Swiss themed dinner
Herzlich willkommen to my Swiss themed dinner party!
Wondering what that means? It simply means, "Welcome!" in Swiss German. Most of you know (if you know my parents at all) that I come from a family of dinner party hosts. My parents are the king and queen of hosting fun and delicious dinner parties with friends and for Navy events. Of course my mother would have failed me if she didn't pass the gene down to me! Most times of the year you can find my dining room table decorated according to what is currently happening. Football season? Check. Thanksgiving? Check. Christmas? Double check! So, with the weather cooling down and Ross and I having some friends over we thought it would be fun to do a Swiss themed dinner.
Joe and Allissa are engaged and are getting married this January, so we wanted to spoil them a bit as an engagement gift as well. We chose to do a traditional Swiss dinner of Raclette. The word raclette originally stems from a cheese, but has evolved as a way to explain this cheesy & delicious dinner!
Here is what Wikipedia had to say on the matter: Raclette is a semi-hard cheese that is usually fashioned into a wheel of about 6 kg (13lb). The Alpine cow milk based dairy product is most commonly used for melting, but is also consumed as a slice. Raclette is a Savoyard (French) as well as Swiss dish based on heating the cheese and scraping off the melted part.
Raclette was mentioned in medieval texts from Swiss-German convents dating from as early as 1291. The cheese was originally consumed by peasants in the mountainous Alpine regions of Valais (Switzerland), Savoie and Haute-Savoie (France). It was then known in the German-speaking part of Switzerland as Bratchas, or "roasted cheese". Traditionally, cow herders carried cheese with them when they were moving cows to or from pastures up in the mountains. In the evening, the cheese would be placed next to a campfire for softening, then scraped onto bread.
Super fascinating, right?! The tradition now is to have this little grill that sits on the middle of the table. You can see it in the pictures of my tablescape below. On top you cook meat and on the bottom you cook the cheese. We decided to do chicken, steak, and shrimp for our meats and for our cheeses we did horseradish, pepperjack Monterey, white cheddar, and white American. The cheese cooks underneath in little trays and you simply scrape it onto your plate when it starts to boil. It can be served with several different things, but we chose to do baby gold potatoes and broccoli. It is a ton of fun to cook together and eat slowly (such a change for us, Americans!) and really enjoy the full experience.
So that was the meal, let's talk about the table! We have a good Swiss friend named, Nikki, who periodically will send us care packages with Swiss goodies...lucky us! She outfitted me with the placemats, cow napkins, Swiss flag streamers, and little toothpicks. She and her husband, Daniel, also gave us the raclette set as a wedding gift. Not only is it fun to deck out your table, but for me it is special because it reminds me of Nikki & Daniel...and also reminds me that Ross & I need to start saving so that we can go visit them in Switzerland soon!
And of course no dinner party is complete without a fun welcome sign & some good conversation. It was fun to talk to Joe & Allissa about their future marriage and to pray over them as well! I love when you have dinner with friends and can get into really meaningful and deep conversations...it seriously makes the evening!
I hope to share other pictures and stories as we continue to host friends and families for dinners throughout the year! And if you are ever in the mood for raclette, let us know & we would love to have you over. Cheers & happy hosting!
xoxo,
Southern Saving Grace
Raclette was mentioned in medieval texts from Swiss-German convents dating from as early as 1291. The cheese was originally consumed by peasants in the mountainous Alpine regions of Valais (Switzerland), Savoie and Haute-Savoie (France). It was then known in the German-speaking part of Switzerland as Bratchas, or "roasted cheese". Traditionally, cow herders carried cheese with them when they were moving cows to or from pastures up in the mountains. In the evening, the cheese would be placed next to a campfire for softening, then scraped onto bread.
Super fascinating, right?! The tradition now is to have this little grill that sits on the middle of the table. You can see it in the pictures of my tablescape below. On top you cook meat and on the bottom you cook the cheese. We decided to do chicken, steak, and shrimp for our meats and for our cheeses we did horseradish, pepperjack Monterey, white cheddar, and white American. The cheese cooks underneath in little trays and you simply scrape it onto your plate when it starts to boil. It can be served with several different things, but we chose to do baby gold potatoes and broccoli. It is a ton of fun to cook together and eat slowly (such a change for us, Americans!) and really enjoy the full experience.
So that was the meal, let's talk about the table! We have a good Swiss friend named, Nikki, who periodically will send us care packages with Swiss goodies...lucky us! She outfitted me with the placemats, cow napkins, Swiss flag streamers, and little toothpicks. She and her husband, Daniel, also gave us the raclette set as a wedding gift. Not only is it fun to deck out your table, but for me it is special because it reminds me of Nikki & Daniel...and also reminds me that Ross & I need to start saving so that we can go visit them in Switzerland soon!
And of course no dinner party is complete without a fun welcome sign & some good conversation. It was fun to talk to Joe & Allissa about their future marriage and to pray over them as well! I love when you have dinner with friends and can get into really meaningful and deep conversations...it seriously makes the evening!
I hope to share other pictures and stories as we continue to host friends and families for dinners throughout the year! And if you are ever in the mood for raclette, let us know & we would love to have you over. Cheers & happy hosting!
Southern Saving Grace
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