These Are a Few of Her Favorite Things

My first child was born on Mother's Day weekend 18 years ago. She is truly a gift.
So in honor of her big birthday, I had a little surprise party for her.

What do 18 year old girls like? What do they want to do? What do they want to eat?
I should know this by now. But just when you think you've got it figured out, they're on to something new.

Lucky for me she's always been pretty easy, even as a teenager and this was no exception.
I decided to go with all her tried and true favorites, the things she requests time after time.

My guacamole ...

Mango salsa from Whole Foods...

Hot dogs cooked over the backyard campfire!

And since the fire was already lit, we had to have s'mores...

I barely broke a sweat making these chocolate-covered strawberries...

She also loves these...

For entertainment, we had a big inflatable moon bounce - even (especially) for 18 year old girls!
A tarot card reader was also on hand to give them some serious advice about the future.

Birthday cake? I wish.
I'd love to make her a big chocolate layer cake, but she prefers her dad's old specialty - an ice cream pie, made with a Rice Krispie and melted chocolate crust, filled with mint chip ice cream.

Nothing fancy or complicated for this kid.
Like I said, she's easy.
Happy birthday sweetie!

The Way Life Should Be - not just a marketing slogan

Yesterday was Bob's birthday, a little north of 50. For once, I did not obsess for days about what to make. There's a recipe I cut out of the New York Times magazine years ago, and this was the perfect opportunity to finally try it. It's actually called "The Way Life Should Be" which, as most of you know, is code for Maine and all that it entails. So of course it contains lobster. Lucky for me, Day's is still open for the season. Yes, a pound of lobster meat is an enormous splurge. Yes, I could have cooked the lobsters myself, then shelled them. But I am lazy when it comes to things like that. I can rationalize just about anything, so here's how I figure it: this is Bob's birthday present and it's more delicious than a flannel shirt. Plus, we get to share it.

A pound of picked lobster meat with pasta will feed 4-6 people, including one who just got home from 2 hours of football practice. Making this dish with the prepared lobster meat was ridiculously easy. It goes like this:
In a large bowl, mix together the juice of 2 lemons, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves chopped garlic, some crushed red pepper, a big handful of chopped herbs (I used parsley, mint, basil). About an hour before serving, add the lobster meat and do not refrigerate. Cook, then drain a pound of pasta (linguine is good).
At this point, if you have non-seafood eaters in your family, remove enough pasta for them to have with sauce from a jar. Don't tell them what they're missing.
Pour the lobster mixture over the rest of the pasta and mix well. Some snipped chives make a nice garnish. That's it!
I served it with a Caesar salad, with homemade garlic croutons.
Elegant, simple and so easy - the way life should be.



For dessert we indulged in peanut butter sundaes, one of Bob's favorites. My sister-in-law, who is an excellent cook, had given us some homemade fudge sauce. I made a peanut butter sauce with Skippy, corn syrup (that's right corn syrup - you just can't make some things without it), a little butter and vanilla. We put both sauces on top of vanilla ice cream (light ice cream of course) and finished the creation with chopped Reese cups and whipped cream.

I can't recommend eating this way every night, but for a birthday, it's just the thing to make you feel like a kid again.