Fresh Tart

Yes, even the darling Maven of Mischief has (almost) finally joined us old gals in the Over-40 Club. Yuck, not a club I aspired to join, but there it is, nothing to do but accept it. Still catches me a bit off guard - 40. Yeah. Forty, Kim! Forty and fabulous, you are, my dear! (Especially in her "I'm 40" ring, on her all-important finger, see above.)

We celebrated tonight with a dinner here at the hacienda, Kim, Suz, and me, which is just how Kim wanted it - waaay low key. No surprises, no crowds, no big parties. I set out some brie, pate, and radishes with Hope Creamery butter to nibble on while we had a champagne toast. To 40! To life! L'chaim!

So we sipped and noshed and giggled (and drove John into the other room, ha) while the chicken finished roasting - yes, yet another roasted chicken, I can't stop making the damn things. This time I prettily framed the bird with lots of carrots and potatoes, to soak up all the buttery pan juices and slowly brown and crisp alongside the peep. Worked nicely. To cut all the rich buttery-ness I made a green bean and last-tomatoes-of-the-season salad, seasoned with lots of last-tarragon-of-the-season dressing. Au revoir summer, kiss, kiss.

For dessert I made simple cream puffs and filled them with coffee whipped cream. Add wine, and hot coffee, cheesy 70s tunes on satellite radio (for junior-high slow-dancing, of course), and plenty of pathetic, shriek-worthy beefcake courtesy of God's Gift, and we called 'er a birthday dinner, yes indeed.

And now, g'night to the Birthday Girl! Sleep tight and well! You know, before the hot flashes of menopause set in! Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh...

Well, what can I say? Several didn't make it to my party tonight, but most did, so how honored am I that my dear friends and family braved snow and wind to be here to celebrate with me? VERY!!! It was a fabulous night, with fabulous people, amazing food from Vincent's, and plenty of wine and good cheer. And the service from Silver Service catering - unbeatable, truly. Both the chefs from Vincent's and the servers from Silver Service were here early, despite the crummy weather, ready to go. I just can't say enough about their level of professionalism.

The tasties included tuna tartare on potato crisps, roasted tomato and caramelized onion tartlets, mini-croque monsieur sandwiches, roasted vegetables, smoked salmon with creme fraiche, steak with chimichurri sauce, chicken and red pepper skewers, imported cheeses with freshly baked baguette, and assorted cookies and truffles. Oh my gosh I had a great time, The Best. I'll post more pics tomorrow, but for now, I'm toddling off to bed, full and happy and so grateful for the company of my brave guests.

And, Happy Birthday Jen (chillin' here with Jon Brown and her husband, Steve Katz)! Tonight may have been my party, but it was Jen Leopold's real birthday!

Friday Morning Coffee with Suz! Man, it's been weeks again, waaay too long. It was great to see her beautiful face and talk super-fast so I could fill her in on all the goings on of the last couple of weeks. You know, the stuff we haven't covered in email or on the phone, ha. Like bitching about the oncoming snowstorm! Bad timing, my friends, since I'm hosting a Silver Service-catered 40th Birthday Bash tomorrow night...pour MOI! Uuuuugh (or more likely a far more offensive word!) if the snow wrecks my lovely party! Vincent Francoual - yes, of the fabulous Vincent A Restaurant- is doing the food, people, this is serious business! (That's the beauty of catering with Silver Service - they work with many of the best chefs and servers in the city.) So although I of course want everyone to be safe - I also want everyone to realize that the food is going to be worth braving the snow - this isn't just me cooking (that's our usual party routine), it's Vincent...

Sigh. Well, at least we were unhampered in our trip to Fugaise for dinner last night. It was as great as I had hoped - for me, silky squash soupfollowed by three small wild boar raviolis (small raviolis, I mean; I have no idea the size of the boar but I'm guessing not terribly small) garnished with figs, wild mushrooms, and truffle demiglace. The usual attentive, knowledgable service. Lovely wine list. Rarrr...

And tonight? Back to spiffing up the house, arranging flowers, setting out candles. And of course plowing through my closet to figure out what the hell I'm wearing - even if I end up standing here alone, just me, a few cases of wine, and a mountain of croque monsieurs, I want to look DAMN GOOD. Hmph.

Happy. It was a Happy Birthday indeed! I'm still happy about it, ha. We opened with a Nathan basketball game, then made our way to Lucia's for brunch with Stacey, Bowen, and soft-n-sweet Baby Cooper. We didn't actually eat Cooper up - although it's tempting because he is insanely adorable, we're all complete idiots around him, laughing at his every smile, grimace, coo, and giggle. But we did share a feast of scrumptious Lucia's-style (aka top-notch) food...cherry scones, a sweet-potato waffle with cinnamon butter, eggs - scrambled, omelet-ed, and frittata-ed, oven-roasted potatoes with sour cream alongside, thick-cut bacon, salads, to-die-forcheese grits and yes, pear-streusel tart, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate cake for post-brunch dessert! Washed down with lots of coffee and for me, a marvelously clammy, salty Birthday Bloody Mary, mmm...

After rolling out of the restaurant - and a post-brunch trip into Lucia's Bakery for, you know, more food for later (!) - we headed over to the Coop's new home to check out the estate sale of some of the previous owner's belongings. After tours of the new digs for John and Nathan, we made our way home...

...and here, more delights, because there were two - TWO! - gorgeous flower deliveries waiting for lucky me! And then presents, beautiful presents, from Nathan and John, my parents, and my in-laws Dot and John! Yay, presents! And lots of fun phone messages and calls, which put an even-bigger grin on my my already grinning face! And emails and cards to pry my goofy grin even wider! I'm so lucky - it really was THE BEST! I loved it all, in the purest way, I think I enjoyed this birthday particularly, for all my grumbling below. Or perhaps because of it. Like I said, I don't stay down for very long, it's really not my nature. Not to mention, I've never been one to shun a gool ol' weekend of celebrating and gifts, ha, also not my nature. Turns out, woo hoooooo for my 40th (gulp) birthday!?!