Fondue night...in Miami.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had fondue for birthdays and other fun occasions when we were growing up so it has been a long time since I had some. There is a nice fondue restaurant around the corner from Pop and Kitty Mom's house that HNS and I went to last year and that was great - but I am talking about home made here. So we started off with Cheese fondue. This was made with a couple kinds of cheese.
My sissy and I were in the cheese department of Wild Oaks and we were looking for Gruyere. We couldn't find it anywhere - they seemed to have every kind of cheese in the universe so we finally saw something that said "Cave aged Gruyere". Jenn said that sounded too fancy for what we needed and wasn't sure what the cave aging would do to the taste. The nice woman behind the counter offered us a taste. Just when Jenn was about to say no - I jumped in and said Yes, please! Then this woman handed us each a piece of cheese that would choke a pig, seriously. Just when Jenn was about to say, Oh I think we can just split one piece (she got about half of that out) I reached over, grabbed the pieces and said "Thank you." Then I turned to my sissy and said "Look, when someone offers you free food, you say YES!" But I am not sure she really heard me because when I looked at her she had this look on her face of total delight. She was having a mouthgasim or something. I tasted the cheese. Oh my guuuud. I will always remember where I was when I tasted the best cheese I have ever had in my life. You don't get a lot of those special moments in life, and this was one of them. This was like magic cheese, do you know how, as you eat cheese, especially something with a sharp, distinct flavor, nothing seems to be as good or strong as the first bite? I am not sure why that is but this was not the case here. Every bite was like the first. We wandered around the store all glassy eyed and zombie like as we slowly savored our huge pieces of wonder cheese. It must have been quite a sight - all we could get out was "This cheese is freakin amazing." We said it over and over again. Good times.
Anyway - that was one of the cheeses we used in the first fondue.


Muffin preparing the shrimp.


The broth Sissy made for the steak and shrimp fondue. The steak was a beautiful, tender fillet. It really melted in my mouth.


cave aged Gruyere and another kind of Swiss.


cheese fondue pot. We dipped apples and crusty french bread in this fondue.


These strawberries were part of our desert. Of course we had chocolate fondue. We dipped these strawberries, pound cake, marshmallows and banana's in the chocolate. There was no pic of the rest because by this time I could barely see straight from all the eating.

MMMmmmmm.

Miami Memories.

So - We were still in Miami, we were all discussing what we would have for dinner one night. I am sure we were eating lunch at the time. You know those vacations that just go from meal to meal? Beth got a wild look in her eye and said she wanted homemade french fries. My Sissy just rolled her eye's like she must have been joking. I knew Beth was marinating ribs for us but I thought yum, homemade fries sounds great. I asked my sissy why she had said no to making the fries and she began to explain to me what a pain in the ass they were to make. You clean the potatoes, you slice them, you soak them, and on and on. I just looked at her and said "Yea, you know what else is a pain in the ass? DRIVING TO MIAMI! Now suck on it and get busy with those homemade fries already." What can I say? I have a special way of talking to people. Needless to say- she made the fries. They were honestly the best french fries I have even tasted, hands down. And the ribs - OMG - they were tender and juicy and so tasty. Thanks ladies for another great meal!


I napped here while my sissy was preparing the potatoes.


The wall of my pool house at night with the reflection of the pool on the wall.


The final product.


The soaking spuds.


mmmm. hot out of the fryer.

lot-o-ribs.

Random funny Birthday Party Pic

I thought I would break up the Miami posts by inserting a funny Birthday pic here and there.

And Robert sent me this gem today. I should warn you the pic below might scare some of you.

I find it creepy as hell.

More Miami

My Sissy loves artichokes! When we were growing up my Mom used to make them a lot. Especially on Birthdays. As I recall, we had artichokes and fondue for a lot of birthday meals - followed by my Mothers amazing grasshopper chocolate cake. ...but I digress ....
My Sissy and I found these beautiful artichokes in Wild Oats in Miami. I am not sure what you do with the stems but we threw them out. They were pretty though.











Sissy trimmed the leaves before steaming them.




It was fun to use the cool artichoke plates I found for them in the LVA gift shop last year.


These strips were perfectly done.

served with roasted reds.


The table was pretty with all the artichoke plates!

Yummy homemade hollandaise sauce was perfect for the artichokes and the steak as well.

After a long hard day of floating in the pool and drinking rum and coke, this dinner really hit the spot. We had many good meals together in Miami but this was a real treat since it had been so many years since I had artichokes. Thanks Beth and Sissy.

More Miami food and families stories to come.............

Miami!!!!!!!!

