The set table

When your very best friend who you’ve known since kindergarten tries to convince you to simply forget all about her birthday by jetting off to Kenya with her family on safari, what can you do but throw a birthday dinner on her return?  It was a gorgeous hot summer night,  so we set the table outside on the deck for 14 and prayed for no rain.  Since it was so boiling, we started with a cool vichyssoise (I used the old-school Craig Claiborne recipe for Vicyssoise a la Ritz, from the NYT cookbook, which is sinfully full of cream and wonderfully leek-y), and of course some extremely cold Tavel rose.  

Vichyssoise a la Ritz

  For the main course, we decided to go with something effortless and barbecue a filet. 

Bacon-wrapped beef

 My new method of wrapping the filet in bacon seems to keep the leaner cut  juicy even on the grill, and add a bit of welcome smoky flavour. When sliced, it’s like a filet mignon,  the perfect follow-up to the 50s retro vichyssoise.  For a light accompaniment, I made a mango/ginger/red pepper/cilantro and onion salsa, a caprese salad with arugula and a lemony vinaigrette, and some lovely tepid, wilted rapini (no need for starch beyond some crunchy baguette after that potato soup)  

Room temperature Rabe

  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the dinner immensely.  

Cheers!

 And as night fell, and it got dark out, we moved to the back of the garden for cake and champagne.

Let them eat cake

Bubblicious

Toastmasters

  

 

To the birthday girl

   

   The house certainly looked beautiful from the back of the garden. 

A good night

And I didn’t even mind when I discovered  the next morning, after a huge middle of the night thunderstorm, that someone had left not only my camera (which has since dried out in a bag of rice)–but the rest of the cake out in the rain.