Chef Boyardee?!

Grant turned the big 28 (don't be jealous) on December 7th. Well, I thought it would be funny if we turned my mom's house into a wonderful upscale restaurant affectionately called the George Washington Inn, which was named after a painting on the wall of George Washington praying next to his horse. Anyhew, Grant worked that day and so I went over to my mom's house as soon as he was gone to start preparing for the day. After all, I was the secret chef du jour. I carefully picked out some Bobby Flay recipes (a tomato and mozzerella salad for an appetizer, bbq ribs and sweet potato fries as the entree, and a cake for dessert which was carefully mastered into an image, Ace of Cakes style). Everything turned out amazing and I recommend the recipes, but I did spend all day slaving over the stove. The ribs call for all these chili spices that you mix yourself accompanied with homemade BBQ sauce which also called for spices. The problem was, this was all going to be a surprise for Grant so I didn't want him to know I was cooking everything, he thought we were going out. SOOO, he called me at the end of the day and I was still at my mom's. I rushed home and beat him there so layed on the couch and looked like I had been just watching TV waiting for him to get home so we could leave(like I usually do, haha). Well, he got home shortly after and I didn't have time to take a shower or anything after working with chili spices all day. So, Grant comes and gives me a hug to greet me and we were just sitting there for a second and he says, "you smell like Chef Boyardee". I tried to act like he was crazy (I couldn't play it off like I had eaten or cooked any because I NEVER buy chef boyardee and I don't eat pasta anyway and our kitchen was spotless since I had been gone all day...no excuse for the smell). I was honestly dying inside, partly because he was so off base(I mean, "you smell like taco bell" would have been more accurate), and partly because I was freaking out that he would get suspicious. Luckily, he didn't think much of it. Apparently, he's used to coming home to his wife smelling like random Italian chef's that make tomato mush. I told him to get ready to go and I did the same. I also told him we had to stop by my mom's house really quick because she had a Bday gift for him. This is what we found...

Our wonderful host and server Lane was there to greet us and cross our reservation off as she sat us. She also took our orders and introduced us to the cook in the kitchen, Flow (that's what her nametag that Lane had written said)

The other diners at the Inn

The Birthday boy and his wonderful wife (and secret chef)

The crowning moment was presenting the cake... (whichFlow (my mom) made. We thought it would be so funny to make the cake into a suiting image that Grant could relate to)