The House of Riley: Jen's Birthday Festivities and Fun Pants...

So it's Tuesday and we've had a huge weekend of fun and frivolity. We kicked off Jen's Birthday Celebration on Thursday and kept it going through Saturday night. We then finalized the long weekend with a Memorial Day party at our house, to be chronicled in my next post.

We began the birthday celebration with Luncheon at Tony's, the fine dining establishment in Greenway Plaza...not the Mexican joint next to our house. This was a real treat as the food and service are absolutely top notch. Jen started with some kind of asparagus bisque followed by a salad of mixed greens with fried chicken. I chose the chopped salad with chicken julienne.

The Birthday Girl

The Bread

We both then munched heartily on the massive praline topped cheesecake served with special plating complete with a Happy Birthday notation. And all topped off with a bouquet of cotton candy. Needless to say, we left some cotton candy on the table! Just so you follow the whole experience, we completed the evening with a family birthday dinner of fried chicken and chicken fried steak at The Barbecue Inn. More on the Barbecue Inn in another post as it deserves a complete review of its own. Let's just say, "That's a whole mess a good fried eatin'!"

Birthday Dessert

Saturday was the BIG party night and since it was Jen's 40th, we did it up right. We had most of our favorite people in the world join us for an evening of cooking, drinking and eating at the Well Done Cooking School located in The Heights area of Houston. We had such a good time! The laughter never stopped and I think Chef Carlos was pooped by the time we took our leave. The meal started with a fresh Caesar salad with homemade dressing and seasoned croutons. Then came Herb Crusted Leg of Lamb, Sweet Pea and Parmesan Risotto and a side of Fried Asparagus, all topped with a Chipotle Hollandaise. Oh my goodness this was good! And of course, the wine, beer and cocktails flowed for the entire event.