Family Birthday Celebrations

A birthday is a day to celebrate in our house. Our tradition is that the birthday person gets to pick the meals for the day and the activities for the day. The day is all about that person. On Saturday, we celebrated my daughter's birthday. We still had our Canadian friends visiting, so they were included in the mix of people. When this tradition started, we were a family of five; on Saturday there were 12 of us here. (I included our newest grandson in this number of people, but since he is only 3 weeks old, the only space he needs is someone's arms and there were plenty of arms to go around). What a blessing family is.

The day started with your choice of Greek Yogurt or Vanilla yogurt with your choice of fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, papaya, bananas) and either raspberry crunch granola, or vanilla almond granola. All of this then got a drizzle of honey. My daughter and I discovered this yummy breakfast idea while traveling in Greece, minus the granola. There was also a selection of toast and jams.

My daughter's choice for lunch was Eggplant Parmesan Sandwiches and Chicken Parmesan sandwiches for those preferring meat. I breaded the eggplant and baked the slices in the oven rather than fry them, which makes them a lot lighter. Once they were lightly golden brown, I topped them with jarred spaghetti sauce (didn't have time to make my own), gave them a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese and popped them back in the oven for the cheese to melt. I did pan fry the breaded chicken cutlets, then popped them in the oven with the sauce and cheese. I seem to have started another tradition over the last year or so with baking a batch of cookies for the birthday person, trying to pick their favorite cookie. Everyone is now suggesting their favorite cookie when they give me their menu for the day. The cookie of the day was White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. What a great lunch!

The choice for dinner was Indian in flavor. We started with Potato and Pea Samosas which were really good. I made chutney for the first time, the green chutney was really good. Tamarind chutney is my favorite and this one didn't work out so well. I overcooked the chutney (it went to almost the soft candy stage which I would have realized if I were using a candy thermometer). Hopefully it will come out better next time. We had Chicken Tikka Masala served over cumin scented Rice Pilaf. It was absolutely perfect. This was served with store-bought Naan bread.

Dessert was a Canadian classic - Brown Sugar Pie. The closest way to describe this is to imagine a pecan pie filling made with lots of brown sugar without the the pecans. This filling goes into a double crust pie. I grew up with this pie as a traditional dessert and all of my girls love it. It is always a family favorite but requires a very sweet tooth to enjoy it.