“Just give me champagne and good food and I’m in heaven and love.” – Marilyn Monroe

Last night, my cousins and I prepared a birthday dinner for my sister.  In what we have decided is the new tradition, she chose the menu and we bought and prepared all the food.  Our day began early, with a trip to Fairway, and then Katherine and I got to work on the lavish meal.

For this evening’s feast we had bacon wrapped scallops, steamed artichokes and roasted asparagus with hollandaise, ricotta dumplings, seared hangar steak and, to top it all off, chocolate layer cake with peanut butter icing and chocolate ganache, served with vanilla ice cream.  We made our way through quite a bit of champagne as well.

Yup, we appreciate good food around these parts.

Bacon wrapped scallops, before and after.

Preparing the dumplings.

A glimpse of the full dinner.

The cake, in progress, the full cake, and a slice.

And for good measure, the sunset we were graced with last night.