Happy Birthday Stacey!

My l'il sis (aka Cooper's mommy), all growed up, ha. Her birthday was actually yesterday, but we're celebrating it tonight with a deja vu dinner at Duplex Restaurant & Wine Bar with the whole fam. Gorgeous day out there, perhaps we can even eat outside on the porch! Oh, how I love almost-summer - sandals and dresses and warm sun and rosy sunsets. Dang, good times, good times.

So no cooking for me! Not last night either, since John and I snuck out for a romantic lunch at La La Lucia's. I had the farmer's salad - loads of lovely Lucia's vegetables, hard-cooked egg, tossed with herb vinaigrette. And John, oh boy, he got the open-faced burger, sitting on a thick slab of juice-drenched toast and topped with a pile of buttery, sauteed mushrooms, my goodness it was incredible. And since our rule is, If There's Chocolate Cake at Lucia's We Order It, we had to split a slice of yesterday's version - chocolate spongecake with homemade spumoni ice cream. Heavenly. (Other amazing choices - lemon layer cake, rhubarb pie, and almond custard - all looked equally fab.) And then. Of course. We had to head over to Lucia's To Go for more food, ack, so that we could have bites of wood-fired pizza and curried chicken-broccoli salad for dinner. Yeah, I Do Lurve Lucia's.

A six-minute post here, since that's how long I have before I'm out the door for dinner at Duplex with Rudy, Ana, Stu, and Debbie for a post-Napa rehash/celebration. Unless I want to be late, which is certainly within the realm of possibility given, uh, me.

Double the Fun at Duplex? I'll (of course!) let you know...stay tuned...

You guys - Duplex is a BLAST, have you been there? Wow, I'm not sure how I've missed it up to this point, but I'm glad it's on my radar now. Hennepin and 25th, a big ol' Uptown house converted into a lovely wine bar/bistro, with lots of cool outdoor seating. Johnny and I are all over it when the evenings warm up a bit, perfect al fresco dining (which y'all know, ad nauseum, is one of my favs). I can't comment on their wine list since I didn't even look at it - we each brought a Napa wine, for which we were charged a reasonable $10/bottle corkage fee; Stu/Debbie and Rudy/Ana both brought Turley Zinfandels, John and I brought a Cain - but the menu was interesting and well priced. And the food - delicious. We opened with a shrimp tempura amuse bouche - light and crispy, just how it should be, dabbed with a lovely soy emulsion of some sort (I was talking again, sorry). I had a pretty typical mixed greens with goat cheese salad - nicely done. Others had a meaty, crisp crab cake, fantastic steamed mussels in a smokin' hot curry sauce (mmm...), and a teeny tiny onion/puff pastry tart, delicious. I had a sort-of gnocchi Caprese for my entree - garnished with fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella. Yum. And for dessert - white chocolate bread pudding, ha. A nicely small amount, with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, The Kill. Upon arriving at home I felt an intense urge for...a walk. A Dark Walk. I lurve walking in the dark and tonight was the perfect night for it - cool, breezy, and clear, after lots of wine and good food. Ahhh, heavenly. A nice Napa recap. Although we hardly talked about Napa - too much new stuff going on! So I'll post this last Napa-lounging pic, in honor of our amazing, unforgettable trip. Napa Nostaliga, Part I.

And now, time for bed my friends. Hope you sleep as tight as I will. Orrrrrr something.