Fondue

I wanted to create a post for some of our favorite fondue recipes so they would be easy to find all in one place. Enjoy!

* I have a note for our fondue pot that level 4 or more tends to be too hot for a holding temperature for the fondue, so to turn the pot lower once everything is cooked and ready to go.

Wisconsin 3-Cheese

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. shredded Butterkase
• 6 oz shredded Fontina
• 3 Tbl flour
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 2 tsp chopped shallots
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

Directions:

1. In a bowl, toss your shredded cheese with the flour.
2. Pour wine and sherry into your preheated fondue pot, along with your shallots and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
3. Add half of your floured cheese to the pot, stirring constantly until melted.
4. Add remaining cheese and stir constantly until also melted.
5. Add your black pepper and blue cheese, stirring until completely melted and everything is combined. Fondue should be the consistency of warm honey. Sometimes you will need more or less cheese, depending on how it tightens up.

Garlic and Herb Cheddar Fondue

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 sharp cheddar, shredded
• 3 Tbl flour
• 1 cup beer (I used Redd's Apple Ale)
• 4 tsp chopped garlic
• 6 Tbl chive and onion Philadelphia cream cheese spread
• 1 tsp ground pepper

Directions:

1. In a bowl, toss your shredded cheese with the flour.
2. Pour beer into your preheated fondue pot, along with your garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
3. Add half of your floured cheese to the pot, stirring constantly until melted.
4. Add remaining cheese and stir constantly until also melted.
5. Add your black pepper and cream cheese spread, stirring until completely melted and everything is combined. Fondue should be the consistency of warm honey. Sometimes you will need more or less cheese, depending on how it tightens up.

Snickers Chocolate Fondue

Ingredients:

• 8 oz chopped milk chocolate
• 1/2 cup caramel sauce
• 2 Tbl chunky peanut butter

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate in your fondue pot. 
2. Then add caramel and peanut butter. 
3. Stir until combined.

Swiss Fondue

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups (14 oz) shredded Swiss
• 2 Tbl flour
• 1 cup white wine
• 2 Tbl lemon juice
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 oz cherry liqueur
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• dash of nutmeg

Directions:

1. In a bowl, toss your shredded cheese with the flour.
2. Pour wine, lemon juice and cherry liqueur into your preheated fondue pot, along with your garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
3. Add half of your floured cheese to the pot, stirring constantly until melted.
4. Add remaining cheese and stir constantly until also melted.
5. Add your black pepper and nutmeg, stirring until completely melted and everything is combined. Fondue should be the consistency of warm honey. Sometimes you will need more or less cheese, depending on how it tightens up.

Grilled Pineapple (Air Fryer)

Here is a super easy recipe to get some grilled pineapple straight from your air fryer! And if you are lazy, like I was, you can just use one pre-bought container from the store!

 Grilled Pineapple (Air Fryer)

Ingredients:

• 1 pineapple
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbl melted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Core and slice your pineapple. 
2. Mix together your brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. 
3. Then toss your pineapple in the cinnamon mixture. 
4. Spread out in an even layer in your air fryer/liner. 
5. Cook at 380 degrees for 12-15 minutes, flipping your pineapple halfway through cooking. Try serving with ice cream!

Marsha's Notes:

You can use one container (about 1 pineapple's worth) of precut fruit from the store instead of cutting up a fresh pineapple, if you want. About this size:

Breakfast in a Shake (Smoothie)

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy! It is pretty much exactly the same as the smoothie recipe that I posted on this blog years ago, however, that other blog post includes more tips and variations for making other flavors, so you can check it out here: https://1brother2sisters.blogspot.com/2010/10/smoothies.html

Breakfast in a Shake (Smoothie)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen berries or fruit
• 1/2 banana, frozen
• 1/2 cup apple or orange juice
• 1 cup yogurt, vanilla or matching flavor like strawberry or peach

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy!  
2. Mix and match your favorite things, like frozen berry blend, frozen strawberries, frozen mango, etc.

