Happy Birthday and a Sunday Recap

First of all, a shout out to my nephew Michael who celebrates his birthday today. He doesn't get the opportunity to celebrate on the real day very often - only every four years since he's a leap year baby. Happy Birthday, Michael!

I don't get a chance to do this very often. Happy Birthday to
my oldest (and youngest) nephew! 

DH and I had a nice time eating Italian last night. We each had an appetizer and an entree. Everything was well flavored and beautifully plated, but I give the food about a 7. I think DH's Campanelle (a pancetta, fonduta, lemon, brocolini and bread crumb bake) was the best dish of the evening. His starter was the Brussels Sprouts la bomba with tonnato and preserved lemon. For my starter I had the Dark Meat Chicken with a sauce of agradolce and chilli - very good, but a bit large of a portion and too much breading. The flavor of the sauce was excellent, sweet and spicy. For my main course I had the Agnolotti Verde (agnolotte verdi pasta with mushrooms, brussels sprouts, brown butter and topped with an egg). They must have hidden the brussels sprouts on my entree, because they were barely there. The agnolotti, however, were quite good.

Agnolotti are like mini-ravioli. Mine were in a green pasta which,
I assume, was made with a brussels sprouts infusion. It was quite
tasty, though. I would have liked more mushrooms and one or
two actual brussels sprouts in the plating as well. 

It was great to see Matt and Lizzie again, and they had two of their daughters along with them. The "kids" sat at a separate table and basically played with their phones until their food arrived. We'll all try to go out again in May when we can celebrate my birthday. Now I have to figure out where I want to go and make sure that it can accommodate Matt's gluten-free with some other dietary restrictions diet. Mucci's was able to do gluten-free pasta, but they didn't have a lot of choices for sauces he could eat. I think he ended up the most disappointed of the group last night.

I had a lovely Boston Cream cupcake for a late dessert, eaten while
watching the first half of the Academy Awards. So good! 

After picking up cupcakes for dessert on the way home, DH and I settled in to watch the Academy Awards. I didn't stay up for the full slate, but was very happy with the number of awards picked up by "Mad Max Fury Road". The film ended up with five awards! I really liked that film, and so did Chickie. DH was a bit more "meh" about it. I was chuckling as their name was called again, and again, and again.

Mad Max Fury Road featured amazing makeup, FX and lots of cars and
fantastic set design. It was an orgy for the eyes in a total dystopian society.
Chickie's favorite was the guitar player in red on the left, standing in
front of his wall of amplifiers, shooting fire from his guitar. 

I was also very pleased that "The Writings on the Wall" from the latest James Bond film "Spectre" won for "Best Song". The songs from Bond films have a rich heritage and this one was a good one. I'm off to the WBL YMCA this morning for a quick swim before my chiropractor appointment. Have a great Monday and when I find fashion pics I can pull into here, we'll take a look at some Academy Awards fashion, hopefully tomorrow. Happy Monday!