Birthday Goodness

Word of the birthday: indulgence. Yesterday I turned, well, older. And after a long but productive week at work hosting some coworkers, I was ready to relax and kick if on my birthday weekend. Chef started it out right. He got me a 90 minute massage. 90. 9-0. Every minute was wonderful. Afterwards while I waited for my ride (Chef wanted me to be as relaxed as possible), I indulged more in a cream puff. That I ate outside. In 70 degree weather. Did I mention it's January?

Birthday Beach Trip

I took my annual birthday trip to Sephora where I got my birthday freebie (Fresh lip moisturizers--not as good as last year's "Birthday cake" scented shower gel, but hey it was free). Chef and I went out for dinner, and had a steak with some delicious ahi tuna and cheese laden side dishes. The next day--my actual birthday--we went out to get waffles for breakfast. Then what is now a tradition--we did a birthday beach trip. Then we lounged around drinking mimosas and eating chinese food. Chef got me a copy of Breaking Dawn that I ate up like nobody's business. I also got a special dessert from Chef--SKOOKIE (aka skillet cookie). And to top things off, he got me tickets to see Amy Poehler in conversation with Jane Lynch next month in Santa Monica. I'm super excited.

Skookie!

The birthday wishes continued today where my office had a birthday bomb go off in it with streamers and decorations. Plus my team had flowers delivered to my office. It really touched my heart and I felt lucky to have them.

Flowers from my team

All in all, not a bad start to the year. I'm lucky to be able to get older, learn more, have more experiences, and look forward to another year of adventure. I made two birthday goals: 1) that next year I will be firmly planted in a single digit dress size and 2) I will have been rejected by at least one literary agent.

Wish me luck!

Wait, I didn't declare that 5 lbs to customs. . . Take it back

I brought back a souvenir from my time in Canada: a fat ass. Well, fatter any way. The access to lobster and being stuck in a place where eating really is the only true past time were enough to add five pounds to my frame. FIVE POUNDS! How is that even possible in 10 days time??

I kept my calorie count even on the bad days. And on the really really really bad days, I STILL kept my log going. Without access to the AT&T network (because I was not about to pay the outrageous international rates just to sync my calorie counting app), it was challenging and humiliating to admit my daily defeat, but I did.

And this happened even though I worked out nearly every day I was gone. Oh well. I did it to myself. I just wondered why I couldn't check my extra ass in at customs and make them to my 5 pounds of flesh.

However, once I crossed into US territory, I didn't get much better. Chef turned 30 on Friday and with that came dinner at the swankiest place I have been to thus far. It's called CUT and is a Wolfgang Puck restaurant. And did I mention it's delicious? We had bone marrow flan, which was just fancy way of saying bone marrow. I had never had bone marrow before and let me tell you, it's worth getting. It's f&c#ing delicious. Like concentrated meat jelly. Like the flavor and soul of the cow were secretly hiding not in the flesh, but in the bones. It may sound gross, but if you like meat, it is not gross at all.

Since I'm confessing to that, I should also confess to the other dishes that may have contributed to my five pounds in the last 10 days (i didn't eat THEM ALL, but had my share for sure):

• Aforementioned bone marrow flan
• Seafood risotto with half a lobster tail
• Gorgonzola topped filet
• two servings of sticky toffee pudding
• loaded potato skins
• pretzel bites
• Lobster dinner with drawn butter
• Banana bread pudding
• Double bacon cheeseburger
• Taco Bell chicken quesadilla
• Taco Bell cheesy fiesta potatoes
• Meyer Lemon pound cake with Earl Grey ice cream
• The crispiest french fries I've ever had in my life
• Seafood salad
• Kobe filet mignon

Okay, there may be five pounds in there after all. Crap. Well, it was back on the treadmill and back to my normal food this morning. Looks like it will be double work outs for me this week . . .

Good, but Just Not Good Enough

Tonight Chef and I had our Valentine's Day. And how best to celebrate than to do what we love: eat steak. But instead of hitting our usual Ruth's Chris, we decided to hit a place called Maestro's in Beverly Hills. It's gotten great reviews, so we decided to give it a whirl.

