Golden Birthday

I've been waiting for my golden birthday since I can remember. I don't know what started this. Either someone I knew must have had one heck of a golden birthday or I just liked the way "golden birthday" sounded. So this was the year. This past Saturday to be exact.

My sister, knowing what high expectations I had for the big day, lured me to Houston with promises of cupcakes and family and lots of good food.

We started off our trip on Thursday night at Hearsay with "The Flaming Leah" - a cocktail comprised of vodka, strawberries, lime, and mint. We actually had ours with raspberries and it was easily the best cocktail I've ever tasted (besides the one I had in Paris). Hearsay is in the second oldest building in Houston. It feels really hip and plays great music at happy hour.

After drinks we headed to the Wortham Theater Center to see "Marie"- the Houston Ballet's performance based on the life of Marie Antoinette. Here's an article about it. It was pretty cool. It even went all the way to her beheading.

On the schedule for Friday morning was cupcakes for breakfast at Sugarbaby's Cupcake Boutique. I had a banana cupcake with Nutella icing, also known as the best breakfast cupcake EVER. Just think about what it's doing for all those sad banana muffins out there.

I fully intended on making this cake for my birthday however my sister's oven is on the fritz and the new one didn't make it in time for Saturday. So we picked out a cupcake for everyone.

(On a side note I just typed that out somewhere else and copied and pasted it there so I could get rid of the underline. WHY IS IT UNDERLINED? Underlining isn't even an option?! WHY is Blogger ruining my golden birthday post?!)

On Friday afternoon we did some shoe shopping and had to wait while a trail ride for the Houston rodeo crossed Westheimer. Horses and covered wagons making Audis and Mercedes and BMW's wait. Pretty interesting sight.

My parents and my brother arrived in the evening and after dinner we went to the Chocolate Bar for dessert. I had never been there, but my brother had, as you may be able to tell from this picture.

Chocolate covered s'mores are the thing to get according to him. He was so happy that he laughed so hard he cried.

We started off my birthday with a stunt we do at home. I don't know how this started but it's funny and it drives Theo crazy. Well, things didn't go so well and Michael "let me down" on my head and I tumbled onto my back. My hip bone is still a little tender. I swore I wouldn't trust him again but we needed to redeem ourselves. Here we are during a croquet game. I wanted to play like the Queen of Hearts where everyone had to lose but me, but somehow I still lost (despite my mother's best efforts).

We moved indoors where we were introduced to Beatles Rockband. The drums are so much fun!

We had mojitos and danced to Ke$ha before getting ready to go to dinner at Brennan's of Houston. I had shrimp and grits which was so delicious. The restaurant is beautiful, the service is awesome, and the food is outstanding. I had to order dessert even though we had cupcakes at home. Why? White chocolate and chocolate mousse with patron and chipotle sea salt. That's why. They even brought me a fun chef's hat and put a candle in my dessert.

Not only is he handsome, he cooks, too!

Bananas Foster - the fancy way. Complete with cinnamon sparkles.

Then we went home to have a dance party and to open presents.

We finished our trip with Rudy's barbecue which is conveniently located near the airport. This was another Houston experience I'd been missing out on, and it was certainly some delicious barbecue.

It really was the greatest golden birthday I could have wished for.

Another Baby Mobile

I added bobbles to the knitting pattern for the hoop. I'm really happy with how cute this one turned out. Especially the flowers.

If you want to make one, follow the original pattern but add a bobble on every fourth stitch in the 5th row. Make the bobble as follows: Knit in the front then back then front of the fourth stitch. Turn and purl three. Knit 3 together.

From the Kitchen

I totally should have taken a picture of this Tortellini Soup before adding the grated parmesan. This looks sick, but it was surprisingly delicious. It was easy to make, too.

Chicken and Gruyere Turnovers from Real Simple's March issue. These didn't really have flavor except for the Kentucky's Smokin' Grill Spiced Honey Mustard that we used.

