Fondue You Love Me?

Okay when I wrote the title of this post, I said it to the tune of "Do do you love me/Do do you love me" by the one and only Paula Abdul, but I decided to remove the extra "Do" in case people thought I was stuttering. But now I can't get that tune out of my head unfortunately, so I felt the need to get it in YOUR head, too. Your welcome.
Tonight's menu had me salivating all day and as I sit here full and content watching the end of "Two Brothers" with the girls, I just HAD to share our yummy dinner with you so you can share it with YOUR family! Or for a dinner party with friends, except for the whole 'double dipping' concept would have me antsy and weirded out the whole time but maybe that's just me...
We had an easy fun fondue dinner tonight for Valentine's Day:

 Here were our "dippers" which just tickled the girls because they got to get as many dippers as they wanted on their plates! For our fondue, I oh-so-creatively warmed marinara sauce and alfredo sauce (from jars) in two small CrockPots (thanks for the extra 'crackpot', Lisa!) and then my yummy homemade cheese fondue in another small CrockPot and put them in the middle of the table (we plugged them into an extension cord):

 Haven and Stone were ready! You can't see it here, but I attached Valentine's balloons (or as Stone says "Bay-Boo!") to each of the kids' chairs and they had cards at their place settings. We drank water and Welch's sparkling grape juice which the girls made up 'toasts' with after our prayer.

 I used woven pink and red placemats (pink leftover from Haven's last two birthday parties and red leftover from my brother's Ole Miss graduation party and Stone's Pirate Party, these things have proven quite worth the $.99 each!) other fun Valentiney things. Gary brought me flowers:

And here were the kids' little happies, most of which I found at Target including the owl bowls and fork/spoon inside Stone's bag. Can you see the blue and white polka dot Duck tape in the bag on the right? That's for Micah's Duck Tape collection. Yes. Duck Tape collection...

And we had yummy chocolate covered strawberries for dessert (Thanks Lawanda!). And now for the recipe for the cheese fondue, because I know you're dying to try it!

Cheesey Fondue:

2 Cups milk

2 cloves fresh garlic

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp mustard powder

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1/2 lb. Gruyere cheese (caution: its $13/lb at Kroger, ouch!)

2 Cups sharp cheddar cheese

4 oz. Coors beer

1/2 tsp Thyme (optional)

I melted everything except the cheese in a saucepan at medium heat, stirring frequently. Then I added the Gruyere (I have to confess I ate probably 1/5 of the cheese as I was cutting it and stirring the sauce, but it still turned out fine with a little less of this amazing-ness than I wrote in the ingredients, FYI) and kept stirring. Last I added the cheddar because it melts pretty quickly.

Once it was all ooey gooey and melty, I transferred it to a pre-heated mini CrockPot and BOOM--yummy cheesey fondue! 

Our dippers of choice were cheese tortellini, round cheese ravioli, cubed multi-grain french loaf, cubed chicken breast, beef meatballs, and fiji apple chunks.

I'll be heating some up tomorrow for lunch if anyone wants to come try it and see if it reheats as well as it tasted the first go-round! *This recipe was adapted from looking at 10 or 12 different cheese fondue recipes and editing/combining/revamping them into this delicious one*

I also have to add here that my 4-year-old.ate.nonstop. This is a HUGE deal. The kid ate one bite of my white chicken chili last night and went to bed an hour later without even complaining that she was hungry. Soooo I will definitely be making easy fondue style meals a normal part of our dinner routine! Let me know what you think! :)