A Gluttonous Champagne Birthday

Do you know when your champagne birthday is? It's when the date of your birthday matches the age you're turning. This weekend was my roommate Alex's champagne birthday, since she turned 22 on January 22nd! Naturally, the weekend was filled with way too much eating, drinking, and of course -- lots of cake, too!

Our weekend plans were fairly relaxed. On Saturday we decided to go for brunch at the famous plateau hot-spot, L'avenue. We had never been there, but it had been on our list of places to try for years. We've eaten at other famous brunch places in Montreal, such as Beauty's, Bagels etc., and Reservoir, but we'd never ventured up to L'avenue. Perhaps it was because we had always thought it's too far (it's not). Or maybe the long wait to get into the place deterred us (we had to wait about an hour outside in the cold just to be seated). But this place was definitely worth the wait! Just to give you an idea of the enormity of the portions at this place, take a look at the picture of their four-egg omelets. The first is the "Idaho" omelet with cheddar cheese, mashed potatoes, bacon and sour cream. The second omelet is with ham, leeks, spinach, and goat cheese. And almost every dish comes with a side of potatoes and fruit. And that's not it all. L'avenue isn't just famous for their amazing food, but also their decor. I won't spoil it for those who haven't been, but I've just got three words for you: use the restroom!

Later that evening, we had a party at our house, with a small pre-drink at our favourite local place, la Distillerie!

To say we woke up Sunday a bit hungover is somewhat of an understatement. Naturally, our first thought was "let's get food!!" And where did we decide to go? Back to L'avenue, of course. This was probably unnecessary given how much we had eaten the day before. But since Sunday was actually Alex's birthday, we figured hey, why not? This time, we brought a couple other friends since they had never been there.

After brunch we had to prepare for the feast we were cooking for Alex's actual birthday dinner. We decided to have a couple friends over and do a potluck at our place. Alex was making jalapeno poppers and buffalo chicken dip. My other roommate Alie made scalloped potatoes and blanched haricot verts with chopped almonds and truffle oil. And since I love to bake, I made Alex a red velvet birthday cake with dark chocolate ganache filling and cream cheese frosting. I also made my mother's rice krispy chicekn tenders, which uses rice krispy cereal instead of bread crumbs. It was all so delicious. Though, we ended up with WAY too much food, especially since none of us was hungry after such a large brunch at L'avenue.

 Scalloped potatoes with thyme and cheddar cheese

 Rice Krispy Chicken Tenders

 Blanched haricots verts with chopped almonds, truffle oil, and fleur de sel 

Buffalo Chicken Dip (with cream cheese, Buffalo sauce, and shredded chicken) 

 Cream cheese stuffed jalapeno poppers wrapped in bacon 

Excuse my casual attire, but who doesn't prefer to bake in sweats and a tank top?

 Red velvet cake with dark chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting. For decoration, I added pirouette cookies around the exterior. 

Happy Birthday Alex!!! 

After such an incredible weekend, I'm going to have to detox for at least a week! That'll give me just enough time to come up with my next food adventure. 

Until then, happy eating!

-Talia