2 posts tagged “birthdays”
I wish I had been having a real rest but all I seem to have had is a few days break from blogging because I have fallen down the rabbit hole that is the season to be run-off your feet. Things are just too busy at the moment what with the general holiday craziness (e.g. work parties, shopping, Christmas cards still to go out, etc), two seminars on the go (working on my new found respect for Cleopatra) and when you throw in a couple of birthdays it starts getting hard to breath.
It's Alex's birthday today, and we had friends over on Saturday night for a bit of a party. I took Friday off to prep the apartment (mega clean-up and reorganizing our collection of boxes!) and source the pork. It is really something of a challenge to find a ham under 20lbs, one thing I miss from the old country is that supermarkets sell little 2-4lb hams that are perfect for boiling in coke as they really retain the flavor unlike monser hams. I managed to get an 8lb one from an old fashioned butchers on Bleecker Street, and then had to lug it up town as I went in search of cocktail sausages. Oh the saga of the cocktail sausages. Why don't regular supermarket/butchers carry these gourmet delights? Mini hot dogs are not even in the same league. In the end I had to order them from Myers of Keswick (a British grocery store in the West Village), and I don't even want to think about how much money this store makes from ex-pats and anglophiles. I just hope that the owners children are going to Ivy League schools, and they are not frittering away their HUGE mark ups.
The menu was a mixture of Nigella and Smitten Kitchen, and it all went down a treat:
- Ham in Cherry Coke
- Roast potatoes
- Cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon
- Creamed spinach
- Cucumber and pomegrante salad
- Ratatouille tart
- Winter fruit salad
- Custard birthday cake
We still have left over ham, but our friends hoovered up all the roast potatoes and creamed spinach. It was fun but tiring, and even Alex was flagging yesterday!
I meant to write this yesterday, but too busy sightseeing and celebrating Alex's birthday. I put "December 15" into Wikipedia and here are my twisted highlights:
Events
- 1939 - Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia
- 1965 - First space rendezvous as Gemini 6A is launched and manages 4 orbits and then docks with Gemini 7
- 1994 - Web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released
- 2006 - First flight of F-35 Lighting II
Births
- 37 - Nero
- 1949 - Don Johnson
- 1968 - Garrett Wang (this is super ironic)
Holidays
