Kid Project: Cheese Fondue

(Joni) I thought that since some of our blogging audience is people who live in Turkey (or other international places), I would post things like recipes and fun kid projects - things that might be helpful for other expat mamas like me! So I'll include not only what we did, but also the Turkish names of things in order to help other mamas that might be trying to reproduce the activity here. Even if you don't live in Turkey, though, it might still be an idea for you!

My 4-year-old son doesn't like crafts, so it's sometimes a challenge to find fun projects to do with him. However, one thing he and I share is a love for cooking! So I try to do things in the kitchen that he can help with, and we have fun together. One kids' magazine we subscribe to and love is Highlights High Five (Huge thanks to my in-laws for receiving it and mailing it to us over here!), and each month they have a kid-friendly recipe. Elias and I have made a few of these (see one here), which are always fun and tasty too!

This Cheese Fondue recipe is actually from the September 2011 issue. Elias has been asking for months if we could make it, but we can't buy apple cider here, so I didn't think we could. However, the inspiration struck me that I bet we could make something from apple juice that would work, so I searched for a recipe. I took my inspiration from this recipe (by an expat in Germany!), but ended up pretty much making it up. I only needed 3/4 c. of cider, so I ended up just using 1 cup of apple juice and 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice (which I had brought from the US). I didn't want the cider to be grainy from the spices, so I emptied out a tea bag, put the spice in, and then folded and sealed it with a staple.

That ended up working VERY well to let the flavor of the spice into the cider without the spice chunks. (A coffee filter would work as well, but we use a French press for coffee and therefore don't have coffee filters on hand.) I simmered it with the lid on for only about 10 minutes, but it still evaporated quite a bit. I ended up adding more juice to have enough to make the fondue with. It was tasty, though!

So now that we have our "cider," here is the recipe. My comments are in italics:

Ingredients

• bread (I used 4 slices whole wheat bread. We also used some little cracker sticks - kepekli çıtır çubuk - for dipping too, which ended up being Elias' favorite part.)
• vegetables (I used 1 large cucumber, 2 small green peppers, and about 1/4 small head of cauliflower.)
• fruit (I used 2 large apples)
• apple cider
• grated cheese (This would be stellar with mild cheddar cheese, but we can't get that here. I used 1 c./2 slices Turkish Cheddar and 2 c. kaşar. The melted texture was a little weird, but it tasted great. If any of you Turkish folks try this recipe and find a cheese that works well, let me know!)
• cornstarch (mısır nişastası)

Directions
Before you begin: Adult: Make some toast.
1. Cut the toast, vegetables, and fruit into long, thin pieces. (We had brought with us Elias' Pampered Chef My Safe Cutter, and this was the first time he used it! He helped me slice the toast, cucumbers, and cauliflower with his own cutter!)
2. Pour 3/4 c. apple cider into a pot.

Elias mixing the cheese and cornstarch. You can see our beautiful plates of chopped items ready for dipping!

3. Mix together 3 c. of grated cheese and 1 tbsp. cornstarch. Adult: Bring the cider to a boil. Add the cheese mixture and stir over medium-low heat until the cheese melts. Pour the mixture into a small slow-cooker or fondue pot.(We don't have a slow cooker or fondue pot, so I just poured it into individual bowls and that worked fine. It ended up being the perfect amount for the 3 of us to have for lunch.)

Dip in!