Celebrating Micah's Birthday

Today is Micah's birthday. I decided to make him a birthday cake even though cake is not a favorite with him. I figured the rest of us could eat it and that it would be entertainment for Samara to help make it. I figure Micah can eat ice cream and admire our beautiful job. We made the Darn Good Chocolate Cake on Kathi's blog (countrychickengirl.blogspot.com) . It is in the oven now.

Out of the oven and ready to frost

We will make the frosting after Alyssa comes home, I think. We went out to Walmart to get a bundt cake pan and some frosting so we are all set.








The decorated cake with its decorators!









Kim got Micah a birthday present too. He needs it to get the Christmas lights down off the house! Samara thought we should get him some roses too. Nice thought, Sami!

I have been on a hummus kick lately. At home I bake corn tortillas in my toaster oven and make the hummus in my food processor. It is really hard to find tahini (sesame butter) but I finally found some over in Steamboat Springs at City Market (I figured the "beautiful people" and whole wheat and granola crowd would use it) I had to substitute peanut butter one time but it gave the hummus quite a peanutty flavor, so I won't do that again. Anyway..... Micah came home the other day with the already baked (fried?) corn tortillas used for tostadas and I had bought some good hummus at H.E.B. (a popular grocery store here in San Antonio). The store is kind of in an upscale neighborhood and has all kinds of really neat stuff in it that I never saw at the Supers store (Corkles Little Market for those of you who used to live in Walden) in Walden or even in Walmart in Fort Collins and Laramie. I have been enjoying my "hummus sandwiches" since I got here and today Samara wanted to try it and she really likes them too! I have a feeling she could make a pretty good vegetarian if she wanted to.

My "hummus sandwich" lunch makings

Tonight will NOT be a vegetarian night. Bob brought steaks from the cabin for this event. They are from Danny's cattle and are delicious.

Our T-bones waiting for the grill

I think Micah ordered mashed potatoes, too. I'm guessing he'll want some salad with the meal too. Cake and ice cream will round out the celebration. Maybe we'll watch a movie after the kids go to bed. That's it for our day.

We did a little celebrating yesterday, too. We went to eat out at Willy's (the best little ice house in Texas). Bob and Kim ordered steaks that looked delicious and Micah ordered pulled pork that looked pretty good, too. I ordered their special of the day which was boiled crawfish. They brought a whole huge platter full of them and they were really good once I figured out how to eat them! It was a whole pound of them which I couldn't begin to finish so we brought a bunch home. The kids call them spicy bugs and Natalie really likes them. They are too spicy for the other girls. We were so full that none of the adults could eat supper last night and the girls finished up their leftovers from our dining out.

A pound of crawfish!

A "spicy bug"












Samara eating mac and cheese

Alyssa chose a cheeseburger

Natalie has a hot dog and fries. Micah's pulled pork is in the foreground

It's still very chilly out--bone chilling in fact. A misty, moisty morning. A damp cold that goes into your bones! Maybe we should have gone to Florida first! Oh well, we have been having a good time inside playing games with the kids and computer games with the adults.