In da club

For my second New England birthday, I knew I didn't want to cook dinner, and that a sweet treat was in order. Unfortunately, it was a long day because little AC didn't fall asleep till 2AM that day, and we were expecting someone to fix the cracks in our house but hadn't been given an ETA.  Additionally, it was a playgroup day, which means we had to be ready to leave the house by 10:40. So we planned to pick up big AC from work and simply grab something to eat from Whole Foods, since we needed to pick up some groceries anyway.  (Fortunately, I'd anticipated a busy day, so I baked a batch of large chocolate chip cookies and lace cookies the day before.)

Big AC didn't think dinner from Whole Foods was special enough for a birthday, so we grabbed a small chocolate mousse cake and decided to stop for dinner at a local, casual place we both liked and hadn't been to in a while, assuming we could find parking.  It was my lucky day because we found a spot across the street.

I had pupusas, but they weren't as good as I remembered--my mom later said maybe they didn't use enough cheese.  Big AC ordered a plate called picada, which is basically a platter of small chicken wings, fried shrimp, chopped pieces of pork and beef, crinkled french fries, and tortilla chips.  The last time he ordered this dish, it was huge, so he asked for the small.  And little AC got 3 small steak tacos with rice and beans.

To big AC's surprise, the "small" was HUGE.  And as soon as little AC saw it, she pushed her plate over to me, said "Here you go," and pulled the platter towards her and dug in.

Can you see why their "specials" flyer provided a good giggle?

When we headed home, little AC insisted on holding the cake and then shook it in an effort to open it.  So my pretty cake looked like this:

Nevertheless, it was delicious.  I was surprised it was so filling--I had thought a mousse would be light enough to let us finish it that night.  Little AC preferred the frosting, and when I stepped out of the room, I came back to find she had scraped it off with her finger.  Big AC tried to cover for her, saying he had eaten it, but the little one proudly said, "Mama, I eat the cake with my finger!" Luckily, we'd already eaten most of the cake.

The newspaper placemat makes for an interesting background, but you can see what was left of the cake in its naked, frosting-free form.