MIA and a new direction

Well.... where do I begin.... four months ago I gave birth to a BEAUTIFUL baby boy! You may have noticed I was smuggling a watermelon in the last post, so as you can imagine I've been busy ever since then. They say life changes when you have a baby and even though I believed them I wasn't really able to grasp HOW much it was going to change and how it changes instantly.

It has taken some getting used to but it has been amazing at the same time, what a beautiful experience. Liam is such a cutie pie - such a happy and healthy baby. Thank God!

This has been a humbling experience, a learning experience and an inspirational experience - I thought I had it all figured out before Liam was born and QUICKLY realized I hardly had it figured out, I am learning something new everyday now; how to take care of a baby, how to be a good Mom and how to be a better person. Inspirational... having Liam has inspired me in many ways that I can hardly put them all into words.

Having a baby for me has given me more clarity (actually I'm hardly "clear" about anything lately I think I'm always in a fog now LOL) and made me more focused. I am focused on providing the BEST life I can for Liam and one of the ways I'm going to do that is providing him with the best meals I can made with REAL food, of course he's only four months old and hasn't started on solids but when he does I'll be READY!

With all that being said I'm going to stop this blog.... and start a new blog that will just be about our culinary adventures not about everything since thing in my life, I think that will help me be FOCUSED on blogging and not feel pressured to have a blogable (LOL) life. Cooking has been a passion of mine for a long time and I can't wait to share that passion with you all.

Stay tuned to for the release of my new blog in the next few days. In the meantime here's a picture of the little cutie patootie.

The Counter

This weekend we went to try out a new burger joint and let me tell you boy was it GOOD! Probably one of the best hamburgers I've had in a long time. YUMMY!

We went to the Counter Burger in Roswell, GA - I would say it's a upscale, yet casual still, Hamburger Restaurant. The concept of the restaurant is that you can "build your own burger", which is fun and stressful (LOL) at the same time. There were so many options and of course your want to build the best burger. You can also just order an already decided on burger if you'd like off the menu. I went kind of mainstream with my selections grilled onions, provolone cheese... and coleslaw. :) Didn't want to go to nuts at first. But you can order things like grilled pineapple and fried egg as well for your hamburger.

Here's a picture of the bar area of the restaurant. You can choose beer from the tap or some vino if you'd like. Sounds good to me. The decor is pretty cool too.

Here's a burger with a fried egg on top. Yummy.

Here's a Counter Burger.

Hope you have a chance to check out this place some time soon, it was really good!

Birthday Dinner

Some scenes from Ana and my birthday dinner on Saturday. We went to a restaurant called Canoe located in Buckhead and let me tell you the dinner was amazing along with the company!

Here's a picture of the smoked salmon dish that was out of this world!

A REALLY good Zinfandel!

Happy Birthday to ME. ;)

Happy Birthday to Ana!

We had such a nice evening. Stay tuned for more pictures birthday pictures to come. :)

Brick Store Pub

Let's kick off the Guide to Atlanta's Bar & Restaurants according to EM (and friends) with great little pub located in Decatur Georgia

Brick Store Pub
125 E. Court Square

Decatur, GA 30030

First of all Decatur is a great little town and one that we will need to discover more of; this was our first visit to the area. We were invited by a good friend to visit this pub and I'm glad we were able to make it since it was really cool. There was probably over 200 different beers on the menu and what I thought was great about it since I only know a handful of beers that I like by name, the waiter asked what KIND of beer do you like and gave you all kinds of options to choose from and then selected the one that he felt best suit your taste. (almost like telling your fortune I think, LOL) I'm not sure if all the waiters do that there but I have a feeling they do.

As far as food, we had a sandwich it was good but as usual the food at a pub is not REALLY the reason you go to a pub, but the food here was decent.

So I highly recommend this be a stop on your journey thru Hotlanta and a good excuse to check out the little town of Decatur as well.

Pitty Pat's Porch Restaurant

Another place we checked out while my parents were visiting was a restaurant called Pitty Pat's Porch. It was great, I've been looking for a restaurant here in Atlanta that serves up Southern Cuisine. I know there must be more out there but this was the first one and I'm sure Fer and I will be going back there from time to time.

