Happy Belated Birthday (to me!)

In between jobs and sleep I somehow found time to plan my birthday.  This year I decided to keep it simple by just going out for a lovely dinner with my sweetie, then having some friends over for a few drinks and some cake.

Oh and no birthday is complete without a Sweet 16 from Cupcakes!

This year’s birthday dinner took place at Brasserie L’ecole.  We tried to go last year but the wait list was an hour and a half long.  We managed to sneak some seats at the bar right at the start of the dinner hour this time.

French onion soup, mussels with fancy frites, warm lemon pudding cake, and perfect white wine chosen by the bartender for me.  It was all exactly what I wanted, and exactly as delicious as I had envisioned.

On Saturday night we invited some folks out to the ‘burbs, where we enjoyed too many appetizers, a homemade cake built almost entirely of buttercream, and my own personal bottle of pink bubbly.

My birthday prezzie to myself?  A fresh new do!  A little Autumn ombre to mix things up in my 37th year. 

Oh hello bangs.  Happy birthday to me! :)

Belated Barbecue & Pasta Salad

Oh sorry!  Did we forget to invite you to our first BBQ of the year?  Geeeeze.  How rude.

And with all this food too?  We really could have used some help demolishing the burgers and corn and salsa and salad and watermelon.  Really. 

How could we have not invited you all?!  Next year I promise!

Since we were away frolicking in Ucluelet for Michael’s actual birthday we decided to plan a belated bday BBQ and invited his bigass family over to help us eat and celebrate!

The weather cooperated for the most part, we devoured copious amounts of deliciousness, and spent the afternoon watching the kids try to roll a tent around the back yard.  When the wind kicked in, the diehards stayed warm with Bailey’s coffees and the rest of us migrated indoors to stand at the kitchen counter to pick the strawberries and candied pecans out of the leftover salad.

I kinda, sorta, maybe never thought to pick up candles or sparklers for the Creamy Citrus Birthday Tart or mini Red Velvet cupcakes…but I’m pretty sure I’ve been forgiven for not wrangling 21 people to warble Happy Birthday in the afternoon rain.  :)

As an apology for not inviting you to hang out with us, here is a super easy, delicious and adaptable Pasta Salad recipe for you.  Originally based on the most popular menu item from the restaurant I worked at as a teenager, I’ve modified this a thousand times and it turns out yummy every time.

Cold Pasta Salad with Fresh Dill and Buttermilk Dressing

Yields 10 – 12 cups, plenty for the family BBQ

Ingredients:

• 1 box small pasta of choice (I prefer fusilli or rotini)
• 1 cup broccoli florets, bite sized
• 2-3 medium carrots, diced
• 2-3 celery stalks, diced
• 1/3 cup red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup red/yellow/orange pepper, diced (or green if you like them!)
• 1/3 cup cheddar cheese, small cubes
• optional:  3-4 dill pickles, chopped small; fresh parsley; fresh greens
• all measurements approximate, get creative!

Buttermilk Dressing:

• 3/4 cup buttermilk (and extra for thinning if needed)
• 3/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons fresh dill, coarsely chopped
• large pinches of salt and fresh cracked pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta a little less than package directions.  Do not overcook! 
2. For the last minute of cooking, add the broccoli and carrots to the pot.  Drain and immediately run pasta and veggies under cold water, tossing to cool.  Drain well.  Refrigerate.
3. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the dressing by whisking buttermilk, sour cream, Dijon and salt and pepper together until smooth.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. Once the pasta has cooled, toss with remaining vegetables (except fresh parsley or greens if using).  Refrigerate until about 30 minutes before ready to serve.
5. When ready to serve, carefully toss pasta mixture with dressing.  Add fresh greens if using, and cheese cubes and toss again.  Transfer to serving dish and garnish with extra fresh dill and sprinkle of salt.

Happy Birthday Hour

After starting a Friday afternoon off with a cider tasting with dear friends you can’t very well just call it a night.  More plans must be made.  Especially when an important birthday has just passed without a celebration and several bottles of sparkling cider have just been purchased.

We can’t let Tiffaney get away without a girlie birthday dinner!

Unpictured: herby cheeeeese, mixed olives and crack-crackers.

Bigass roasted beet and apple salad with candied pecans and fresh orange juice dressing.

Butternut squash gnocchi with brown butter and sage from La Piola.

And homemade birthday cake…complete with sour cherry buttercream. 

Also unpictured (geeee, how did that happen?): mass quantities of Sea Cider.

Our potlucking skills have become excellent.  Talk about team effort!

Happy Birthday Tiffaney!!

