My Birthday Dinner

The next best thing to dining out for your Birthday is dining in with my awesome Husband.  We enjoyed a good bottle of vino (which by the way was a gift given from a dear friend).  A yummy cheese with some of my favorite Sea Salt Nut Thins, olives, and of course Kale Chips! 

Moving on to the main course.  A dinner is not complete at my house if there is not a big Green Salad with the simplest and yet most delicious dressing ever.  After my mother and I took a trip to Italy over 20 years ago to visit family we discovered the best way to eat fresh Greens.  Something we had at every evening meal no matter where we dined in Italy.  It has become a staple at my home as well.  READY!  Toss a big bowl of Greens with Grapeseed Oil, Fresh Lemon Juice, Sea Salt and fresh Ground Pepper.  Just experiment with the amounts.....you'll know:-)  By the way, Arugula is one of our favorites and freshly Shaved Parmesan Cheese.  Make that Parmesan Reggianno too!  Not too much but definitely enough:-) 

My husband loves pasta and since I do too I decided on a yummy new recipe just featured in the new Lund's magazine.  I changed it up a bit by adding a piece of my homemade lemon preserves to give it a bit more of a unique taste.  Since the recipe called for lemon zest, lemon juice and even lemon grass, why not add a tiny hunk of preserved lemon:-)  IT WAS SIMPLY DIVINE!  According to what I have read, Once you've tasted good Lemon Preserves in a dish, they haunt you!  You actually can't decide if they are soley salty, purely lemon, maybe a bit bitter, or just deliciously oily.  They do beautiful things to almost any dish.  If you want to make your own lemon preserves like myself, it's really not that hard.  Be sure to use organic lemons however.  You can also find them on grocery and specialty store shelves.
   

For those of you who know my mother Louise, you'll know she makes spectacular Deserts!  She offered to make my Birthday Desert and I of course couldn't turn down such an offer!  Everything she makes is absolutely delicious!  This year however, she didn't make just one.......I had a choice.  She had made a Lemon Cake with a Lemon Curd filling in between each of the 3 layers and White Chocolate Lemon Curd Frosting.  However there was also Fresh Apple Crisp......boring I know but you haven't tasted my Mom's!  Finally there was a Lemon Cheesecake with Fruit topping.  I left the decision up to my husband because I just couldn't decide!  He chose the Cheesecake for Saturday night but we did get to enjoy the Lemon Cake for Mother's Day.  

So that was my Birthday Dinner........yes much better than dining out this year!   Don't worry everyone.......I'll try and post a blurb about our yummy mother's day dinner too.