Valentine’s Day Fondue Tradition

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Apples, chicken, and homemade bread dipped in hot melty cheese. Pretzels, marshmallows, and strawberries covered in warm smooth chocolate. Is your mouth watering yet? Can you even think of anything more appetizing on Valentine’s Day?!

Each year on Valentine’s Day we go all out and make a fancy fondue dinner. It started several years ago when we had a 9-month-old and my husband was in his first year of grad school. We were so dang frugal back then, but we really wanted to have a special night together. Instead of finding a babysitter and going out to eat, we decided to make our own dinner and spend time together as a family.

While date night and alone time with your spouse are so very important, we LOVED our family fondue dinner that Valentine’s Day and have since done the same thing each year! We have even shared that evening with friends a few times, and it just keeps getting better.

Below I will lay out how we make this super fun tradition work for us. Buckle up, ‘cause I’m about to take you on a tasty ride!!!

1. First and foremost, you need a killer cheese fondue recipe. I had no intention of reinventing the wheel here, so I found (and ALWAYS use) this recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Café (link HERE). We follow it exactly and have amazing results every time.

The Pot. The first year we made our fondue, we used a normal pot on the stove and dipped into it at our dining table. We had to bring it back to the stove a couple of times to keep it warm, however. The next year, I found a decent and cheap cast iron fondue set at Aldi that we have used ever since. It came with little pokers and has been awesome for keeping the cheese warm at the table, but I would love to upgrade to an electric one someday! It does get a bit tricky to start the flame for our cast iron set, and it tends to heat it up a little too much towards the end of the meal. All this to say that you can go all out and get a nice electric fondue set, or make it work with a pot that you already have in your kitchen!

What to dip. Once you have your fondue recipe, you need to decide what you will dip in the yummy mixture. Our tried and true staples are:

Granny Smith apples
Kielbasa sausage
Oven roasted chicken
Steak strips
Homemade artisan bread (recipe HERE)
Steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)

Make sure everything that you prepare is cooked to your liking and in bite size pieces for easy dip-ability (yes, I just made up that word).

**Don’t forget the drinks! We go “all-out” and get a few bottles of Martinelli’s sparkling drinks. It just adds to the fun!

Dessert! Once you’ve all had your fair share of cheese fondue, you can move on to dessert! Here we get a little less consistent and scientific. We just melt our favorite chocolate chips in a small pot, add a splash of milk, bring it to the table, and dip away!

Our favorite foods to dip in chocolate have been:

Strawberries (be prepared with lots, because they always go way too fast!)
Bananas
Pretzels
Marshmallows
Apples (same ones from dinner)
Rice Krispy treats

Again, prepare your foods by cutting everything into bite size pieces, or buy some things in mini size.

This is how we have made our super fun and delicious Valentine’s Day fondue dinner work for us, and it really is one of my favorite traditions that I look forward to each year! Tell me, is there something that you look forward to as much as I do this? I’d love to know! It’s fun to share ideas and see what gets everyone excited.