A Culinary Valentine

Those who know me know it has been my tradition for the past five years to host an all-fondue dinner for good friends in honor of St. Valentine. The tradition began after Jesse and I repeatedly found Valentine weekend restaurants stuffed to the gills with extra tables and guests, servers who seemed harried and overworked, and too frequently a culinary experience that was less than satisfactory, considering the money we dropped for what was supposed to an ultra-decadent meal.

So I decided, why not start hosting my own Valentine dinner? And seeing as how Valentine's Day falls in the middle of a winter season full of frigid temperatures, why not make it extra cozy?  Being of Swiss descent, I grew up with fondue, and serving a three-course, all-fondue dinner seemed to hit all the right buttons for coziness, decadence and romance. An idea was conceived.

But a three-course, all-fondue dinner is not a simple meal to prepare or execute. If I was going to go to the trouble to make such a dinner, I'd want it to be experienced by more than just Jesse and me. And so my Valentine fondue dinner for an ever-changing cast of friends was born in 2015 -- and continues to this day.

This year, to relieve some of the stress all the preparation for such a dinner tends to cause, I took the Friday before the dinner off from work. I pulled my iron out of mothballs and gave all my napkins a good smoothing.

Then I got to work on party favors for my guests. I found cute pierced tins at IKEA and filled them them with chocolate kisses and Lindt truffles. Having the candy-filled tins serve double-duty as placecard holders made them festive -- and practical. I tied each guest's name onto a tin with curling ribbon. I printed out the evening's menu on heavy card stock, rolled it up and fastened the scroll with more ribbon, affixing a chocolate rose to the menu as an extra treat for my guests.

Next, I went to work in my kitchen, preparing appetizers, cubing crusty bread and tender steak, slicing tiny potatoes and mushrooms, slicing colorful citrus for champagne punch, and segmenting an assortment of fruits into bite-sized pieces for the various courses of my dinner. After that was accomplished, I prepared five of my very favorite dipping sauces for steak: my own sugar-free barbecue sauce, a balsamic blue cheese sauce, a mustard sauce, a garlic-paprika aioli, and a horseradish sauce.

On the day of the party, I started early, setting my Valentine table in a way I hoped would induce feelings of romance and coziness. Faux sheepskins I'd purchased at IKEA years ago were spread across each chair and fastened with stretchy red bands. To further counter the barren landscape outside, I fastened a cascade of faux spring flowers to the back of each chair.

Each place setting was adorned with a red napkin wrapped around my party-favor placecards, set upon my grandmother's gold china, which itself was set upon a red charger plate. Each course of this lavish meal would be accompanied by a different beverage, so I called all my glassware into play: shot glasses, beer pilsners, stemware for water, Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, and tinted cordials for an after-dinner digestif.

Besides utensils for eating, I also needed fondue forks, a different fork for each of the three courses. Fortunately, I have fondue forks in spades! Each place setting got a metal fondue fork for cheese fondue, a wooden fondue fork for cooking chunks of filet mignon in hot oil for the main course, and another metal fondue fork with which to dip assorted fruit in luscious chocolate fondue for the dessert course.

Once the table was set with the basics we would need for eating, it was time to up the "wow" factor. I sprinkled pale pink and deep red silk rose petals all over the table and scattered pretty glass gems and sparkling hearts all around. I added some rose-shaped votive candles and a couple of nosegays of fresh flowers -- and voila! My romantic tablescape was complete.

Earlier in the week, I'd climbed my six-foot ladder to hang an assortment of Valentine-themed decorations from my dining room ceiling. I'd also decorated my mantel with candles and flowers. Now I stepped back to take it all in. I was pleased with how everything looked.

As the time approached for my guests' arrival, I prepared my special Swiss fondue plates. In the center of each plate I piled bite-sized chunks of the very best beef tenderloin, colorful baby potatoes that had been barely blanched, and cute button mushrooms. In the individual wells that circle the perimeter of each plate, I spooned my five dipping sauces.

Next I prepared the dessert course: eleven china saucers, each filled with a different fruit to dip into chocolate fondue. I filled tiny glass bowls with crushed nuts in which to roll the chocolate-dipped fruit, one for each dinner guest.

The temperature outside hovered around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, ideal for keeping my beverages cold until guests arrived without having to take up precious space in my fridge. I'd simmered a concentrated cinnamon simple syrup a few days earlier, which I now added to an heirloom punch bowl (a wedding gift to my parents in 1953), which I'd lined with colorful slices of blood orange, tangerine, lemon and lime. Into the punch bowl with the cinnamon simple syrup went a heady combination of pear liqueur, cognac, triple sec, lemon juice and lots of ice. I would add a bottle of champagne to complete the concoction once my guests arrived. Meanwhile, the punch, Riesling, beer, water and apple juice (for the children) all stayed nicely chilled on my patio table outdoors.

Indoors, my stovetop was heating up! In a ceramic fondue pot on my front burner, I heated two cups of dry Sauvignon Blanc into which, once it reached a rolling boil, I would eventually stir a combination of grated Emanthaler, Gruyere and Vacherin Friborgeois cheeses seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg. In a large saucepan on another burner, I heated 32 ounces of peanut oil to 400 degrees Fahrenheit -- extremely hot. This would eventually be transferred to a metal fondue pot set over a sterno can in the center of my dining room table for the meat course. And in a double boiler on the smallest burner at the back of the stove, I slowly melted rich dark chocolate with half & half for the dessert course, into which I would splash 3 tbs of Gran Marnier just before transferring the molten chocolate to a red ceramic fondue pot for serving at the table.

