Sunday, June 10, 2007

Birthday Celebration Weekend!

Thanks everyone for your nice birthday wishes, and especially for all the great bean-making advice. I will keep you informed on my beany progress!! :) Ha ha. Wish me luck!

I had a great birthday weekend ... filled with vegan yummies, furry friends, friends & family, sunshine, yoga classes... ahhh! Perfect.

We started off my birthday yesterday with VwaV crepes for breakfast. Musty and his brother ate theirs with syrup, but I love mine with homemade raspberry jam and a squeeze of lemon. YUM. Crepes are so quick & easy & SO GOOD! Musty even helped me make them, which was a sweet thing to do & a definite first. Maybe someday he will make them for me all by himself! :)


Then, in the afternoon we had a patio party with my family and some of my close friends. It was so fun. The sun was out, and our newly done patio was wonderful! Some years I have thrown myself a big party and done all sorts of cooking, but this year I didn't feel like doing that. Instead, I went to the farmers' market in the morning (cool to have farmer's market on my bday!) and just got a bunch of fruit. One of the things I love most about this time of year is the emergence of all the wonderful summer fruits at the market - and really, a raw peach is every bit as tasty as a peach pie & a heck of a lot less work! :) Here is some of what I got:


Robata apricots. Aren't they lovely?



Heirloom tomatoes, garlic, and basil... to make Bruschetta Topping.


Bing and Rainer Cherries... mmmm.


Here's the whole spread... minus the **amazing** strawberry-peach ice cream I made. You'll see that I also got a 1/2 flat of organic strawberries & a plate of peaches. So yummy.


I also made these nice Mango Summer Rolls from VwaV. It was my first time making these, and they were very nice. Musty LOVED them and is demanding an encore. In lieu of a banana leaf, I used a giant collard leaf, and it looked nice.


What's a summer patio party without watermelon?


And lemonade!


Musty surprised me with an amazing & delicious German Chocolate Cake from Black China Bakery. Black China Bakery makes some astronomically great vegan cakes, scones, and other goodies... delicious!

Here's a peek inside!

Today I inaugurated our brand new barbecue (thanks to Musty's brother for assembling it!)... and made myself a veggie burger & some grilled zucchini for lunch. I used this beautiful plate that my great friend Sandy gave me for my birthday yesterday.

It was a really great weekend, and I am feeling so blessed to have so many loving friends, family members, furries, and also bloggie friends around me! I hope you had a great weekend too!

14 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! What a wonderful birthday table. The summer rolls look wonderful. I haven;t read the comments below about beans, but Robin Robertson has a cookbook titled Fresh From The Vegetarian Slowcooker that has some wonderful beans cooking advice. The smell of burnt beans is the worst, I can testify from experience also.

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  2. Anonymous8:53 AM

    yum! everything looks beautifull and delicious!

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  3. Anonymous11:06 AM

    Happy belated birthday! Wow, the food looks positively delicious; and it sounds like you had a lot of fun as well! I have just recently discovered your blog, and I look forward to reading more posts!! :)

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  4. i can't believe my eyes! what a gorgeous spread... i have been meaning to make the crepes from VWaV forever; they look amazing. and lucky you with the black china cake! we got our wedding cakes from there and they were amazing!

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  5. oops, and also, happy birthday!!!

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  6. First of all, that's one of the most beautiful cakes ever! Fresh apricots are about my most favorite fruit. We don't get them here very often, at least at a decent price. Peaches here though, we are famous for! I can't wait to see your strawberry peach ice cream. I may have to steal that idea because last night we were struggling about whether to make strawberry or peach ice cream. No one thought of both in one! I'll lhave to try those mango spring rolls. Your whole spread looks fantastic. Happy Birthday again!

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  7. WOW! Sounds and looks like a fantastic birthday. I agree with you about fresh summer fruit - sometimes simpler really is better. I love love love watermelon...that picture actually has me drooling! Oh, and the cake - if I weren't already drooling, I sure would be after seeing that!

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  8. Happy Birthday! If food is any indication, you must have had a wonderful weekend. Everything looks beautiful, delicious, and summery! If I could pick anything for myself, I think I'd take a slice of that watermelon - mmm...

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  9. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Looks like a marvelous occasion.

    The fresh fruits are the most stunning pics of all, I think. That cake is pretty impressive, too - good one, Musty!

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  10. Happy Birthday! Sounds like such a perfect way to celebrate - from the farmer's market, to the pretty plate at the end, and everything in between. :o)

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  11. Happy happy! Wow, what a great spread. It looks like it was awesome. I'm really digging the great pics folks have posted lately (like your apricots) of fresh fruit and veg. Fresh stuff is just so pretty....

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  12. The very best happy birthday to you! All of your scrumptious food makes me jealous! For some reason, I really like the pic of the watermelon. :-)

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  13. Happy Belated Birthday!

    What a lovely birthday feast and you are blessed to be surrounded by all those yummy eats & loving friends & family.

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  14. Now that is my kind of birthday feast. I too like to regularly gorge on fresh fruits and veggies. Ahhh, especially summer fruits. Often, I have grand ideas for baking or cooking with them, but before I know it, they are gone! {hiccup} How perfect does your watermelon look? I've said it before and I'll say it again- people are lucky to get invited to your place!

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