried to get a fondue ritual together – and for several gatherings I got out Suzie’s fondue set (for some reason she wasn’t using the one gifted to her years ago) and made a traditional cheese fondue – with the garlic rub, the kirsch, the gruyere and the cubed bread and green apples for dipping.
This year I said fuck it – fondue is such a beast to clean (or so Andy told me, repeatedly) especially when you try to keep it warm with a sterno or tea light that just solidified a burnt circle of soot onto the bottom of the fancy fondue pot – whoopsie daisy as I used to say. Then I saw a cup of fondue at Trader Joe’s – La Fondue – and bought it as a joke. Of course I forgot to heat it up on NYE when everyone was here, but I found it this week and used the sourdough bread that Milo had made as a vehicle to test it out.
Y’all, Traders Joe’s doesn’t dick around with this fondue. Somehow they got it all right – not sure there is any kirsch in this but damn it is decent – just as good as any fiasco I might have conjured, minus all the mess.
