Belated

I had a birthday a few weeks ago and I can truly say it was the most special one I've ever had. This would be because my treasure of a friend Mallory created the most beautiful, magical brunch for me and my nearest and dearest here in town. It was the best engagement at 11 a.m. on a Wednesday that I'll ever take part in. This girl has such great taste and such a sweet heart for the ones she cares about. She throws the best bashes around and I couldn't be more happy to call her friend! Get a load of that below....it's also her photo by the way! I'm really late in getting this posted but better late than never I suppose! I hope it inspires you to lavish a beautiful meal on someone. I don't think there's a better gift...

I'm just going to give you a slew of photos. I mean isn't that what you really look for anyway? It's really the best way I can share it with you anyway. She garnished each place setting with a precious little potted lemon thyme and a french soap-filled gift bag that had little facts about my birth date on them. So cute and creative!

Looking at it all now, I'm still in heaven!

I'm still basking in the fact that Coco Chanel and I share birthdays! How cool is that?!!

My sweet friend made me a sweet treat. Homemade caramel with vanilla beans. Mallory and I had went out for breakfast a week prior to the brunch and I had ordered a homemade caramel sauce latte and the waitress ended up coming back to our table about thirty minutes later and explained they were out of the caramel sauce and wondered if I still wanted the latte. I said no and what do you know? Exactly one week later someone remembered my latte and made me an even better replacement. So darn thoughtful! (I know, I know, but you can't have her...)

I'd been going on and on for weeks about green beans and how I'd been practicing to make them the way great restaurants do... of course they found their way to the table!

Bacon. Actually, this should be called pig candy. Thick cut bacon with a beautiful brown sugar and cayenne lacquer. Baked in the oven to chewy, gooey perfection. Oh man.

Pommes Anna. Thinly sliced potatoes cooked in lots of butter and studded with strips of roasted red peppers. She topped them off with creme fraiche and chives. Sinfully delicious let me tell you!

Hollowed out strawberries with whipped cream. Beautiful little bites!

As if all of this wasn't enough, Mallory got me a bunch of goodies from Anthropologie! This birthday was just too, too good!

I thought it was rather appropriate that a bee should decide to stop in for a visit. Mallory HATES bees! It was kind of cute, all of her squealing and shrieking! My hubby took care to make sure the bees stayed away from her. They added to the charm I thought.

The star of the meal was Mallory's Eggs Benedict on a savory Belgian waffle. Underneath perfectly poached eggs and hollandaise was King Crab morsels.

This isn't a great shot but here's the plate of delights. Breakfast and birthdays. They should always go hand in hand. I saw a recent new episode of Barefoot Contessa and Ina made a Birthday Breakfast BBQ. Very interesting...

Champagne grapes. They are so gorgeous and basically just spell F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!

Thanks Mallory for giving me the best birthday I could ask for. I'll always remember it!!