Showing posts with label Fondue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fondue. Show all posts

You Got Me What!? 

Wednesday, December 28, 2011 -
Fondue. Sure, it may make people think of the 1970's or of shag carpet. It reminds me of friends of delicious cheese and chocolate. We end up dining at The Melting Pot at least a few times a year, particularly around the holidays. I had a love affair with the restaurant a while back. I still enjoy it, but not as much as I used to. But don't get me wrong, still delicious and I look forward to it every time Do You Fondue? I do! rolls around on the advent calendar. Day 20, and we ended a delicious dinner at the MP.

Day 21: Holiday Tree was a night where we would make some dinner together and enjoy under our Christmas tree lights. Unfortunately, I forgot I had a meeting. So, changes happen as mentioned before. Hubs made a great dinner and I was able to enjoy it when I got home.

Holiday gifts were all over the month this year. But our big gifts were given on day 22: Merry Christmas hubby! As we exchanged gifts, hubs received his remote control helicopter that he had been wanting, while I received my beautiful NEW CAMERA! EEK! Isn't it gorgeous?! This beauty is a Canon t3i, everything I wanted in a DSLR. I've been asking for one for quite sometime, and he went all out. Not only did he purchase a camera, but I also received three lenses and a bunch of other great accessories. And of course, every new camera needs a bag, and I got this beauty from Epiphanie. Love. I'm so in love with my holiday gifts - thanks hubby!!!



Not much can top the new camera love, but day 23: I'll Be Home for Christmas is a close one. We drove home to Green Bay that evening with a book on cd and the pups in the back seat. They love nap time.



In preparation for the Christmas Day Packer vs. Bears game, hubs received his final gift. Day 24: A Cold Christmas Eve gave hubs a new winter Packer hat for the game - which the Packers won! It was a great game, and we had a wonderful time! GO PACK GO!



Hope everyone (who was celebrating) had a great Christmas Eve!

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A Weekend of Modifications & Cooking 

Tuesday, December 21, 2010 -
::sniffle::

Yup, I've been fighting a cold since Saturday.  'Tis the season I guess.  And though it isn't a horrible cold (despite that I sound like a frog and my head is pounding), it still doesn't make me want to do much despite the pending holiday.  So our advent fun has been slightly derailed...but alas, we still try!

Day 17: Happy Chrisma-Hanukwan-Zakah Celebration: Every holiday, hubs and I host our annual holiday gathering for our close friends.  Uber casual affair: claymation (specifically Rudolph, hubs fave) and other holiday movies are shown while people mix and mingle with drinks & nosh.  Featured this year was hubs home brew of Nut Brown and Hefe - both delicious - and mix of food, including jalapeno popper dip, mini crab quiches, fruit salsa and gorgonzola & pear pizza's drizzled with a honey balsamic sauce.  It was a wonderful, laid back evening - thanks to those who joined us!

Day 18: A Stately Affair: We modified this day, as we were going to visit the Indiana State Museum to see both the Titanic Exhibition and 'Odd Indiana.'  Plus, Celebration Crossing is always cute if you want to get in the holiday spirit.  They even have this little train you can ride, it's adorable.  Unfortunately, neither one of us were quite in the mood to go and ended up catching up on some DVR'd tele and holiday shopping.  But I'm not complaining!  We even decided to have a home fondue evening.  We only made it through the cheese course (a basic swiss with adobo chili and bacon) as we were too full for our pending chocolate.  Maybe we'll get to it later in the week, and if not, we'll just have lots of fruit to eat up!

Day 19: A House of Ginger: This is another modification, because we didn't build our Gingerbread house as intended.  I guess the weekend of no plans was in full force!  Instead, we finished holiday shopping and made lots of yummy food throughout the day, including bleu cheese meatballs in this rich and creamy bleu cheese sauce (note - sounds like a lot of bleu, but in reality, it wasn't at all.  Fantastic with some good bread too, which we had), sausage and cheddar biscuits and bacon wrapped jalapenos (of course I had to use up the leftovers from the dip!)  This was all after a yummy breakfast of pumpkin spiced waffles (subtly, cause we spread some blueberry sauce on top still) and thickly sliced bacon.  Lazy Sunday, my favorite.

