How to Host a Fondue Party

I make the chocolate fondue oftentimes a week ahead of time, and I stick it in the deep freezer and then I heat it up to serve it. There’s no difference in taste or texture that I have never, ever noticed a difference. Don’t forget about your deep freezer so that you don’t have to do all of this like the day of or the day before. Welcome to the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast with DIY Healthy Lifestyle Blogger on a former empowering you to transform your. One imperfect day at a time. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I am your host, Anna Full. Today I am chatting all about how to host a Fond du party. I am going to give you fainting and making hosting a little less stressful that you have maybe never thought about. I’m going to give you some menu suggestions, of course resources on the blog that you can print out and give you some ideas to start your own thing that we have done every year for many, many years now, and it is one of my most visited blog posts. Every holiday visit this blog post every year, and it makes me so happy. I love seeing the numbers on my Google Analytics be world reading these recipes and incorporating them into their homes, and I just think that is the coolest thing. I absolutely love seeing that, so I would love to have you check it out and participate in your own. Fondue party tradition. My mom hosted a cheese and chocolate fondue. I can remember they always had a casual night and it was one that kids were never allowed to be a part of. So every year my siblings and I, we were kicked outta the house and we would always come home hoping there was just a little bit of leftover she ever was. So when Zach and I owned our first house, I decided that I wanted to carry on this Christmas tradition, and I think this year here, it’s become a night. We look forward to every year, our friends look forward to it. There are typically five to six couples that we invite and them and set this night up. However you want to do it. Maybe you wanna do it over Thanksgiving, maybe you wanna do it over Christmas. It could be a New Year’s party, It could be a Valentine’s tradition. Any really any of those would be an incredible opportunity to host a cheese and chocolate fondue party. We have set it up as a semi-formal evening. I always like formal dress attire. There are no kids allowed. We sometimes have infants because they’re infants and they’re cute and they’re usually very easy, but typically to share my party planning guide. Now, before I dive into this, I want to share with you that on the day that this is being produced, it is the second to last. To participate in the holidays at Home Digital Bundle, the Ultimate Fondue Party guide. It is basically a printable version of everything that I am sharing with you today. It includes recipes, it includes there are song holiday that you wanna have, your party that you can digitally download. It includes all of the printable grocery lists, the entertaining tips. It is the ultimate guide. I normally sell it for nice, massive digital bundle. You basically the holidays at Home Bundle. We partnered with holiday digital products for a fraction of the price until October 8th, Saturday, October 8th. You can get access. You can get access to over $600 worth of digital products for just $49. It is everything from 25 family Christmas traditions to start this year. 10 essentials to decorate your Christmas tree like a pro. My own contribution is this ultimate guide to hosting a fondue party with a lot more resources than I’m even going to talk about. I think there might be 30 digital products for only $49. The link will be included in the show notes. You do not want to miss out. There is one more day. This is your final. It does end at midnight on October 8th, so I just wanted to put that out there. You do not want to miss that opportunity. So let’s dive into tips to host your own fondue party. Let’s first talk about the menu. Tip number one. Create the menu. So we do a cheese fond do and a chocolate fondue. The cheese fund do is my personal favorite. We always laugh because usually the guests that come, they have, um, and a lot of these couples have been coming for years, like all eight years they’ve come. I personally prefer the cheese fondue. I’m a savory over sweet girl, but the chocolate fondue is usually the crowning winner between these two, but they’re both to die for this triple cheese fondue. It is a creamy mouthful. Of aged sharp cheddar, smoked DDA and Grier. It is, I’m, My mouth is actually watering this, talking about it. We pair it with all kinds of dippers. So the way that I host this is I supply both of the fondue and the cooked dippers for the cheese fondue. This includes my honey roasted carrot recipe, my smoked cauliflower recipe. My Italian steamed broccoli recipe and crispy roasted garlic potatoes. I actually have to tell you the cauliflower, the smoke cauliflower, and the honey roasted carrots are my favorite in the cheese fondue, but those are four roasted or baked veggie side dishes that I