Celebration: Coconut...

Morning, everyone!  How was your weekend??  Mine feels like a bit of a blur at the moment, since it went by so fast (cause, ya know, I'm sure I'm the ONLY ones who feels that way on Monday morningsJ)  It was a pretty gloomy and overcast one around these parts, but thankfully all of the 'celebrating' we planned on doing was inside. 

First stop Saturday night was a trip to one of my fav restaurants, El Tule, in Lambertville, NJ...

Now just pretend the above picture was taken at night after a drenching rain storm that left the area in a bit of a gloomy fog and that would be more accurate photo of our eveningJ

Thankfully it was nice & cozy inside.  And to start the night, the one thing I KNEW I needed in my life at the moment, and the reason I finally narrowed down my birthday dinner to El Tule, were THESE:

Chirizo Nachos, you have my heartJ  The chorizo gives em just a little extra hit of spice that makes these oh-so-happyJ  These could have just been my dinner entree and I would have been happy.

But what made me even HAPPIER was when I realized my favorite 'brunch item' was actually part of their dinner menu, just disguised as 2 entire entrees rather than a little of each.

The Aji de Gallina is tender, shredded chicken in a mild, yellow pepper sauce.  Something about it is just so dreamy when mixed up with the white rice to soak up all the sauce.  So glad to know it's on the dinner menu (and you can also get the 'other half' of the brunch menu in the lomito saltiado aka. meat & onions in a red sauce)

And for dessert, the entire table got a round of tre leche cake (cake soaked in three milks) and let's just say no one went home unhappyJ

And the party continued right on till Sunday morning with some Coconut-crusted french toast with coconust syrup (which was pretty unphotogenic, so it's not pictured hereJ) 

And after a dinner of FAB garlic & honey BBQ boneless wings from Wings on the Go, we finished off the weekend with some COCONUT POKE CAKE... 

Coconut cream & condensed milk soaked vanilla cake topped with coconut-laced whipped cream and MORE coconut....ohhhhhhh, I was one happy girlJ

And thankfully Scott masted making Half-a-cake, so we don't have tooooo much of this little guy laying around since it could EASILY be breakfast, lunch & dinner todayJ  But, as usual on Mondays, it is BACK to the grind today, no coconut involvedJ  Hope your weekend was just as tastyJ

Have a great Monday!J