birthday dinner

So, I turned 30 yesterday. I wasn’t up for planning a big party, and most of the folks I would have liked to have seen for my birthday would have had fair drive, and I had seen a couple weeks ago. But I wanted to do something (an improvement on the last couple of years, when after the holidays and the start of the semester, by the time I got to my birthday, I had no energy for anything) so we invited over my sisters and my cousin for a pile of good food and board games, and it was a delightful evening.

We had a veritable pile of food. As far as how long it took me to cook everything, it was awhile; I didn’t keep track, but I did split the tasks between Thursday and Friday. I also refuse to total this up cost-wise, since it was my birthday dinner. But, for the curious:

- baguettes, same recipe as Tuesday night. This time I doubled the recipe (which overflowed my bread machine, but just barely; next time, I’ll want to tweak it so I’m making three loaves, not four if I don’t want it to overflow.) Also, I made these Thursday afternoon, and by yesterday, they were rather hard - as it, too hard to cut. However, a few minutes in a 200 degree oven fixed that nicely. There is half a loaf of 4 left. (We like bread in our family. If there is also cheese, it’s all over.)
- cheese: baby havarti and Cotswold with chive and onions, and parts of the blocks of vintage and muenster leftover from this week (the last two local).
- bruschetta. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, it is the bread that is the bruschetta, not the topping, which is how I’ve always used the term. (So how do I refer to it? Topping?) To be really good, this should be full of fresh basil. Mine wasn’t, it being February, and our attempts at a container herb garden having given up the ghost months ago. Chop up a few tomatoes, pour a little olive oil over, season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried basil. Let sit in the fridge for a day or so. My sister who doesn’t normally like raw tomatoes was eating this up. (local: hothouse tomatoes)
- twice-baked potatoes. These could have been better; I think I skimped on the milk and butter when I was making them. They weren’t bad, though. Microwave a bunch of potatoes until they’re soft but not squishy, about 8 to 10 minutes depending on the size and quantity. Slice them in half, scoop out the insides, and mix with butter, milk, and cheese of your choice (in this case, 4 ounces of muenster). If they’re going to be sitting in the fridge overnight (like these were, because I made them Thursday), you probably want a little extra milk and butter; these were a touch dry. Cook at 350 until they’re melty and browning, 20 to 25 minutes. (local: butter, milk, cheese, potatoes)
- stuffed mushrooms: there are 800 ways of making these. I went with simple. I washed the mushrooms, pulled the stems, chopped them up, microwaved them for two minutes, let them cool slightly, mixed them with a couple ounces of grated vintage and a bit of minced garlic, stuffed that back in the caps, and cooked them at 350 in the toaster oven until the whole house smelled like cheese and garlic, about 15 minutes. (local: cheese; organic: mushrooms)
- grilled steak: This was a sirloin steak from Rocking F that I did nothing to, save a little salt and pepper. It went on the grill until it was just done (we were aiming for a little red in the middle, but we missed) and promptly vanished. The meat was so good, it didn’t need anything else. (local: beef)
- grilled tofu: This was the hit of the night. Everything was great, but what we kept talking about, of all things, was the tofu. I sliced one pound of extra firm tofu thinly and marinated it in our normal teriyaki sauce, except it was half honey and half maple syrup, owing to a lack of honey in the house. It got laid out on aluminum foil and went on the grill for about 10 minutes. I think we would have eaten 2 pounds if we’d had it. (organic: tofu, maple syrup; local: honey)
- grilled Italian sausage: This ended up falling apart when it came off the grill, so we ended up with Italian sausage crumbles. It was still wicked tasty, but not quite what I was aiming for. I’m not sure how to remedy that, either. (local: Italian sausage)
- brownies: chocolate and blonde. I substituted the nuts in the chocolate brownies for a handful of chocolate chips, and left out the walnuts and chocolate chips completely from the blonde ones (I didn’t have nuts on hand, and the blonde brownies were for the sister who doesn’t like chocolate, though the rest of us certainly had our share, too. :) ) I reduced each recipe down to a quantity that would require only one egg, and got enough batter out of each recipe to just make 6 brownies of each kind in 1/3 cup muffin tins (if you like your brownies all edges, make them in muffin tins. Make sure you butter the tins well. It also makes for a pretty presentation). (local: eggs, butter; organic: sugar)
- ice cream: nothing local or organic about this, alas. Breyer’s was on sale, buy-one-get-one, when my sister stopped at the store for her diet Dr. Pepper.
- wine: local. Very reasonably priced (under $7 a bottle at Total Wine, for most varities.) We got a bottle of Bald Head Red, which is our favorite. We also got a bottle of sparkling apple cider for those folks who didn’t want wine last night.

And that was my 30th birthday dinner. We had a great time.