Fancy Cheese Fondue Little Dipper Recipe

Day 270.

It's Friday Fondue Day! I've had quite a few fondue recipes bookmarked on the computer and torn out of magazines, but I haven't made any yet. I don't really know why, and since I have less than 100! days to go, I figured I better get cracking.

So, for the next few Fridays, I'm going to post a fondue recipe until I run out. That means that my Friday Fondue Day will really be on Thursday.

I made this in a Little Dipper, but you can use any small crockpot, or insert an oven-safe dish into your big one. Or you can quadruple everything and have a big vat of cheesiness.

The Ingredients.

--1/4 cup each of 3 "fancy" cheeses. I used goat, gruyere, and swiss
--1/4 cup white wine
--1/2 tsp nutmeg

The Directions.

Shred the hard cheese and put them in the Little Dipper. Add the goat cheese. Pour in the white wine and sprinkle the nutmeg on top. No need to stir---it will melt together.

Plug in the Little Dipper. Cook for 45 minutes, then stir. Cover again and heat until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serve with bread, croutons, crackers, or your favorite dipping vegetables.

I made large croutons out of a loaf of Trader Joe's Brown Rice bread. All I did was brush olive oil on both sides, and sprinkle with Kosher salt and pepper. Then bake at 400 until golden, flipping once.

The Verdict.

Very tasty. The kids really liked this more than I wanted them to. I kind of thought this was going to be a grown-up snack, but they ate a LOT. I'm envisioning a fondue party in our future.

CrockPot Cream Cheese, Sausage, and Rotel Dip

Day 277.

Happy Friday Fondue Day! Except this is more of a dip, than an actual fondue. I've never been very good at rules.

This dip is famous. This is The Internet's Dip. When I posted that I needed more recipes for the Little Dipper, I got no less than FORTY emails telling me about this dip. Pretty much everybody acknowledged that the ingredients were weird and shouldn't taste good together, but they just do.

Last night I had the extreme honor of going to a local book signing for Sleep Is For the Weak (which you should totally buy for everybody you know for a holiday gift) and then the fabulous Mizz Jenny spent the night.

Because I love her, and I know how much she loves The Internet, I made her this dip. I also gave her pink champagne. Because nothing says high-class like rotel and sausage dip with pink champagne.

The Ingredients.

--8 oz block of cream cheese
--1 can tomatoes and green chiles (aka Rotel), drained
--1 lb breakfast sausage, browned and drained

The Directions.

I didn't use the Little Dipper (I said I wasn't good at rules!), I used my 1.5 quart crockpot, and it was the right size. You'll need to cut the recipe in half to fit the Little Dipper.

Brown the sausage on the stove, and drain on paper towels.

Unwrap the cream cheese, and put it into your crockpot. Chop up the sausage and add on top. Drain the Rotel, and add it.

Cover and cook on low for about 90 minutes, or on high for 45. Stir well and eat with tortilla chips.

The Verdict.

Dude. This is good. I can not believe how good it is.

The ingredients are still weird. I totally agree.

CrockPot Baba Ganoush Recipe

Day 291.

It's Fondue Friday! I found this recipe while I was perusing Alanna's A Veggie Venture site for eggplant recipes.

I was sold by the name. I had heard of baba ganoush before, but had no idea what it was. Alanna shared that it's pretty much an eggplant hummus.

mmmm. hummus.

I love me some hummus. I love it so much I don't care a bit how that sentence breaks every rule in the grammar book (is there a grammar book?). I blame Chris Jordan for my hummus addiction.

The Ingredients.
adapted from A Veggie Venture

--1 large eggplant (if you're fancy you can call it aubergine)
--2 cloves garlic
--1 lemon, juiced
--2 T tahini (sesame paste, in the peanut butter aisle, but NOT at Trader Joe's. weird.)
--1 T dried parsley flakes, or 1/3 cup fresh parsley leaves
--salt and pepper to taste

The Directions.

Wash and dry your eggplant, and poke it a few times with a fork.

Plop it into your crockpot (you'll need probably at least a 3 quart for it to fit properly) and cook on high for 3 hours.

After cooking, the eggplant skin will be crinkled and the flesh inside will have shrunk a bit. This is good.

Carefully (use tongs. trust me. my fingers ache while I'm typing this.) remove the eggplant and cut in half with a knife. Scrape out any big chunks of seeds.

Get out the blender.

Using a spoon, remove the flesh from the eggplant skin and drop it (the flesh, not the skin) into the blender. Add the garlic cloves, lemon juice, and tahini. Add a pinch each of salt and pepper.

Blend. Add additional lemon, salt or pepper as needed.

Serve with your favorite fresh veggies, crackers, pita bread, or brown rice tortilla wedges.

The Verdict.

This was tasty. I brought it to a play date up the street and none of the kids tried it.

Adam thought it could use more lemon and salt. The other dad thought it could use more heat, and the other mom thought it could use another garlic clove.

But we still ate it all...

I will make this again. The hardest thing was finding the tahini---I was surprised that Safeway carried it, and Trader Joe's did not.

