My confessions: Ready-made food and chips!

I apologise for my absence in the blogging world, no I haven't wasted away. I have been cooking (and eating- honestly!) but just haven't found the time to put anything together. And I haven't just been eating packaged foods and chips as the title may suggest, but take yesterday for example we fancied a fry up, hardly blogging material but satisfying none the less. Often it is good to have a little of whatever you fancy despite it being easy.
Last weekend we celebrated Sinterklaas and I did what I do every year: a cheese fondue. I also make mulled wine which nicely sets the atmosphere. It has become somewhat of a tradition. I readily admit to using readymade packets of cheese fondue, it is just as good and anyway there isn't an awful lot of talent in melting cheese, because basically, this is all it is. On occasions I have made my own, with cider or wine and it is delicious but in the traditional recipe Kirsch is called for, and I can't justify buying a bottle of Kirsch for just one use in a cheese fondue. I'm sure I could come up with recipes, but really I am quite satisfied with the easiness, and taste of Swiss cheese fondue ready-made. Be sure to slightly allow for more than the suggested serving on the packets. One packet of 400gr should serve 2 persons but we used 4 packets for 6 persons. We don't only dip bread but all kinds of vegetables (raw cauliflower, celery, carrot, tomatoes, cucumber) and fruit (apple, pineapple, dried dates, figs, apricot). We serve this with various salads, nuts, smoked salmon, sausages, olives. Actually it is quite a good and fun way of eating vegetables. If you are looking for something different, and a mess free meal (no grease to clear up afterwards unlike with traditional oil fondue or gourmet) then you really can't go wrong even with large numbers so try it.
Now you are all going to be terribly disappointed with me but Sunday at my house isn't as you would expect Roast Dinner day but rather Chip Day! Yes really- the deep fat fryer rears its ugly head nearly every Sunday evening! Why? Well we do like to keep things easy on lazy Sundays but I guess when 3 people are telling me that they want CHIPS & SNACKS regularly then I have to listen. Not only do they eat chips covered in different sauce concoctions but also greasy Frikadel and Kroket. I watch in disgust, I thought I had educated them, how wrong can you be! I avoid all of that processed stuff, that in my opinion doesn't even resemble meat (apart from its sausage shape) let alone taste like- well anything in particular. So generally I only eat a few plain chips, sometimes with a dollop of mayonnaise, perhaps a slice or two of ham, I may even eat a cheese soufflé from time to time (so stodgy!) and occasionally I bake myself a salmon steak.
Sometimes I sneak in some of my own chipped potatoes and often I introduce different vegetables in chip form. For example we have eaten chipped pumpkin, celeriac, and sweet potatoes all with great success and turnip (koolraap) with less success as it tasted rather too much like vegetables!
In order to get perfect results you should twice fry your vegetables. Once at a lower heat to cook through, (then raise) and then wait for the higher temperature and fry until for crispy. To guarantee a crisp result then shake the vegetable chips in a little flour, cornflour or semolina before frying.