Mendolonium

It’s time for cake, the monsters shout.
Hurry blow your candles out.

-From Sandra Boynton’s “Birthday Monsters”

It’s been all about getting ready for and enjoying my 30th birthday here this week. Jeff spent all of his free time readying the backyard to throw me a great birthday party on Sunday afternoon. He really set himself a challenge and, with the help of his dad, installed sprinklers (digging the trenches by hand in true Jeff style), laid 400 sq ft of sod, and set up for the party over the course of about 30 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to Jeff and the help of his parents I had a very relaxing birthday weekend centered around food. I spent Saturday morning at a cooking class on frozen desserts at the California School of Culinary Arts. We made a chocolate semi-freddo, buttermilk sherbet, and a grapefruit-orange sorbet. The buttermilk sherbet was simply amazing and I will certainly be making more at home. I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday making food for the party. A tradition of buying an ice cream cake for my birthday came to an end this year with Thomas’ allergies. I started a new tradition of making and decorating my own birthday cake which was great fun. Next year I think I’ll make the cake and the ice cream. The party was a great success: the weather was perfect, the food was good and plentiful, the kids played well together, and it was so nice to get a chance to relax and spend time with everyone who came. It was especially enjoyable to see our previously uninhabitable backyard full of life: both plants and people. Thirty has certainly started off well and I am looking forward to the next decade of life. Amongst all the chaos this week here’s what we’ve been eating:

Thursday

• Dinner at the Farmer’s Market

Friday

• Veggie and Tofu Asian Stir-Fry over Rice

Saturday

• Ended up getting take-out after working hard all day with Jeff’s parents installing sprinklers and laying sod.

Sunday

• Birthday Party!
• Black Bean Burgers
• Tortilla Chips and Guacomole
• Pasta and Summer Vegetable Salad
• Berry Salad
• Watermelon
• Birthday Cake: One chocolate with chocolate buttercream and one vanilla-coconut with vanilla buttercream.
• Vanilla Ice Cream

Monday

• Gina’s 30th Birthday!
• Fresh Bread
• A Selection of American Cheeses
• Fresh Seasonal Fruit
• Tomatoes and Basil

Tuesday

• Veggie Fajitas

Wednesday

• Three Cheese, Roasted Bell Pepper, and Basil Pizza

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Menus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.