Birthday Dinner

It's my birthday and I'll cook if I want to.

After last week's miss of a good Sunday dinner, I cooked dinner tonight, even though it was my birthday. Oh, and I also was the one who got out of bed with the girls in the morning too. And cleaned up after dinner.  Let the record state that I only wanted to cook dinner.

Dinner tonight was a simple roast chicken. I adore roast chicken. It is about one of the easiest things you can make. I mean that, it is so damn easy.

1. Take chicken out of plastic.

2. Rinse chicken under cold water and pat dry.

3. Fill chicken cavity with garlic, fresh herbs of any variety, and fruit (lemon, apple, grapefruit - cut in quarters).

4. Drizzle chicken with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, or a spice blend.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes per pound in a 350 degree F (preheated oven).

6. When the leg moves freely and the juices run clear when the skin is pierced near the wing the chicken is done. Let rest for 20 minutes. Eat.

Tonight I roasted my chicken with garlic, rosemary, and a grapefruit. (We're out of lemons.) And I rubbed the skin with an Ethiopian Berbere spice blend that Aimee gave me. Oh, yum. Served with a pile of Gull Valley tomatoes tossed with Fairwinds Farm Goat Feta and the first of the Edgar Farms asparagus it was an easy, tasty, and ridiculously local dinner.

Good food aside, it is my birthday, so cake was necessary.  Hubby was willing to bake a simple chocolate cake, but I convinced him to pick up something at the market today. A Caramel Chocolate Tart from The Bakery at the Calgary Farmer's Market. Love the Wacky Cake, Hubby, but that tart was definitely better.

So the drama of split milk and singing Happy Birthday later, we finished the night with the first backyard fire of the season. 

Now that's a Sunday dinner!

New Inspiration

For Smilosarus' birthday the other day we got her some Crayon Rocks. Hubby was very skeptical about my on-line purchase from Stubby Pencil Studio.  You see, we have a ridiculous amount of markers, coloured pencils, and crayons all over the house. 

Markers and crayons, however, cannot be used without supervision because a certain small, smiley girl will either write on the walls, eat them, or break them. And there just doesn't seem to be enough satisfaction for her with the pencils. I figured it couldn't hurt to try these Crayon Rocks.

What a huge success!  They are perfect for little hands, easy to clean up, and not one has made their way into a mouth yet. And the colours! True and lovely. She handed me a pile of them yesterday and I was struck by the random combination in my hand.  A new project?

Birthday Treats

It was Smilosaurus' birthday yesterday. This daredevil, evil genius child of mine is now 2. I'm not at all prepared for it. I don't have a baby any more and that's kind of tough to accept. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that she is an itty bitty thing, and the thought of cakes on birthdays.

We'd initially planned a low key day.  I was at a conference for work, running into doppelgangers of ex boyfriends and nervously parking behind Ferraris. Hubby was lost in a pile of wood and hardware, putting together our new swing set. But on the way home from work I felt like we simply needed a cake for dinner. 

This cake needed to be more than a carrier for icing. Yes, icing is really the best part, but I was actually craving cake and I was hoping to make the girls like it for once. Knowing that I'd preemptively bought cream so I could make ice cream this weekend I decided I would make a simple butter cake and serve it with cream.  Nothing fancy, but just the right amount of pomp befitting a two year old.

So I turned to a classic recipe in this house, one I've made a half dozen times in the year or so since I've had the recipe. Lemon Glazed Butter Cake comes from a treasured Gourmet before they folded. And yes, the girls helped me make the cake. Is it wrong that that kid had to make her own cake? Maybe.  But in my defense, she wanted to.

In my world, one of the best flavour combos is lemon and white chocolate. So I served our cake with white chocolate cream.

The Monster loved the cake so much she ate two pieces and left most of the cream of the side. And Smilosaurus merely played with her cake, rubbing it into her dirty, bare legs as if it was lotion.  So, I think she liked it too. Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

White Chocolate Cream

4 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Place chopped chocolate in a sturdy bowl.  Heat 1/2 cup cream on the stove or in the microwave until hot, but not scalding.  Pour over chocolate and stir immediately. Chocolate should melt with stirring.  If it doesn't, heat, in bowl, over a small pot of simmering water until melted. Let cool until room temperature.

2. When the chocolate mixture is cool, whip remaining cream with a sturdy whisk and bowl or an electric mixer. Whip until it starts to fluff up and the beaters/whisk leave marks in the cream. Slowly whisk/beat in the chocolate cream, beat until the cream reaches the desired whipped cream consistency.  Serve immediately. Alternatively, you can refrigerate it for a white chocolate mousse.

Shout Out

Nothing homemade today.  No more digressions on modern quilting.  Just a simple shout out to my baby girl.  Smilosaurus turned two yesterday.

I've been choked with nostalgia, yes, nostalgia, over where we were two years ago.  First, in anticipation of the birth.  On Mother's Day I remembered being in early labour. I laughed over my water breaking in the proverbial gush as I stood up during a conference call (from home, thankfully!) I fondly reminisced about the walks we took to get labour going when it seemed all contractions stopped. I cringed just a little at the memory of the nurses, shocked because we stopped at Starbucks on the way to the hospital.  Hey, it was early!

What I did not feel nostalgic about was the actual final push of labour.  Not fun.  Not fun at all. But then I had my sweet little girl.  She nestled in right away and was nursing within minutes. The second time around you are so much more relaxed and can actually appreciate so many of those little moments. Like her big sister, not even two herself, walking in the room after not seeing me for a few days and only having eyes for her little sister.

I could write a love letter to my daughter right here, but I took care of that already and tucked it into her momento box.  Instead I will share my favourite picture from yesterday and simply say, Happy Birthday Smilosaurus!