also. Contribute along with the fond do. The rest of these lists are actually brought by our guests. I don’t provide everything. The guests also contribute, and I have a list that I’ve divided and, and each couple is assigned their own grocery list. So the other things that are included, and this serves 12 people, is one pound of cubed ham, one pound of cube Turkey, one bag of frozen chicken nuggets, one pound of mini sausages. And then artisan bread cubed a variety of artisan breads. Again, this list is divided among the guests. A little side note for these cubes, you really want them to be at least half an inch thick. So what I, what my guests usually do is they will order like deli ham in a half inch thick slice, and then they will cube it themselves even more specifically, so that you know exactly how I do this. I have my guests bring. All of their own serving dishes for their cheese fondue sides. I provide the serving dishes for the chocolate fondue dippers because these are, there’s a little less involved with the chocolate fondue dippers. This chocolate fondue recipe is tried and true. This is my mom’s recipe. The cheese, um, recipe, fonde recipe is actually my. I have come up with that. It has been carefully honed over many years. This chocolate fondue recipe is straight from my mom. I don’t even know where my mom got it. She’s been using it for probably 20 years now. But the key to this chocolate fondue recipe is the chocolate. You’re like, Um, no, duh. But here’s the thing. High quality chocolate is hard to find. We happen to live in LID at Pennsylvania with one of the world. Best chocolate factories. Isn’t that crazy? Wilbur Chocolate Factory is located, um, historically was located here in Lis initially, but Wilbur Chocolate, they actually have an online store. You can buy chocolate from them online if you do not live locally. If you do live locally and you want to make this recipe, you need to buy Wil chocolate. And you need to get cashier and bronze metal. It is basically a semi suite and a suite chocolate that is in big chunks for melting. Follow the recipe or participate in this bundle where you can buy it on my website if you just want this and not the whole bundle. Again, it’s 9 99 for the entire guide. The entire guide, including playlists. All these recipes are in one spot, so you don’t have to scroll around my blog. For these, they’re all in one easily printable or downloadable bundle for guide dippers that we use. Again, this is for a party of 12. The guide that I sell for 9 99 is also for a party of 12. By the way, it includes one bag of pretzel rods. The rods are easier to. You can certainly do any type of pretzel, but the rods do make dipping a lot easier. One bag of marshmallow. One quart of strawberries that we usually quarter. One loaf of pound cake, butter pound cake. So good. Costco’s is delicious, by the way. Costco is a great way to go for the pound cake. One box of the mini peanut butter RIT sandwiches, and one large bunch of bananas. I can tell you historically speaking, the three items that always disappear are the bananas, the pound cake, and the strawberries. If you want to get more of any of the ingredients, those are the three I would make sure you have enough of. So that’s the menu. Number two, how to work ahead. Fondues are a little complicated because you do have multiple pieces that are moving all at the same time. It’s a lot of dishes. So one of the keys is to plan. Work ahead. For those of us whose minds naturally think 10 steps ahead, This is not usually a problem, but a lot of people, and I, I hear this, I understand this from many of you women, this hosting parties is stressful and it’s overwhelming, and you feel a little intimidated to actually like officially host a party. Okay? This is my goal for you, is to help make it less stressful. It’s why I created the guide, Why I Solve This Guide, Why this post is so popular year after year. Because it is all in one spot, Stressless and create an amazing tradition. So let me share with you some of the things that I always do ahead of time. Number one, I set the table. I set the table potentially even a day before. If you have a separate dining room, you can set it a week before. For the last four years, we have not had a separate dining room, but the house that we lived in for three years, our second fixer upper, had a separate dining room that I set up like a week in advance. Set everything up as early as you. Another tip is to label your serving dishes so you can set the table the night before or first thing in the morning or a week ahead of time. I’m talking tablescape, everything. You can even set out your serving dishes ahead of time and label what will go in each one. I have pictures showing exactly how I do this. I have these little glass serving dishes I’ve collected for years, and then I actually tear up a piece of paper, I write on it marshmallows and I put it in the marshmallow dish strawberries, and I put it in the dish where there will be strawberries and I set that on a, kinda like stack them on a side table so that