Wanna know a secret???  Jeff is younger than me! 😀  We’re about 9 months apart, so in the winter we get just under 3 months of being the same age. I honestly never even think about it until this time of year rolls around.

For his birthday, we decided to just hit up somewhere really nice for dinner and grab cocktails somewhere after. Here’s how it all went down…

Abattoir (French for slaughterhouse) is a restaurant we’ve been meaning to visit for a long time and have just been waiting for the right occasion. Jeff and I are both interested in offal, the innards and other animal parts that are normally wasted in pursuit of the more standard cuts, and Abattoir happens to specialize in just that.

The dining room had a real rustic farmhouse type feel and was very casual and welcoming.

Jeff was super-excited to try everything on the menu!

Of course we started the evening by ordering a few adult beverages.  Jeff had a vieux carre cocktail and I opted to try a gluten-free beer called Estrella Duara, just out of curiosity.

I was really impressed that when we were brought a loaf of bread for the table, the woman bringing it (who I believe was a manager) asked us if we were able to have bread since she noticed I ordered the gluten-free beer. I thought that was really helpful and attentive to the dietary needs of customers, very nice.

We decided to try to order tapas style since there were so many dishes we wanted to try. We were particularly intrigued by the “food in a jar” section of the menu.

We settled on the duck rillettes, which is essentially a duck pate in a jar that is sealed with fat to preserve it. We spread it on crispy pieces of toast and it was sooooo good.

Next were the barbequed sweetbreads with a brussels sprout slaw.  Holy crap these were insane!

Jeff has tried sweetbreads once before on a business trip where he got to go to a famous molecular gastronomy restaurant. It was my first time trying them though so I didn’t know what to expect. I thought they would be kind of squeaky and fatty, but they were just soft and pleasant and the salty and tangy sauce was perfect on them.

After that we ordered an apple salad and a steak tartare. The salad was easily one of the best I’ve ever had with both roasted and dried apples and an acidic vinaigrette.

The steak tartare was so soft and so oniony!  You know how much I love onions, so this was just too perfect for me.

Jeff was losing his mind over it, he talked about this tartare for days afterward!

We wanted one more item so we got the pork fritters with pepper relish served over collards.

These were heavy but still delicious. We were both stuffed but had to order dessert. We got the maple panna cotta with caramelized bacon cookies.

Oh WOW.  One of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten! I was so full but just couldn’t keep my spoon out of it.

We had to give up with the finish line in sight, too full!

The sight of these little gems that came with the check was still welcome even after failing to finish our dessert.

Somehow we found room for them.  

Abattoir was super-awesome, it’s not every day we go to a restaurant where every single item we order is so astoundingly good. The staff is really friendly and helpful and the atmosphere is very relaxed for such fine dining.  We’ll be back!

We left from there and drove back to Decatur to meet some friends for drinks at Leon’s. John and Emily were waiting for us, it took them over an hour to get a table! Poor guys.

See! I took pictures of people this time! My friends do exist!

Sorry I snapped it when your eyes were closed, Em!

I love Leon’s. They always have the coolest seasonal cocktails to choose from. I started with Death & Company and switched to a Witch Hunt afterwards because John recommended it. Both were really good.

We hung around for about 2 hours and laughed and drank too much. It was a great time and Jeff said he had a wonderful birthday.

I love a good excuse to laugh it up and stay out too late, don’t you?

Well, we did it again. We stuffed our faces full of delicious food with family and fun!

Yesterday we headed to my maternal grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving lunch. Here’s a little sneak peak at what I brought….

When we got there my mom was finishing up some gravy and setting out all the pans of finished dishes.

Of course I zoomed right in on the stuffing.

There was so much food that we actually lost a few items in the kitchen!

I loaded up on all my favorites.

Notice the Christmas plates? It’s not just Macy’s that’s jumping the gun, we’re getting a head start on Christmas too!

Someone found the mac and cheese that was hiding under another dish, so it was time for seconds.

And my dish was a big hit, it was completely gone by the end of dinner. I made baked apples and pears with cinnamon, honey, pecans, and gorgonzola.

It was insane! Super easy to make too.

I just sliced up 4 Honeycrisp apples and 4 red Bartlett pears.

Then I squirted lemon juice all over and sprinkled on a bunch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg and stirred it all up.

Then I put a few dabs of Earth Balance on top to keep everything moist and to keep the sugars in the fruit from caramelizing and then burning on the dish.

That went in a 400 degree oven for about 50 minutes. I stirred everything about 3 times to keep it all moist. You have to be gentle because the fruit starts to get very soft and if you manhandle it you’ll just break everything up into mush.

As soon as it came out I sprinkled on pecan pieces, crumbled gorgonzola, and squeezed on the sweet tupelo honey.

It smelled glorious! I’m so glad everyone liked it so much.

I am really bad about taking pictures of people rather than just food. In fact, the only picture I managed to take of a living body was this one…

That’s Tripod, my grannys’ fat three-legged cat! The little bugger bit me too. He just got too excited with all the pettings he was getting from me.

It was a great meal and a great time with my crazy family. We had to cut it pretty short because Jeff was still really ill and needed to get home to rest. I’m not doing so great right now either; I really hope it doesn’t get as bad as what he’s had to go through.

Off to make some more tea and veg out for the rest of the day!

Yesterday was gross out so I had to skip my trip to the market that I had planned. We had very little left to make anything with but I think I managed to create something so great you wouldn’t realize it was made from scraps!

When I don’t know what I’m making for dinner I usually start making rice and chop up an onion, there are many possibilities that can blossom from that beginning. Last night I did just that with the addition of a chopped red pepper as well.

They sweat it out in the pan while I got to work on pressing some tofu.

When the peppers and onions were soft and browning, I added the tofu. Shortly thereafter I plopped on a couple spoonfuls of this black bean sauce.

It doesn’t really matter how much sauce you add, it won’t ruin it to put too much or too little. Just make it as saucy as you want it!

I spooned it over fluffy jasmine rice. Check out all the steam, it was super hot!

It was very warm and comforting on a cold and rainy evening.

Poor Jeff is still sick. He’s already downed one whole batch of my cold cure drink so it was time to make some more last night.

I didn’t have any apple cider so I used plain water and added a thinly sliced apple and a big spoonful of my gingery pear and apple sauce. You wouldn’t have known it wasn’t cider.

He’s been sipping on it constantly and it’s definitely helping him to be able to at least go to work.

Ok, today I need to get everything ready to make a dessert for Thanksgiving with my side of the family tomorrow. Details on that to come!