On Sunday I was able to celebrate my friend Nicole’s birthday with her, her husband Tim and her mom.  Tim is  an amazing cook and a huge fan of Jacques Pépin – so I knew that we would all be in for quite a birthday treat when I was invited over for lunch.

We started off the afternoon with tortilla chips and an amazing homemade salsa – which I loved!  Tim also made a great hors d’oeuvre with a french baguette, butter, and a radish!  After slicing the baguette into slices that were about an inch thick, he put a touch of butter on top and layered thin slices of radish and then sprinkled kosher salt and fresh ground pepper on top. It was a very lovely treat!

Our main lunch was quite an event:

Asparagus with shallots, potatoes with roasted garlic, and the most fantastic little shrimp casserole.  While I have not checked with Tim on this – I do believe the recipe can be found by clicking here. (On Sunday we did not have mushrooms in our casserole, but everything else seems to be the same!) It is a Jacques Pépin recipe, of course – and it was fantastic.

Here is a close up of my casserole:

I love fresh bread crumbs – and these were fantastic!  When I first arrived at Tim & Nicole’s I was not really hungry – but I certainly did enjoy my lunch – I was left wishing I had more of an appetite!

For dessert Tim made a brownie hazelnut cake (OMG!) with hazelnuts that he had bought in the North End on Friday.  On top of the cake was freshly whipped cream with a bit of orange zest and rum. I do not know what to tell you – except that this was amazing. I could only eat a small piece – but I loved every bite of it!

This was such a fun afternoon – I had a great time hanging out with my friends and celebrating Nicole’s birthday 🙂