Tuesday, May 21, 2013

My 60th Birthday Party

Dan changed the chandelier into a balloon sculpture.



He also made some beautiful flower arrangements



We started with Crab Cobb Salad with Roasted Sweet Pepper Mayfair dressing


Pretty standard cobb salad, except I changed the usual chicken to crab, and added some diced mango to the mix.  The dressing is based on the one served at the historic Mayfair Hotel in downtown St Louis, where I worked for a couple of years about a decade ago.  I took the original recipe and added a couple of roasted red peppers to it.

2 roasted red peppers
1 small onion
1 stalk of celery
2 to 3 anchovie fillets
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cup mayonaise
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Puree the vegetables with the anchovies, sugar, and mustard.

Fold the puree and the oil into the mayonaise.

Chill a couple of hours to let the flavors get to know one another.  Taste for salt and pepper.


This beautiful braided bread wreath came from Marconi Bakery on "The Hill"-St Louis' Italian neighborhood.

Next we had a GermanPotato salad-I used a recipe from "Cooks Illustrated"-and I didn't care for it.  It wasn't horrible, just not as good as my own recipe.

Everyone loved the golden beets.  I just roasted them and dressed them with rice wine vinegar, a bit of oil, candied violets, fresh mint and chile flakes.


I also grilled tenderloin fillets and topped them with a matre de hotel butter.


Judy brought her fabulous chocolate cake with 7 minute frosting and red sprinkles-which is always everyone's favorite, and I bought salted caramel ice cream from Serendipity.  I can't even begin to explain how crazy delicious Serendipity's ice creams are.


My new birthday grill



I am now looking forward to my next sixty years.









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