Sunday, May 04, 2008

May birthdays

Over on the Muddy Island, J celebrated her Boy's birthday a day late - May 3rd instead of the 2nd. I'm about to do the same for my Boy whose birthday was yesterday; he is arriving today for a short visit so I was up at dawn this morning to make the predictable chocolate cake. (Gold candles are tens and silver, units!)

This will be the first time that the family has been together since the birth of Amelia. What better excuse for a day of feasting? With local lamb at its best, the carnivores will be happy and the vegetarians enjoyed the spinach and feta pie I made at Christmas so that will be on the menu too. I not
iced that in the the recipe I gave for for this at Christmas I said to cook it for 20 minutes. I have now corrected that to 40 minutes, otherwise you would have a very pale pie indeed!

The first of the local strawberries and some Devonshire clotted cream should keep everyone smiling, although little Millie has enough winning ways to compensate for any culinary disasters of mine.

Happy birthday to all May babies, however many candles are on your cake.

P.S. Last chance today to enter the May book draw as Millie will be leaving very early tomorrow and she is determined to pick the name out of her hat.

2 comments:

  1. Ha ha - at least you got to put the icing and candles on your birthday cake! I made mine, trimmed it into rugby ball shape (naturally), popped on some marzipan and suddenly a flock of gannets descended as if from nowhere, squawking 'ooooh, that smells nice, why don't we eat it right now - pleeease?' So I whipped up some plain white icing, poured it over and half the result was scoffed in minutes, all wet and runny and still slightly warm. And there was me planning an elaborate session with the icing tube to prove that I am, in fact a 'real mother' - oh well, saved me a job, I suppose. And gannets are not renowned for their aesthetic awareness.

    Have a lovely family celebration and I hope your lot show considerably more decorum and good manners over today's cake than my gang did. Mind you . . . it looks so delicious that I'm a bit worried someone might break into it early.

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  2. Did you know, J, that whatever you feed your Boy between the ages of 10 and 12, will be his favourite food for life? They are permanently starving - as you know! - and you could feed them absolutely anything and it would be imprinted in their 'great food memory.' It doesn't happen in the same way for girls, apparently.

    This explains why my husband thinks I'm an excellent cook and tells all his friends how lucky he is but, the minute I go away, he rushes to Tesco and stocks up on tinned Irish stew, fish fingers, tinned peaches, condensed milk and mass-produced cake. His mother couldn't cook at all and once she had left her expat life for the realities of England, this is what she fed him. At least you know your future daughter-in-law will have to compete with some REAL food memories!

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