Planning a Day One Birthday Dinner

My lovely daughter in law’s birthday was this week. She has brought light to the entire family so I wanted to plan a feast worthy of a woman who shares her heart with everyone. She is a Culinary Institute of America graduate and is co-owner/manager/chef with our son at the neighborhood butcher shop and grill. I wanted to come up with a menu that doesn’t compete with her boeuf bourguignon or cassoulet with duck confit – because, well, I can’t compete! Seafood seemed like a good idea because it’s not something she cooks on a daily basis.

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In my minimalism journey I have donated, through our local Buy Nothing Site, over 20 cookbooks after going through them and writing our favorite recipes into a personalized book. It is so nice to be able to just Google ‘lobster recipes’ and have a variety at your fingertips. I had a half dozen files open on my computer and ideas written in my daily binder to pick from before deciding on a version of Lobster Newburg as an appetizer. Purchasing frozen prepared puff pastry shells was a good cheat and I was able to focus on babying the sauce, not having it break took all my concentration – no wandering off midway. My instant pot makes the best hard boiled eggs so I could peal a perfect egg to devil with sour cream, dijon and mayonnaise and then top with chopped chives and a smidge of salmon roe for the perfect creamy and salty bite. The other eggs were topped with crispy baked proscuitto for non roe loving husband!

I thought we’d need a salad of sorts so made a lemon vinaigrette to go over a bed of baby greens with grape tomatoes, avocado and bacon topped with butter poached lobster. How can you go wrong? You can’t! I’m looking forward to left over lobster mac and cheese and have leftover crustless crab quiche with asparagus to nibble on. Even though we are only four doors away and we work together on Saturdays, when we get together for dinner it’s a special time with the dogs playing and us laughing and talking and we watched a few episodes of Australia’s Beauty and the Geek – don’t judge! The photos of the food aren’t great, I didn’t take as much time as I could have getting things ‘instagrammable’ but I was excited to serve the meal.

As Seattleites’ we’ve been knee deep in Covid19 for over a year now and while we are soooo done with it, as is everyone else, it’s not keeping us from living our best lives and starting each morning as Day One. As the tattoo on many people reads…. we are motivated to live, laugh and love! Getting outside and walking to get fresh air has kept me healthy, psychologically and physically.

My virtual hike on Hadrian’s Wall continues. This week I am 47.6 miles in on the 90 mile route. My virtual view was of a sycamore tree that is set in the dip of a rocky outcrop that was formed due to melting glacial waters. I have to say I initially thought the virtual walk was a bit hippity dippity but it has really kept me motivated to get out and walk nearly every day, though the fact we are a month ahead of rainfall already this year (!) has made heading out an additional challenge. (Well….. I just googled hippity dippity because I wanted to make sure it meant what I thought it meant – it doesn’t! The Urban Dictionary definition made me laugh out loud because it is NOT what I use the term for. I’m keeping it in because I think it’s good to learn something new and funny to be soooo off!)