they’re ready to. I do want to mention, don’t forget the Fond Du Pot. Typically, for a service of 12 people, you will want two Fond Du Pots. You will set them at two separate ends of the table. Now a side note on fondue, there’s different ways that you can do this. I also offer little bowls. For people to put the Fond DU in a bowl so they can dip out of their own bowl. I was doing this long before Covid. By the way. It actually has very little to do with the concern of sharing germs. Although make sure if this is the first time you’re hosting to inform your guests, there is proper fond du etiquette and that is that you don’t double dip, of course, and you try your best not to actually scrape. The actual, um, fondue prongs, like in your mouth. Basically you’re just taking the food, kind of sliding it off of the, the fondue fork into your mouth. It sounds really, but here’s the thing, if it’s a recurring tradition like your guest, they get it. You don’t have to tell them again. So no double dipping and trying to like, not hack all over your fond fondue fork that you are all dipping into the pot. So even before covid, just for ease. I actually provide separate little bowls. They’re almost like mini stem glasses for the chocolate fondue because that one you can just dip into your own little bowl and it stays warm enough to be able to coat stuff right from your own plate. And then I actually prefer drizzling the cheese fondue all over my plate instead of dipping it. There’s multiple ways to do it, but you can offer all those as possible suggestions to your guests. As I said, set out all your serving dishes and label them. That also helps to organize your menu. Another thing that I do ahead of time is I set up a hot beverage station or a coffee station. For any of you that know me, you know that a coffee or a beverage station is designed into every single kitchen I am very passionate about my hot beverages. I love tea. I love coffee. Coffee is my love. I love, love, love coffee. So we have accumulated quite the coffee station over the last 10 years. So all the kitchens that I’ve designed have a beverage station somewhere. There are other ways to do this. You don’t have to have a separate spot in your kitchen, but you can set up a table, you can create a little tea cart. I actually have a link on the show notes. How to Create a Vintage Tea Cart is a great mobile coffee station idea. It can be set up anywhere. It can be set up just on the countertop in your kitchen, but this is a really easy way to work ahead. Set your coffee maker, put it on a timer. It will start and prepare freshly brewed coffee. Do it first thing in the morning so that set it and forget it so that it actually brews just in the right time for us. I usually have it brewing around seven o’clock. Our party starts at five 30 where we. Cocktails and people just mingle. We usually don’t sit to eat until between, uh, probably closer to six, between six and six 30. So you just set it and forget it. You can use a curig if you want something really simple with the individual cups, we have a grind and brew again, I just set it and forget it and I put all the mugs out or the pretty teacups and I have it already to go so that it’s sort of a DIY hostess friendly hot beverage station. And I have pictures of all of this, actually, of our setup. Another idea is a big urn, by the way, depending on how many people you’re having, you can just use like a large coffee urn that, you know, if you have really heavy coffee drinkers, you might want more than your normal 12 cup coffee maker. So you can also, I have those links all included on the. We love our grind and brew, but I do have a coffee urn that I also use for larger, for larger groups. So again, set it all out. Set your mugs out, your cups out. Give yourself the freedom to focus on other aspects of your evening. Another easy pre-party setup is your cocktail bar. If you plan on having one. When we had our second fixer upper, it was really nice cuz we had a finished basement that we did and I made a large eight foot bar in the basement. It was lovely. I built the top out of reclaimed oak flooring. We missed that basement. We’re currently in a rental house waiting to buy our forever property. We’re very excited. That basement bar was fabulous. We set out our cocktail station ahead of time in our third fix Repper and in this rental house. What I will do this year as well is basically set up a folding table and we’ll set up our cocktail station. So I have this delicious cranberry. Drink that. I make this cranberry fizz drink that is non-alcoholic because I can’t stand the taste of alcohol. So I always provide non-alcoholic drinks for myself. But there’s a really good cranberry recipe that I make this drink. And then Zach is in charge of getting, usually offers some whiskey and beer that we have everything set out. And then last minute we put the drinks together right before people arrive and people just hang out and drink their cocktails until we’re ready to sit. Talking about these recipes and these times I’ve mentioned that I do