Victoria and Albert's -- Comes Home

The man's big 5 0 was yesterday, for real. Yes, we celebrated our combined century mark in the land of the mouse a few weeks ago, for that is when we could get away, but yesterday at 3:30 AM was tick off time. The man is there.

For us, birthdays mean eating a meal of your liking. For the little one that is grilled cheese and boxed mac'n cheese -- no veggies. The middle one requests fondue, for the college bound it is always yummy sushi, and for the man -- tenderloin.

So yesterday, after our out of this world experience at Victoria and Albert's a few weeks ago, I attempted to set up the same at our house. Although V&A puts out 10 courses, I could only manage four... Oh well...While the girls were happy to eat watching their favorite Disney channel shows (how appropriate) the man and I ate at the Chef's Table, ie -- in the kitchen by the light of our Halloween spider candle, how romantic. There we could watch the chef, me, prepare the meal. But isn't that how we always eat?

The meal commenced with champagne and escargot gently heated in olive oil infused with garlic, and a little sauteed onion. All topped with fresh grated Romano cheese. And yes, it was yummy.

The second course was a wild greens salad. I was sorry I didn't have the little V&A caviar tins, (or the delicious caviar), to use as plates. And now that I think about it, we didn't even use salad plates. But instead ate off the tried to true dinner plates we always use; room for ambiance improvement -- next time.

The one and only entree came next: Beef tenderloin accompanied with Gorgonzola pasta. At this point I called down to the family room: Dinner... Which brought about the girls charging upstairs, to grab a plate with salad, some beef, and a few pieces of pasta, as Gorgonzola is not big for them. And then as quickly they returned to their paused show. Could daddy's birthday get any better? But I digress... for the beef was accompanied by a very nice pinot noir; just a glass.

And for dessert -- a cupcake topped with homemade butter cream frosting and a few candy corns.

Not as elegant as Victoria and Albert's. Definitely not as fancy -- though we did score the Chef's table... where as at Disney we were in the Queen Victoria Room. Still all and all it was a great birthday dinner, and there are leftovers.