Though the Mrs flipped another chapter in the book of life, we didn't have any extravagant meal planned for the evening. Mostly because she works the whole 3 day weekend. So I decided to at least prep a little dinner to be served as soon as she returned home. And what birthday is complete without bubbly so I uncorked a bottle of that ubiquitous orange label, NV Veuve Cliquot.
Served with a trio of poke procured from Whole Foods, the Spicy Ahi (the Mrs' favorite)
The Bay Scallop (my favorite)
And the Shoyu Salmon (my other favorite... wait a minute, whose birthday is it)?
We also sampled some Brown Rice Crab Sushi also procured from Whole Foods
Then dove into one of my newest discoveries - USDA Prime Chef's Cut Ribeye. Yup, PRIME! With just the heart along with the outer meat secured with butcher's twine. At $21.99 per pound, it's a little extravagant but just one $11.21 piece of meat fed the both of us. I inadvertently seared it to rare instead of medium rare but since it was SOOOOOO tender, rare was the way to go. And no, this beauty wasn't from Whole Foods but from the butcher's counter at Foodland Kailua!
Savored with a 1994 Stags Leap Wine Cellar Fay Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon - drinking in its prime right now!
And turf isn't the same without surf so I also picked up a Cedar Wrapped Chilean Sea Bass from Whole Foods. The bass had the flakiness of good butterfish and it picked up both the citrus (some type of citrus slice was placed on the fish) along with hints of the cedar. It rivaled the best misoyaki butterfish it was THAT GOOD!
And Sirloin Wrapped Asparagus and Provolone (both were baked at 375 degrees).
And since the Mrs' adores oven roasted Brussels sprouts, I roasted a batch at 400 degrees with olive oil and fresh minced garlic.
I also fired up the smoker so I smoked a slab of pork belly
Along with local style smoked meat (2 day marinated pork sirloin) but these were saved for another meal.
And I did get the Mrs a slice of Flourless Chocolate Cake from Whole Foods but this disappeared before I could get a photo. If I may say so, I think I prepped a nice dinner though the real celebration comes in a week when she isn't working...
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