Let us eat cake!

Tiffaney’s birthday was in January. 

At the time she wasn’t interested in a party or any fuss.

For five months Laura felt deprived of her right to provide cake.

At the mention of fresh lemon curd and candied lemon peels a cake agreement was made.

Lemony, amazing, spongy, homemade, love filled cake.

Happy 5 month birthday anniversary Tiffaney!

A New Orleans Tradition

…right here in little ol’ Victoria!

So how did you all spend your Saturday? 

I betcha your dinner plans were nowhere near as cool as mine! ;)

This weekend marks my friend Justin’s 30th birthday and was celebrated with….wait for it….a backyard shrimp boil!!

When a regular BBQ just won’t do…buy 14lbs of fresh local spot prawns, a bigass pot and propane burner, and call all of your friends to come over.

This is the third annual shrimp boil but of course I wasn’t living here in the past so I’ve always missed out.  You know I was the first to RSVP when the invites for this year’s celebration were sent out.

The pot was filled three times….each time with baby red potatoes, corn on the cob, mushrooms, chorizo sausage, onion, whole garlic bulbs, the fresh shrimp….and the extra special New Orleans seasonings.  Justin brings these back from Louisiana when he visits for work.

There.are.no.words.

Roll up your sleeves, stuff your pockets with napkins, reach in, and start twisting heads off.  :)  Nom nom nom…. 

Let me just say this:  corn on the cob should always be cooked in well seasoned water…the corn was almost better than the shrimp!!!

I brought dessert.  Who needs plates?  We had forks and appetites.

Creamy Citrus Tart recipe coming up tomorrow.  It was amazing.

Chibi tried to make friends with Burl.

Burl was too busy gettin’ busy with the ladies.

I kept my distance from Burl’s advances and ate extra shrimp while he kept everyone distracted.

Shrimp boil.  Reason #256 to visit New Orleans.  Sign me up!

The Empress Tea Room

My Mom and I have an annual tradition of going out for steak and lobster on her birthday.  The past three years this was very convenient because I would be couch surfing at her place this time of year during my visits back from Halifax.  It was just easy to hit up The Keg Steakhouse since I was basically relying on her to chauffeur me around during my stays. :)

This year I phoned and asked her if we could do something different.  I’m back in Victoria now, she’s only a short road trip away, and neither of us has ever been to The Fairmont Empress for high tea (which is utterly ridiculous considering we are Island girls!). 

She agreed!  Afternoon Tea is was!

The gorgeous tea room.  Our beautiful Victoria harbour view.

The tea time menu is pre-set for the most part (they will accommodate allergies and substitutions if needed).  We were surprised by the strawberries and cream that arrived as soon as we were seated.

Since it was a birthday celebration I thought some bubbly was in order.  From the champagne cocktail menu I chose a Kir Royale (crème de cassis topped with sparkling wine).  Mom stole a few sips of mine. :)

The only real menu choice you have to make during tea time is your actual tea.  We kept it simple by opting for the famous Empress Blend.

From their website:  “The Empress blend is a selection of seasonal, quality teas, created exclusively for The Fairmont Empress by the Metropolitan Tea Company. With components from Assam (thick malty and full bodied), Kenya (floral-like flavour and a golden coppery infusion), South India (superb fruity and sprightly flavour), Ceylon (airy, almost piquant flavour), and China (burgundy depth with light oaky notes), it is truly one of the finest blends in the world.”

And then our baked goods arrived!  Oh.my.yum.

Our server Sam (who has worked at The Empress since 1976!) described each tier of delicious sandwiches, scones, and desserts…instructing us to start at the bottom and work our way up.

We were way too excited about the amazing raisin scones, clotted cream, and strawberry preserves though…and headed straight for tier two to start!

Had we had even a smidge of room left in our bellies at the end of our tea time we would have taken them up on the offer of more sandwiches…the egg salad croissants were deeeeelish!

Oddly enough, although we enjoyed most of the dessert items, we didn’t even finish the offerings.  I was pretty enamoured with the Rose Petal Shortbread though…so light, and I loved the sugar coating.

As part of our meal we were each given a box of our tea to take home.  Nice touch.

Side note:  High tea is a bit pricey, but I recently signed up for the free Friends of the Empress card which gave us 20% off.  Quite a deal! :)

After tea I wanted to walk around the grounds and show Mom some of the gardens and views but sadly it started raining just as we stepped outside.  We took a few photo opportunities then headed back inside and navigated our way back to the car.

All in all it was a really fun and different way to spend an afternoon.  Maybe we’ll make it our birthday tradition from now on!