Synchronized Blogging!!! Rollings In Haiti & J-Ms in USA

This is a first for us! SYNCHRONIZED BLOGGING! I must admit, this has been very fun to plan and implement... synchronized blogging!!! who would have thought it?!!... here's the deal...

So, Rollings In Haiti is a blog that I read regularly. Chris and Leslie Rolling are the in-country Directors of Clean Water for Haiti. This is an amazing organization and I encourage you to check it out!!! A couple of weeks ago Leslie did "Food Week" on her blog. One of the posts she did was about Steak Au Poive. CHECK IT OUT BY CLICKING HERE. If you read the comments to her post you'll see my comment there about pomme frites. So... there they are in Haiti and here we are in the U.S. and they've got the Steak Au Poive and we've got the Pomme Frites. All I could think about was how much we'd love to get together and have dinner with Chris and Leslie while Olivia, Kyle, and Owen (our 3 little Haitian Sensations) ran around together playing in one or the other of our yards (and Meera would be sleeping, of course, cuz she's still sleeping about 75% of her life these days). Anyway..... Leslie and I got to thinking.... we can't get together for dinner (at least not right now), but we could both make it, and then both blog together about it. The J-M's would be trying out the Steak Au Poive for the first time, and the Rolling's would be trying out the Pomme Frites for the first time. And our little brainchild --Synchronized Blogging: Haiti/US Style! -- was born. We were so excited to think that we might have coined a new cool blogging term. But I googled it and it turns out, sadly, that others have done it before us. Oh well. It was fun anyway. So...
Here's the story...
On their end... click here...
and...
On this end...
WHAT A NIGHT IT WAS!!!!!...
Saturday night was our special night. We put Meera to bed at her usual 6:00 and we got to it. We told the boys that we were having a "special Haitian dinner" and explained that this was something that would be an "extremely special treat in Haiti" and that "actually very few people in the whole world ever get to eat such a special meal" and that "we are so lucky" etc. etc. etc. They were way into it. Totally interested, totally curious about it, totally totally into the whole deal. The additional excitement for them was that they got to stay up really, really late (a rare, rare treat!).

Owen was my Right Hand Man in the kitchen while Kyle helped Braydon create the atmosphere (i.e., set the table and pour the wine and light the candles!)...
The au poive sauce was amazing..............
Leslie's Steak Au Poive was heavenly!!!!!!!!!! And the boys were very impressed that we made "french fries" at home (I had never made them for them at home before and they had always thought that french fries were a special treat for when we go to restaurants). Kyle announced they were the "best french fries ever!" And they both ate up their steak (and the broccoli, which they used to mop up all that scrumptious au poive sauce... literally, they used the broccoli like little mops!). I chose broccoli as the side because it just seemed like the perfect choice. And, really, it was! The whole meal came together magically good...
We followed Leslie's recipe precisely and I wouldn't change a thing. I highly recommend it (go to her blog for the recipe). Braydon said it was one of his top ten meals I've ever made... which, seriously, is HUGE. Huge. Like, really, really huge (because I've made him some pretty darn fabulous meals, especially pre-K&O). It got a big A+ from all four of the J-M's that partook of it. We will definitely be making this many times in the future. For dessert we had pound cake with fresh berries and whipped cream (I know, I know, I know, Rollings, this is so unfair--- our ability to easily get these berries and your inability to get these berries at all... oh how I wish we could send some down to you by the caseloads!!!!!!!)
After the feast the boys had a heavenly summer night catching fireflies...

...and playing in the yard with flashlights...
...and generally enjoying the darkness and specialness that was that night...
...including a late night (i.e., 9:30 p.m. which is waaaaaaay past their usual 6:30 p.m. bedtime) swim in the pool in the pitch dark.
It was a really wonderful night to remember here. Definitely a highlight of our summer. Thanks Rollings In Haiti! We love you and can't wait for the day we'll have dinner in real life!