Its my birthday and I'll eat if I want to....

Yep....my birthday has arrive, well actually it was yesterday...and I turned the big 22! I had to go to school and work but I had an interesting time eating wise.

For breakfast my fiance and I invented these apple cider pancakes that included shredded apple and pear topped with apple butter....SO GOOOd-and healthy.

For lunch we went to Ruby Tuesday (Okay, so now I'm so over that place and probably wont go again). I had a coupon for their tall cake (with ice cream) if we bought an entree so Randy got the triple prime burger (you know the one they keep advertising in commercials) but it didn't taste too special to me. In fact the burger at Nicos Pier 38 is so much better! I had the salad bar, which went alright at first but I discovered a sharp and hard piece of plastic in the cottage cheese. That turned me off, maybe forever, and I'm glad they didn't make us pay for the salad bar. Now we took the tall cake home, and I was disappointed to find that it was an average chocolate cake with average chocolate butter cream filling, with average chocolate and caramel sauce, and average vanilla ice cream. Do not be fooled by chain restaurant desserts that look amazing, because chances are that they're not.

I came home to discover some Papa Beard cream puffs that my dad had been given, Randy and I had one each and froze the rest. For dinner I attempted my favorite dinner that my mom used to cook for me when I was little. Pork Chops with Tomato Rice Casserole. I substituted and added a few things and it came out just as good, if not better! I also made a broccoli casserole thing that was similar to a broccoli cheese bake we have around thanksgiving. We had special wine I had bought and my 2 person cake from cold stone for dessert, but I was tired and didn't want to waste the special-ness, so we will have it on Saturday. I instead had another cream puff...and was proved yet again that everything is better (or just as good in a different way) frozen!

THE WHOLE REASON FOR THIS POST IS TO BRAG! I get to go to Chef Mavro tonight (named one of the 10 best restaurants in the world by frommers, or fodors, can't remember which)!!!!!! I will be having their 11 course tasting menu where everything is small portioned and paired with wine. It will be quite an event!

One other great meal I'm looking forward to is the champagne brunch I will have on Sunday morning....but I'll tell more about these later! Have a good weekend folks!