Birthdays, Birthdays!

Don't you just love it when an entire meal dining out is just fabulous?  We had one last night.  Our favorite restaurant in Reno is the Cactus Creek restaurant in a small little dive of a neighborhood casino (which means it's not a big flashy high rise downtown).  We go here to celebrate birthday's, anniversary's, mom-is-in-town, etc.  This is "our" restaurant and LOVE it.  We took a chance and went here for the first time on our 10th anniversary--and SCORE, it was a huge hit.  We knew we were making a memory, one way or the other.  Fortunately it ended up being a good memory.

We went here last night for Todd's birthday.  The food was *perfect*, and it is consistently this way every time we go.  We started out with fresh baked Dutch Crunch rolls with real butter.  We were dehydrated, so a beer for Todd and a pomegranate martini for me quenched our thirsts.  I LOVE their pomegranate martini so much, I've never ordered any other kind of drink at this restaurant.  Next, we had wonderful Caesar salads with a tart and tangy dressing and crisp romaine lettuce, and enough Parmesan cheese for a small army (just like I like it!).  Then the reason for driving North of the "N", the main courses were served.  Todd had their garlic studded prime rib, perfectly medium rare, and he could CUT IT WITH A FORK.  I had their sea scallops sunset style.  OH MY GAWD IT WAS EVEN BETTER THAN I REMEMBERED.  This scallop dish was the first entree I ever tried at this restaurant, and this was the second time I chose to devour savor this succulent dish.  The spinach on the bottom had some kind of cream dancing about the edges.  On top of that were the most succulent, sweet, perfectly seared and cooked large dry scallops I have ever eaten.  Poured all around like a sweet robe was a yellow citrus sauce (thus the sunset) that complimented all of the other flavors perfectly.  I was beginning to regret that I had no spoon with which to scoop every single drop of this luscious sauce into my mouth, when I remembered that I had bread to the rescue.  Also, the cheddar chipotle potato casserole is always a must-order.

The grand finale was a sweet slice of plain cheesecake on top of a drizzled strawberry sauce.  This had to be the creamiest, tastiest cheesecake I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.  Anyway, it was a GREAT BIRTHDAY MEAL!  It was wonderful to spend time celebrating my wonderful husband!

Speaking of birthdays, I may now reveal my best creation to date.  My Angel Judy had a birthday today (Happy Birthday, Aunt Judy!).  I made this lovely number just for her, all sterling silver.  Some day there will be matching earrings, but I just couldn't wrap one more piece of wire!