I knew we were in trouble when we sat down. The first thing was that our table was smooshed in the middle of the dining room and tiny. The back of a large Asian lady was touching our table. The second thing that happened was that our waitress asked "Are you even 21?" when Chef (and later I) ordered a drink. Normally, I'd be flattered about this but when you're in an expensive restaurant, the last thing you want to be labelled as is an underage couple going out to dinner. It's assumed that you don't have money and haven't eaten by yourself in a nice restaurant.

Calories were of no matter to me tonight. So we had two appetizers- crab cakes and scallops. The crab cakes were okay, but the scallops were delicious. Next was the main course. I had a 12 oz. filet medium, Chef had the18 oz. bone-in filet medium rare. We also had the famous lobster mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts with bacon.

Sounds delicious, right? And it was. But there were little things that just weren't quite right. My steak was medium well on one end and medium rare on the other end. Chef's steak was straight up rare. The brussel sprouts were served without bacon and they were burned. So when we asked for new ones, we got them, but by the time they were cooked again, we were almost done with dinner.

The highlight for me was the warm butter cake. It's Paula Deen's wet dream. It's a yellow cake with a caramelized butter crust and ice cream. It's also got fresh cream that was delicious. Seriously the butter cake was the best part of the meal, but I was so full that I only had about 1/3 or less of it. It was a shame to leave so much on my plate, but I'm sure my waistline will thank me.

After dinner, we waded back through the crowded (too crowded for my taste and especially for a Wednesday night) restaurant and bar to get my car from the valet. It took about 20 minutes. TWENTY MINUTES to get our car.

So, nothing that was a tragedy about the experience, but for the price, I want my butt kissed. I want a table where I can actually hear Patrick talk when he speaks to me. I want to not have an Asian lady's back fat dipping into my lobster mashed potatoes. I want there to be enough light that the waitress doesn't need the penlight she's carrying to see that there's no bacon in the brussel sprouts. It was all nice and good food, but it just wasn't nice or good enough. Maybe I'll get some butter cake to go when I get a craving.

Chef's made me a discerning consumer. That's not such a bad thing.

Vacation Day Four: Sated and Happily Full

Chef's birthday dinner was tonight. We hadn't originally planned for it to be tonight, but we just couldn't hold out on Ruth's Chris any more. It was beckoning like an underage school girl outside the Hot Topic.

We loaded up a little before 5 p.m. and oddly enough weren't the first table in the place. It seems like others couldn't help but indulge as we did on Memorial Day. We started out with seared tuna with a mustard beer sauce (as well as a scotch for Chef and Mendocino Fog Cabernet Sauvignon for me). It was delicious. And only 190 calories. That's one thing we noticed this time that we didn't notice when we went to The Chris in February---calorie counts on the menu. I tried not to let it deter me.

The next course was the filet. Damn delicious. I had one medium. So did Chef. Then he had one that was medium rare. That's right. Chef had two steaks for dinner. When he ordered the second one, the waiter said "You want another steak? The same size?". He sure did. I was so proud. We don't splurge on dining very often so it's great to see him truly enjoy. The picture above was from his second steak. We also had the shoe string potatoes and broccoli au gratin. The broccoli was delicious. The shoestring potatoes left a little to be desired.

After finishing my steak (and his steaks), I had another glass of wine and prepared for the banana tart. It's like banana cream pie with a creme brulee topping. Also decadant and delicious. Not too sweet to overpower, but sweet enough to be a satisfying end to a great, memorable meal. It lasted more than 2 hours and I'm glad. If we had rushed through that meal, I would've been disappointed.

All in all, it was just as good as we had hoped it would be. And in this day and age of being perpetually underwhelmed, it was awesome to have something be just as good or better than you hoped or remembered it to be.

Happy Fillet Day?

It has a different kind of ring to it, but this year for Thanksgiving Chef and I have decided to forgo turkey and opt instead for steak. The two of us have some variation of turkey 3 to 5 times a week so having a big juicy turkey on Thursday, doesn't seem as appetizing as cutting into a perfectly cooked steak.

We're still planning on having some of the traditional Thanksgiving sides, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and the like, but just subbing out the main dish. Last year I spend all day cooking homemade versions of our favorites to varying degrees of success. This year I'm only spending time on the potatoes. They're my favorite anyway.

Before we get to the big fillet day, I've got some work to do. I've got to finish moving my office, hitting boot camp and a little grocery shopping the next few days. However, our office is closed this week, so my concentration will be split between all of the above and relaxing. It's a good place to be.