With a little help from my husband and friends, I turned 40 last weekend.  I am officially halfway to EIGHTY!!!  It’s just so hard to believe, there is so much more to cook, eat, and conquer!  I am lucky enough to have two of the best girlfriends on the planet. These girls care so much for me that they took time off from work, left husbands, toddlers and nursing babies behind, and flew from the frozen Detroit tundra all the way down to Nashville just for my birthday.

Amazingly, last weekend in February was actually in the high 60’s and sunny!  What a treat for the girls, as they remarked about not seeing green grass since November.  They did a lot of sun soaking on the balcony.

True to birthday good form, I took them to all the best places, new and old, and I thought I’d share them with you.  On Friday night, we ate at Rolf & Daughters, which is my favorite restaurant in Nashville.  To start, we ordered the house-made sourdough bread with seaweed butter, Brussels sprout salad with apple, hazelnut, percorino, and beef tartar.  All three were delicious; the seaweed butter was creamy and salty and the beef tartar was tender, topped with salsa verde and tasted of citrus.  The Brussels sprout salad is seasonal and I was happy to see it back on the menu.  When I first tasted it last year, the sweet, salty, nutty, and acidic flavor was so good I had to replicate it, and did so in this blog post.

The next day was my actual birthday, and I had scheduled massages at my girl Karen Sky Miller’s place; Back In Touch Wellness Center.  Karen has been working out all my neck and shoulder kinks on a monthly basis for about three years now.  She definitely helps to relieve my stress and lower my blood pressure.  Karen was kind enough to hook my girls up with two other practitioners so we could all have appointments at the same time.  All of us enjoyed our down time and felt fully relaxed and happy after our sessions!

Onward to lunch, my newest favorite place, Pinewood Social.  This space is so cool that hipsters, business people, and even officially old folks like me flock to it!  What is this place?  Coffee shop, lounge, bar, restaurant, bowling alley, karaoke room, and soon to be bocce ball court and swimming pool place with pool bar?  It sounds totally schizo, and it kind of is – but I love it.

Since The Hubs was throwing a birthday party later on that day for me, I wanted to make sure I had a good wine drinking base.  I ordered the Pinewood burger.  It was reminiscent of a big mac but in an upscale, gourmet $13 hamburger kind of a way.  Toasted sesame bun, double thin patties, melted American, and I swear I tasted a thousand island-ish dressing, but the menu did not indicate any thousand island.  It was a very good burger.

Also, I am addicted to the Crema’s Cuban coffee latte.  I  limit myself to one a week.  Sweetened condensed milk is an ingredient, enough said.  Crema is located across the street from Pinewood Social, and also inside Pinewood social.

Soon it was party time and I couldn’t believe the turnout we had!  It is really difficult coming to a new city, not knowing anyone, but even more so when you work from a home office.  I am so grateful for the friends I’ve made in my short while here in Nashville.  Since The Hubs told me I was not to cook, he ordered the food through Whole Foods Catering.  I have to say, the mixed sushi platter was probably the biggest hit.  Well, that and the macaroni and cheese.  (How weird are we, sushi and mac n’ cheese?  It worked, trust me.)  The highlight of the food was the dessert.  We ordered cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection which just down the street from us.  I’m not sure how many cupcakes RG ate, but I can’t blame her.  The pineapple upside down cupcake was pretty phenomenal!

The best part, however, was the homemade chocolate covered potato chip macarons that our neighbors Lindsay and Taylor brought.  Lindsay, I’ll be your guinea pig any day of the week!  I felt like a celebrity, eating her creation before the recipe blog post!

We had a great time and the evening ended with me and RG(zy) dancing to B.B.D.’s “Poison”.  Will someone please take my phone from me next time after too much wine?  I can get pretty footloose and fancy-free with the iTunes purchases… Yes.  My name is Michele and I love 90’s hip hop.  I’m not ashamed.

 

Well, this is my idea of a perfect weekend in Nashville.  Thank-you again to all who made my birthday so memorable, especially to my Kalamazoo girls.  Love you guys!  xo. -M