Death by Chocolate

Romany Rambler: Travelled 19599Km; 324 Nights Away

The gas barbeques were lit and the men got on to the time honoured ritual of outdoor cooking on Saturday night at Brookfield Scout Camp.  There was a fine assortment of meat sizzling away, from steak, pork chops, chicken kebabs and sausages, and it all smelt divine.  We all ate together outside enjoying the balmy conditions.  To celebrate our Christmas Rally, the club provided a couple of bottles of bubbly, and we raised our glasses in a toast to many more caravan rallies together.

  BBQ chefs hard at work

After dinner mother duck brought her family of ducklings to visit us while we sat around enjoying the sunshine.  They were not at all frightened and ran around our chairs and all around our feet while searching for duckling sized portions of anything edible.  One of our eagle eyed group commented that the duckling count was one less than the previous day.  Perhaps one of those nasty eels in the stream took the baby duck.

Mallard duck and her ducklings

As the sun went down, and dishes were done, we met in the hall for our Mystery Dessert, Death by Chocolate.  Elaine and Peter had two fondue sets tucked away in their kitchen cupboards and came up with the idea of a shared chocolate dessert.  Fondue used to be a popular dish for dinner parties in the fifties, sixties and seventies, not that I was ever  invited to one.  It appears that fondue originated in Switzerland as a way of using up hardened cheese. Deriving from the French verb fondre, meaning "to melt," fondue was a classic peasant dish.

No cheese fondue for us, it was chocolate all the way, with one pot of white and another of dark chocolate being kept warm over a tealight candle.  There was a wonderful selection of tasty morsels to dip in the chocolate, strawberries, kiwi fruit, pineapple, apricots, and my favourite, marshmallows.  What a great idea, and so tasty.  But is seems that some of us overindulged and had sore tummies and trouble dropping off to sleep due to chocolate overdose!

  Time for dessert – Death by Chocolate

As this is our club’s last rally of the year, we wish all our members a Merry Christmas and safe travels over the holiday season.