What A Wonderful Weekend!

So if you look back in my earlier posts you’ll notice that I read and rated The Fault In Our Stars. Looks like they’re gearing it to be this decades The Notebook, but I just don’t see it. The book was good, but I didn’t shed one tear. I felt the emotions and I fell in love with Hazel Grace & Gus, but the tragic ending just didn’t hit home for me. I think I’ll have to re-read the book before the movie comes out. I can say that I can already see thousands of teenage girls swooning over the tragedy and heartbreak and it makes me sad for the next generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ItBvH5J6ss#t=137

Anyway, I have been busy at work so here’s what happened this weekend! As I mentioned I had some fun things planned out to celebrate Mr. Tan Lines' birthday. On Saturday I surprised him with a romantic dinner at a yummy French restaurant. There are locations in Vegas, Chicago and Bethesda, MD. The restaurant is called Mon Ami Gabi and it was delicious! We met some friends for drinks first, they had a fabulous HH special. We drank two different varietals of pinot noir to start. We were seated at our table right on time and ordered the warm baked brie dish and the french onion soup. We enjoyed both thoroughly. We then both ordered steaks, I got the hanger steak with a pinot noir butter sauce, what? YUM. Mr. Tan Lines ordered the Béarnaise, which was a classic French cut of meat with a sauce similar to a hollandaise. Both steaks came with thinly sliced potatoes, or aka steak frites. We also ordered a bottle of the Bordeaux Superieur, Chateau Cadillac from 2010. It had a wonderfully nutty flavor and paired excellent with our steaks. After we devoured our meal we were too full for dessert, however the waiter brought over two complimentary profiteroles that were delicious! They had creamy, vanilla filling inside of them and were covered in melted chocolate. We had a wonderful and romantic evening and Mr. Tan Lines loved it! :)

On Saturday we spent almost the entire day cleaning. I, also spent almost the entire day cooking! We invited five of our friends over that night to enjoy some delicious food and play some board games. The meal I had planned for that evening was a cheese/meat platter to start, Mexican shrimp cocktail and chicken fajitas! Dessert was going to be guiltless brownies and low-fat vanilla ice cream. Here is a picture of my cheese board, I purchased the meats and cheeses from my local Trader Joe’s, along with my guiltless brownie mix and ice cream :)

The chicken fajitas required very simple treatment. I used our new Emeril indoor grill pan and got great color on the green, yellow, red peppers and the yellow onions. I seasoned the chicken with chili powder, salt, pepper, cayenne and garlic salt. We then made a large platter with lettuce, tomato and onions. We then let our friends top off their fajitas with sour cream and guacamole. I did not home make the guacamole this time, we purchased it from Whole Foods because it is our favorite! Sorry, I was wayyy to busy for pictures! After everyone ate we played around 50 rounds of Cards Against Humanity, an adult card game that is truly entertaining. We had some good laughs, even a few tears were shed from laughing so much! After a while we switched over to Taboo which was a lot of fun too!!! It was a great evening and we all had so much fun. I cannot wait to do it again!

The recipe for the Mexican Shrimp Cocktail I got from here:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-shrimp-cocktail/detail.aspx

Last but not least I spent Sunday night in a flurry of excitement getting ready to watch Sean and Catherine’s wedding!! I loved his season of The Bachelor and thought they made a great match! The wedding was stunning and they both looked so happy! Bridal Guide Magazine put some behind the scenes pictures, check them out! They are soo cute! 

http://bridalguide.com/planning/bachelor-sean-lowe-wedding