Happy Birthday To Me!

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I celebrated my 35th birthday this month. To celebrate, my husband planned a dinner party with my best friends at one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle, La Medusa. We rented out the whole restaurant (it's tiny) and got to design the menu of our choice. They did the most amazing job on the party. The food was delicious and everyone commented on how much they loved numerous dishes. The service was fabulous and the party was a blast. If you haven't tried La Medusa, you should book a reservation pronto.

Our contact at the restaurant, Julia, was lovely and so great to work with. She made really cute dinner menus for each guest and made place card name tags that I used in these cork holders I made (copied from something I saw in a magazine years ago - shown below mine).

Julia also helped us design a great dinner menu that offered some of my favorite things (butternut squash ravioli, hazelnut gelato, their cauliflower dish and more)...

passed appetizers...

salt cod fritters

crostini with apple jam and fresh cured pancetta

first...

mixed garden lettuces, lemon vinaigrette, breadcrumbs, parmesan

cauliflower gratin, spicy butter, golden raisins, pine nuts

next...

choice of:

house made butternut squash ravioli, sage, brown butter, walnuts

house made pappardelle, beef ragu, arabiatta, parmesan

then...

choice of

roasted stokesbury chicken breast, baby carrots, parsnip puree

seared sea scallops, black lentils, pancetta ham, apples

braised beef short ribs, creamy polenta, arugula

last...

hazelnut gelato