{"id":18265,"date":"2024-02-23T01:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T08:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/?p=18265"},"modified":"2024-02-22T19:36:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T02:36:08","slug":"the-evolution-of-a-birthday-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/?p=18265","title":{"rendered":"THE EVOLUTION OF A BIRTHDAY DINNER"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I always felt a really BIG birthday called for a really BIG birthday dinner celebration. I talked to my party planner (Marla) and she said…“I hate to disappoint you but we have a couple of problems.”<\/em><\/strong> “I understand you want to go big but we don’t know that many people…and surely we don’t have that much glassware!”<\/strong><\/em> I knew she was right so I went back to plan B.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I decided to do something more intimate<\/strong>, inviting our daughter Lisa and husband Ray. “Now…what am I going to do with this table?”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I let my right-brain<\/strong> work on the table setting. I love vintage Venetian glassware so I had to have them on the table. The table was ready, but what about the menu? Marla wanted to cook her famous tenderloin with nice vegetables. I LOVE her cooking but I told her I wanted…“take-out.”<\/em><\/strong> Yes, take-out! One of my favorite restaurants makes my favorite Saltimbocca all Romana so I had to have it!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An important guest arrived.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I pulled out a 2009 bottle of Cristal Champagne.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This birthday boy is VERY happy!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marla prepared escargot which we all love!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ray looks very happy as well!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I love our dinner party and having Lisa and Ray with us was very special!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everything was very tasty!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m reading Marla’s birthday card for me.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A private smooch!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Time for dessert!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Did someone take a bite out of the candle?”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So many French pastries!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We did go BIG on the wines! Solaia and Ornellaia are some of my very favorites! I truly loved my BIG birthday dinner!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I will be celebrating the entire year!<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I always felt a really BIG birthday called for a really BIG birthday dinner celebration. I talked to my party planner (Marla) and she said…“I hate to disappoint you but we have a couple of problems.” “I understand you want to go big but we don’t know that many people…and surely we don’t have that much glassware!” I knew she was right so I went back to plan B. I decided to do something more intimate, inviting our daughter Lisa and husband Ray. “Now…what am I going to do with this table?” I let my right-brain work on the table setting. I love vintage Venetian glassware so I had to have them on the table. The table was ready, but what about the menu? Marla wanted to cook her famous tenderloin with nice vegetables. I LOVE her cooking but I told her I wanted…“take-out.” Yes, take-out! One of my favorite restaurants makes my favorite Saltimbocca all Romana so I had to have it! An important guest arrived. I pulled out a 2009 bottle of Cristal Champagne. This birthday boy is VERY happy! Marla prepared escargot which we all love! Ray looks very happy as well! I love our dinner party and having Lisa and Ray with us was very special! Everything was very tasty! I’m reading Marla’s birthday card for me. A private smooch! Time for dessert! “Did someone take a bite out of the candle?” So many French pastries! We did go BIG on the wines! Solaia and Ornellaia are some of my very favorites! I truly loved my BIG birthday dinner! And I will be celebrating the entire year! Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[394,286,254,440,427,405,392],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birthdays","category-celebrations","category-fine-dining","category-happiness","category-love-of-wine","category-staying-at-home","category-wine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gentryconnects.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/1_result.jpg?fit=540%2C700&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18265"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18432,"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18265\/revisions\/18432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentryconnects.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}