Happy Birthday Leigh!

Today is Leigh's birthday! We celebrated with Mama and Daddy this weekend in Birmingham at the Hot and Hot Fish Club. Oh, boy was it good!! I highly recommend it. The tomato salad was simply amazing. Of course tomatoes are my favorite food, but really, this was over the top. I wanted to buy the $35 cook book just for that recipe (which had 3 different sauces, which took 2 days to make). Leigh asked, "would you really make it?" Ummm, yes I think I would. It was divine. The better question is "do you have time to make it?" Ummm, no. For my main course I had the pork plate, that's what I'll call it. It had a much fancier name...Fudge Farm Pork Trio. The slender, rectangular plate held three cuts of pork with a complementing vegetable. First was Leg in Hoisin sauce (Asian) with wilted greens (aka cooked collards), second was Belly meat (not the actual stomach) with roasted brussel sprouts and apples and lastly Loin with mashed sweet potatoes. They were all excellent! My favorite cut was the loin, it was seasoned to perfection, but the belly meat with the apples and brussel sprouts had the best taste together. Oh, my, brussel sprouts and apples, delicious!! For dessert I had a chocolate souffle. The more I ate of it, the better and better it was. But we all had dessert envy over Leigh's pecan truffle. Yum-o! It sounds like a lot of food, but it wasn't really. I was not stuffed when I left, which is nice. The portions were great.

Juliet went too. I was a little worried about her behavior. She likes getting down now and likes to test out the volume of her vocal cords. I know our family wouldn't mind it one bit, but I can remember just a few years back when I would have. Justin and I go out for a nice dinner and we're lucky enough to sit next to a screaming kid. Great. She did well and only let out a few screams. She was restless, but only grabbed my steak knife twice. I wish I had a picture of Mama and Leigh's eyes when she did. The funniest thing that she did was when Mama was holding her. Mama took a sip of water and Juliet went straight to her mouth, like a little birdie, asking for ice. This little habit we started at home. And was unexpected when she went for it in public! Mama is definitely whooped, she gave her ice, just like she wanted. If it was us when we were little...no way!! Of course, Juliet hollers if you don't give it to her....ooops.

See the lady in the back!

It was so cold (seriously cold) in the restaurant, that the camera fogged up outside, but this was the best pic)