Valentine's Day dinner

So, you know that I'm not that big a fan of the whole Hallmark-holiday quality of Valentine's Day. I mean don't get me wrong, there are very few red-blooded American girls who don't like flowers and chocolate, but a) the markup on flowers is so high around this time of year that I could wait and get three bouquets of flowers at different points in the year for the exact same price (and surprises are better anyway - hint, hint), and b) let's be honest here. Target and CVS have already had Easter candy out for a month, and that's WAY better than any Valentine's Day candy sold. Still, we do like to have a nice dinner at home - no gifts - that weekend, and that's what we'll be doing this weekend.

So what are we doing? Well, we decided to do the whole Melting-Pot thing at home and try a four course dinner made up of two different fondues and then dessert. Sounds good, right? We've got a bottle or two of sparkling wine left over from New Years so we'll be cracking that open to go along with everything.

First course: Garden salad, while the cheese fondue heats up.

Second course: A cheese fondue appetizer, using a modified (no wheat flour) version of this cheese fondue recipe or else this champagne-cheese fondue recipe (again, modified so there's no wheat flour). For dipping: gluten free bread, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots

Third course: I found this awesome-looking wine fondue recipe that I'm interested in trying. For dipping: shrimp, beef, portabella and white mushrooms, snow peas, and red peppers.

Dessert: Unfortunately, since the hubby doesn't like chocolate three courses of fondue are out. :-( HOWEVER, I just happened to get the CIA's gluten free baking book this week, as well as a brand new pizzelle press. Sooo... hopefully, that will work out and I can either make gluten free pizzelles or shape them into dessert cups to serve ice cream in... or roll them into a cannoli shape. If the pizzelles don't work out, then we might be playing it by ear.

Gosh, this is a lot of food. Thankfully my boot camp class is the next day to burn off some of these calories!