Baby Benny's Birthday

Ben celebrated his 'Magic' birthday this year- he turned 23 on July 23rd. It's so magic in fact, that he wanted to show how special he is by displaying his cake backwards.

I wanted to throw a gourmet burger party with delicious hamburgers, smashed pan-fried potatoes, chickpea salad, wine, and a brown sugar pavlova with berries for dessert. I did all those things, but his request for a cake was, "Do you remember that cake that Granny made for dad every year? It's like a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and it was so good we would eat it until we got sick. Don't you remember? Allison, I can't believe you don't remember that cake Granny made that was so good."

I don't remember that cake, but I'm pretty sure it was a regular boxed yellow cake with rich chocolate icing. So that's what we made.

We also made the pavlova that I wanted to try.
Mom and I were in the kitchen pretty much all day on Saturday. We started off making the merengues- the layers between the berries and cream. They take a full 2.5 hours to make and we were excited. The berries were easy and so was the cream. We couldn't wait to put it together so we assembled it right before we ate dinner. It sat for a couple of hours after that and we soon learned this gourmet dessert is something that should be eaten just after it's assembled- the juice from the berries and cream deflated our light and airy merengues so we didn't get much of the marshmallow texture. Certainly something to try again!

Colby and Connie chatting with their chips.

Usually I like to set up some appetizers on our bar for a party. Bean is pretty good at guacamole, so this time we made sure to have enough by using 5 avocados, and making sure the ramekin never went empty. We also had queso for my little brother since he doesn't eat guacamole or the creamy spinach dip from Real Simple. Everyone loved the multi-grain chips too (from Tostitos).

Bean proudly displays the fruits of his labor. Super thick and delicous burgers!

I think Anna is ready to dig in!

Here is the other gourmet recipe I wanted to try. They were kind of a pain so I probably won't make them again. You have to boil potatoes for 15 minutes (or longer if they are big like the ones we got), then lightly smash them down, and then pan fry them in olive oil for 20 minutes before sprinkling them with parmesan cheese. They tasted good but were way too much work. And they look nothing like the picture in the magazine.

Dad was happy to see his sister at the party. They look so much alike.

And we had a special guest that kept me up all night long with her long toenails clicking on the floors, whining and howling that her family- obviously I'm not included in that family anymore- left her in a strange place. That would be my house.

That's ok- even though she hurt my feelings, Baby is still my favorite dog in the world! And she's so pretty and great.

All in all, it was a great weekend that started with Mom and I at Barnes/Noble- a favorite spot for both of us- reading magazines and chatting. Then dinner at BJ's with Dad/Connie. That place is always fun and we splurged with an appetizer, entrees, drinks and dessert!

Saturday Dad/Connie hit up the Ft. Worth Zoo, Bean went to work, and Mom and I spent the day in the kitchen and hanging out. Everyone arrived at the party, and we had a great time eating, laughing and playing absurd board games like Loaded Questions, Mad Gab and some other that turned into 'Who can write the most obscene thing in cursive the fastest?' We decided to write in cursive so our handwriting would be less obvious.

My favorite question from that game was: 'Things you should say to break an awkward silence.' The answers we got were: 'Fart', 'Did you fart?', 'Nice boobs', and 'Fart'.

Today was spent sitting on the couch. What a great weekend.