How cute is this shizz??? For Isabella’s 2nd birthday… a lucky gal!

Last Saturday, E turned 40. Whoa. The big 4-0. To celebrate, M threw him a Belgian themed par-tay. After all, he’s Belgian. Makes sense, eh? For starters, a smoked salmon appetizer on pumpernickel mini toasts. I’m not that into smoked salmon normally, but I dug this stuff. I think it helped that I’d fasted all day in preparation for this gorgefest.

The main course on the menu was forced meat chicken. E had been craving this dish. What does forced meat chicken mean? It’s chicken, stuffed with a ground meat type stuffing. I’m not sure what was in it, but it included meat as well as pistachios. And it was tasty whatever else was in it. The chicken was cooked very well, not dry at all, and not pink!

Also served was a pureed carrot souffle. This was light and delicate, and didn’t really taste like carrots much. That’s good, because I’m not a fan of cooked carrots. This was cooked in ramekins in a water bath. Way too complicated for me. This was served with a butter sauce to put on top.

M also cooked up cranberries and oranges and then served it in orange halves. Sweet, tangy, and delightful.

There were a few vegetarians in our midst, so M also prepared a tempeh salad. This wasn’t quite belgian. It had tempeh, mangos, and pickled red onions, with a vinaigrette. I loved it! I’m gonna definitely get the recipe for this one.

And the piece de resistance? Belgian waffles! One of the guests brought a waffle maker over, and made fresh hot piping waffles. He had the special sugar for these, which had been shipped to him from Belgium. It was an unexpected highlight to end this fabulous meal.

We had our latest quarterly company update this week. Once again, we were at the ACE Center. You know I’ve enjoyed this place in the past. But I would say that the quality has been deteriorating as of late. And this time around, well, it wasn’t too hot. It was a not too exciting buffet. There was some stuffed chicken, which I got, and liked. There was also some salmon. I’m not too crazy about salmon, so I passed on that. There wasn’t much else. There were some hoagies, but I wanted fancier.

The salad was boring, with lame dressing. There was a pumpkin bisque soup which was bizarre. It was strangely sweet, like it was pie. I don’t know anyone who liked this. The wild rice was undercooked. The veggies were good! The chicken was good, as was its stuffing, but then we all noticed how pink it was. It didn’t seem pink as in not cooked, but it was strangely pinkish. A few of us complained of upset stomachs. Oye. Can you spell instestinal distress? I was not in a good way the rest of the day. It was probably also the yogurt and chocolate milk, but I blame the chicken. Not my best ACE experience.

The dessert selection was vast and varied, as usual. They never disappoint in this department. I had a piece of cheesecake and some fruit. At least they had a plethora of drink selections, including stuff from Wawa. But I won’t be disappointed if we don’t end up at the ACE next quarter.