Birthday Cooking

Birthday girl is working hard drinking wine. Dewey really didn't like the Hello Kitty birthday hat, or the balloons.

Best couple shot of Blake and Lance. Jason's first New York Christmas tree!

It was a birthday party fit for a queen! Friday night a few of us got together for one of our cooking nights and to celebrate the beautiful Blake in all her birthday glory. When we usually get together we have to make these really terrible Whole Foods recipes for part of Blake's job. But, after many weeks of doing all we can to make those recipes edible, we decided to go a different route. Each of us submitted an ingredient and had to make a dish using one of the ingredients they did not submit.

This week's ingredients included avocado, crab boil, italian eggplant, fresh cranberries, goat cheese, and tomatillos. We ended up with such delicious creations! I used the avocado to make this delicious (and VEGAN) cake for the birthday girl. I do have to say that my favorite dish was the goat cheese and shrimp risotto. Way to go Lance. You really knocked that one out of the park. In terms of birthday celebrations, we had party hats, Hello Kitty plates and napkins, champagne, and of course a vegan birthday cake!

Can't wait for the next cooking adventure :)

Group shot before we ate. We all look tired because we were. Our dishes took a really long time to make and we didn't get to eat until about 10:30!

The problem with having good kitchenware

Is they are really freaking sharp!

I decided to make a delicious dinner last night (side note: how is it I never manage to snap shots of my creations?) and in the midst of zesting some ginger for the sauce in my Bombay Sloppy Joes I slipped and got my finger. It was one of those really bad cuts, because it took a bit to actually start bleeding. I now have about 10 nice little cuts along my finger. It sure is a good thing I opted to sleep an extra 10 minutes instead of actually giving myself a manicure this week!

Despite the injury, the meal was delicious. Luckily the ginger was the first step and I easily was able to start over without wasting too much! Jon and I enjoyed while sipping on some wine and watching When in Rome. It was surprisingly cute.

She cooks while I drink wine

Last night Jessie decided to cook me dinner for a change. She made a delicious cabbage creation and some chicken.

She also set off the fire alarm and spilled wine on my computer. At least the food tasted good.

How does your garden grow?

I've been desperately trying to grow a nice assortment of herbs to use in my many recipe adventures. Finally, they are starting to sprout! Only a little longer until they are spicing up my cooking creations. Please do not laugh at the size of my "garden." I live in NY, this is all the space I have.

I have chives, parsley, basil and cilantro growing. Yum!