this in the morning or I do this an hour beforehand. Another huge tip to working ahead is a menu planning sheet. A lot of us that love entertaining and hosting have our own methods. I’m gonna give a shout out to one of my blogging friends and my , my spirit animal, if you will. My spirit blogger, Leslie Sada at my 100 year old home. She is a home entertaining extraordinaire. And she has a really, I love reading about her system. She just wrote a book. She’s coming onto the podcast coming soon, called a Home to Share. But my 100 year old home, she has an awesome post all about her entertaining planner. She has a color coded system now. She’s like hardcore. She goes all out. I’ll share what I do and this is included. I have a picture of it. It is way, way, way less fancy. But I do this for every reoccurring party or dinner that I make, I do this. So it is basically a sheet that I put in a clear plastic cover with a bunch of sticky notes on it with various things on it. But what it is, is all of my recipes. So remember I mentioned those four dippers? They are. All on little sticky notes that I have on an eight by 11 sheet of paper. So one side is the cheese fondue, the other side is the chocolate fondue recipe, and then I have all of the Dipper recipes on this. I have the grocery list for our couples. Again, we usually invite. Pretty much the same couples every year. There are old friends. We’ve been friends forever and ever. So I also have written down on this sheet exactly what each person brings every year, the amounts. Was that enough? Do we need more? Do we need less? And then there is a sticky note that actually lays out the time of everything. So I put this in the oven at four o’clock. I put this in the oven at five o’clock. You guys, this ultimate hosting guide that I’m selling for 9 99, that has the playlists, that has all kinds of tips on it, has this schedule on it. This is a literally what I do every year. It is no stress. It has these exact recipes. You can literally host my party yourself. I would love for you to do it. Please, please do it. 9 99. It has all of this, all of this on it. You have tried it all. Worried you will never lose the extra weight or reclaim the energy you once enjoyed. Want to achieve fat loss without spending hours in a gym or eliminating entire food groups from your diet? Well, now you can In the virtual faster way to fat loss. With Anna, my six week fitness nutrition program, you will learn how to pair effective 30 minute workouts with all natural evidence based nutritional strategies to leverage what you eat and when you eat, to reset your metabolism and burn fat fast. Even that stubborn belly. I am a dual certified nurse practitioner, passionate about teaching sustainable strategies to promote fat loss and prevent disease. I have cheered on thousands of clients who have done just that with the faster weight program. In my six week program, the average client currently sheds seven inches of body fat, 93% report more energy. 89% state that their mental health has improved. 100% of clients report. They feel this program is sustainable. Curious to try the program, but not sure if the strategies will work for you. Try the faster way strategies for free. Head to www.hammersandhugs.com and sign up for my free seven day fat loss accelerator course today and start your own transformation story. Here is a tip for working ahead that people don’t do, and I’m telling you, it is life saving, anti time saving. Utilize a deep freezer. Utilize a deep freezer. I buy cheese and bulk at Costco is where I buy the majority of the cheese. For these recipes, I buy high quality cheese. This is not a cheap party to host, by the way, but we do it once. We do it once a year. It’s part of our Christmas budget, and I freeze them. I freeze these massive blocks of cheese because I actually hate walking physically into the store of Costco because I just see all of my hard earned cash go right out the door. Like I can’t walk into Costco and auto overspend. I just can’t do it. So I either do their grocery delivery or I order online to prevent walking in the store. It has been an amazing budget saving tip for us. So the cheese I will buy like a month ahead of time even, and deep. Here’s an incredible side note. I make the chocolate fondue oftentimes a week ahead of time, and I stick it in the deep freezer. This chocolate fondue freezes unbelievably well. Most of my, I shouldn’t even say most. I don’t even know that my guests realize it all these years, that it’s actually been made ahead of time, like a week ahead of time, and then I heat it up to serve it. There’s no difference in taste or texture that I have never, ever noticed a difference. It makes life so much easier. Don’t forget about your deep freezer. So that you don’t have to do all of this like the day of or the day before. I actually took a picture of the cheese I buy from Costco. It is included here on the, on the blog post or the website and oh my gosh, so much yummy cheese . Again, my mouth is watering. So I talked a little bit about the planning, about the