Birthday Dinner In Three Parts

It has been a while since I have had food front and center on the blog and what better time than to share what we had last night for dinner.  It has been cold for the past week and the day had been a bit of a crazy one.  Damon wanted to cook for me and while he is a master at heating up soup in the microwave he is a bit cooking challenged.  Thus, after much thought and discussion we set off and got dinner at three different places to make one delicious dining experience at home together in a warm and cozy apartment. 

First stop was at Snappy Dragon for soft dumplings in a hot peanut oil sauce.  The above picture does not have the hot peanut oil sauce, but you get an idea of how lovely the dumplings are.  My friend Helene turned me on to Snappy Dragon and there are a couple of dishes I really like there and this is one of them.  Oh how I do miss Shanghai Garden down near my old apartment.  Need to get back there soon.

Yes, it was my birthday and I got to have what I wanted.  One thing I really love and yes, I know it is not a favorite among many, is chicken livers.  We stopped at Heaven Sent Fried Chicken and I got my fried livers as you can see above and Damon opted for 2 chicken breasts.  They were a true delight.  I have to share that while their food is what brings people in, their customer service is sad to say the least, to the point of comical.  People talk about it all the time and it is often shared on the social media sites, but hey, they do make mighty fine chicken and chicken livers. 

Our final stop was to get some lemon squares.  They brought back memories of Aunt Val cooking at the holidays.  She made fudge, nut rolls, scotchkins and many other treats.  Her lemon bars were a true favorite of mine.  While the ones we got from Schwartz Brothers were mighty fine, they were not nearly as good as hers.  But in the end, it was a fabulous dinner.  Granted, not one I can go to on a daily basis in that I think I had more carbs that night than I have had in the past month or two!  But it was my birthday and I enjoyed every bite.  Yes, even the roll with the chicken livers!