Hell's Kitchen!

Saturday was fantastic! I pulled off all my surprises for Bruce's birthday! He woke up excited about finding out what I had planned for the day...I wouldn't tell him so he started guessing. He asked if I was taking him to look at bulldog puppies, which I had never thought of, so of course I went with that lie cuz it sounded soooo good! You shouldn't lie...he was disappointed. Sorry Bruce!

So we went snowshoeing! Needed something new for us to try and it totally fit the bill! We first tried Rundle Park and well, Saturday was pretty warm (+11C) so finding snow was a bit of an issue. We decided to trek out towards Elk Island Park and whadda ya know..SNOW! It was awesome...I'd totally do it again!


I told Bruce that I invited his parents over for dinner that night for barbequed steaks and baked potatoes. Yes, I even had the ingredients as not to raise suspicions! What I had actually planned and thank God I was able to pull it together in time, was a Hell's Kitchen kind of party. The object was that each couple were to bring four random ingredients and we had to create dinner out of whatever was on the counter. I topped it off with personalized aprons and chefs hats! I have to admit, I was a little worried but dinner was fabulous - no lies! Our ingredients included: fresh tomatoes, orzo, broccolini, garlic, shrimp, fire roasted salsa, buns, oatmeal cookies, refried black beans, steak, crab meat, fresh basil, bamboo shoots, coconut milk, herb & garlic cream cheese and balsamic vinegar. Pretty good haul of stuff! So we ended up making bruschetta for appetizers, steak neptune, broccolini with a cream cheese/salsa sauce, thai coconut shrimp over orzo, refried black beans on toasted buns with fresh basil and of course there was birthday cake for dessert! We finished the evening off by awarding the golden spoon to the most creative cook who also turned out to show the most initiative in the kitchen...Krista! So it was only a wooden spoon painted gold and wrapped with gold pipecleaners but an award nonetheless! And nobody can leave a party without a lootbag...it wasn't a $91,000 swag bag like at the Oscar's but it did have a water shooting sea horse, a chocolate bar, a chip clip and some kind of plastic animal!

To see some photos from the evening, visit Bruce's blog at - http://momentsindigital.com/blog/2010/03/birthday-moment-39-holding/

Gotta start planning for next year...it's the big 4-0!!!!