Day 20: Holiday Exchange: Our own private holiday gift giving, hubs and I have decided to exchange a few small items because we are going to get something 'big' after the holiday.  By big, we mean probably another pup.  We plan on rescuing one from Tri-State Rescue, so we are waiting for the right one to come along as well as the right time.  Nala does need a playmate, so we'll see...but back to the evening.  I must have been a good girl this year, because I got lots of Disney love, especially Nightmare Before Christmas.  I heart Disney's Vinylmation, so that was a fun treat. And the ornament exchange is tradition, as is the Disney Precious Moment (hubs gets me one every year since we've been married because we had one on our cake table.)  I gave hubs his ornament, some basic beer mugs for the sharing of home brews (time to pack up some of those pint glasses!) and his last gift hasn't arrived yet.  He really wanted the 1 liter beer mug, similar to the Hofbrauhaus glass.  What my baby wants, my baby gets - it should arrive a few days after the holiday.

The final week of the advent calendar is here - looking forward to some great food (my taste buds better start working as should my nose...) with friends and holidays with the family!  And of course, happy Winter Solstice!

Gift giving - anything you excited for if you are giving or receiving?

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Weekend Advent Recap 

Monday, December 6, 2010 -
Over the weekend (including Friday,) hubs celebrated day 3, 4 and 5 of his advent calendar.  Here is a recap of his holiday cheer:

Day 3 - Holiday Fondue
Friday meant an evening at the delicious Melting Pot on the northside.  In the past, hubs and I would frequent often with our two dear friends, the M's, but haven't been in quite a while.  The last time we were there was for my birthday - it was time for some fondue!

This big night out had a French theme, and we took advantage of all the featured courses:
  • Cheese Fondue - consisting of Brie, Fontina, Gruyere and Raclette, the cheese was the best dish.  There was this amazing white-truffle cream that contained Nueske's bacon (go Wisco!) and fresh chives.  The cheese was creamy, but had a hint of the Brie's rind to it once in a while.  However, it was smooth and delicious.
  • Salad - I tried the featured Salade Nicoise and was disappointed with it.  It had many toppings, including a hard-boiled egg, Nicoise olives, tomatoes and beets - but I just wasn't a fan of all the flavors coming together with the vinaigrette. Hubs did comment that his California salad was improving with each visit, slowly getting back to it's original taste as it had been on the decline.
  • Main Course - Fondue Fusion, but this time, we didn't substitute the Goat Cheese & Ratatouille ravioli for something different.  Why?  Because goat cheese was involved!  Though they were the best ravioli we've received at MP, I would encourage you to still swap it out for something else.  The lobster was the usual, as was the Filet Mignon.  The peppercorn crusted NY strip was as expected, very peppery, and the Duck a l'Orange had a bold citrus taste.  The roasted garlic shrimp were sweeter and the Chicken Provencal was fantastic with the sweet & sour sauce, a sauce I normally do not enjoy. 
  • Chocolate Course - I was very pleased with the caramelized sugar of the White Chocolate Creme Brulee.  Once you broke through it, the unexpected sweet crunch worked very well with all the dessert dippers.  It really was quite good - a pleasant surprise as we do not normally order white chocolate.

In addition, MP is having a great promotion right now to benefit St. Jude's Children Hospital.  We ended up donating some money and received $20 coupons plus a free dessert fondue that evening.  I encourage you to give back while you enjoy some great food if possible!

Day 4, A Change of Plans
The theme was originally a "Museum Date," but because it was snowing, plans changed.  As I mentioned, hubs can veto a plan if he likes, and the Ahrens' tradition of a the first snowfall breakfast would definitely trump an Advent plan.  Whenever the first overnight snow happens, hubs LOVES to get into the car and drive first thing in the morning.  This year, we hit up Bub's for some snowy breakfast.  I'm a fan of Bub's breakfast, so no complaints here!

Breaking my number one rule of eating out (which is ordering the same thing,) we both ordered a seafood version of Eggs Benedict.  Looking heavy upon receipt (I thought it was white gravy!,) I was pleasantly surprised for a light crab sauce.  A few chunks of some delicious crab (hubs thought it tasted like a seafood sauce, not crab specific) gave great flavor to the dish.  The eggs were over soft rather than poached - I would have preferred the later but was still happy to see egg yolks pour over the toasted English muffin.  Great first snow breakfast! 

We spent the remainder of the day running a few errands and prepping for the Movember Gala - which I'll post photos from soon.

Day 5, Cookies
Baking cookies is a tradition!  And rather than waking hubs up early to bake, he ended up nibbling on the goods throughout the afternoon while watching football with the pup. 

This year, I ended up baking some Caramel Blondies and Red Velvet Cookies.  I had found the Red Velvet cookie recipe via twitter by following Taste of Home and I was really anxious to try them. Though good, the winner of the cookie battle were the Blondies.  The caramel taste was sweet with the buttery brownie - absolutely delicious both still warm or at room temp.  If you want that recipe, just let me know!  Nom.

How was your weekend?  Were you able to celebrate the holidays?

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