For Matt's birthday, I wanted to make dinner special - you know, not just our usual weekday dinner. So, I tested my cooking skills with my first attempt at 'grilling' steaks. I say 'grilling' because we have no grill, and the steaks were cooked on a heavy, stove-top grill pan. I must say, they turned out rather well. The steaks looked nice and caramelized on the outside but were pink and tender on the inside, and (most importantly) they tasted pretty good, too. The only downside was that our apartment was filled with a smoky haze for a couple of hours and the steak smell has lingered on for days. I have found other recipes for making steaks (sans grill) by broiling in the oven. I may try that next time to avoid the smoke and lingering steak smell ;) But, all in all, the steak dinner was a success and was complimented by potatoes, a black-eyed pea, corn and red pepper salad, red wine and CRUMBS cupcakes for dessert ;)
Birthday goodies :)
Special birthday dinner: steak, red potatoes with dill and black-eyed pea salad (with corn and red peppers)
CRUMBS cupcakes (the best!): Black & White Cupcake (which got dinged a little bit on the way home but still tasted fabulous) and Red Velvet Cupcake (Matt's favorite)
Saturday night was the big celebratory night. We went to dinner at Marea. We had passed this place on our way to Thanksgiving dinner in November, and have wanted to try it ever since. It was delightful. The atmosphere was romantic but not over the top, the service was excellent and the food was delicious. My favorite part was all the 'extras' they give you - amuse bouche, a pastry teaser before dessert, petit fours AND a muffin on your way out the door that is "for breakfast." :)
Amuse Bouche: smoked fish (can't remember if it was mackerel or trout) with creme fresh and a beet reduction
Matt's Appetizer: grilled octopus (this is his favorite appetizer lately - it was tasty :))
My Appetizer: blue crab with celery root and citrus sauce (super yummy!)
Matt's Entree: grilled swordfish with winter vegetables
My Entree: local black bass with lentils and mushrooms (the lentils were really, really good)
The Pastry Teaser: this comes out before dessert as a little teaser of different sweets - citrus gelato, some kind of sweet creme fresh and sweet candied pearls... all very good and made us want dessert but we had to get to our show :(
The incredibly thoughtful breakfast muffin the hostess gives you on the way out. (I've never had a restaurant give me a parting pastry before.) It was very, very good with my oatmeal and coffee this morning ;)
After dinner we went to see The Million Dollar Quartet, which is a play/musical depicting the one-time recording session of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins that happened by chance on December 4, 1956. Matt and I love this kind of music, and we were both singing along, clapping, tapping, head-bobbing with the music. The actors/musicians were all extremely talented. They were actually singing and playing their respective instruments live, which is very impressive but even more so because they all really sounded like the characters they were playing and were very, very talented with the guitar, piano, bass, etc. It was a great show! (By the way, I think this is a standard play/musical in NYC and Chicago, but also doing a North American tour hitting a lot of cities (including Dallas). So, those of you who like this music should try to see it - it is really good!)
You can't take pictures of the show, but here are a few I grabbed off of the internet.
The stage set up, before the show began
Waiting for the show
The NYC cast - these were the cast members we saw... all very good!
Yes, they actually did this on stage - it was awesome!
What a fun night! And that restaurant looks AMAZING! I'm so jealous of all your experiences! Happy Birthday, Matthew!
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