Birthday cakes and Sole Meuniere, oh my!

The cake, prior to putting on the topping--neat cracks and dells!

There were birthday celebrations at my place last week, and a tasty cake was made! I used this recipe for  Easter Cake from the wonderful  Thimble 's  blog, and I'm happy that it actually turned out,due in large part to acquiring a hand mixer last year for my birthday --I am no good at whipping up eggs to an almost meringue-like state.

The Finished product

There was also a tasty meal of Sole meuniere, roasted potatoes and asparagus made:

Sole menieure and potatoes

Apparently this meal turned out great, as all who ate it were gibbering messes by the end :)

Since Sole menuiere is generally known as a fancy French dish, I'm surprised it actually seems to turn out well when I make it! This is basically what I did for the whole dinner:

Potatoes

Roasted potatoes--at least what was left! 

Ingredients:
Potatoes (6)
Fresh thyme
Stock cubes (2 or 3)
1 1/2 cups water
4 -5 cloves garlic

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, add more water if necessary, and stir every once in awhile to stop the potatoes from sticking

1. Wash and Cut up about 6 potatoes into quarters and place in a roasting pan
2. Sprinkle 4 to 5 stems of fresh thyme over the potatoes
3. Peel and crush the cloves of garlic and place around the pan
4. Crush the stock cubes up into chunks and place around the pan
5. Add the water to the pan

Put into the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the potatoes are crispy and tender. Add slat and pepper to taste.

While the potatoes are cooking, get the sole ready!

Sole

Sole meuniere, mostly eaten up at this point

Ingredients
Sole, roughly 4 fillets (or more if there is a hungry bunch to be fed)
Fresh lemon
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Butter

1. Mix some flour, pepper and salt together, and put on a plate
2. Dredge (i.e. cover) both sides of the fish in the flour/pepper/salt mixture.
3. Using a cast iron pan (just my preference) on med-high heat, sear the sole in a few tablespoons of butter for roughly 1 minute on each side

Put into a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes to finish cooking
To serve, squeeze the juice of half a lemon onto the tops of each filet

Asparagus

I didn't snap a pic of these before they were all eaten up, but I cut off the bottoms of a bunch of asparagus and just pan fried them in the same pan I used for the sole for 2 to 3 minutes on medium high heat--this was nice as they got some of the extra flour from the sole on them and were mighty tasty!

One of the birthday gifts --first attempt at some thread art

Has anyone else had any memorable meals of late? If so, please share!