Birthday Blast

 

Mother's Day coincides with our twin niece and nephew's birthday every year, and sometimes we have the pleasure of hosting their birthday party. This year, the celebration was simple, but the weather was perfect, and a good time was enjoyed by all. We updated traditional games, including apple bobbing (suspended from the porch with fishing line), hula hoop (the winner had more than 100 spins), pin the tail on the donkey (actually, pin the earrings on Indian glam actress Asywarae Rai--after 14 blindfolded spins to note the birthday milestone), and egg-on-spoon relay race, which is a blast with no updating necessary at all.

Refreshments featured root beer, homemade pizza, corn on the cob, double chocolate cake, and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Click on the collage to see the action unfold.

May Day Dinner

The dressing for this salad had a touch of sugar, which vastly improved the flavor.

Last week, I realized it had been a while since I had prepared a special meal from scratch, so I decided to create a three course menu for May 1, in honor of the Blessed Mother. The starter was a simple composed salad--Boston lettuce, endive, two kinds of oranges, and avocado, served with mustard-garlic dressing. The main course, osso bucco, was from the New York Times Cookbook . So was the accompaniment, Paula's Cold Tomatoes, which I served with asparagus spears and roasted potatoes.

The cold tomatoes were stuffed with spinach and pine nuts, and served at room temperature.
Lemon cheesecake topped with strawberries finished the meal.