I wrote a summary of Date Night© for another site I write for, and I thought that some of you may enjoy reading it, as well. Keep in mind that this was originally written for total strangers, so if it seems formal or fluffy, that's because it was never intended for my hypercritical extended family. :) Also, you'll note that I never call Alecia or Maddie by name...again, that's part of the "writing for strangers" bit.
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Fondue Me, Baby!
Okay, so I stole the headline from an Austin Powers joke. Anyway, have I ever told you how much I love Fondue? Sure, I'd never even tried it before taking the wife to The Melting Pot for Date Night© last Friday. But it was love at first taste.
Before the food, my date and I kicked off our baby-free celebration with a Banana Berry Margarita. Sweet and smooth, served in a gigantic glass the size of a basketball, the drink was worth every cent of its $20 price. My wife hasn't had a drink in almost two years--first due to the pregnancy, then due to nursing. And I don't usually drink at all. So the tequila in the king kong margarita quickly sent us to happyland.
The meal only got better from there. :)
The appetizer course was assorted breads, fruits and vegetables, dipped into a creamy pot of lovingly blended cheeses (with a few shots of alkie-hall tossed in for flavor). Then came the salads. By the time we polished off our greens, we were starting to expand like Mama Cass, and were actually starting to feel full. It didn't matter--once they brought out the main dish, our appetites made a reappearance.
We had a pot of Mojo Fondue and a pot of Coq au Vin, as well as a platter piled high with lobster tail, jumbo tiger shrimp, filet mignon, beef teriyaki and marinated chicken. I had always thought that fonduing meat meant dipping pre-cooked meat cubes into warm sauces. Of course, I was wrong. The meat came raw, and we cooked it in the fondue pots while we ate. It was like playing with your food on an adult level.
They also brought almost a dozen sauces out with the meats. Since I'm a condiment addict, this was like the ultimate playground for me. I'm not sure what any of the individual sauces were, but I tried every piece of meat with every different topping, and loved them all.
By the time the entree was finished--and boy, did we finish it--the server let us know about our dessert choices. Knowing we couldn't go wrong no matter what we chose, we settled on the Bailey's Irish Cream Dream. We dipped chunks of cheesecake, brownies, marshmellows and assorted fruits into the liquid heaven for the next half hour, devouring every last morsel. Watching us, you'd never have guessed that we'd already eaten about five pounds of food, apiece.
The meal was awesome, but I can't help but feel that it all tasted so good, at least in part, because of who I was eating with. Without the baby to worry about, my wife and I were able to reconnect and focus entirely on each other (and the food, of course). It's been a while since we've been able to do that, which is kind of sad, since we've only been married for about a year. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing in the world I love more than my baby (I'd even have a tough time putting my lovely wife on a pedestal that high), but I almost forgot how great it feels to have dinner and drinks with a hot chick. It's niiiiiiiiice.
Here's the final math for Date Night©:
Babysitter: free, with promise to reciprocate (But let's be honest, who's gonna leave their kid with me?)Dinner/Drinks: nearly $150 (and worth every penny...especially since it used up all of our eating out money for the month)
An evening with the girl of my dreams: Of incomparable value... (Come on, 'priceless' has to be copyrighted.)
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