Birthday Dinner!

Yesterday, Monday, September 12th, was Paul's 31st birthday. I bugged him for a week what he wanted to do... bars, BWW, movies, etc. He never replied & didn't seem to enthuzed, me, I LOVE birthdays!
So, I decided to make him a fabulous dinner.

The menu:

 - Fresh tossed salad

 - Martha Stewart's Creamy Macaroni & Cheese

 - KC Strips with sauteed mushrooms

 - Apple pie with ice cream

 - Disaster cake with cream cheese frosting

*note: we didn't make it to the desserts, we were stuffed!

 I don't know about the rest of you but making dinner & some delishious desserts work up quite the thirst... plus I need to work on getting this out of the fridge ;)

First, the salad I just cut up some fresh leafy lettuce & added some carrots, red peppers (they're Paul's favorite), & tomatoes & called it good.

Martha Stewart's Creamy Macaroni & Cheese on the otherhand took a little more work. I found the recipe on Pinterest, my new web love. However I have posted the recipe on my new 'De-Lish Dishes' page (follow the recipe title link). I recommend it, especially if you absolutly LOVE cheese. I made the version with the Guyere instead of the Romano. When I first tried the Guyere out of the package I thought it was going to be too salty & too smokey, but after it was finished it didn't have any of those issues. The recipe was lacking a little bacon so I sprinkle some on top with the bread :). I would also like to note Paul & I will be eating Mac-N-Cheese for the rest of the week - it makes A LOT!

The KC Strips were amazing! So much so I didn't even get a final picture. Just imagine grilled, juicy, medium rare, yummyness topped with some shrooms! YUM! I heart Beef!

Paul LOVEs my Apple Pie so of coarse I had to make it for him. This recipe is one that my mom & my grandma both use, only I am specific with the types of apples. I like to do half red delicious & half granny smith. Once we finally serve it, it will be accompied by some vanilla ice cream.

Paul also LOVEs chocolate cake. So, I decided to make him my Disaster Cake. I had him pick out the frosting from the store because I was too tired to make any last night. He chose only the best stuff, CREAM CHEESE icing! Disaster cake is something I stumbled on at a friends house, it is delicious & has lots of ingredients (like sour cream & Guiness). This cake is also very moist & you have to make sure to follow the directions, unlike me yesterday who ended up wasting like 4cups of sugar, some cocoa, baking soda.... oops. A hit in the end though. I had Paul take some of the cupcakes to work so they weren't laying around here for me to devoure.