Little Dipper CrockPot Chocolate Fondue

Day 298.

It's Friday Fondue Fun Day! You can not not have fun while dipping stuff in chocolate. If you don't have fun dipping stuff in chocolate there is something wrong with you.

Go seek help.

I'll wait.

I needed a basic chocolate fondue recipe that was tried-and-true and perfect. So I turned to the mecca: Simply Recipes. I found exactly what I was looking for. Elise rocks. Garrett from Vanilla Garlic is who actually posted this for her, but I still stand by her rockingness.

The Ingredients.

--1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet, dark, milk, or white. Your choice.)
--1/2 cup heavy cream
--1 tsp vanilla

optional
you can doctor this up with:
--1 T Grand Marnier
--1 T rum
--1 T Peppermint Schnapps
--1 T Bailey's Irish Cream
--1 tsp peppermint, orange, coconut, etc. extract
--pinch of espresso powder

The Directions.

The proportions here fit into a Little Dipper. Although the booklet that comes with the Little Dipper says that it only holds 1 cup of contents, I proved this wrong with my earth-shattering discovery that a whole can of Progresso Clam Chowder fits perfectly.

If you do not have a Little Dipper (psst. the holidays are coming...) you can put an oven-safe dish inside of a larger crockpot. Do not add water. There's no need to create a water bath for melting chocolate in the crockpot. It melts nice and slow. Or! you can quintuple the recipe and have a good ol' time.

Put chocolate chips in the crockpot. Add the heavy cream and teaspoon of vanilla. Cover. Plug in and cook on low (or the ON setting for the LD) for about an hour. Stir.

Serve with apple chunks, banana slices, cubes of pound cake, strawberries, or marshmallows. Or all of them and invite me over.

The Verdict.

Simple and easy and wonderful and amazing.

The kids liked the marshmallows the best, surprise, surprise.

Fondue Friday is becoming a favorite in our house (even though I really do it on Thursday, but whatever. The things I do for you people...) :-D

Chocolate and Marshmallow Fluff Fondue for the Little Dipper CrockPot

Day 306.

Happy November! This is for Breezy, who pointed out that I missed Fondue Friday yesterday. She's right. I did.
Breezy needs a fondue recipe for football tomorrow. So. Stop eating waxy Halloween candy and eat this. It tastes better, and since it's all stirred up and cooked the calories magically disappear.

right?

The Ingredients.


--7 oz milk chocolate
--3 oz white chocolate
--1 cup marshmallow fluff
--1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
--1 T almond extract (or you could add Amaretto)

The Directions.

The best part of this (for me) was that I sent Adam to the store to get the chocolate and he came home with the good stuff: Cadbury and Ghiradelli. I totally would have cheaped out, and he didn't.

Break up the chocolate bars into the Little Dipper. Eat a few squares to make sure it tastes okay. Add the almond extract or Amaretto and the whipping cream. Scoop out a cup of marshmallow fluff from the jar, and push it in with your fingers, so you can then lick them.

mmm.

Cover, and plug in the Dipper. Cook for about 90 minutes, stirring every 30 minutes or so. Lick the spoons.

Serve with cubes of pound cake, graham crackers, cut up fruit, and some almonds. I used those Mi-Del Arrowroot cracker cookies.

The Verdict.

very tasty.

I need to brush my teeth.

Little Dipper CrockPot Peanut Butter Fondue

Day 312.


Good morning! Thank you so much for all of the nice notes about my back. I'm definitely feeling better this morning. I did end up going to the doctor, which was a good idea. I guess my file still said I taught preschool, so the doctor was a bit concerned about bending and lifting. When I told him that I now write from home, he said, "you'll be able to be pretty creative while taking this stuff!" and wrote me a prescription for muscle relaxers.
All they do is make me fall asleep, so I don't think you're in for any amazing creativity.

But this is good fondue! Happy Fondue Friday, everyone.

The Ingredients.

--3/4 cup peanut butter
--1/4 cup brown sugar
--1/4 cup cream or half and half
--1 tsp vanilla
--4 large marshmallows

The Directions.

Scoop your peanut butter into the Little Dipper. If you don't have a Little Dipper, you can put an oven-safe dish inside your crockpot to create a smaller cooking vessel.

Add the peanut butter, brown sugar, and cream. Push 4 large marshmallows into the mixture. Don't bother to stir now; the peanut butter will just stick to the spoon.

Cover and cook for about an hour. Stir well. Heat some more if it isn't all melty.

Serve with apple slices and celery sticks.

The Verdict.

I ate this in bed yesterday with a heating pad while watching Oprah. It was delightful.

Little Dipper Pizza Fondue Recipe

Day 365, take two.

I was annoyed with the white bean soup with fennel and spinach I made for dinner, but had all the stuff in the house to make a pizza fondue.

So I did.

I used the Little Dipper because I puffy heart LOVE it, but you could use an oven-safe dish inside a regular crockpot to create a smaller cooking vessel. Or you could increase the quantities.

The Ingredients.

