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Barb's Home Page . Let's skip the tofu & fiber this week - This is delicious & easy to make & what a treat! If you don't own a fondue pot, you can pick one up at most garage sales for not much money. Don't be intimidated - fondue is so much fun. Yes, it is exotic but it's easy and especially nice in the warm weather when you don't want to spend the day in a hot kitchen. Fresh fruit will be coming into season soon so take advantage of local fare, and dip it into chocolate. Who doesn't love chocolate? CHOCOLATE FONDUE 12 ounces milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate or sweet cooking chocolate chips/rounds 1/2 cup half-and-half 2 to 3 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur, Kirsch, brandy, white crème de menthe, 2 teaspoons dry instant coffee or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I use Kirsch) Dippers - see below for ideas.   Heat chocolate and half-and-half in heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat; stir in liqueur or other flavoring. Pour into fondue pot; keep warm over very low heat. (NOTE: A small crock pot set on low does a great job of keeping the fondue warm.) Stir in a small amount of cream if fondue becomes too thick while guests are dipping. I tried using good quality dark chocolate once because I love it but it was too “dry”. I had to use a lot more cream but the texture was still not very creamy & it was sort of bitter. Note about Kirsch: yes, it's expensive but remember that it is a liqueur so it will last forever, and you only need a few tablespoons to make a whole pot of fondue. Believe it or not, it is also fantastic to use in cheese fondue. It's a wonderful combination with with the flavor of the swiss cheese. I would say, in fact, that Kirsch is the secret to a really good fondue. And now - it's not a secret - Dippers: Strawberries, banana slices, pineapple chunks, mandarin orange segments, fresh orange sections, apple wedges or slices, any other fruit you can think of, angelfood or pound cake cubes, ladyfingers, marshmallows, pretzels, vanilla wafers. Those big sweet blackberries would be wonderful, too, if you can afford them. They cost a fortune! Cut the bananas right before dipping. You can do the apples earlier & toss them in ginger ale or 7-up to keep from browning. You could also use OJ but then they taste like OJ. I haven’t figured out a way to keep the cake cubes from falling apart in the pot. What I suggest is to put them on the plate & have a small ladle available for pouring a little chocolate fondue on them, rather than trying to dip. Note about fondue pots: This is easier to do in a ceramic fondue pot which uses a votive candle, not Sterno. Sterno under a metal pot can get too hot for the chocolate & burn it on the bottom. If you use a metal pot, either adjust the Sterno to an extremely low flame or use a votive candle instead for the heat. A fun idea - make it a potluck: ask everybody to bring their favorite dipper, and you just make the fondue. Have fun! Interested in past "recipes of the week" that you might have missed? Apple Date Salad Lentil Barley Stew Jamaican Banana Bread Passover Lasagne Cream of Asparagus Soup Grilled or Baked Tofu

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