Happy, happy birthday, Eli!
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Better tomorrow.
3-cheese, basil-palooza pizza: parmesan Reggiano, low-moisture mozz, fresh mozz, basil in the sauce, fresh basil under the cheese, and basil-pesto for drizzle.
Garden greens in vinaigrette with kalamata olives on the side.
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Kiddie birthday party at home tonight. The newly minted 7-yo. helped devise the menu:
Nacho Doritos
Flavor-blasted cheddar Goldfish
Pistachios and honey-roasted peanuts
Strawberries
Veggie tray and dips
Ruffles chips
Homemade Chex mix
Yellow rice w/Ro-Tel
Pulled chipotle chicken tacos - flour tortillas, shredded cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, hot sauce
Vanilla ice cream
Minecraft Pigman strawberry cake with strawberry whipped cream cheese frosting
S’mores bars
Strawberry lemonade, lemon and strawberry seltzer waters, and club soda
Assorted beers
Gin, bourbon, and Deep Eddy lemon vodka
Tonic water
Friends brought margaritas
S’more was the party star - surprisingly social for a former stray.
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What a lovely celebration meal! Happy birthday to your kiddo! And S’more is adorable 
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Really nice looking spread. I love the way you combine a kids birthday party with booze for adults. You go girl!
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That’s a party! Happy birthday to the kiddo – great menu he helped come up with and delicious-looking spread!
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Happy birthday all weekend long, @paryzer! 
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Dinner is literally the first local strawberries of the year, lightly macerated, over Greek yogurt.
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Thank you! And Happy birthday to the kiddo 
Also, thank you @Saregama for the birthday wishes!
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Continuing my birthday celebration, we enjoyed a spectacular dinner at James on Main in Hackettstown, NJ, including our usual favorites of moules frites with Maine mussels, saffron, white wine, garlic and dijon served with crispy wedge cut fries; Diver scallops with lobster butter, wood fired corn cake, chestnut mushrooms; rabbit cannelloni with taleggio, sweet potato velvet, dark chocolate & roasted poultry glace; beef brisket Raghu with black truffle ricotta gnocchi, local hog cheek bacon, Valley Shepherd’s “Soprano” cheese; pork belly mole with black bean salad; halibut; fried rock shrimp and calamari; For dessert we enjoyed an excellent crispy fudge brownie with peanut toffee sauce and candies peanuts. It all went great with our favorite red blend and Zinfandel. The wonderful staff gave me an excellent red blend wine and birthday card. I always bring 2 bottles of wine for them when we dine, since they always treat us like family.
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Pizza Saturday. Memorial day weekend. Thanks to all veterans .
Picked up these Porcini and chanterelle mushrooms at the McCloud mushroom festival this morning.
Porcini and chanterelle mushroom with roasted red pepper , tomato , and shaved pecorino Toscano.
It was very good.
Continuing next week. I will be reducing the hydration and increasing the yeast slightly.
Have a great weekend
Will be cooking at a lower temperature also .
850 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Oh my god.
Be still my heart.
I hope you enjoyed in good health.
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Breakfast dinner of champions!
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Two of my favorite shrooms, tho I haven’t found any I’d kick outta the pan TBH.
Swoonworthy π, as ever 
My sister and her husband are in town for the weekend, and he wanted to return to an Italian restaurant he went to a few months ago. We’d hoped they’d be up for a meal at our favorite lil French bistro, as we’ve yet to get our steak frites fix, but the BIL has many dietary restrictions, so Italian it was… plus we booked this well before we knew we’d be in Sicily for almost a week starting Monday 
After last year’s disastrous visit with them we’d been fairly anxious how things might go, but both were in a good mood, and it was a friendly dinner. And thank goodness for that, cuz we got tix to catch the Caspar David Friedrich exhibit with them later this afternoon 
The food itself was underwhelming, and we’re frankly baffled at the glowing online reviews from folks who allegedly have been going there for many years. We got a couple orders of the vitello tonnato to share, which was a smallish portion & just not very good – we’ve had better from the Italian market up the road.
My sis and her BIL both ordered fresh pasta, neither of which looked appealing to us, either.
In anticipation of our upcoming trip that may include a pasta meal (or 2, or 3), I chose the grilled entrecôte on wild herb salad,
and my PIC the sea bass over pureed carrots with green asparagus.
My steak was cooked perfectly MR & was tender and flavorful, but my PIC’s fish was pretty boring, needed a better sear, and KFO with that baby food nonsense I was gifted ALL of his asparagus 
They even drove us back to our pad and hung out for a while! Relieved everything went well, i.e. no major freak-outs by His Crayness 
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A superb birthday meal, and yay for S’more being out and about during a (probably very noisy and crazy!) 7yo birthday party!
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How was the corn? I was craving some yesterday! 
Way to go! Have another great trip around the sun!
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