Happy Birthday to Me!

This year for my birthday I wanted to go to a restaurant that I'd never been to before, Brick 29. I'd heard a lot about it and I've eaten catered food from there on several occasions so I've been curious to go there. So, Bruce, Carol, and I made reservations and headed out to Brick 29. It's located in a refurbished Masonic Hall in Nampa, very unassuming, in fact, we completely passed by it first before we realized it was there.

Chef Dustin Bristol is known for being a three time nominee for the James Beard award which is a big deal for Idaho. He was also invited to be on the TV show "Extreme Chef" but declined the offer. Maybe in the future. The food, of course, was exquisite. Dustin Bristol describes it as "comfort food-reinvented." Bruce and Carol had the special salmon with incredibly delicious rice and I had the flat iron steak with delicious mashed potatoes. The desserts were the best, tho. Bruce had the German chocolate cake, the best version I've ever had, Carol had cheesecake with citrus sauce and I had a complimentary creme brulee.

But I also had to go out and celebrate with my girlfriend, Marty, because our birthdays are so close together in July. Her birthday is July 7th and mine is July 11th and she has never been to my favorite restaurant, Barbacoa, so the next evening, Marty and I headed out to Barbacoa.

Every aspect of dinning there is so impressive... to the fabulous decor, the service, the food, just everything. We started out with their signature homemade guacamole made right at your table.

Dig in, Marty! Guacamole is her favorite food on the planet.

We both ordered their special of the evening - halibut wrapped with prosciutto on mushroom risotto - incredibly delicious. We had mentioned to our waitress that we were celebrating our birthdays so when she offered the dessert menu, we naturally accepted. But before she brought us the dessert menu, she surprised us both with a special birthday dessert…

Cotton candy with a birthday candle in the middle glowing with delight.

I can't wait until next year when I get to celebrate my birthday again!!

Comments

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friends lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party g

Spinach Stuffed Cod

Last night, I was in the mood for a healthy dinner so decided to experiment with a recipe I found from a blog called Creative in My Kitchen . Lauren and Ari brought us French cookies back from their trip to Paris and I basically inhaled them. They were so good! We were cat-sitting their two cats while they were gone. They liked lounging in the strangest places... I found one of their toys while I was cleaning so Lauren stopped by last night to pick it up on her way home from work. I was experimenting with this recipe which originally called for chicken breast but I thought it sounded good to substitute fish instead since I'm always looking for good fish recipes. We all thought it was totally delicious. When I went to the grocery store, they had Icelandic cod on sale so I bought about 2 pounds of that. You could use any white fish for this recipe such as: true cod or other cod rockfish halibut had

Sylvia's Scenario

Search This Blog