Fruity Frappe

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. This beverage is like a fruity version of a root beer float. You can make it with any combination of flavors that you like, but the original recipe called for raspberry drink/punch, lemon-lime soda pop, raspberry sherbet and frozen raspberries, which is what we tried to recreate in the images below (although, next time, I would put in a lot more ice cream in each glass). Enjoy!

Fruity Frappe

Ingredients:

• fruit flavored drink (1 gallon)
• citrus flavored soda pop (2 lt.)
• frozen berries (1 small pkg)
• sherbet (1/2 gallon)

Directions:

1. Amounts all depend on taste and how many are being served, so play around with it to find what you prefer.  
2. Combine all ingredients in a large serving bowl until mixture resembles a float, or is smooth and frothy.  Serve immediately.

Marsha's Notes:

• You can also substitute any flavor of drink, berries, and sherbet to make what you like (strawberry, lime, etc.).
• Chris isn't a fan of anything carbonated, so you can also substitute lemonade for the citrus soda pop.
• The original recipe is really designed for a large party in a punch bowl where you hope there won't be leftovers because this drink really doesn't save well for later. Therefore, if you are doing this for a smaller group, I would recommend just getting the number of glasses that you want to fill, put a handful of frozen berries in the bottom, then your desired scoops of sherbet, then about 2/3 flavored drink to 1/3 soda pop/lemonade (or, make it adult with 1/3 sparkling wine).
• In the images below, we made this on a night where we also had a fun homemade dessert option, so I didn't want the drink to be overly "dessert-y" with too much ice cream in it. However, it is much tastier with more sherbet.
• I would recommend stirring the sherbet into the drink mix a little bit to get it out of one big ice cream clump to make it easier to drink. Then top with your carbonated beverage so you don't stir out all of the bubbles. Frappe tends to be a blended drink, so you could also try blending up all or parts of the drink to get what you like.

Fruit Pizza

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Fruit Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. sugar cookie dough 
• 1 batch cream cheese frosting
• Assorted cut up fruit

Directions:

1. Press dough in the bottom of a 9x9 pan.  
2. Bake until done.  
3. Spread with cream cheese frosting and top with assorted cut-up fruit.  I like to use kiwi and strawberries.

Marsha's Classic or Fruity Mojito And Long Island Iced Tea

Over the years I have made some delicious classic mint and lime mojitos (very refreshing when it's hot), but I have also sweetened things up a bit and made some amazing fruity mojitos as well. Here I will share both recipes with you. Enjoy!

Marsha's Classic Mojito

Ingredients:

• 1/2-1 shot white rum (Bacardi)
• 2-4 Tbl. white sugar or 1/4 cup simple syrup
• 8 small mint leaves
• Juice of 1/2-1 lime, freshly squeezed
• Crushed Ice
• Soda Water/Club Soda

Directions:

1. All proportions vary depending on your taste, but these are the proportions we like. First you have to decide if you want to muddle your mint leaves in real sugar or crush them with simple syrup. 
• If you use regular sugar, add the juice of your lime to the serving glass, then the sugar, and finally drop in the mint leaves. Muddle (smash with a muddle stick) gently in the bottom of the glass 3 or 4 times to release the mint flavor. Over muddling makes things bitter. 
• If you decide to use simple syrup, I find it easiest to just take my mint leaves, and instead of muddling, I just smack them really good a few times in my hands to release the flavors before adding them to the rest of the ingredients in the glass. Just give them a good spank.
• Pick the smallest, newest leaves of mint from the top of the stem for the least amount of bitterness.
2. Then add your rum and ice; stir. 
3. Top off the glass with a splash of club soda. Again, the amount of soda depends on your taste, but I usually add about a 4 oz. or so.

Marsha's Fruity Mojito

Ingredients:

• 1 shot fruit flavored rum
• 2-4 Tbl. white sugar or 1/4 cup simple syrup
• 8 small mint leaves
• Juice of 1/2-1 lime, freshly squeezed
• Crushed Ice
• Soda Water/Club Soda
• sliced/diced fresh fruit coated in sugar and left to macerate, about a 1/4 cup

Directions:

1. The directions for this recipe are almost exactly the same as above, except you will now use a fruit rum instead. Fruit rums tend to be about 1/2 the strength of white rum. We have really loved Cruzan's Tropical Fruit or Black Cherry flavors, but you could use any that you like. 
2. Earlier in the day, I will prep some fresh fruit to compliment the drink by slicing/dicing it, covering it in some white sugar, and letting it sit in the fridge to release the natural juices, such as strawberries. I have also sliced a kiwi to make a kiwi strawberry version.

