I celebrated my birthday for a whole week. I mean I guess let’s be honest most of the month of September, but we will review the actual week leading up to my birthday for starters.
It started out with a volleyball championship win!! A couple of us have played on the team for 10 plus years and this was our first win together and we played our butts off.
Friday night I had birthday dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Flour Restaurant in Moreland Hills. I love how flavorful their food is and the different types of dishes on the menu. We tried two of the salads. The lettuce and vegetables were so brightly colored and fresh. We tried the stuffed peppers, which I thought had tons of flavor and a good amount of heat to them. Lastly, for starters we had the eggplant meatballs. These have this amazing smoky flavor and the texture is similar to actual meatballs.
Local Greens 
Caesar salad 
Eggplant Meatballs
A couple dishes of the Tagliatelle Bolognese went around the table. My friend and I kept telling everyone how amazing it was when we tried it and this time was no exception. We also ordered the ricotta agnolotti which I had tried before and knew it was a must. I normally don’t eat ricotta but there is something about Flours ricotta it’s just so good and not as strong as most ricotta cheese. Flour’s is pillowy and fluffy. The new dish for me that I tried was the mushroom risotto. I have an obsession with risotto and then adding mushrooms to it intrigued me even more. The risotto and mushrooms were both cooked perfectly and shockingly I did really enjoy the flavor of this even though it was made with ricotta cheese. I will say with this dish more than any with the ricotta I did think it was slightly too salty for me but it was still really good. My very picky friend also ordered a pepperoni pizza which he smashed all of and said it was really good.
Stuffed Peppers 
Tagliatelle Bolognese 
Ricotta Agnolotti 
Mushroom Risotto 
Pepperoni Pizza
We finished our night off with some dessert. I wish I could correctly tell you what all three items were but I honestly have no clue. I know the one was creme brûlée and the other was a key lime cake of some sort. They were all really good but the chocolate peanut butter cake was the star of the show for me and I do not normally like chocolate. I loved that you just expect chocolate and then the crunches at the bottom have that peanut butter flavor. I was so impressed! I did ask and I believe most of, if not all of their desserts come from Black Sheep Baking Co. in Bedford Hts. I checked out their Instagram and wow their desserts look like art. I guess I will be finding a way to try some more of their stuff.
Saturday my family took me to Tavern Six in Kirtland, Ohio. They have a beautiful patio, which is normally where we try and sit. When it comes to Tavern Six I am normally a creature of habit. I know they have other good food but when I go I always get there grilled chicken sandwich with spicy mayo and Mac and cheese. In my opinion they have the best grilled chicken sandwich anywhere in the area.
We did get some appetizers and their soup of the day. The soup of the day was a green bean casserole soup with onion straws on top. I was a little skeptical but wow this was so good. It was a cream based soup, that tasted just like green bean casserole. I would have never thought about turning green bean casserole into a soup but it was an amazing idea and I will be trying to replicate this at home this fall. I loved the onion straws on top to add a little bit of crunch. We also tried the meatballs and quesidilla for appetizers. Which were both items I had never had. The meatballs are made with beef, veal and bacon. I don’t really recall realizing or tasting any bacon but they had good flavor and were almost a pillowy texture. They are serve with marinara and herb ricotta. I am not really a ricotta fan as stated above but was hopeful I would like it so I gave it a try. It was okay and I did enjoy the herbs added to it but not something I continued to use with the meatballs. We also had the chicken quesadilla, which I would honestly get just this as a meal. The chicken was not dry at all and the pico de Gallo that came with it tasted extremely fresh.
Chicken Quesadilla 
Green Bean casserole soup 
meatballs
As always my grilled chicken sandwich and Mac and cheese were amazing. My husband got the fish tacos, which is also something on the menu that has amazing flavor but the jalapeños I swear are so fresh and some of the hottest I have had every time we get the tacos here. They really do add to the flavor profile of these tacos. We had to end our dinner with one of their famous cupcake, which is different every night. This night was an almond cupcake with strawberry. It was like they knew I was coming in for my birthday and I am not a huge fan of chocolate. The cupcake was moist and the frosting was not too sweet.
Sunday was my actual birthday I spent the day hanging with some of our family at a benefit cheering the Browns on and it was just wonderful to see the huge turnout. I’m so glad so many people could be there to support.
I feel so blessed that I got to spend most of September celebrating my birthday with tons of important people in my life and the fact that I get to do something I love everyday with these important people around. I spent so much time with family and got to enjoy meals from two of my favorite restaurants. Which anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy time spent with my family and friends making memories, and eating great food. Its been such a great birthday month and I feel so blessed.
The next week I celebrated just as hard and I can’t wait to share some of the places we visited!