My real birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year, so my sweet oldest son and his lovely girlfriend wanted to make me a birthday dinner on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Of course I was delighted!! It is particularly kind of them since they have been so very busy working alongside their contractors, renovating a townhouse they bought in Brooklyn. Very exciting! But a lot of work!
Flowers from Zach who’s in Europe right now.
Our other son and his fiancée are in Europe doing research for their dissertations. One of the gifts from both boys was the new Jean-Georges Vongerichten home cooking cookbook, signed by Jean-Georges, no less! My job was to choose the recipes for my dinner. What fun!!
This book is terrific! The recipes are really doable for the home chef, with just a few unusual ingredients that you may have to search for. So here I was, marking off way too many recipes, having trouble deciding.
We started with Crudites with Anchovy Dip. OMG – so UMAMI!!! Amazing!!
We ate the WHOLE thing – supposed to service for 8 – 12 but we all couldn’t stop eating it! It was very light and none of us had had lunch. The dip comes out thin, so we all loved it with endive spears, so you could scoop up a lot of its deliciousness!
Sorry, we were all so busy eating that none of us took a picture! But here is a photo of the recipe.
For the entrée, we decided on this fantastic Sea Bass dish that tasted like it was made in some fine restaurant.
Really!
Isn’t this beautiful?!
It was so delicious – so flavorful with all the fresh herbs and the broth literally tasted buttery with not a spec of butter. The fish was cooked perfectly. It was so totally delicious and beautiful as well.
And the dessert that his girlfriend made – well – we all had two pieces!! Crazy good. Super yummy.
I am so very, very proud of the cooking and baking skills of both of my boys and both of their girlfriends. They are not afraid to tackle ANYTHING!! Their confidence and skill level are unmatched, along with the LOVE they impart while making a meal.
That’s just one of the reasons everything tastes so darn good.
Yep! This is my family.
I am so very lucky.
And I’m so very lucky to have you to share it with. May you all have very happy birthdays whenever they are.
