I’m going to have to try those olives!
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Hope you enjoyed a very special day for your birthday! 
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I stayed offline for most of the day. Too much sorrow that I just couldn’t handle.
Dinner was simple: roasted BISO chicken breasts seasoned with olive oil, Penzeys Old World seasoning (that I augmented with with additional s/p, paprika, dried thyme, and dried savory.
Steamed green beans with toasted almonds, and leftover rice pilaf. There was wine.
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We’ve been subsisting on leftovers and being social this weekend. I finally cooked - seared scallops, lemon-pepper asparagus, and crispy risotto cakes. It was tasty and the babe bravely tasted everything - only the risotto made it down the hatch.
I did make some honey wheat bread and scallion cream cheese to bring to brunch at our neighbor’s, along with a fruit salad. She made quite the spread!
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Eggplant and tomato tian, with corn on the side. Half of a blob of burrata on each plate added just before serving.
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We had another excellent dinner at Viaggio in Wayne, NJ. Besides the usual onion focaccia, calamari with shallots and chilis, and branzino, we had an excellent appetizer of house cured lonza and heirloom melon, that was cut razor thin, and had a nice salty/sweet contrast. I also had an excellent homemade tagliatelle with njuda, octopus, and charred corn. It had a nice kick to it and went great with Cooper and Thief red blend. For dessert we took home an excellent chocolate olive oil cake with toasted coconut ice cream (no picture taken).
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Dinner tonight, lamb chops from the hobby farmer friend, green beans from our garden and a baked potato. Last night it was Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie - recipe circa the 70’s, but I updated it. Created a separate thread for it, because I’m going to experiment with it. Oh wine with dinner tonight will be Chateau St Michelle Indian Wells Red Blend from the Columbia Valley. Excellent all purpose red. Hope all have a good beginning to their respective weeks’.
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A new (for me) pneumonic! I LOVE BISO chicken breasts!
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Happy birthday to Mrs. H! and happy early congrats on the long-lived romance.
Weekend held the beginning of bday festivities, and lots of food and booze! BF’s sister was in town, and her son and his new wife took us to dinner Fri. night. We hadn’t intended on letting them pay but she got to our server with the credit card before I did! Sneaky young people. Fantastic dinner (Foreign Cinema) - 5 of us split four apps (no pics): beef carpaccio with a horseradish sauce and waffled chips, calamari in a romesco sauce with chickpeas, aioli, and tortilla chips, a salad with avo and Green Goddess dressing, and probably the best, a simple but incredible dish of honeydew melon with cocoa nibs and ricotta. Then we split 4 entrees: humongous pork chop, KILLER masala fried chicken, hangar steak, and duck. All SOFA KING GOOD.
Saturday I drove to friends’ Stinson Beach summer home where our host made a timpano, inspired by the movie Big Night (which we watched again afterward). He made a “lightened up” version by Melissa Clark, which wasn’t 100% successful - I would have liked more meatiness/cheesiness/sauciness, but it was very tasty, beautiful, and the effort itself impressive. I made a cold roasted cauli dish with garlic, anchovies, Calabrian chilies, capers and olives, with butter-toasted breadcrumbs and parsley to finish. And the crowd-pleasing gorgonzola dip (gorgonzola mashed with heavy whipping cream, s&p, an olive oil drizzle and, this time, minced fresh thyme.) There were a couple of salads, too, cheese and salumi to snack on before, and another friend’s almond torte for afters. plenty of vino and bubbles. gorgeous day, too.
came home this a.m. and BF and I had our usual boozy/fries “brunch,” although this time he was super hungry and got himself the pork chilaquiles. I had oysters.
Dinner was “slightly” lighter - ciabatta toasted in olive oil topped with FM Early Girl tomatoes, minced garlic, basil, salt, and evoo, and Greek sausages from a local market, which I overcooked and didn’t like, so I gave the BF mine. more bruschetta for me!
After dinner I made this, with a LOT of variations, for our dinner tomorrow night as I’ll be working late: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020353-skillet-chicken-and-zucchini-with-charred-scallion-salsa?te=1&nl=cooking&emc=edit_fwd_20190802%3Fcampaign_id%3D90&instance_id=11368&segment_id=15821&user_id=281281f7fb33e8e459c03df769be6895®i_id=5985281120190802&fbclid=IwAR06JKet6Oratc3WL7Z2nTOFYeAciK2oNkwQNDIsM53bNaRudbZqOfJ98VU
The week will bring quite a few dinners out; i’m going to need a good purge. 
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Wowza
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nice, but not quite what I meant! my birthday month is much more self-indulgent. It just means that my birthday gets celebrated for the whole month of August, usually. 
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I’ve still never been there, after 20+ years of going to Napa… looks wonderful.
My husband tries to claim birthday month AND father’s day month.
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What wonderful meals you had! That timpano was so cute. Happy b-day! Good to be a birthday girl in summer!
Great idea actually! 
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Additionally I think she had a PSTOW… ( proverbial shit ton of wine) or covered with a PSTOB (proverbial shit ton of butter)
Around here these “pneumonics” happen!
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STOP!!! why would you want to purge all of that goodness?.. Hold on and enjoy…it all looks “sofa king” delicious!
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Weekend dinner at friends’ home, he made an excellent classic gazpacho: tomato, bell pepper, cucumberand onions. He said he peeled the tomatoes skins without ‘boiling’ or using any heat, because he didn’t like the slight precook taste of tomatoes.
Curry mustard chicken with zucchini
We bought desserts (Yann Couvreur). Abricot lemon and shiso tart.
Raspberry tarragon tart
Baba with raspberries and fresh mint
Merveille (meringue) with praline, hazelnuts and covered with chocolate
Yesterday was a tomato mustard tart with sardines.
Friday was duck breast with whatever vegetables left in the fridge, lettuce, carrot, beetroot…
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Actually, last night I had neither PSTOWorB. 
