Our First Anniversary :)

I can't believe it's already been a year, but we celebrated our anniversary on July 3. Having the long weekend was just as nice as we'd hoped!

Thanks to everyone who sent us anniversary wishes! We felt so loved (and surprised you all remembered!).

We also used that weekend to visit Lan's aunt and uncle in Beaumont (we hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving), which was really fun (Lan got to go fishing with his uncle and cousins and I got to go to some yard sales and antique malls with his aunt). I requested that we come home on Sunday so we could celebrate our anniversary on the actual day, so that's what we did!

For some time now, we've been planning to go to The Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant) for our anniversary. It came highly recommended from friends of ours who have eaten there, and it's easy to see why!! It's SOOO good. A little pricey, so it's definitely only for special occasions, but it's really yummy. I already want to go back :)

Best. Husband. Ever.

Our first course - spinach and artichoke fondue. Traditional cheese fondue has white wine in it, and most have some sort of alcohol in them (for consistency and flavor), but we knew we didn't want alcohol in ours, so our waiter recommended this one. SOOO good. We practically licked the pot clean.

He made it by putting some vegetable stock in the pot, then he added some garlic, artichokes, spinach and spices, then he mixed in the cheese. We got bread, chips, veggies, and apples (sounds weird, but it was actually really yummy!) for dippers.

Main course. Lan had a "Pacific Rim" entree with teriyaki-marinated sirloin, white shrimp, citrus-marinated pork tenderloin, breast of duck, breast of chicken and potstickers. I had the filet. And we got a table of veggies to share. Our waiter also made us stuffed mushrooms - yummy!

The way it works is you cook your meat yourself in a hot liquid at your table. We chose to fry our food. It came with 2 types of batter to dip your food in before putting it in the pot, and 5 types of sauces to put on your food when it came out. I was worried about this course, but it was fun, and the food was great!

Isn't he cute?

Dessert. I don't want to say this was the best course, because it was all good, but this was AWESOME. I wish I had some right now. Lan is a sucker for anything turtle, so we got the turtle fondue (flambéed table side!). As you might guess, it had milk chocolate, caramel, and pecans (at the end, we ran out of dippers and Lan scooped the pecans out of the pot and ate them - "just like chocolate covered pecans!").

For dippers we had cheesecake, pound cake, rice krispies, banana, strawberries, brownies, graham cracker-covered marshmallows, and oreo-covered marshmallows. Like I said, it was good.

I didn't want to stop eating!

The infamous wedding cake. We'd heard mixed reviews about this, so we didn't really know what to think. Especially since this cake made a long journey to get here (we had to carry it in a cooler from MS over Memorial Day weekend) and it was suspiciously wrapped by our cake guy, but it was good!

Lan seems to notice more freezer burned taste than me, but we both think it's still good (apparently the cake guy knows what he's doing after all) and we're still eating it! We're only half way through!

So, that was our anniversary.

Especially in Houston, I get a lot of "you're so young to be married" type attitudes, but, let me just say, I would rather spend my young years married to Lan than be unattached any day. He is such a blessing in my life and I'm so proud to be his wife!

We'll that's enough mushy stuff, and that's all for now!

Up next - more recipes and house updates!

Love from Houston,

L and J