Last week was a week of celebration! My cousin Ellen turned 27! I got her a totoro hat for her birthday as you can see above! We celebrated by taking her out to the Black Pearl in Ann Arbor for dinner, continued on to Babs’ Underground Lounge and finished our night at the Fleetwood Diner.

Before we headed out to Ann Arbor, there was some pre-gaming at my house. I was the designated driver for the night so I recorded it via photos.

We arrived at the Black Pearl and ordered our drinks and some appetizers. We got some asian beef tenderloins and pommes frites. Everyone also ordered their drinks; Sarah and Dante had a Tequila-based drink, Ellen had a fruity martini, John had a spicy martini, and I had a gin-based martini.

After some time, we finally got around to ordering our main courses. Sarah and Ellen shared a surf & turf for two, I had cilantro-crusted mahi, Dante ordered grilled swordfish, and John ordered sesame-seared tuna. The tuna was amazing, and at some point I will recreate it and enjoy it. Afterwards we all ordered another round a drinks, dessert (including Ellen’s Birthday dessert), and hung out for a while before finally deciding to head to Babs’.

We headed to Babs’ to get celebrate Ellen’s birthday (since it was past Midnight) and the bartender there made some amazing drinks.

Around 1 AM we started heading back to the car and got sidetracked by the Fleetwood Diner, which I had coincidentally parked in front of. Deciding to grab some foodstuffs since Ellen and Sarah had never been we headed in and ate. We finished the night out and headed home around 2:30. It was a great night and everyone had a lot of fun, especially Ellen.

The only other thing of note that happened last week was the Truffled Mac & Cheese that Dante and I made for dinner on Saturday. We also made Goat Cheese & Blood Orange Marmalade Crostinis as a side. The dishes paired very well with each other, and it was delicious. Glad I’m going to have leftovers for lunch this week.

The week ended with a fantastic Sunday that was 60+°F. It was amazing, and I almost took the hammock out. I cannot wait for spring to officially hit.

-Evilmanta