planning schedule and again, it is all included this planning schedule. Literally down to when I shower and get ready. I could, you not, This is all written down the time that I shower and get. When I dice the potatoes, I mix carrots. Music. I’m telling you, it is detailed. Guys, this is how I host parties for less stress. I write everything down. I’m actually reading off literally what’s on this list. Carrots in the oven, mixed potatoes, vacuum. PS, you need a robot vacuum. This is the most lovely thing. We just wait. We don’t, This is an old list. You can tell it’s before we had a robot vacuum. We don’t vacuum anymore by hand. We turn on a robot vacuum and he goes all day long. Floor checked off. Potatoes and cauliflower in the oven. We steam the broccoli. I get dressed, telling you down to the details the next step. I like candles. Make the cheese fondue. I should, when I say make it, I’m either the cheese fond dew. You cannot freeze, by the way. Does not freeze well. So the cheese fondue I do make in real time and then I just kind of keep it simmering until people arrive and then mix cocktails and you are ready to. My party schedule’s not fancy guys, but it works, creates a stress free event, sticky notes. Just do whatever it takes to stress less and make really special memories. Listen, hosting becomes overwhelming if every party results in a panicked feeling that you are not ready when the doorbell starts to ring. It’s a terrible feeling. Use this planner. Use these tips to stress less quality time with your guests is a lot easier to enjoy when the rest of the evening has been set up to take care of itself. Stress less, Enjoy more when you host guests. So tip number four is the atmosphere. This is where we kind of take it to the next level of entertaining, but atmosphere is really, really crucial when you are hosting. If you think about the people’s homes that you love going to, what is it about the home that you love? I would be willing to bet there’s some consistent themes. The host makes you feel welcome. They’re warm, they’re friendly. They are good at actually hosting conversation and not just a party. They’re good at facilitating an environment where you can actually sit and take a deep breath. You’ve maybe not even realized it, but that is often a key piece in creating an environment that people want to come back to. One of the easiest, easiest ways to set the mood for any event is music. This is very simple, but I think there’s still people that don’t utilize this Christmas party, Christmas music. Birthday party, appropriate birthday music. So if like when I hosted a big party for Zach’s 30th birthday and his graduation from his master’s at the time we had on country, because country is very much Zach’s preference for music. For me it would be like Coffee shop chill for my kids. It might be a kids station, it might be, God forbid, kids B. Does anyone else, Do you guys listen to kids B? Uh, Sirius xm. I forget what channel it is. It’s a little painful. It’s literally. Pop songs sung by pre-teens. I mean the things that we do for our children, but for a pool party, it might be a beach theme station. Easy, easy, easy. But I’m telling you, music makes all the difference. Think about local commercials on the tv. You know the ones I’m talking about, The commercials that pop up are like on Netflix or whatever, and you’re like, Ugh, this commercial is awful. One of the things that often makes it so cheesy there isn’t any music or the music is terrible, okay? Music is one of the best ways to set the mood for a. Candles or lighting. I love my candles. This is no secret. This is no secret. Zach counted one time. Oh, I forget what the running total is now. Again, we’re in a rental house, so this is very outside of our normal, but typically, I think, I think Zach has reached the sixties already in counting the number of candles, tee lights, battery powered, classic tapers pillars. I love them all. I use them all. I mix battery powered and real flames cause I love the atmosphere of candles. But along with candles. That are sort of that accent lighting. Don’t forget ambient lighting, like dimmed lighting. This is one of my number one tips when you are looking for easy upgrades in your home, that will not cost you a lot of money. Switching out light switches and putting in a dimmable light switch is such an easy upgrade. It is an ideal scenario to have lighting on dimmers to help you set the mood, for example. In our dining room area, I always designed it so that whether it was in the kitchen or the dining room, or both, depending on whether or not you have a separate dining room for an evening party, low lighting helps to create that slightly cozier and more formal feel for a kid’s birthday party. However, you may not want a dark house, so you flip it up and it’s bright, bright light. But for a class, Evening party. That low lighting actually helps to create a more elegant, upscale feel to your evening dimmers help give you those options. So just take a look. Kind of take a step back, look at the house when your guests walk