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Dear Readers,

Welcome to my public blog. I use this blog now only for my non-family related posts. All of our family posts, including pictures and videos of our little guy, can now be seen on our private blog. Our private blog can be found HERE.

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Happy Blogging! -Lara

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Graduation Celebration and Indulgence

Jayson promised me that when I finally finished everything for my thesis and was all set to graduate we would go to dinner at The Melting Pot!!! I am graduating in just two weeks so this weekend he fulfilled his promise. It was so incredible! We have never felt more over-indulgent, the food was absolutely to die for. Our 4 course meal was as follows.

Course 1 - Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue: Fontina and Butterkase cheeses, spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic and a splash of Tabasco sauce. Dippers included granny smith apples and an assortment of breads and veggies.

Course 2 - Tropical Salad: crisp Romaine, fresh tomatoes, mangos and hearts of palm topped with a light creamy citrus dressing and a touch of coconut encrusted cashews.

Course 3 - Fondue Feast Entree: a meat platter consisting of filet mignon medallions, jerk-seasoned sirloin, vanilla rum chicken, marinated pork tenderloin, and zesty peppered shrimp. It also included butternut squash ravioli and fresh vegetables. We cooked it all in a delicious pot of Italian broth made of fresh herbs, mushrooms, garlic, spices, and burgundy wine. Then each type of meat had it's own special sauce that went with it, which were all amazing of course.

Course 4 - The Original Chocolate Fondue: milk chocolate with a swirl of crunchy peanut butter. Dippers included fresh strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, marshmallows, pound cake and brownies!

Here we are gorging ourselves. I literally was forcing myself to eat every last bite because it was too incredibly delicious to let it go to waste.


Mmmmmmm, cheesy. Check out the excitement in Jayson's eyes!


Now you see it . . . (check out that huge meat platter!)


. . . now you don't. We ate the entire thing! It was sooooo good!


Now this is a dessert!



Lara opening wide for a marshmallow and Jayson succumbing to a strawberry.







Jayson looking at the bill :)

This dinner was WAY more than we have every paid for a meal (or will pay again for some time). However, we knew it was going to be expensive but decided that since we were going we were just going to enjoy it and not worry about the cost. I don't know that I would say it was worth it monetarily (because I don't know that any meal is worth over $100!), but it was definitely worth the experience. It definitely made it feel like a special occasion and as I will never be graduating from college again this was a great way to make it memorable. If you ever feel like completely over-indulging yourself, fondue at The Melting Pot is definitely the way to do it. The food is incomparable and the experience unique.

8 comments:

Brit said...

dude I love that place! and the apples in the cheese fondue...my favorite! It is expensive, it's perfect when you're looking to really celebrate!

Michelle said...

oh that looks like such a blast! and the food looks gorgeous! how fun to go out and celebrate like that. :)

Whitney said...

Mmmm....I love The Melting Pot! Sam has taken me there the last few years for my birthday. Yummmmmmmmmmm....

Looks like you had a great time! And congrats!!

Keri said...

How fun! I agree that fondue is SO yummy! Congrats to both of you!

Meghan said...

Congratulations, Lara! You did it!! That meal looks amazing, and it was well deserved.

Misty said...

congrats! that's awesome. Andt he food look delish!

Michelle said...

hey, i would help decorate your house any day! you guys are so cute.

Jana said...

Stop! You're torturing me! That sounds so heavenly. I guess I need to convince Nate to get his masters so we have a good excuse to go :o)
Congrats to you and Jayson!