I gave Heather and Jordan a raclette grill for Christmas last month.  It was a gift motivated, in part, by the fact that I genuinely thought they would enjoy eating raclette and having people over to share it with them.  It was also motivated by my own interest in eating raclette — I knew that my visit would be a great excuse to have a raclette party.  (Jordan agreed that one of the first things to cross his mind when he heard I was coming was, “Great, we can have raclette again!”)

We invited Mark and Erin to join us, and together we had quite a feast!  The cheese was plentiful and pungent (the kids would have nothing to do with it and sought refuge in the playroom upstairs), and we had a wide variety of grilled vegetables and deliciously marinated meats (steak, pork loin and chicken).  I also introduced everyone to cornichons.

I was happy to see that, despite some initial skepticism, the cornichons were a huge hit.  As so often happens, they were gone by the time we were done.