--1 cup pasta sauce (my sauce had chunked mushrooms, it was perfect)
--1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
--10 pieces pepperoni, diced
--1 cup shredded cheese (I used a combo of mozzarella, cheddar, and swiss)

The Directions.

Count out 10 pieces of pepperoni. Then eat the rest of the package.
Put the pasta sauce into your Little Dipper, and plug it in. Add the Italian seasoning and diced pepperoni. Shove in the cup of shredded cheese. I promise it will fit. Cover and leave plugged in (there are no heat settings on a Little Dipper) for 45 min or so.

Stir well and serve with tortilla chips, bread sticks, or crustini.

I made some crustini with the Food for Life brown rice bread. I cut the pieces in slices, then brushed olive oil on each side. Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 min, flipping once half-way through.

The Verdict.

This was great. We spread out a blanket in front of the TV and had a carpet picnic with the pizza fondue and watched Redbox dvds. How come I didn't know about redbox earlier?

good stuff.

Having a fondue party?
you really should.

fancy cheese fondue
chocolate fondue
peanut butter fondue
marshmallow fluff fondue
pumpkin pie dip
cream cheese, sausage, and Rotel dip (AKA mommy crack)

Slow Cooker Cheese Fondue Recipes--a double dip edition!

We had friends over for fondue night, and I was dying to use my Crock-Pot trio. My friend Jennifer loves sundried tomato dip, so I put that in, along with beer and cheddar fondue, and a goat cheese with thyme spread.

We (2 adults, 4 children) pretty much filled up on cheese and we didn't end up ordering take-in for dinner, but instead went out for dessert after the appetizers!

I made crustini out of a loaf of brown rice bread (food for life, pink package) for our dippers, and we also had carrot sticks, celery sticks, and raw cauliflower. We used all the dipping items, but greatly preferred the crustini for all (the cauliflower got fed to the guinea pigs the next day. they were thrilled.)

yummy crustini:

1 loaf pretty dense bread (I used food for life rice bread)

olive oil

salt 

pepper

---Cut each slice of bread into thirds, and brush olive oil on each side. Sprinkle kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on each side. Bake on a lined or greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes on each side, or until nice and toasty.

 

 

Beer Cheese Fondue 

The Ingredients.

serves 8

1/2 small yellow onion, peeled and finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (1 cup)

8 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated (2 cups)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer (Redbridge, by Anheuser Busch is gluten free)

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

The Directions.

Use a 2-quart slow cooker. Put the onion, garlic, and cheeses into your cooker. Stir in the cornstarch and dry mustard. Crush the caraway seeds (Jennifer says to use a mortar and pestle, but I don't have one, and instead crushed them in a ziplock with a small mallet). Add them to the pot. Pour in the beer. Cover and cook on low for 2to 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper before serving, adding more to taste if necessary.

 

Thyme for Goat Cheese

The Ingredients.

serves 4 to 6

1 (11-ounce) package fresh goat cheese

2 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leave, plus more for a garnish

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

The Directions.

Use a 2-quart slow cooker. If desired, place an oven-safe ramekin into the bottom of the cooker that you'd like to use for serving. Otherwise, plan on serving this right out of the crock.

Put the cheese into the pot (or ramekin), and press the thyme leaves into the top. Drizzle olive oil on top and add black pepper. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours, or until cheese has softened and become easy to spread. Lift inserted dish  (CAREFULLY! use oven mitts!) out of the slow cooker and serve on the table with your favorite dippers.

The Verdict(s).

Fondue night rocks. End of story.

  

Chocolate Mint Fondue Slow Cooker Recipe

It's girl scout cookie season. The number one seller is ALWAYS the Thin Mints. 

Always.

I've got two in scouts this year: a Daisy and a Junior. My girls participate in cookie sales because I believe it's a great way to boost self-esteem by speaking clearly to grown-ups and handling money.

We aren't able to eat the cookies due to our gluten intolerance. It's really not a big deal, though, because I can quickly whip up a batch of chocolate mint fondue that feeds the entire troop for less than one box of the "forbidden" thin mints.

Not a bad deal!

The Ingredients.

serves 8

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon mint extract or 2 tablespoons peppermint schnapps (NOT for the girl scouts!)

marshmallows or cookies for serving (my kids adore the chocolate sandwich cookies from Glutino)

The Directions.

Use a 2-quart slow cooker. Put the chocolate chips into your slow cooker. Add the heavy whipped cream and mint extract (or the schnapps). Cover and cook on low for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so. I really like melting chocolate in the slow cooker because you really don't need to worry about it scorching. If you smell the chocolate, give it a quick stir.

Serve with your favorite cookies or marshmallows. 

The Verdict.

This seriously tastes like liquid Girl Scout cookies. It's perfect. Just a bit minty, but not over-the-top.

If you'd prefer to make actual gluten free thin mint cookies, I do have a recipe, posted over on Totally Together. These cookies freeze well, and taste great frozen, just like the real ones do!

I've got a new video up on StephanieODeaTV: an interview with Jennette Fulda. I'm also running a giveaway for her new memoir, Chocolate & Vicodin. 

Happy President's Day!