Happy Birthday Cassie

Wow! I can't believe my baby girl is suddenly a beautiful, mature, smart 19-year-old young women. How can this be? I can still see my chubby cheeked little darling when I look at her. I think back to how terrified I was when I found out I was pregnant. I had no idea what God had planned for us by putting this precious joy in my care. It's been a long journey and I'm so thankful to have the honor to raise her and be part of her transformation.

It is nice that she is in school close to home. She had to be at work at 2:00 so she took the train this morning and we had a family brunch. It was a good reason to change over the dining room from summer to fall. We put out the autumn colored tablecloth and prepared a basket of winter squash for the mantel. I love the warm cozy feeling. Chris and I agree that 8 is the ideal maximum for number of people at a meal in our dining room. Ryan, my parents and my brother and sister all came over. My brother brought his daughter who was her sassy little self today.

Chris and my styles are definitely blending well to host a meal. At one time, I think we got in each other's way a lot and had competing flavors and tastes but it seems to be more in sync lately. It was very enjoyable and good quality time for us. The dishes all complimented each other and we had just the right amount.

Cassie's Birthday Brunch

Smoothies: Blended silk tofu, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, peach nectar. These were a hit. They went down very easily . . . Cassie was the only one who managed to savor hers.

Fritatta a'la Chris: eggs (half yolks removed), carrots, onion, orange pepper, zucchini, parsley, and provolone cheese (not necessary but created a nice "crust" on the top). This was so light and the seasoning was perfect. Chris used his new Shun knife to chop the veggies in a fine even dice. The fritatta was served in his new LeCreuset pan. Both were bought with gifts from his recent birthday.

Pear Applesauce: Evelin brought me apples from her trip to the apple orchard weekend. I enjoyed some in a strudel, as a snack, on salad and finally used them up in this sauce of apples, pears, lemon juice and cinnamon stick. My sister commented that she wished she had her own kitchen so that she could experiment with recipes like this. It was so simple and so tasty and smooth. It's hard to eat processed food when you know how good the fresh stuff is.

Yogurt: I made yogurt last night to have for the week but thought it would be a nice addition to the menu. I think nobody really new what it was or how to use it so it actually wasn't touched. Fresh homemade yogurt is so good though. I am happy to have it for the week. It's just reconstituted non-fat milk and 2 T of Stonyfield Plain Yogurt as starter. I made it in the yogurt maker.

Waffles: At Cassie's request we had waffles. I wish I had planned better though. I didn't realize how long it would take to make waffles for 8 people since you can only make one at a time. Something I should keep in mind if I ever think to do it in the future. Anyway, I've been craving pumpkin lately so I made pumpkin waffles and basic waffles. It seemed that my family (except for Cassie who is relieved when I make something "normal") liked the novelty of the pumpkin since they were all eaten but not the regular ones. The pumpkin waffles were from the Post Punk Kitchen - my new favorite resource for creative vegetarian. They were almost vegan but I used 2T dairy yogurt instead of soy. The recipe is here: http://tinyurl.com/jqr96. The regular waffles were actually half whole wheat and half white flour. They were from Alten Brown's show. He's really entertaining. . . and his show is educational. It really helps me understand why and how food and recipes react certain ways. The link to the waffles is: http://tinyurl.com/h7bfa. They are just your basic good waffles. That's what I like about A.B. - he just gives you the basics and you can run with it or not as your imagination allows.

Cassie also, likes Kiwi so I sliced one and served it on a plate.

Of course what would a birthday party be without a cake??? So my pastry chef brother was kind enough to bake a carrot cake. It was the best carrot cake I have ever had. It was so light and the flavors were so perfect. The cream cheese frosting wasn't too sweet and you could taste every ingredient in the cake. I can't believe he works at the Whole Foods bakery and is in such great shape.

Overall, the meal was not WW friendly but I ate small amounts and didn't eat anything else all day. I'm not sure what that points are but I counted them as a days'. Tomorrow morning I WILL run.