a little more thanks

i am pretty sure i was able to personally thank every last one of you tramps who blogged your ever lovin' heart out about me. i am still on cloud nine (even if its a mucous-y feverish cloud and i think my left lung might collapse) about it. and to those of you who came over to the coolness via one of those blogs i thank you too for all of your birthday wishes. i am so humbled by all of it, honestly. so as most of you all know my husband is a rock star supreme. in fact his new name is mike anderjesus. well his efforts to make my birthday spectacular didn't stop with the blog party heard round the world...nope. he had been trying in vain for 3 weeks or more to get us a table at woodfire grill aka kevin gillespie of top chef aka yukon cornelius's restaurant. on the day of our pending dinner (saturday) they called with a cancellation. mike was number one on a wait list. he had charmed a few people (as he is ever so good at doing) and we ended up with a private room. yukon was so gracious and sweet, he even created a special dish just for me b/c i am a vegan now and don't eat the meat or the dairy. and it was delicious. of course. he also created a special dessert of pears poached in red wine with some kind of cardamom sorbet. it was also delicious.
although i left hungry. BALLS!!!!! it's ok though, it's hard to make a filling vegan dish on the fly. you need some beans and shit to do that and that shit takes time..i don't blame the red monk at all. what he did make for me was heavenly. all of kevin's food is local, organic and sustainable. he made for me a trio of woodsmoked vegetables; brussels sprouts, carrots and beets all bathing in a cranberry smear of something delicious:


the meateaters really had it good though...seared loin of beef with some roasted romaine and turnips and a smear of something delicious...


also there was duck with bacon roasted lentils:


and more luscious beets. srsly i could eat a pound of beets every day. just like dwight schrute

ok..so as if that weren't enough..mike also contacted my most best friend ever anna (who lives in LA and i see maybe once a year if i am lucky) and made (yes made) her come to town to surprise me. and she showed up at the commercial shoot i did on friday. that was the best present he could ever give me. if any of you have a best friend who lives far from you then you understand just how awesome this gift really is.
she and her husband loren went to dinner with us (they are also major top chef fans) and i had such a great time that i never wanted it to end...

she's got huge boobs too. in fact we were doing our best padma lakshmi and gail simmons impersonations. in fact i told kevin if my little vegan quickfire challenge wasn't up to par he would have to pack his knives and go.

there's mike anderjesus floating in the back there like a virgin mary sighting:

that's anna's awesome husband loren:

it was such an awesome birthday celebration. i am the luckiest girl in the world. and from now until the beets no longer make my poop red i will be gently reminded of my glorious dinner with yukon conrnelius and my best friend and best guy.

the next day we went to get a christmas tree which is pretty much a tradition on my birthday.
it was colder than donkey balls:

this is our special tree:

we got it home and couldn't start decorating b/c all of our lights were broken. that never goes over well with the under 5 crowd. you might just as well have told her there was no santa claus.

but we all went over to nana and poppa's house (my parents) for a vegan birthday dinner just for me. so lucky so lucky so lucky to have these people.

there was a delicious celery root soup with diced apples and chive oil:

there was also a pepper crusted portabello mushroom with mashed potatoes and a roasted tomato bearnaise sauce that was also delicious and i have no picture. but moms made a vegan banana cheesecake:



supermike was not so into it...frankly none of us were. it was kinda gross.

but there was also vegan chocolate cupcakes that were yummy. thank you mom for all that effort to make me happy. i love you so much!!!

again, so many thanks to everyone who made this the most special birthday ever. i will never forget it.

*update...celery root soup recipe from mom here