Fondue Party!!

Back in July, I bought my first house with a little down-payment help from my daddy. I've been renting this place for 4 years, and things got a little sticky when it came down to "buy it or leave it." Having moved from apartment to apartment for the past 13 years, I figured it was time to settle down. I'm tired of moving. I'm tired of living with the lack of housing security that comes with renting. And I have 8 pets (6 cats, 2 dogs).

Besides, my house is in a great emerging arts and historic district. It's affordable, and it has loads of closet space. Even though the deal closed in July, we waited until September to have a housewarming party because I've been so darn busy.

And busy little bee that I am, I just had to use this party as an excuse to work on my next cookbook, a collection of veganized trendy foods from the last century. For the 1970s chapter, I knew I wanted lots of fondue. So I invited all my friends over and made four kinds of fondue for snacking pleasure.

This Pizza Fondue was, by far, my fave. It's basically just melted Daiya mozzarella mixed with pizza sauce and herbs. We dipped in bread cubes and Tofurky Italian sausages:

The Beer Cheese Fondue came in a close second. It's a nooch-based dip made with good beer (I used Sam Adams Boston Lager). For dippin', we used bread, Tofurky sausages, and chunks of fried tofu:

You can't have a fondue housewarming without dessert fondue. I made a Lemon Fondue for dippin' gingersnaps and strawberries. This is the only fondue that still needs some work. It was delicious, but I think I used too much flour to thicken. After 30 minutes or so of warming in the fondue pot, this stuff hardened into a solid glob. I kept having to add soymilk or water to thin it out:

And finally, I just had to make the standard Chocolate Hazelnut Fondue. This one was a huge hit with fresh strawberries and pineapple:

My friend Stephanie, who some of you may know as Poopie Bitch from the PPK, bakes vegan cakes for a living. So she brought mini versions of my favorite flavors — chocolate peanut butter bombs and coconut cupcakes!

We had lots of boxed wine (Washington Hills merlot ... it's vegan!). But I also made some Aqua Fresca with fresh lemon, cucumber, and mint for my teetotatler friends.

By the night's end, all the fondue was gone! And so were the dippin' things! And of course, so were the cupcakes. There was a wee bit of wine left though. My friends may love to party, but they love to eat even more.