The Birthday Dinner

A few weeks back I hosted a special birthday dinner celebration for my good friend, Hank and his wife, Susan.

On the menu - Crab Crostini (appetizer), Lettuce Wedges with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing, Grilled Lobster Tails, Baked Potatoes with all the fixin's, Steamed Asparagus, and Homemade Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry ice creams.

Much to my surprise and delight, they walked in with a chilled bottle of Dom Perignon which was perfect for our planned feast! We also had Margaritas before dinner and a German white wine with dinner. All wonderfully paired with our lobster!

The recipe for the Crab Crostini follows:

Crab Crostini

Servings: 8 crostini

Ingredients

8 slices French bread, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 pound fresh crab meat, or 6 and 1/2-ounces canned meat
3 tablespoons minced green onion
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Cayenne pepper, to taste
Ground white pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste
1 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
Fresh chives, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the broiler on your oven.
2. On a baking sheet, line the French bread pieces about 1-inch apart.
3. In a large bowl, combine the crab meat, green onions, lemon juice, mayonnaise, garlic, mustard, cayenne pepper, white pepper, and salt. Mix well.
4. Lightly toast the bread slices under the broiler until lightly golden, about 4-5 minutes.
5. Remove the bread from the oven, and flip all the bread slices over to the other side.
6. Top each bread slice with about 1-2 tablespoons of the crab mixture (your desired amount).
7. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of each crostini evenly.
8. Broil the crostinis until the cheese is melted and lightly browned, about 4-5 minutes (depending on your broiler temperature).
9. Garnish with fresh chives and serve immediately.

Other recipes used include the Blue Cheese Dressing recipe I previously posted and blogged about, http://patemarie.blogspot.com/2010/07/blue-cheese-dressing.html. This is the Trisha Yearwood recipe and it is to die for!!

The lobster were cut in half, generously sprayed with drawn butter then sprinkled with garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, Old Bay Seafood seasoning, fresh cracked black pepper and fresh ground sea salt. Then on the grill they went for approximately 10-12 minutes. Of course, once ready, they were served with drawn butter.

The ice creams were normal ice cream recipes except the strawberry was a Buttermilk Strawberry ice cream recipe. I'll post that one shortly with a picture. It well deserves the spotlight in its own post!

Overall, the dinner was quite a culinary success and I dare say that Hank had a wonderful birthday week!!