Friday, June 24, 2011

A Date Night In with Fondue!

I think date nights at home are my FAVORITE. I absolutely LOVE getting dressed up, going out, ordering fun stuff, etc....but it's really fun to come up with a fun menu, cook dinner together, and not having to relieve a babysitter. My absolute favorite part is that you aren't limited to a menu! You get to choose EXACTLY what you want, and prepare it EXACTLY like you want it. Obviously, kitchen disasters happen, but I love experimenting with new recipes and new foods!

When we do date night IN, we usually make an appetizer to have while Parker is eating dinner and to tide us over until his bedtime. Once Park-man is in bed, we get to cookin'! SO. Here's our appetizer from our date night IN this past week:


Ingredients:
2 8oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayo
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded crab meat (or Krab, which is what we used! It was under $3 compared to $15 for the real thing.)
juice of one small lemon (1 Tbsp.)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 Tbsp. coarse grain mustard
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350.
-Combine crab and lemon juice in lg. bowl , then add remaining ingredients.
-Mix well and spread into med. baking dish.
-Bake for 20-25 min. or until the top is golden brown and bubbly.
-Serve with slices of sourdough bread.

Voila! YUMMY crab dip. Please, oh, please don't make this for just 2 of you. We ended up eating about 1/4 of the dip! This would be PERFECT for game night, football game, or for family gatherings!
Kyle enjoying his first bite! :)

Then came the FUN. FONDUE! We registered for our electric fondue pot when we were engaged and were so excited to receive it! Unfortunately, until now, we'd only used it one time for chocolate fondue. We can't wait to have fondue for meat again! I googled "fondue recipe for meat melting pot" and found a recurring recipe so we went with it.

Coq Au Vin Fondue

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup burgundy wine (we used merlot)
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp. garlic, minced
2 green onions, sliced

Directions:
-Heat vegetable stock in fondue pot until it begins to simmer.
-Add all other ingredients, bring to simmer.
-Place individual pieces of desired meat or veggies on fondue fork and put in pot until correct temp. is reached.

That's it!! So simple. We ended up having to add some soy sauce and pepper to the recipe to give it a little more flavor. We may use chicken broth next time and play around with some spices to give it a bigger kick.

Below you'll see our fondue choices:
We used portobella, broccoli (my favorite), salmon, and yellow squash. And here's a recipe for the dipping sauce we made:

Lemon Teriyaki Dip

Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:
-Combine all ingredients in a small pot.
-Bring to a boil and ensure all sugar dissolves.
-Serve with fondue.

(The longer the sauce boils, the thicker it will get. We wanted it be a little sticky so we let it boil for a couple minutes.)

Kyle working hard.
Our yummy meal!

We have had a couple very special dates at The Melting Pot in Memphis so i guess this was our attempt to recreate it! Anyone else have any luck with fondue at home? I would love to hear your tips and recipes!

2 comments:

  1. How fun! I love date nights IN too!! We haven't done fondue at home yet, but we love the Melting Pot so we may have to try it soon! And I love the crab dip recipe!!

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  2. YUMMY! Melting Pot used to be one of our favorite treats when we were dating. I love that ya'll make time to have a date night and I think your plan with the appetizer is great to tide you over. We are trying to get the kiddos on a better bedtime schedule so we can do this more often too. It is so nice to eat in peace every now and then.

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