wedding dress

Do you Fondue??

~ stephzuniga ~ 1 Comment

We do!  Or at least we will be shortly.  

You may remember from my post on chili con carne that fondue is one of my absolute all time favourite foods, and one of the foods that according to my mother is a “winter only” food.    Well, seeing as we only have 5 more weeks of winter — and the weather hasn’t exactly been wintry– I figured that tonight would be fondue night!

I will admit to taking the lazy route– although I have made my own cheese fondue before– and it’s delish.  I’m not tonight. Our local deli in Randwick sells fondue in a box and that’s what  we’re test driving tonight.

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I know, it’s pathetic for a girl with three fondue cookbooks to use fondue in a box and I really should make it from scratch, but it’s been a hectic few weeks and fondue making was not on my agenda for tonight.

In truth, I would LOVE to find a good fondue restaurant in Sydney so that we could actually have three courses of fondue– cheese, meat, and chocolate– because let’s face it, I LOVE fondue.  I went to one years and years ago– Eiger Swiss on Parramatta Road, and it was….obviously not somewhere I’ve been back to in the last 10 years…..hmmmm.  

 First hurdle- apparently Sterno is virtually unheard of in Sydney– or at least in the four shops including Coles and Woolies that I went to.  I asked and got completely blank looks– even though one store actually sells fondue pots and the other is a kitchenware store.  So, we’re going to try menthylated spirits and hope that we don’t burn the house down in the process.

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Secondly, I don’t have fondue plates.  Yes, there is such a thing and yes, my mother, goddess of all kitchen utensils, has them– a whole set from the 1970s, and they’re super cool.  I envy them and covet them, but sadly don’t have my own.Image

 

 

So fingers crossed everything else will go to plan and we’ll have a lovely evening of cheese fondue.  It’s been a big couple of weeks in our household.  I ordered my wedding dress yesterday (squee!!!!!!!!!!!!! excited!!!!!) and we had our engagement party last weekend (so much fun!) and now we’re on the 12 month countdown.  This time next year, I will be leaving Ireland to head to DC for our wedding….  Very exciting!  Must make a mental note to bring back Mom’s fondue plates next year…..shhhhh don’t tell her!

 

33

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

So, I’m 33 now, I’ve been 33 for a whole 33 hours nearly- well less really if you take into account time zones and things like that, but either way you slice it, it’s happened. In my mind, I’m officially a grown up age.

32 was always the age of no return for me- my parents were both 32 when I was born so I’ve always felt it was the age when I would be a grown up, the age where I would be a “fully formed adult”. Well, I was right in a lot of ways, 32 was a big year and the year I grew up a lot and experienced grief and loss and uncertainty and I guess all of those things I suppose makes you into an adult no matter when you experience them whether its 18, 25, 32 or 42.

But here I am, 33, the morning after the night before if you will. 33 will be a good year, a banner year. I already know this even though I don’t know all of what it has in store.

My actual 33rd birthday was quite good- I tried on my first wedding dress, quite a magical moment in the wedding planning process. I did my best “Say Yes to the Dress” impersonation, “this is NOT my dress”- I could barely stand up under layers of fluff- ick! The Runner and I had dinner at Chiswick in Woollahra and I had my first Bombe Alaska- yum!!!!!! It might not be a dessert you can order on an airplane but it was yum! I was given a cupcake at work, missed out on Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day but I’ve managed to pick up a cold/flu. Much like life, my day was full of ups and downs.

I’m not complaining, I’m 33 and grown up enough to take the good with the bad! Here’s to a good year and thanks for all the birthday wishes!