Our before dinner activities included…

Pretending like we were at the beach, but we were really in the front yard.

Then we headed downtown to the location where St. Mary’s Hospital use to be. Yes, I was born at 6:48 pm at St. Mary’s Hospital across the street from Hallmark Cards. I don’t know what that says, but I think it helped me get a job there. All that’s left of the hospital is the corner-stone and the bell from the chapel.

I got it in my head that I had to ring the bell at the time was born…so I did.

Of course then we tried to take some trick photography…

After our antics, we went home to make dinner. As many of you know, I really love Paul Newman’s Vodka sauce. Love isn’t a strong enough word really…thank you Paul for creating this jar of thick tomato-y pleasure.

This year I decided to stuff mushrooms with garlic, basil, and tiny mozzarella cheese balls.

The mushrooms sautéed for a few minutes in oil then I let them simmer in vodka sauce for thirty minutes on low.

I served this up with spinach and regular fettucine and JY’s famous toasted bread. And of course we stuck a candle in it.

This plate kicked-off my new daily ritual of posting my favorite meals to facebook!

We watched Shakespeare in Love, one of my favorite movies, drank wine and I gave myself permission to eat all of one of my giant british chocolate bars. If you haven’t heard about my love of Montezuma British Gourmet Chocolates, then you my friend need to come over and see my chocolate chart. I covet them for special occasions and there’s hardly any occasion more special than a birthday.

Needless to say, I only got 3/4 of the way through. When I say, “I’m going to eat the whole thing,” that’s never a good sign for my belly. Being newly 35, I heeded my belly’s warning.