Finding Your Valentine's Day Whimsy

The Goodwill find

I was going for a tenderloin thinking of the dinner I made at Christmas – a beef tenderloin stuffed with a lobster tail complete with a delicious Bernaise sauce, but QFC tenderloin seemed to leave a lot to be desired, plus I had done that already. I drifted over to the fish display and contemplated the crabs, bound in rubber bands and stacked like dominoes. Seeing their undersides wasn't appetizing.I was grocery store drifting, in that vague limbo that happens when you are trying to shop and decide what to make for dinner at the same time. You wander the aisles hoping for inspiration to strike. Usually it doesn't and you wind up coming home with a weird combination of things, none of which amount to a full menu.As I stood next to the fancy cheeses, I spotted a box from another era. Fondue cheese. I smiled remembering all the times I've had fondue, which amounts to maybe four. Well, if you don't count all the Raclette I ate while on a ski-trip in Austria with my grandparents, but I digress.My sister is a big fan of fondue. I think I may have even given her a fondue pot when she got married, or for Christmas, or somewhere in there. She does fondue in lavish style with heaps of bread and potatoes and whatever else you dip into fondue. It is really more of a treasure hunt as you fish dropped bits of bread or potato out of the cheese. But always good times.To be honest, as I stood there in the grocery store smiling at the cheese, I couldn't remember what else you dip into fondue. Gerkins? Yes. Another item to add to the grocery list in my head.Of course the fact that I didn't actually own a fondue pot didn't seem like a problem. Now I was plotting a route from the grocery store to Goodwill, where I pictured a row of discarded, barely-used, cherry red fondue pots.I bought the cheese. And potatoes. And gerkins. It is Valentine's Day, after all. Anything is possible on Valentine's Day. Which is how I wound up at Goodwill at 1:30pm on a Friday afternoon when I'm sure I could have been writing my next book, or doing something far more useful than tracking down an old fondue pot. In the land of lost pots and lids, I picked up two contraptions that looked like they might pass for fondue pots. Shiny stainless steel things, a far cry from the circa 1977-era, red potbelly with a wooden handle I had pictured in my mind. But no bother. When you do fondue on a whim, you can't be too choosy. Next was a hunt for fondue forks. Again, I pictured the wooden handled kind, with coloured ends so each person could differentiate their fork from everyone else's. But none were to be found. Instead, I wandered the rows of castaway cutlery and found an attachment to my electric mixer that would replace one that had broken.But when I turned for a final look at the dilapidated pots and pans, I spotted it – the fondue pot of my dreams, in it's original 70s packaging with it's tell-tale red potbellied-ness calling me. I broke the two pieces of masking tape holding the lid down on the box, and snuck a peak. Each piece was still in it's original cellophane. This fondue pot had never been used! It was not red, but an olive green, but I didn't care. It was mine.Cupid was having his way with me today.After I arrived home, Jim and I went in search of the holy grail - Sterno, a name-brand blast from the past. Where does one buy Sterno anymore? Or fondue forks for that matter?A quick trip to the turn-back-time hardware store had me following its elderly proprietor into the deepest darkest edge of the store and there backed into a corner were two containers of Sterno. "Which size do you want?" he asked. I took the 3-pack of little tins that would clearly fit under the fondue pot.But alas, when I asked about the fondue forks he said, "haven't had those since the 70s."This particular neighborhood in Seattle is handy in that it has both a turn-back-time hardware store AND a trendy kitchen store, the neighborhood version of Williams Sonoma. Read: not cheap. "Should we take a look?" I asked Jim, who was appeasing all my whims today, on account of Valentine's Day. "It's like your birthday, whatever you like."After a quick dig behind another display, the kitchen store lady presented us with fondue forks and we were both surprised that they didn't seem to have a Madison Park surcharge added to their price.I'm not sure what all this says about Valentine's Day, other than a whim has led us on an adventure. Which if you apply it to life or love, is really what love and life are all about. OK, I'm stretching the metaphor a bit, but hey, it's Valentine's Day. I can do whatever I like!May you find your whimsy on this Valentine's Day and may it lead you on a happy adventure.