my special birthday present

my hubs is terrible at keeping surprises, TERRIBLE! I am not any better, but that is not what we are discussing right now. It isn't like he always tells me what my presents are, but he HAS to let me know that he has gotten me something. Or, if he is keeping a surprise he does things that make it obvious something is up.

this birthday surprise was no different, except he was able to keep the details under wraps. I knew he was up to something due to his hiding the computer screen when I walked in the room and hiding papers when I walked up to his truck, but I had no idea he had such a wonderful night planned.

It turns out for the last month or two he has been planning a dinner party for with some of my girlfriends. He cooked and even did wine pairings. When he did all of the final cooking at Sherri's house he wore his chef's coat. ooo la la

We went over to my friend sherri's house and she had bought a new GORGEOUS dining set that had not been sat in yet and busted out with her wedding china that had not been used in the 5 years or so that they have been married. I already felt special just walking in and seeing my girlfriends there and having this beautiful set up.

We started with some Moscato D'Asti that he had opened to use in the cooking. That is definitely a good way to start a party.

He made lobster bisque from scratch, all the way down to the live lobster, with brie topped french bread. The wine he served with it was a pino grigio and it was perfect. He said it was served with that because the acidity from the wine would clear away the cream in your mouth and it cleansed the pallet for every bite of soup. YUM!!!!!

For the main course we had petite lamb t bones with a thyme merlot sauce served with a potato and smoked goat cheese custard, carrots and snow peas. It was a beautiful presentation. He served it with a syrah. Oh my, it was so tasty!

For desert we had Napoleons which he took phyllo dough and baked it with butter and powdered sugar. He filled layers of the crispy dough with pastry cream and topped it with a raspberry sauce he made from pureeing raspberries and sugar. He topped the pastry with blueberries and served with fresh peaches. This was served with a Moscato, another great pairing!

To finish off we had champagne. He asked the wine dude where he bought the wine from what he favorite all time wine was and it was this champagne. It was good but to be honest I had enjoyed all of the wine from dinner a little too much to appreciate it fully. It did make great mimosas on sunday morning!

I think I'll go ahead and keep my sweetie!