Yesterday was my birthday.  My husband took me out to dinner to celebrate.  We went to the Southern Prime Steak House in Southern Pines, North Carolina.  We had been there a couple of times before and Bill had mentioned wanting to go there a couple of times last week.  This place specializes in dry aged steaks and that’s what we both enjoyed last night in the restaurant’s impressive wine library.

They had decorated our table with funfetti before we arrived…  I was enjoying a lovely glass of sparkling wine from the Napa Valley…

We started off with lobster rangoons, which were served with a spicy dipping sauce.  They were really delicious and perfect to start the meal with because I was hungry.  They also served some fantastic hot bread with a very light whipped honey butter.

Then we had salads.  I had a spinach salad with hard boiled quail eggs and a spicy red pepper, sherry, and bacon dressing.  Bill had a classic Caesar salad.  We probably should have switched salads because Bill liked mine better than the Caesar and I’m always game for Caesar salads.

Bill ordered a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape, to go with our steaks.  Mine was a perfect 12 ounce ribeye, served with green beans and cheesy grits.  Bill’s was an 8 ounce filet.  Those steaks were insanely good; they’d been dry aged for 28 days.  This restaurant has a grill that cooks them at 1400 degrees… or so they say.  If I hadn’t wanted grits, I could have had mashed potatoes or a baked potato.  I chose the grits because I can have potatoes any day.  I can have grits any day too, but I correctly surmised these grits would be outstanding… and they definitely were!

I look forward to lunch today…

After dinner, they brought out the obligatory lava cake…

Lava cake time.  I actually don’t like lava cakes that much, but this one was really nice.  It was rich chocolate, moist, and not too sweet.  Bill and I shared it, then ordered some Key Lime Pie for later this weekend.  I don’t like lava cakes, not because I don’t like half baked chocolate stuff, but more because lava cakes are ubiquitous and kind of half-assed.  That doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy them when they are presented to me.

And then at the end of the meal, they took our picture.  I hate having my picture taken too, but they did a good one this time.  Bill looks like he’s staring at my boobs, but that’s because he always blinks when someone takes a photo with flash.

We’ve come a long way since 2002…  The photo below was taken of us the night Bill proposed, March 13, 2002.

I was having a good hair day that night.

It’s good to be 41, I guess.  And just to tie this to travel, look what SeaDream sent me…