In my living room, I set out a variety of appetizers: dolmas, pickled Cipollini onions and pickled cauliflower, ricotta-topped bruschetta garnished with fresh fig and drizzled with a bit of honey and balsamic vinegar, and strips of Mozzarella around which thin slices of salami, pepperoni and prosciutto were wrapped.

I wanted to make the outside of my home especially welcoming, since these Valentine guests had not been to my house for several years. I lined my front porch railing with dozens of flickering red LED candles, lit candles in hanging lanterns and dressed my perpetual reindeer mascot in a merry Valentine handkerchief and a jaunty red beret.  Everything was ready!

My guests arrived right at the stroke of six. Generally, I don't start my dinner parties until 7:00 p.m., but my guests included Maya, who is eight years old, and her little brother Madden, who is only three, so I thought an earlier start (and finish) time would be better for everyone involved. As we enjoyed appetizers and champagne punch in my living room, the children presented me with the most adorable homemade Valentine's gifts:

Maya made a homemade card for Jesse and another just for me, Madden had scribbled a card to both of us, and their mother, Tracy, made a homemade card AND a customized Valentine canvas suitable for framing. So thoughtful -- and crafty! I was truly touched.

Jesse and Tracy's husband, Chris, have been friends for a long time and have collaborated on a number of projects over the years. Chris and Tracy own Hatch Exhibits in Baltimore, Maryland, a custom fabrication company specializing in displays and exhibits for trade shows, conventions and other events. Their clients include Under Armour, YouTube, Google, and other heavy hitters in the marketing industry.

Their three-year-old son, Madden, took instantly to the primitive instruments I display in my living room, and although Maya brought a selection of books to keep her occupied during what I am certain she thought would be a long, boring evening with grownups, she never cracked a book once, which I took as the ultimate compliment an eight-year-old can give!

Finally, dinner was served.  With cubes of crusty bread on our plates, we took tiny sips of  Kirschwasser, a Swiss cherry liqueur, and chased them with swigs of Belgian pale ale and Riesling as we toasted the beginning of a fun evening together. We dipped the sourdough chunks into steaming fondue as my guests marveled at the subtle mix of flavors in the melty cheese.

Once the cheese and bread course was cleared away, I brought out the boiling oil and replaced the simple candle warmer beneath the cheese fondue with a much hotter Sterno can. I had made each guest a wooden skewer adorned with his or her name. We proceeded to pierce chunks of the raw filet mignon, mushrooms and baby potatoes with our wooden tines and then nestled them into the sizzling oil: 15 seconds for rare meat, 20 seconds for medium, and 30 seconds for well done.  As we cooked subsequent chunks of steak, we dipped the already cooked pieces into the sauces on each plate. I asked my guests to name their favorite sauce.  Tracy chose the garlic-paprika aioli at first, then later said her heart belonged to the blue cheese sauce.  Chris liked the horseradish sauce best. My fave was the mustard sauce, and Jesse's was the barbecue sauce. For this exotic course, Chris and Tracy treated us to not one, but two bottles of a fantastic red wine, a 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon called The Mascot.

Maya and her mom, Tracy

Between courses I regaled my guests with trivia questions about the legend of St. Valentine and also about Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday was February 12th. Being a lover of trivia in general helped Chris win the "boy's" trivia prize, a small red flashlight, which little Madden immediately appropriated as his own. Tracy won the "girl's" trivia prize, a small, heart-shaped  leather coin purse, which Maya soon took custody of.

We finished our dinner with fruit dipped in chocolate fondue, the rich, sweet liquid kept warm over a simple candle once again. Strawberries, blackberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, goldenberries, Maraschino cherries, mandarin oranges, pineapple and bananas rounded out the fruit choices. Jesse liked the chocolate-dipped bananas best. I preferred the pineapple and the children loved the chunks of fresh watermelon. With this course I served the adults a special "chocolate zinfandel" made on the eastern shore of Maryland in the quaint town of St. Michael's.

No visit to my house (when children are involved), in the middle of winter or not, is complete without a visit to see the elves who make their homes in tree stumps around my two acres. It's all the children talked about through dinner -- when would we be able to go see the elves? So when we couldn't eat another morsel of food, everyone bundled up and we ventured into my backyard, where the first elf could be seen shoveling dirt outside his diminutive front door -- which was magically lit from within by a warm, solar-powered glow. Unbeknownst to me, Maya had filled the small leather coin purse with crushed nuts from the dessert course. As Madden shined his little flashlight on the tiny brass elf, Maya sprinkled crushed nuts on the elf, delighted to be "feeding him" in the bitter cold.

The menu

As we said our goodbyes that evening, it was clear that the children had really enjoyed themselves, and their parents said they did, too. Later, as I cleared the dinner table, rinsed plates and loaded the first of two dishwasher loads, I was struck by the emotional benefits of communing with good people in my humble abode.

There is just something so fundamentally wonderful about sharing a great meal and stimulating conversation with dear friends in a cozy, warm, and safe environment. My rustic little farmhouse certainly fits that description on a cold winter's night (or any time!).  I was delighted to have created a special memory for Chris and Tracy and their children that I hope they will fondly carry with them for many years.
Cheers,
Lynell

"What I love most about my home is who I  share it with." ~ Tad Carpenter