Christmas Eve 2012 - Dinner at Mom's

Mom made cheese fondue.

Mom also made steaks and a simple, yet colorful, salad.

We had Baba Dessert for dessert.

Christmas Traditions: Fondue

I've written a couple of times about my family's tradition of fondue on Christmas Eve. I decided to do a little research on this thing I've eaten for 45 years on December 24. Here's what I found out...

According to James and Kay Salter in their book Life is Meals, the town of "Gruyeres is about seventy miles northeast of Geneva as you head into the heart of Switzerland. It produces one of the two cheeses - the other being Emmenthaler - that are the basis for fondue, which comes from the French verb fondre, 'to melt.' "(p. 391) Also, "Fondue likely originated in remote mountain villages during winters when food was scarce and people softened their old, hardened cheeses over a fire, scooping from the pot with pieces of bread." (p. 391)

I know that my mom uses Gruyere cheese, but I'm not sure about the Emmenthaler. I guess more research is in order.

Christmas Eve 2010

Dale and I sang together at the 4 p.m. Christmas Eve service yesterday. Mom and her friend Lynne attended. Before the service began I had a small glass of champagne. After the service we went to Mom's where we started dinner with cheese fondue. My family has been doing fondue on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. We also used to fondue meats in oil for many years but for about the last 10 years we have not been doing that as our tastes have changed and the oil now tends to be a gut bomb on our digestive systems. When Sam was home for Christmas a couple of years ago his wife Becky prepared the whole fondue shebang starting with cheese (bread being the dipping item), then meats (mostly beef and scallops) in oil, and finally chocolate fondue with fruits. Again, we've been doing it as long as I can remember so it was quite a trip down memory lane.

Back to the present. Following the fondue we had spinach salads with Mandarin oranges and walnuts. Dale and I brought the dressings namely Annie's brand raspberry vinaigrette and Annie's papaya poppy seed. Dale and I chose to use the papaya poppy seed while Mom and Lynne had the raspberry vinaigrette. Both went very well with the Mandarin oranges. Mom broiled steaks after we finished the cheese fondue. Mine was rare and very delicious. Dessert was Baba dessert which I named for my baba, Jean (Driscoll) Wagner, because I could never remember the name of the dessert itself. It was a very lovely dinner and evening and nice to continue with our traditional Christmas Eve foods!