Happy Birthday Conor! — I'll Be Ready in Five Minutes

Conor's birthday is October 13th! Spooky day, right? I was so excited to celebrate this gem of a guy who has warmed my heart and made me laugh every day since I landed. For his birthday "cake", I decided to make my family's infamous apple pie. Cheeky, right? Since he teased Jess and I with "the best pie he's ever had" and then wouldn't TURN AROUND ;)

Anyway, this apple pie recipe KILLS. My dad learned it from his mom and he's been making it every Thanksgiving and Christmas since I can remember. A few years ago, when I started getting more ~~comfortable~~ capable in the kitchen (#CarolinaIntheKitchen), I decided to pay close attention and am now able to seamlessly whip up my own! What was even more fun is that I had Conor as a sous chef - we made it together! He got to see me in my element, apron and all!

Make a wish, Cheeky Moon!

To celebrate, I took him out for dinner at Coogee Pavilion. I was SO excited for this!! I did a lot of research on fun places to go out and Coogee Pavilion just kept coming up. Coogee is the next beach suburb over from Bondi so it's got similar vibes.

The inside is massive and SO CUTE!! It's set up to look like a little market, with little stalls for flowers and coffee, and a cute gelato counter.

Once seated, I was adamant that Conor get a fun cocktail. He went with an espresso martini. They are very big here! They have a reputation for being like a badass cocktail.

I got a spicy jaffa! Tequila, cointreau, spicy chocolate and orange...DI-VINE. Jaffa is also big here, it's the combination of chocolate and orange flavors. #Fire

Oysters to start... ohmygod so good. They were perfectly salty and ice cold (and spicy once I had my way with them!)

Being at the beach and having just had oysters, I was really feeling the seafood vibe and went with..... a lobster roll.....! Fun fact: I've never had one before! I love lobster though and this place just had the look like it would make a killer lobster roll. And rest assured, it did NOT disappoint.

What's a lobster roll without fries and garlic aioli? Blasphemy, that's what.

Conor perfectly played the part of a guy on his birthday and got himself a big old plate of steak!

The face of satisfaction...

How beyond cute is this little guy?! This is the 'tomato sauce' aka ketchup bottle. Where do I find one?!

One of the reasons I chose Coogee Pavilion is because they have games! After din, we headed to the back and entered into a pretty heated game of ping pong... Quite honestly, I didn't do so bad. I would go as far as to say I "impressed". This could be due to low expectations, but hey.