A Wonderful Evening

Our 9th wedding anniversary is coming right up, and we won't be together for our 10th, so this year we decided to do something really special to celebrate, and it was wonderful! We hired a personal chef to come to our home and cook a romantic dinner for us...I can't even begin to explain how much we enjoyed it!

I had a lot of fun, setting the table for dinner. I have this great neighbor named Roberta who spent the entire day, helping me deep-clean my house. Thanks, neighbor!

Appetizer: fresh artichokes marinated with a blend of herbs and served with an aioli. After I'd finished every last bit of my artichoke, I may or may not have dipped my finger into the remaining aioli, and licked it off. Classy, I know.

Salad: a wedge caesar. Those little pieces of bread were super thin and crunchy, and we crumbled them up over the salad. Delicious.

Main Course: Oh Lordy. Grilled Tuscany grass-fed organic rib eye, served with twice-baked potato, grilled polenta, and fresh grilled vegetables. The perfection of this plate of food is beyond description. The steak was covered with a wonderful sauce of mushrooms, cream, onions, and cherry tomatoes...divine. Kelli must have thought there was something wrong with me, with all the moaning I was doing while I ate. Also very classy!

Dessert: Peach and berry crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream. Absolutely delectable.

Chef Kelli Paddock (forgive me, Kelli, for posting a photo of you with your eyes closed...it was the only one I managed to get of you!). Kelli's step father is being deployed with Steve, so we all had a bit to talk about. I found Kelli, owner of Prepared Catering, through Koenig Distillery and Winery in Caldwell. She was such a pleasure to work with, and all we had to do is sit back and be served. If you happen to live locally, I cannot recommend her services enough.

Kelli was super-efficient, nice as can be, and as you can see, an amazing chef. She left my kitchen spotless, packed up her equipment, and headed off, leaving behind a bottle of champagne and a box full of chocolate covered strawberries for us.

Hopefully Steve won't mind me adding this: Steve's a pretty reserved guy, not big on the romance or things like that, but every now and then he surprises me. While we were sipping champagne and waiting for dinner to start, he appeared with a fistful of letters that I'd written to him, that he'd saved from years ago, before we were married. It was fun reading through them and seeing how far the two of us have come over the years. Can't imagine spending my life with anyone else.