We awoke this New Year's morning to the happy sight of long awaited snow. We thought it was the perfect setting for our family to bring in the New Year with a wintry hike through what we call, Mellencamp Woods.
Keith and the boys call these woods, that are just one neighborhood over, the Mellencamp Woods because the land is actually owned by John Mellencamp who is a Bloomington resident. We all enjoyed the glorious, late morning hike (specially the dog who gets to explore the woods without his leash) so much that we might have to make it a New Year's day tradition.
Our New Year's Day hike was preceded by a lovely and quiet New Year's Eve. We had the pleasure of celebrating the evening with another family who shared a three course fondue meal with us.
It was a great opportunity to break out the, hardly ever used, fondue pot. I picked up some fondue books from the bookmobile and found three fondue recipes for our dinner.The first course was a cheese fondue made with Emmentaler and Gruyere cheese combined with white wine and roasted garlic. I blanched asparagus, carrots, and new potatoes, for dipping as well as bread, apples and pears.
The second course was an oil fondue and for it we had marinated lime chicken and breaded cornmeal shrimp. I also made a mango salsa and a honey dill sauce for dipping.
The third and final course was a chocolate fondue made with bittersweet chocolate, cream and hazelnut liqueur. For this fondue we had angel food cake, strawberries, pineapples, marshmallows, and bananas. I also toasted coconut, pecans and hazelnuts for toppings. Yum!
4 comments:
Mmmmm! Fun! Tom and I also made fondue, tho we only did one course - a cheese one with Swiss and Gruyere. I love fondue!
We always do fondue on Christmas Eve, so we were excited to see that you had the same kind of fun! However, we always skip the "main" course and just do cheese and chocolate. :)
I am SO jealous of the snow! It looks like a beautiful way to start the new year!
Sounds like a party to me. What fun. I had not heard of those woods being called "mellancamp woods". Cool stuff. Our time in Bloomington was WAY too short. We did not see anyone over the break... we hibernated, doctor visits, jonas tube surgery, dentists, shopped, shipped items shopped for, and got second round of foreigners shots. Not much time for friends and play. We will catch you all in the summer for sure! Happy New Year!
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