Family Fondue

When I was growing up, we had fondue for dinner a few times each year. My mother would heat oil, melt Velveeta and of course (my favorite)- chocolate. She would cut fruit, put out marshmallows and cocktail cherries, toast some bread, sometimes make a salad, all while the meat was marinating in A1. We would set up a picnic on the round coffee table, usually covered in towels, and watch TV while eating. The pots sitting on top of the sterno cups would have to be stirred often, with the flame snuffed out and relit many times so that the chocolate and cheese didn't scorch. We would eat and eat and eat, and finally collapse right where we were sitting in the floor and moan about how full we were.

That is a family memory I will treasure forever.

Tonight, my family had fondue. We haven't done it in years, but it was just as delicious as always. Olivia just watched, and Jacob ate a few pieces of steak with a tiny bit of cheese before heading back to the living room.

And while it would be so much easier to have some electric fondue pots, I don't know if I could ever get rid of these old sterno pots. They are a piece of my childhood.