I thought the turnovers would redeem themselves since I was planning to make cinnamon rolls with the leftover puff pastry. But the recipe was really for sticky buns and I thought putting icing on them would magically transform them into what I wanted. I don't know what I was thinking. I mean they were good but I'm just more of a cinnamon roll kind of gal.

Now for the piece de resistance. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. I admit I do eat way too much raw cookie dough when I make them from scratch. Now I can safely eat raw cookie dough! This is indeed bad news. Well maybe not so bad because I don't really want to eat a ton of these. I know they are in my freezer and their size is big enough to be just what I want. I ended up making them smaller than the recipe. So I made 15 and I have a separate container for our friend who watches Theo for us. Anyway I used peanut butter instead of greek yogurt as the egg replacement since we have peanut butter and rarely use it. The result is a subtle peanut butter flavor which is fine with me.

Hyperbole and a Half

I first heard about Hyperbole and a Half when my favorite blog mentioned this post. Wow that was a lot of links, but the third link will seriously have you crying laughing. So when I was home for Christmas we were all dying laughing over her Spaghata Nadle comics. Then I was perusing Ravelry's free toy patterns and came across a pattern for the author's illustration of herself. I had to make it for my sister's birthday. Here it is.

Snapdragon Tam

The yarn came in last week and I finished my hat last night! I love it. It's exactly what I needed all winter. Good thing Spring will be early. Now I can pack it up for next year. Thanks for nothing, Phil.

Oh, hi! What kind of pillow is that? A squirrel pillow, you say. It looks cozy.

Valentine's Day

Let me start by saying how much I love and appreciate my Saturdays after working on Saturdays for about a year. It's not that I didn't love working at the toy store. I was always happy to be there. It's like not being able to appreciate Fridays when you're unemployed. Anyway, I'm making it a point to get out of the house on the weekend.

This past Friday we went to the Joshua Radin concert at The Jefferson. The singer that opened for him was ok. She told us stories about her therapy which I didn't really care to hear about. Joshua Radin's songs that I know are kind of slow and sad but pretty. His new stuff is way more upbeat. I was really tired and we found some seats way at the top of the theater. He talked a lot and I would have preferred to hear more songs. It was fun to go out together.

On Saturday we went to a wine tasting and Gearhart chocolate pairing at White Hall Vineyard after lunching at Feast. The wine was ok. The chocolate was phenomenal, the drive out there spectacular, and the company most enjoyable.

Yesterday I subbed in a first grade classroom. I guess I didn't really think about what Valentine's Day is like in first grade. It's like a real holiday. They are literally vibrating with excitement all day until they can exchange their Iron Man and holographic kitty valentines and eat a ton of sugar. So it was a fun place to be working. I got a cupcake from the teacher and some leftover candy from a couple kids. Funfetti cupcakes are good and all but I was so happy to come home to this:

The pink and white flowers are ranunculus, or the wedding bouquet flower that was or wasn't it. So now I finally have some along with a sweet card and a box of Godiva's dessert truffles.

We cooked Chicken Parmesan and we had the most delicious salad in the world- the strawberry goat cheese spinach salad. The chicken parmesan was AMAZING and so much easier than I thought it would be. I really liked the olives in the sauce but Michael thought it tasted too olive-y.

My wonderful husband bought me chocolates so I decided last minute to go ahead and make Chocolate Creme Brulee since I bought the supplies so it wasn't ready until today. The chocolate was measured in ounces and we don't have a scale so I guessed. Also I didn't have chocolate liqueur. So I take back what I said about having the ingredients. I used rum in place of the liqueur. The flavor turned out pretty good. I think I need smaller ramekins. It is impossible to finish one of these by yourself. We tried to get artsy and make the Batman symbol for your entertainment. Actually I was going to taste it before taking a picture but I couldn't be stopped.

Valentine's Day was always extra special in our home because it's also my dad's birthday. We February birthdays celebrate all month long. Happy Birthday, Dad! I am looking forward to celebrating with you in a couple weeks.

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