Marsha's Long Island Iced Tea

Ingredients:

• 1/2 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz rum
• 1/2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz top shelf tequila
• 1/2 oz triple sec
• 1 oz sweet and sour mix
• 1/4 cup simple syrup (optional)
• 1 oz cola or to taste (more than a splash)
• 1 lemon slice

Directions:

1. Fill cocktail shaker with ice. 
2. Pour in all ingredients except cola and lemon slice, cover and shake. 
3. Add fresh ice into serving glass (Collins or hurricane) and pour over. 
4. Top with cola and stir for iced tea color. Garnish with lemon slice.

Marsha's Notes:
I don't usually like the taste of tequila unless it is subtle/top shelf, so I might sometimes leave this out if I don't have any good stuff on hand. I like my drinks to be sweet, so I add the extra 1/4 cup of simple syrup to mine, but a true recipe doesn't call for it. Adjusting the sweetness just with the cola changes the sweetness AND flavor, unlike adding the simple syrup instead, so that's why I opt for that. But don't kid yourself. This drink has LOTS of alcohol in it, so there's only so much you can do to make it sweet. It's gonna taste like alcohol.

Marsha's Smoothies

My favorite, go-to, smoothie recipe that my whole family enjoys. Super simple, three ingredients, customizable, and easy to get as thick or as drinkable as you'd like.

Frozen Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup apple juice (or your favorite flavor, i.e. orange, pineapple, grape, etc.)
• 1 6 oz. container yogurt
• 1-2 cups frozen fruit

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.

Marsha's Notes:

So, here are my tips.  First of all, I just put a couple of handfuls of frozen fruit in my blender because it's a little hard to measure frozen fruit that is all different sizes.  Really, the amount of fruit you use depends on how thick you like your smoothies and how strong your blender motor is.  I freeze ALL the fruit I use in my smoothies, including bananas.

Secondly, to make my smoothie a little more figure friendly, I use Yoplait Light, fat-free, yogurt.  They are around 90-100 calories.  If my calculations are correct, 1/2 cup apple juice is around 50 calories, and 1 cup fruit is around 100 calories, making a big breakfast smoothie around 250 calories.  That's very diet friendly.

Thirdly, as far as proportions go, if you use a really ripe frozen banana, the banana flavor can be pretty strong, so I only use 1/2 a banana per smoothie.  I am also careful to not use too many berries in any given smoothie because they can be rather tart.  Instead, I like to balance the sweetness in my smoothies by using just a few berries and lots of peaches, pineapple chunks, mango chunks and/or 1/2 a banana.

Fourthly, I haven't found a yogurt that I didn't like in my smoothies.  Any flavor that you like will do.  I just try to match my yogurt to the fruit I am using that day.  Lemon and lime yogurts work well in a tropical blend.  

Fifthly, you can add any kind of powdered supplement that you like, if you are into that kind of thing.

Here are some combinations that I have tried that I love:

Marsha's Strawberry Smoothie

1/2 cup apple juice

1 6 oz. strawberry yogurt

1/2 banana, frozen

1 cup frozen strawberries (adjust amount to taste and thickness)

Marsha's Peach Smoothie

1/2 cup apple juice

1 6 oz. vanilla yogurt

1-2 cups frozen peaches

Marsha's Tropical Smoothie

1/2 cup apple juice

1 6 oz. yogurt (any flavor that sounds good)

1-2 cups frozen mixed fruit (peaches, strawberries, pineapple, mangos, bananas using more of the particular flavor that I want to be strongest in my smoothie that day)

As you can see, the combinations are almost limitless. Just get your proportions of juice, fruit and yogurt right, and you can combine anything that tastes good to you. You can also mix up your juices to adjust sweetness, or use frozen fruit that comes pre-sweetened.