An Eco-friendly meal?

We had friends round for dinner last night, and, as always, I had to figure out what to serve that wouldn't cost the earth in electricity - either in wattage used or in money.

I think I came up with a brilliant solution.

We had a fondue!

So how was it Eco-friendly...

In the afternoon I cleaned the copper fondue set using wood ash for our fireplace - dab a damp cloth into the wood ash, rub on the surface to be cleaned and watch the dirt disappear.  Then all it takes is a rinse under a running tap, and quick dry, and the copper looks amazing!  No dirty hands full of Brasso and no chemicals needed - if only I'd known this years ago...

Garden fresh salad

The salad came, in it's entirety, from my garden - four different types of lettuce, chives, onions, tomatoes - and the bean sprouts grew in my sprouter this week.

I made all the sauces, bar one - the pureed apple to go with the pork.  We don't have an apple tree - yet :-)

We also had tahini (a sesame seed sauce - perfect with the chicken), a chilli sauce (peppers, onions, garlic, chillies, dried apricots and honey - brown the onions and then add the rest of the ingredients and cook together until semi-mushy - to go with the pork chipolata's) a mushroom sauce, bbq sauce (the last two to go with the steak) and guacamole.

I had also made a salsa with red, yellow and orange peppers, apple, onion, courgettes and sweetcorn - mixed together with a dash of lemon juice and olive oil and salt and pepper.

Finally, I made a loaf of fresh Artisan bread.

It was delicious.

Otherwise, all the preparation - mixing, chopping and puree-ing was done by hand.

I am well pleased with the resulting power usage.

I used the oven to bake the bread - for half an hour - and the stove top to heat the oil.

And I was asked for my bread recipe.  I love that - for there is nothing better than sharing knowledge with whoever asks for it.

There is surely no nicer way to spend an evening than with friends, round the dinner table, with everybody cooking their own food, in their own time.  A fondue is such a "gemütlich" (warm, congenial and friendly) way to spend an evening.