gobs and gobs of cheese

Fondue... 

My first evening of fondue was almost a year ago, just around Valentine's Day.  My friend J got 4 of us ladies together for some Melting Pot action.  We did it up mad style- the full 4 course dealio.  Cheese, salad, boiling clear stuff, then chocolate.  And man, the best martini I'd ever had... the Love Martini.  I think I had two of them that night.  And I also had a crazy case of belly sickness before even leaving the restaurant.  Which taught me to never go back there.

But then J was getting married, and wanted to get a different set of girls together for a pre-wedding ladies night out, and of course wanted to head back to the MP.  Man... I couldn't say no, since it was her wedding...  so I joined in and showed up, my pockets packed with tums, just in case.  But this time we just had the cheese, salad, and chocolate- and a Love martini, of course- and this time it was delicious!!!!  And no belly sickness at all!!!  And suddenly I was a MP fan- and began to plot reasons to go back...

Well, it took me a few months, but I finally decided it was time.  Of course I decided this on a Friday night after 8, when normal people have all eaten their dinners and gone to the movies- so J wasn't available.  But she offered to meet me out the next evening for dinner- hooray!

So all Saturday long I saved my calories.  I got up and had my normal breakfast, which is about 230 calories (just enough to get a smiley face on mfd), then went for a long walk and a short run with the d-o-g, then a small lunch of veggies... leaving me with over 1000 calories left to consume.  WAHOO! 

I met J around 4:30, and we got down to business.  We both got the Love martini (and man, did I want another!  but look at me being thoughtful about my intake!  I only imbibed the one.), and the swiss cheese fondue... I asked the waitress "how much cheese is that?  2 cups?  3 cups?"  She thought I was going to try and make it at home- I explained that I was attempting to count my calories- she said "you might not want to do that tonight"... but brought me extra veggies right away.  Man, we licked that bowl clean- well, scraped that bowl clean, as it's a burning hot crock of tastiness, and we would've burned our little pink tongues off.  And as we worked, the waitress kept coming back to take it away- and we kept waving her off... relishing each and every gob of cheese.  BTW, I'd like it known that I only had 2 cubes of bread, and stuck with the veggies and apples for the rest.  But maaaaaaan, those two cubes were tasty. 

Then came time for the chocolate.  I was explaining to J how I was really only there for the martini.  And for the cheese.  And that I could totally pass on the chocolate and be fine.  She said "good, more for me."  Then the waitress brought out the platter of sweets, and poured the chocolate in, and I was done for.  The haze that had kept me from remembering the melted heaven flowed away, and I dug in, fighting J for the marshmallows and graham crackers- actually, she gave the graham crackers to me willingly... but that crock was bare by the time we were done. 

We are very good fondue eaters.

And I came home, and had a snack that evening... and this morning stepped on the scale, scared to see the damage, but also fairly self-righteous that I was allowed to do these things once in awhile... and lo and behold, I had lost another lb!  WAHOO!!!!  MP I love you!  Now if only I could get other places to make that martini...