Holiday Fondue.

Growing up, my husband's family started the tradition of fondue. Now, for those of you like me, who associate fondue with cheese dip or chocolate (and that's it) - let me provide a bit of an education.

Google fondue recipes and you will find a wealth of cheese dips, dessert dips, AND recipes for broth boiling and deep frying all sorts of items. Basically, fondue can ALSO mean cooking raw meat items on your table - a perfect solution to a holiday dinner. After having done this for my family for the last number of years, I can tell you that I LOVE this tradition. Why?

(1) You can get really creative with the items. My husband's family uses beef, chicken, and shrimp. The chicken always comes out dry for me, and I avoid the steak. Consequently, when we started to fondue in our home, I opted for shrimp and lamb. I made a garlic aioli (some minced fresh garlic mixed in with some mayo) for a side, and included mint jelly for me. This year, concerned about some ethical issues with Australian lamb (namely, it's often slaughtered in China and not offered organic), we avoided land-meat all together and just went straight to sea food. I also breaded fresh mozzarella - going for a fried mozzarella feel. If desired , you can also move away from oil all together, and heat broth for cooking.

(2) You aren't cooking the items, so all you need to do is prepare them. If you hand make a lot of your dips, now you're putting in some work. However, even those can be done ahead of time to ease the workload on the day of the meal. Since I was doing this for my family, I opted for simplicity. Less time in the kitchen = more time over Christmas with my kids.

(3) Fondue is a very social meal. Since you need to wait for the items to cook, you spend more time talking and less time eating. It is perfect for entertaining - but a great "family dinner night" too for older kids. If you have a large family, and they are all young, I do not recommend this dinner. My daughter opted for a PBJ (she's picky, and it's Christmas, so why fight?) My son tried a shrimp, but decided the broccoli was best. Even if my kids did decide to eat the food, my husband and I could easily maintain ours and one child's plate. However, if you have too many helpless mouths to feed - perhaps this type of dinner should wait until you have older children to help - or kids are able to cook for themselves.
Holiday Fondue Menu:

1 loaf of french bread, with softened butter or olive oil.

One vegetable side. This year we opted for broccoli sauteed in garlic, olive oil, with some onion.

Fondue sides (homemade or store bought). Think about the sides you would want for the fried item. For our seafood menu, we stuck to tartar , shrimp , marinara (for mozzarella) and a remoulade sauces. For lamb, do yourself a favor and try some mint jelly. BBQ sauce for chicken and steak sauce for beef are good ideas too.
For scallops and shrimp - take raw (and peeled) pieces, rinse and bread. Easy way? Put Italian bread crumbs in a bag, place the item inside, and shake it. It coats everything nicely! The breading is light - adding just the tiniest bit of crunch.
For Chicken - I would consider doing something similar, but mixing in a tiny bit of chili powder. Depending on how spicy you like things, it's more of a southern fried chicken feel. You could also try your traditional breading (whatever family recipe you use), just working with smaller pieces.

For lamb and steak - do nothing except chop into chunks. 1 inch cubes, roughly - but a little bigger or irregular won't hurt.

I ran across the idea of trying fish this year, but haven't ever tried that in practice. My concern with really flaky fish, like salmon, is that it would fall off in the oil while cooking. It becomes a real bear to fish it out.

For mozzarella chunks, take Italian bread crumbs and 2-3 eggs. Blend the eggs well in a bowl. Cut small balls of fresh mozzarella in half, larger balls into quarters. Dip the piece in egg, then crumbs, then egg, and crumbs again.
For frying, we use peanut oil, as the scent isn't strong at all. Set the pot to around 350 - placing some sort of paper (doilies, paper plate, or I used festive tissue paper) to collect oil drips. I would NOT put down a nice table cloth, and have the oxyclean ready for oils stains on place mats.

Set aside some time for this meal, as the cooking and eating will leave you at the table for a while. For dessert, we usually do a chocolate fondue, but this year I made some Egg Nog Panna Cotta.

Chocolate fondue:

Take one bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and melt over double boiler with 1/4 cup heavy cream.

When melted and incorporated, add amaretto or fruit liqueur to thin down and add punch. Stir until shiny. If too much liqueur is required for appropriate consistency, you can add more cream in the above step.

Serve with whatever fruit suits your palate.