The Four Courses (click for Tallahassee menus):

• Alp and Del Cheese Fondue – This and dessert are my favorite courses. The Cheese Fondue is always good, and I think it was my second favorite of all time, just behind the beer / cheddar version of things we had about a year ago. I really wish I could remember the name of that one since it was fantastic. The only thing I noticed was that they seemed to bring out less veggies and apples than previous trips to The Melting Pot, but I blame the soft economy for that. Plus, we didn’t waste any food.
• Alpine Ridge Salad – This was my favorite salad at The Melting Pot so far. The shallot vinaigrette was fantastic, and I even enjoyed the sun dried tomatoes. Normally I hate them.
• Fondue Fusion / Coq au Vin – This was the first time I wasn’t absolutely thrilled with the meats. The quality of the meats was excellent, as always, but the only one that really stood out was the Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bratwurst, which was great with the mustard sauce. Everything else just didn’t seem to have a sauce to go with it that I liked.
• Dessert (The Original) – Chocolate and Peanut Butter. You can’t really beat that, plus we aren’t big fans of white chocolate which was the featured dessert with the Alpine theme.

The keys to making great homemade ice cream that I’ve found so far:

• Spend the money on the KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment for your mixer. It’s well worth it.
• Use 2 cups of heavy cream and 1 cup of 1% milk. That’s my favorite texture so far.
• 2% milk works in a pinch, anything fattier than that makes my mouth feel sticky after eating the ice cream.
• Stick the container you are going to store the ice cream in, in the freezer while you are making the ice cream.
• Make sure all of your add-ins, like cookies or candy are in the freezer while you make the ice cream.
• Let the ice cream ripen for a few hours in the freezer. It’s better, trust me.