Hamburgers=Summer

...well, not quite summer. It was a little chilly to eat outside so we had to bring them indoors but it is still pretty exciting! We added broccoli to be healthy.

Sandwich Business

This is Adam with a sandwich he made. He calls it the ABC. It starts with some really nice thick cut bacon and he adds avacado and cucumber. We are thinking of opening up a sandwich shop where every sandwich features bacon and the all are named with acronyms.

MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I had lots of birthday celebrations this year. One the weekend before my birthday my dad made me ribs and lemon-raspberry layer cake (not pictured - I forgot my camera!) which was super yummy. On the Monday after Adam and I took the day off and did all sorts of fun stuff like going out for bruch and puttering around the garden. He also made my birthday dinner which was an asparagus soup starter. It was really tasty and I liked how the cut green chives and blobs of olive oil mimicked the green bowl the soup was in. Adam is a food artist.


Next we had braised beef with veggies and collard greens on top. I am really starting to like collard greens and its nice to have a change of pace in the leafy green selection because there is only so much spinach I can eat. For dessert: Chef pino from my mom! Thanks mom - Adam tried to make me eat them the day before my birthday celebration but I would not let him.

My actual birthday celebration was a bit of a surprise. Adam had an exam the next day and I figured he would be busy studying so I didn't make too much of it. Actually I went to the gym after work so I was so surprised and happy to see my birthday dinner when I got home. Adam made ribs (more ribs!) roasted cauliflower, potato wedges and, of course, collard greens. I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures but the highlight had to be the cupcakes Adam made. They were lemon almond sponge cake with strawberry icing. They were delicious and I think the most beautiful cupcakes I have ever seen.

Phew...I am lucky!

Healthy Snack

This is to show my mom that I don't only eat bad foods. Bad foods do tend to be more delicious than healthy foods but this pear was perfect and thus makes it into the blog. I also like the way pears look.

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry are historically one of my least favorite muffins but we had a lot of blueberries that were on the verge of going bad so Adam made up a batch of muffins to use them up. While he was making them we realized we did not have quite enough milk so we substituted whipping cream. We also had way too many blueberries but decided to put them all in so we would not waste them. I was a bit worried because I tend to follow recipes to the tee but these were good substitutions. They were rich but they were so full of sweet/tart blueberries that they were perfectly balanced. I still dream of these.

Eggs on stuff

I love eggs on stuff. In Paris they put egg on the pizza and it is delicious so when Adam made pasta and left a teeny tiny portion for me he fried a couple of eggs on top and it was fantastic. The pasta, by the way, was thinly sliced and fried sausage, asparagus and herbs. The whole thing was fried up so the pasta was a little crispy before the egg was added. Indulgent.

Books

Adam and Peter spent the evening playing video games so I found myself a comfy spot and thumbed through some of my favorite books. I don't normally re-read books but it was nice to pick one up, open to any page and read just what a I wanted to. Mom, the next book I will have to lend you will be the Time Travelers Wife. If I only had one book for the rest of my life, that would be it.

Easter Dinner

We hosted Easter Dinner this year! it was because April 2nd was Sophia's due date and Dan and Darlene did not want to be too far from the hospital but, as it turns out she was born a week early so we got to celebrate Easter and Dan's birthday with her! What a happy surprise!

Sophia was so good - she spent most of the dinner sleeping and being cute!

The birthday boy!
I thought this was a good picture of dad.

Mmmmm Dinner was super tasty. I have to admit, I was initially a little bummed that we were restricted to fish for our dinner. I like fish well enough but it does not really feel special to me. Well, this dinner changed my mind. We had a really nice roasted salmon and my mom made ceviche which was excellent. Tia brought sweet potato and squash mash which I am informed had an entire stick of butter in them (just the way I like it) and adam and I made potatoes (two ways - roasted and a warm potato and herb salad), asparagus with home-made hollandaise and a fresh green salad with candied walnuts, goats cheese and pear. Even tia liked the salad despite her aversion to walnuts (helped that they were covered in sugar). Adam and I were a little worried that there might not be enough food but as you can see from the picture - that was not a problem.

Dessert - so much dessert! Adam made a lemon tart. It was a really simple recipe - mostly cream, lemon juice, eggs and sugar. We actually calculated that the meal took about a dozen and a half eggs and over 20 lemons to make the whole dinner. The tart came out nicely and with the extra egg whites we made meringues. Margaret helped make the first batch which came out looking like little ice cream tops - mine didn't look as cute but were still tasty. I was worried that we might not have enough so we made an extra batch of meringues the morning of and I also asked my mom and dad to bring sweet bread and strawberries. It also turns out that tia brought a mango mousse cake that was meant for Dan and Darlene's birthday but they could not eat it so they brought it over for Easter dinner! Everyone knows you can't have too much dessert so I would consider the dinner a success!