My Dad had Fried Chicken which was delicious, I had Savannah crab cakes and grits and my Mom had Rhett's Mixed Grill. This restaurant is "based" on a character from the story Gone with the Wind so it was very appropriate to visit and dine at the restaurant the same day we went to see Margaret Mitchell's home.

This is the upstairs bar area where you can sip on a mint julep and rock in the rocking chairs while you wait for your table.



before the meal you'll be served some southern biscuits and cornbread.

this was my meal.

this is what I had for dessert, it was so good. A peach cobbler with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream served on top, did I already mention it was good. I'm definitely going to try to make this cinnamon ice cream at home. YUMMY

Happy {4th} of July!

I hope you all had a fun Independence Day ate lot's of good food and enjoyed some good company. Here's what we did...

We had a BBQ with Fer's sister and her hubby on the menu was Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Macaroni Salad, Grilled Corn, Red White and Blueberry Trifle and Sangria. :P It was all delicious! (if I don't mind saying so myself.)


I wanted to make some type of "theme" dessert for the holiday so I turned to Martha Stewart's Website for some ideas. I was inspired by her Red, White and Blueberry Trifle:

and made these:

They were DELICIOUS and easy to make!

We are so lucky because from the patio of our condo we have the best seats for the Fireworks in our area.

Check out the album on the left hand side for more Fourth of July pics.

Now that's a Burger

Fer saw one of Emeril's shows the other day and was inspired to make this mile high burger and boy were they good. What a concept watching a cooking show and putting into practice what you see. LOL

Say Hello to the Burger. Yummooo I made my famous Macaroni Salad to go along with the burgers and it turned out to be a nice Sunday afternoon lunch. Can't beat it.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

Good Friends and Good Food... I don't think so!

GREAT FRIENDS AND GREAT FOOD! {is more like it}

Last night I made a delicious meal for two of our most awesome friends, Pedro and Martin. They are only in Miami for a little over a week but we've been enjoying hanging out with them again.

I made Grownup Mac and Cheese and Parmesean Chicken. YUMMO. For dessert I made individual Berry Puff Pastry Tarts with Ice Cream. They loved every bite of their dinner and I will tell you there was not a SPEC of food left anywhere after everyone was done. I think it was my most sucessful dinner party to date. :)

Martin was ready to eat!

Mac and Cheese, Parm Chicken and some Vino - dinner is served.

This was my first attempt at a Berry Puff Pastry Tart, it came out good I served it with some vanilla ice cream. :)

Cupcakes

Last weekend we did not make it to the beach, but that's fine it was a raining weekend and just right for spending time at home or going here and there. We went to a new Cupcake bakery here in Miami - how fun!

It's called Buttercream. It's very nice and the owners really paid attention to all the details in their bakery down to the disposable silverware they give you. It's a coffee shop and cupcake bakery, you can buy the cupcakes individually or by the dozen. They have a rotating cupcake schedule meaning only on certain days are certain flavors available like Red Velvet is only available on Wednesday and Saturday whereas certain flavors like chocolate are available everyday. My only comment (if I were asked) on what they could change would be the prices, each cupcake is $2.75 and to me their not big enough to be costing that much, but maybe it will change I'm sure it's not cheap to run that little bakery. All the cupcakes we tasted were good so I'm sure they will be around for while and that's great because we NEEDED a cupcake bakery. :)

Here's a pic of the cupcakes we tried. Vanilla, Vanilla Oreo, Lime and Chocolate.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you thought about it.

Ice Box Cafe

... then after the boat show we continued our culinary tour around South Beach with Fernando as the tour guide. He suggested we go to the Ice Box Cafe for a slice of ice cream cake and what a good idea it was.

Ice Box Cafe was named as having the "Best Cake in America" by Oprah and Gayle. :)

Here's some pics of our visit:

delicious ice cream cake:


"The Bomb" [brownie cheesecake]


look at all the goodies: