The Birthday Countdown

Birthdays at our house are very much a family affair.  The children decide what they would like to do for the day and what they would like for dinner.  We might have one, or both of my sisters over for lunch or dinner, sometimes a friend or two who have similar aged children.  I have really never been a great "thrower of parties"


Davids' first birthday was one of the few exceptions.  You know how it is.  First child.  First birthday.  I was planning it for a good two months - the guest list, the presents and very importantly, the menu.  Risto cooked a goat on the spit.  I practically lived in the kitchen for three days making the biggest dish of moussaka I'd ever put together, all my fancy salads too fiddly for every day, baklava, lemon tart and a sacher torte birthday cake.  And we gathered together all of the people we loved best and who, we knew, genuinely and truly loved us.  The people who I had relied on throughout my life.  The people I wanted to share this joyful and special occasion with.


Even when it's a much smaller affair though, the menu planning is a very important part of the preparation.  It's a good excuse to get out the 'special' recipes.  No fast food parties for us.  There is some serious cooking to be done and other things must wait. 


Last year David desperately wanted me to make a Black Forest Cake he had seen on Masterchef.  Not for his birthday, mind you.  For Jovankas' second birthday.  It had been a four hour challenge on Masterchef.  The jolly thing took me three days to build and a shopping list of ingredients that looked foreign in my trolley.  This was no ordinary black forest cake.  There were cherries soaked in brandy, layers of chocolate ganache, chocolate hazelnut praline mousse, and multiple other layers of chocolate on chocolate on chocolate.  Recipe is here.  It all got put together late at night....the night of Jovankas' birthday, after a day climbing the You Yangs, the local mountain range.  Did I mention that I was 32 weeks pregnant with my fourth child at the time?....And had climbed all the way to the top - a feat I would not normally expect I could acheive when not pregnant.  So, 10 o'clock at night, we sang Happy Birthday, Jovanka blew out her candles, we ate cake amidst the wreckage still on the kitchen table (sorry to say that this wreckage is the reason I wouldn't let photos be taken of this glorious cake.....something I now regret) and we went, exhausted, to bed.  It was a very good day. 





It's a bit of a cheat, I know, but since I didn't take any photos of our cake, here is the official Masterchef version.  Ours looked almost as good.....really!!!



Next morning, David introduced the idea of a Macaron Tower with Kalamata Olive and Beetroot and Raspberry Macarons for Aristos' fourth birthday, two months ahead.  Keep in mind that I am, at that stage, 32 weeks pregnant....and I began to question the wisdom of allowing him to watch Masterchef.

This year David has taken over the cake operation for Jovankas' third birthday.  He has designed it himself, based on a recipe he made up almost twelve months ago.  After a couple of attempts to describe the structure that the cake should take, his poorly concentrating Mama asked him to diagram it so I could see what we were in for.  Once that was done and each of the 'elements' discussed (yes we watch WAY too much Masterchef) it was decided that a practice run might be a good idea.  Just to make sure it would work - no last minute surprises or disappointments for something so important as his little sisters' birthday cake.  Thank heavens we did that practice run.  Because now I know that the chocolate dome will work, we will need double the quantity of strawberries we first estimated (unfortunately they are not in season, unless we live somewhere else so I am cringing a little at the idea of including them) and I will be required to make triple, oh yes, triple the quantity of chocolate mousse that I made this time around. 

 Most importantly we know that the whole thing, when put together, tastes exquisite because we had to eat the practice run, complete with a rehearsal of us all singing Happy Birthday and Jovanka blowing out the candles.  Perhaps when we get to the real thing, I'll make sure the kitchen table is clean enough to take a photo, or maybe just let pride go to the four winds and take a photo amidst the wreckage.







This moment

{this moment} - a beautiful idea from Amanda Blake-Soule at soulemama.  A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

My Creative Space - socks for Jovanka

I found this great site called Our Creative Spaces where crafters can link to, each Thursday, with a picture of whatever they've been working on over the week.  For me, who hasn't picked up so much as a knitting needle for a couple of weeks, it has been a good motivator to get on and DO something again.  I found that I was also getting a bit antsy which is exactly what happens when I go for a while without doing any creative 'work'. 

So, out of desperation just to get started on something I picked up the ball of wool that was sitting on top of the heap in my basket, selected a set of DPNs close enough in size to match the ply and cast on 48 stitches for my favourite sock pattern.  And aaaahhhhhhhh sweet relief.  Liken this to going without a cup of tea for a stretch (or coffee, or whatever fuels your day) and then taking that first sweet sip.  Mmmmmm.

The beauty of this particular pattern is that I have knitted it up so many times for each of the children that I don't have to think about it too much - just get on with it amidst everything else that is going on around me.  And the self-patterning wool makes it look much more impressive than it actually is.  All I have to do is just keep on knitting.  Around and around and around.  This time I am adding in a little bit of shaping at the ankles for a better fit.  I wasn't sure what the standard way is - probably there is no standard way, just lots of possibilities (and I didn't want to interrupt my knitting to get up and look at a pattern) so I started decreasing one stitch every second row for a while until it looked about right.

I'm up to the heel of the first sock so far.  This is usually where I do reach for the pattern but, again, I didn't want to interrupt the knitting to get the pattern which was in another room so I am winging it and it seems to be working okay.  I have written down what I've done so I can do the same again for another sock because, as much as I tell myself that I will remember it, I know that I won't.  Check in next Thursday to see if it worked!

Never thought the day would come but you know what they say.  "Never say never".  So now I'm on Facebook.  Woohoo!!  If I knew how to put a facebook link thing on here I would but, being new to both FB and blogging as well as being a bit of a ludite, I really don't have a clue.  I'll work on it.

So why did I resist Facebook for so long?  It does feel like I am almost the last being on the globe to join up.  From what I had heard of it, most of what goes on is pretty inane stuff.  And I have to say that now, having had a look at some of the comments flying around there, I was right.  Some of it is really messing with my head so I will have to put some blinkers on I think and edit out what goes into my brain.  The other reason is that I have trouble just keeping up with email and reading my favourite blogs so the idea of spending more time checking in on another site and administering all of that just seemed like too much time at the computer when there is SO much else to be done.

Well, why did I give in then?  Because the way information is shared these days is changing so much and it seems that if I am not on Facebook, I don't have access to certain information that I want.  For example, the local home-ed group has set up a page where activities and outings can be posted.  If I'm not on Facebook, I don't get that information.  Gone are the days when a group email did the trick.  The clincher though was that I wanted to join a gorgeous group site called Pininterest and I needed to be on Facebook for that.  The only problem is that I have spent so much time getting the Facebook thing set up that I haven't yet got around to setting up my Pininterest account.   I'll keep you posted because when it happens, it's going to be a beauty.

Having written all that at the beginning about not being able to put a facebook link on, I think I have just done it....  maybe not such a ludite after all.....