Finding Contentment

A fishy birthday

02:51 PM, Saturday, August 18, 2007 .. Posted in Kitchen .. 1 comments .. Link

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUSTIN!

A lot of my life seems to revolve around fishing lately… including my son’s birthday. Justin is now 12 years old – or at least he will be on Tuesday. We had his party today. One more year and my little boy will officially be a teenager L Here is Justin opening some of his gifts while Leo (the dog) and Adam look on.

The party went well. Actually, I wouldn’t call it a party. Whenever one of the kids in our family have a birthday, we have a family get-together which consists of any of the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents that can come (and one non-related family that we are very close friends with). We usually cook hot dogs or hamburgers for family birthday get–togethers, but this time I found an excellent deal on some New York strip steaks. I also had some boneless chicken in the freezer and somebody else bought some pork chops, so we had a meat feast!

I baked a three layer round cake last night. In fact, because I tend to procrastinate, I had to stay up until midnight to give the cake time to bake and then cool before I could wrap the layers and refrigerate them.

I almost always use this recipe for birthday cakes. The slight almond flavor makes it a tad bit different than your usual cake. And because the cake tends to be dense, it doesn’t fall apart easily and is easier to decorate. I usually use this buttercream icing recipe. This icing is stiff so it holds up well to decorating. But because I knew the decoration on this cake was going to be pretty flat (and just because I was tired), I used store-bought cream cheese icing on this cake.

I got the cake-decorating-theme idea off a Web site, and used edible spray paint for the sky. I colored some of the icing with paste food coloring for the lake, and used Sweddish Fish (the gummy kind) for the fish. I used one of those tubes of gel stuff to write “Happy Birthday,” but I didn’t really like the way it came out. I think using regular icing in a bag with a tip would look better next time.

Most of Justin’s gifts centered around fishing, too. We got him a rod, a tackle box and a some lures, weights, etc. We also got him the “As Seen on TV” original ChatterBait, a 26-piece professional fishing kit. (I’m not really sure why that’s impressive, but Justin loved it.) And here he is standing amidst the wrapping paper proudly holding his new rod. This is the first rod that actually belongs to him. He has always used a cane pole or one of his daddy's rods before. Yes, that is Bart Simpson on his shirt. I don't let the kids watch the Simpson's but found this shirt on clearance at Target for $2.50 last year. I couldn't pass up the great price, but now I regret it as everyone keeps asking me why the kids aren't allowed to watch the Simpsons but they can wear them. Good point...

Now everyone has left. I am tired and am vegging out in front of the computer for a little bit. The get-together even tired out the kids, so they are being quiet and well behaved for the moment.