A Mid-Week Birthday Dinner for My Husband {Naptime Entertaining}

The Occasion: Husband’s 30-something dinner, served mid-week on a school day.

Menu: Roasted Zucchini with Tomato & Burrata, Grilled Steak with Smoky Blue Cheese Sauce, Parmesan Couscous, Citrusy Angel Food Cake with Dulce de Leche and Cinnamon Whipped Cream, Rasblini (Raspberry Champagne Cocktail)

Attendees: Party of 3!

Naptime Goals: Make Blue Cheese Sauce, season Steak, bake Angel Food Cake, make Cinnamon Whipped Cream, make Raspberry Puree.

It is pretty rare that my husband and I entertain mid-week. Generally my husband works late and it is really only in the dog days of August that he is home at a decent hour to have dinner with friends. However, we will happily break our regular dinner routine and do some mid-week entertaining for each other on special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. Even if it means eating later in the evening, we think it is nice to serve up a special meal and compose a happy toast on these occasions. For my husband’s birthday this week I decided to make a few of his favorite dishes and have them ready to eat when he walked in the door around seven o’clock. I chose dishes that were ideal for making during naptime then pulling together right before we were ready to eat.

I am going to write about the dessert tomorrow so we’ll just leave it that I baked the cake during naptime, whipped the cream for the topping, then left them both alone for the afternoon. For our dinner I decided to grill some steaks, his favorite, and top them with a cool smoky blue cheese dressing. To make them ahead I whipped together the blue cheese dressing, arranged the steaks in their marinade, and left everything in the fridge until dinner.

For the appetizer I wanted to recreate a favorite dish from one of our local restaurants, a room temperature plate of roasted zucchini strips topped with slices of fresh tomato and a pocket of burrata, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I should note that both of us are addicted to burrata so I knew this would be a hit even if I served it on an old shoe, but I really wanted to compose it the way we’d seen it before. During naptime I roasted the zucchini and then let it cool all afternoon. Then I had the tomato slice and ready to go for assembly when he arrived.

The beverage part of this meal was a little bit tricky. My husband likes traditional cocktails like G&T’s, but I prefer lighter fare like wine and champagne. At our wedding we had Cipriani-style bellinis made with fresh peach puree so for this meal I decided to make bellinis with the remaining fresh raspberries I had in the freezer from last summer. It would be a sweet, fruity drink for sure, but I hoped the nostalgia of toasting with bellini-style sips would outweigh the absence of olives and swizzle sticks. To make the raspberry puree I let my blender do the work, then I pushed it through a fine mesh strainer to get rid of any seeds and hard bits. I kept this chilling with the champagne for the afternoon.

When my husband walked in the door after work I stirred together our drinks, toasted to his birthday and assembled the burrata platter. While he played Thomas with our daughter I grilled up the steaks, steamed the couscous and set the table for a delicious birthday dinner.