There will be a few blog posts on Miami. The first day their My Sissy and Beth took us to this amazing restaurant, Jaguar. The weather was perfect. First we drove around the old neighborhood and saw the house we lived in when we were little, the hospital where our brother was born and the highway overpass where I threw a new red shoe out the window. Hey, at least I kept my clothes on. I should reiterate that that all happened a long time ago. But, of course I took pictures of everything so those stories are coming soon.

Jaguar's is in trendy Coconut Grove


The Mojito's hit the spot.


The restaurant has homemade sauce - it was like a spicy, smooth tomato salsa.

This is why you go to Jaguar. The ceviche is amazing. This was shrimp with a guac and onion and corn dressing.


This was my favorite ceviche and I miss it already. This is a shrimp ceviche in a Japanese inspired spicy sauce.


I was already full by the time my beautiful chicken sandwich arrived. This was very good but if you start with the Ceviche - nothing can compare.


Steve O's steak sandwich


Beth's chicken taco.

Jaguar's doesn't disappoint. The service was amazing - you are treated like a fine dinner even though you are outside in shorts and ordering sandwiches. Their Mojito's pack a real punch. The ceviche was so good Steve and I went two days later alone just for another taste of it.

The Vacay Chronicles..1st stop - Atlanta

I arrived at My Brothers house in Roswell around dinner time on my Birthday. The house is a picturesque cottage in a beautiful sunken yard. When I walked in there was a shinny banner that was hanging up and other fun 40 decorations around. We cooked out and caught up on things. I finally met my nephew, Chip. He is beautiful as you can see below. Because of shows and other commitments I had not seen my brother's family in a couple years so there was definitely catching up to do. The second day there we went to the Squaller at the Haller, or something like that. It was a really fun BBQ joint in a cool little artsy neighborhood. The live music was wonderful and I will definitely return there on my next trip.
The ribs were great but the fried green tomatoes (previously blogged about on my sissy's post) were not up to par. The local beer was excellent. The service was also just OK - but we were all there together so we had a great time. My niece was by my side for two days and I loved it. I miss her (and the rest of the Steinberg Crew) already! There are no pics of my beautiful Sister-in-Law because she made me promise not to post any - but I love her just the same!
The first night we sat up and talked until very late and the second night my brother and Steve O. played guitar for us. It was awesome!!
We hit the road a couple days later at 6:30 am bound for Miami - after driving about 1/2 an hour in the wrong direction Steve O realized he left his guitar behind. I think my niece was a little confused when we walked back in the house. Soon we were really on our way and 11 or so short hours later we pulled into my Sissy and Beth's house in sunny Miami. Stay tuned for for the next instalment of The Vacay Chronicles...........if you dare. (or if I haven't bored you to tears already).


My Atlanta Birthday Cake!!!




Thing Two and Auntie Muffin Face.






Squaller Ribs


Squaller Pulled Pork


Little Brother plays some tunes

My Niece

Thing Two and Steve O.

the chippster with his Pop

She has a flair for the dramatic

What a Punim!

I'm Back!

Richard, Vickie and Gordon filling out the Trivia questions.

Holly and Laine make a Muffin face sandwich!

Kelly and Andy Making beautiful music

Eric entertaining the guests.

Steve O. and Bruno get things started.

Kelly reading the poem she wrote me!

Laine and Erin with the trivia gifts.

don't let Fern see this pic.....

more singing

I was stoked to see Brett and Audra - would their celeb name be Bredra?

My 3 beautiful Birthday cakes!

The hosts!

More filling out of the survey.

Barry and Roslyn!!

Scott and Robin are a pretty couple...

Bo and Jan (my intimate stranger)

So - I just noticed there was no pic of Debra and Joe or Robyn and Ginnie or Dave T. - Did anyone else take pics that night? If so let me know. I think Laine said she got pics of all the food at some point...

I have so many pictures and stories I hardly know where to begin.

OK - we'll start with my Birthday. Friday night the 23rd my BFF and Robert threw me a beautiful last-day-of-my-30's-party. There were many wonderful people and great surprises. I walked in to find everyone wearing a clown nose - I almost screamed and ran away but laughed instead. One of my only suggestions to Robert and Steve was that there be NO clowns at my party as I find them creepy as hell!

There was a very funny and embarrassing JB Trivia game that Steve P. won, of course. A few very creative presents - like Playwright, Bo Wilson and his wife Jan Guarino wrote an original story that is just beautiful and all about "JB at 40" , Kelly Kennedy wrote and performed a poem for me that was hilarious and touching and we had live musical entertainment until late into the evening.

It was truly a memorable night. Muffin face entered her 40's in style.