Birthday goodness

Well, the manfriend's birthday dropped by.  I elected to be a dutiful girlfriend and make some of the food I don't care to eat but the manfriend loves.  So here we have it, the birthday dinner.

But, of course I was too lazy to take pictures, so you'll have to utilize the links...sorry!

The part of the meal that I like overly much - caprese salad: (photo courtesy of Totally Healthy Recipes)

Ingredients: basil, tomato, mozzarella, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, salt & pepper

Slice tomato and mozzarella to same thickness.  Layer with basil leaves.  Combine equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil together.  Mix 1/2 tsp dijon with oil mixture.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Drizzle over salad.

Second up we have vegetarian stuffed mushrooms:  (photo and recipe courtesy of Jo Cooks).

I'll let Jo explain via her website how to make them.  They received two thumbs up from the manfriend.

As for the main course, well, it was salmon.  Shocker, I know, being that I refuse to eat anything that comes from the sea, but it's the least I could do for the manfriend's birthday.  (Photo and recipe courtesy of All Recipes).

Because I don't 'do' fish, I followed this recipe pretty closely, but ended up cutting down on the cooking time.  And I didn't measure out my ingredients, well, at all.  And used the fresh herbs instead of dried if I had them.  But you know, it came out tasty (or so I hear).

For the pièce de résistance, homemade tiramisu for dessert.  (Honestly, it won by a landslide in the vote).  I made it in glass coffee mugs, but never took a picture, so you get the one from the website with the recipe, which really looks nothing like how it turned out.  But really, it was cute.  (Photo and recipe courtesy of Baker's Royale).

Okay, so I omitted the Frangelico and the dark rum, being that I didn't have any on hand.  But other than that, I tried to stick to the recipe.  Oh, and the only lady fingers I could find (don't ask how many stores I went to!) were the soft ones.  But it was still heaven-in-your-mouth tasty.


Anyway, that's what we ate.  Sorry I didn't get my own pictures or write out the recipes for you.  There's always next time, though.