Belated Birthday Dinner

Casey's birthday was November 5th. He had guard duties (by the way, since he's an officer now, he's going to officer training school in Alabama. For 6 weeks. He's leaving me. For 6 weeks. Sigh. I'm sad and will miss him something serious). So I was going to make him a special birthday dinner on Friday, November 4th. That's the day we found out we had to say goodbye to Patch. So the dinner I had planned that would take 3 hours to make (I must realllly love him) definitely did not happen. I decided that I was going to make it when we were at the cabin this past Saturday. Yay!

On the menu:
Beef Wellington (Complete with sauteed mushrooms and onions and wrapped in a pastry)
Creamy Bacon Risotto
Crusty Broiled Tomatoes (Tastes and looks WAY better than it sounds. Trust me.)

We already had his special birthday dessert: Key Lime Pie.

I know, right. Did I miss my calling as a chef?

So, earlier last week I went grocery shopping for all the ingredients. I have to say, I was a little taken aback by the fact that beef tenderloins only come in like 30 pound pieces. Seriously? $113.00? For a piece of meat. I only needed 2 pounds. So I asked the meat guy if tenderloin came any smaller. He looked at me like I was dumb. Sorry, I'm not a meat connoisseur. Sheesh. There was no way I was going to pay 113 bucks for some meat mixed with some fat. I love Casey, but that is just a poor financial choice. I was so upset...no beef wellington. But I would improvise. Flank steak marinated with a special rub and broiled in the oven. It would do.

So I moved on to get the risotto ingredients. Risotto calls for Arborio rice. Apparently this rice is extra fancy cause it's EIGHT DOLLARS a bag. It's rice! Whatevs. Scratch that idea too.

It was getting quite ridiculous, and I was getting dejected. Instead, I decided I'd make quartered red skinned potatoes with a olive oil, rosemary, thyme, pepper, salt drizzling and roasted in oven. Casey loves these. I just don't ever make them anymore cause we try to use healthier sweet potatoes.

Sigh. The only thing that would work out about this birthday dinner was the crusty broiled tomatoes, and they don't even sound good. But here they are. Delicious. If I could just eat tomatoes for dinner, I would. I love tomatoes. They are so yummy.

Tomatoes:

Are you salivating? I thought so. I know you love tomatoes as much as I do. Might want to grab a napkin to wipe the drool off your mouth. And please understand that while I do like tomatoes, I do NOT understand the people who eat them like apples. No. Way. You will never catch me doing that.

On Saturday afternoon, Kate, Mom, and I went into Boone to see the bulldog puppies at Bulldog Beer and Wine. Last time Casey and I went there were two bulldogs. This time--THREE! What a surprise! We played with them for a good 30 minutes. My heart melted at least 82 times.
If you go to Boone, NC, please support Bulldog Beer and Wine. You can see their selection (and the adorable puppies!) at:

http://www.bulldogbeerandwine.com/

We got some good birthday beer for Dad and Casey. Lost Coast Raspberry Brown Ale. Sounds yummy. Here it is:

Casey's:

Dad's: In a coozie. Cause he loves coozies. It's funny.

The pink elephant glasses were my great grandfather's. They're beer glasses. The pink elephants are cause they used to say if you drink too much you'll start to see pink elephants. Haha. People were funny about their alcohol even a hundred years ago!

And then we made oatmeal chocolate chip bars (like a cookie but not, cause it was a bar) for dessert. So all in all I think it ended up to be a good birthday dinner. Even if it was late.

Cheers!