A good friend of ours turned 30 over the weekend, and since she loves themes, we threw a Downton Abbey style wine tasting party.
Grace and I made wine charms from wine corks (idea courtesy of Yvette!)
The wine was labeled by playing cards.
We had guests from upstairs and downstairs.
Maybe we were Sibyl and Branson??
So we did celebrate my birthday a couple weekends ago. We went away for the weekend. All the way across the lake to Redmond, a 30 minute drive from home. It’s a pretty town, and we had a gift certificate for a nice hotel there (I love working in the hospitality industry!) and since the bridge was closed through the weekend anyway, we were already over on the Eastside for church on Sunday morning. Perfect.
We started our weekend at home, where Ryan made me breakfast and french press coffee with foamed raw milk. Yum.
After a busy Saturday at home, we set off for Redmond, a walk through the cool evening, and a delicious dinner. (My salad had braised grapes on it!)
We chose the restaurant based on the fact that a loval artist does all the custom metalwork and wood crafted tables. Ryan is very jealous of the fellow’s job. (stay tuned for a post soon about the incredible bookcase he’s building me!)
Back in the real world of home and cooking, i had a wad of leftover tart dough from some blueberry cream cheese tarts I made for a wedding. And what to do with the leftovers? Make chocolate ganache mini tarts, of course!
Mini Chocolate Ganache Tarts
Makes about 2 dozen
Dough:
3 oz cream cheese 1/2 cup butter 1 1/4 c flourPulse in food processor until combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for a couple hours. Then, put a 1 1/2 tsp-ish chunk of dough into each mini muffin tin, and use you fingers to form each tiny crust.
Ganache:
1/2 c cream 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup good chocolate (I used chocolate chips, any good chocolate chopped in chunks will do) 1 egg, whisked pinch of salt tiny splash of vanilla (to taste)Heat the cream and milk until steaming, stirring. Add the chocolate and gently stir until melted. whisk in the vanilla, salt, and egg, taking care the egg does not solidify. Spoon the ganache into the waiting tart shells.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, then turn down the oven and bake an additional 10 minutes at 250 degrees. (Let them cool in the pan for 20-30 minutes before removing them from the tin. The dough has a high fat content so it’s hard to take them out when warm! )
So now I have to check the ’26-30 yrs’ old box on forms.
We had grand plans for my birthday and birthday weekend. We had a stay-cation planned for the weekend, and a gift card for a fabulous restaurant for dinner. Ryan had done his shopping, and though I had discovered the box I. had. Resisted. Looking. Inside.
But then the sniffles started…which included a cough…and I spent the weekend on the couch drinking tea and blowing my nose and trying to read through watery sore eyes. By Tuesday, my actual birthday, I was still pretty drained and blowing my nose every twenty minutes. And it’s not worth going out for dinner to a nice place when you can’t even smell the deliciousness. So we put off the celebration until a future date, and picked up Mexican for dinner (nothing like spicy to clear your head) and some Molly Moon’s Ice Cream (Scout Mint flavor!).
And best of all, Ryan spoiled me with a flowers that he arranged himself in a vase before I got home, and some sparkly.
Maybe everyone is not as obsessed as me with jewelry with a story, but it’s my birthday and you have to listen. (But I won’t digress into my wedding ring stories)
First to brag about my incredible-husband-that-I-don’t-deserve…I do the budget tracking for us, so was confused as to where the cash was coming from. But he worked an extra job a couple days last month on top of his already tiring and crazy work schedule. Then he quietly stashed that money away to surprise me with a nice birthday present that wouldn’t have normally fit in our budget. What a guy! And him trying to get extra jobs for spare cash to be able to repair/replace the motorcycle, then he spends it on me.
Ryan found this chain he really liked at an antique jeweler, and it came with this diamond-frosted cross. We really wanted a rose-gold cross, and his thought was we could pawn this one off to be able to buy the rose-gold. It should work perfectly, except I’m getting a little attached to this one. My husband should really stop giving me such difficult decisions. What do you think…diamonds or rose gold?
Be warned, you’re about to be inundated with pictures of Ryan’s Birthday Weekend.
We drove up to the Icicle Creek area just outside Leavenworth, WA, met up with some friends, and camped for the weekend. It was in the 90’s during the day, and perfect weather for hiking and fishing and sitting around the campfire.
Happy Birthday, Ryan!!
It is my sister’s 20th birthday today. We celebrated a little early on Sunday afternoon. This is the sister who a couple years ago de-moted me to the younger sister. So even if I am 5 years older, she is the older sister. Considering she is the more put together between us, it’s probably a good thing I don’t carry the title.
We kept it simple at the parents, and mom made a delicious devil’s food cake with espresso buttercream.
Ryan worked his magic at the grill. Seriously, how did this man learn to grill so well? It’s incredible. His latest is perfectly grilled asparagus.
One of the few pictures of her actually smiling…
Grace and Dad
Bring on the cake. (Grace is signing ‘please’ in baby sign language. She learned that habit from someone, not me.)
Cake!
Annnndd….a little after lunch baseball practice. Three-man baseball game. I played shortstop/2nd base/third base/pitcher, depending on what Ryan yelled at me after he threw the ball. Grace and I have about 2% baseball ability. Ryan is really good. Thankfully he is also very patient with two cake-sugar-hyper girls attempting to catch a ball.
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