in, what is the ambiance? Is it, you know, energetic and exciting and lots of lighting? Or maybe even have like a fun disco ball? Depends on the party. In this case, I am dimming everything to low without. Creating dangerous scenarios where people can’t see where they’re walking. It’s not quite that low. Um, but I usually always have the lights. If you missed my post, my podcast episode on 10 mistakes to avoid when renovating a kitchen. I specifically talk about the importance of lighting. I break it down to the different types of lighting. This is an article Jampacked with Practical Tips and Tricks, the podcast episode, Just Search Kitchen. And there will be several that come up, but you do not wanna miss that to help think of easy ways to create a more efficient kitchen for host. Or just for day to day use. Another thing to think about is your front entrance. What does your front entrance look like? This is the first opportunity to set the mood for your guests. Now Christmas. Christmas is kind of a no brainer. This is the one fall in Christmas or the two times a year that I go all out on my front porch. Again, we’re in a rental house. This one doesn’t count. I am saving every penny. I’m not invest. In any seasonal decor here, it’s just, it’s not worth it at the moment. But typically for the fall and the winter, when we tend to do more hosting, I am hosting, I should say, within our house. I am going all out in the front. I have several examples of our front porch is what it looks like. So that’s a great way to also help set the mood. So we’ve got the candles lit, the music is playing, the table is set, the food is ready. What are we missing? Can you guess? We are missing the guests. You’re probably like, Huh? How is this a tip in hosting a fond du party or any party? Okay. Don’t invite people you don’t enjoy. If this is specifically a party, so this Fond du party, specifically, what I love about it, my parents would say the same. My parents’ friends who have been coming for 20 plus years now, probably 25 years now, would say the same thing. I, I guarantee it. What is so cool about fondue parties? Is they last a long time. You take your time, you’re dipping the little dippers. There’s lots of conversation. It’s cozy. You are literally all gathered around a pot or two pots, and it fosters fellowship. It fosters conversation. This is the time the Fonda party is the time to invite the people that you most enjoy talking to. It is all. The people. This is the best tip that I can give. How to host a fondue party. Ultimately, remember, it is about the people and the fellowship. I wanna help you create a relaxing evening with delicious food, but ultimately, it is about the fellowship. Surround yourself with guests you enjoy, whose conversation brings life and will leave you feeling that the time spent preparing was well worth the effort. I included several pictures over the last, um, what is this? Probably five years worth now of pictures. We always take a group picture. We’ve been hosting it for longer than this. We just, I can’t find those pictures of, you know, our friends at the end of the evening. If you have any other tips, tricks, Fondu Traditions, Please drop them in the comments below. Share. I would love, love to hear. I do have recommendations for the Fond DPOs that I recommend. Again, if you are interested in a printable ultimate guide to host my exact party. My me, literally everything that I use. In fact, I might print it out myself in the future, , I should because it looks a lot nicer than the guide, the current setup that I have, as you have seen, if you’ve looked at the blog pictures 9 99, that link is included. But if you want hundreds of dollars worth of incredible digital products to make your holidays less stressful, then you want to check out the holidays at Home bundle $49. We’ll get you $600 worth of digital products. You do not want to miss it. I can vouch for how incredible these products are. It is a steel. It is a steel again, my guide alone usually costs 9 99, and that’s one of 30. Part of this bundle for $49. Check it out. And I really hope that this inspires you to start your own fondu tradition. If you do start one, please shoot me an email, shoot me a comment if you have started one, because of this post, I know several of you have, I have gotten the emails over the last several years and it truly, it it’s little, little things like that that make it feel like this is all, all worth it. And again, If I don’t hear from you, I’ll just look at the numbers this Christmas or this holiday season and see the thousands of people that are visiting this blog and, um, buying the guide. To have their own incredible memories around the table. And again, food was meant to be enjoyed. And it is all for the fellowship. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts from today, head to your preferred podcasting platform, and give the show an honest review and let me know what you think. Remember, you cannot be redefined, only redeveloped, one imperfect day at a time. Your story matters and you are loved.