The Birthday Celebration That Just Doesn't End!

I'm prolonging this birthday as long as possible. So far, it's going on 1.5 weeks. :-D

Don't count, okay?

Mom & Dad were away for the week, so they had us over for the "official birthday dinner" on Sunday.

We started with olive bruschetta & goat cheese toasts. They were really good! The recipe was from Better Homes & Gardens, and it was actually an Olive-Cherry Bruschetta, but Mom left the cherries & prosciutto out. I'm glad, cause it was delicious as it was. We decided that anything with lime juice in it is always excellent.

For pre-dinner drinks, I brought Pumpkin Mudslides. The Food Network posted a mini-recipe on Twitter that I had to try. If you like pumpkin & you like Bailey's, this is for you. Yum!

To compliment the pumpkin in the mudslides, we also had roasted butternut squash candy.

Dinner was a white lasagna that was chock full of veggies!

Broccoli, cauliflower, onions, mushrooms, kale, zucchini, eggplant, green beans, & tomatoes with whole wheat lasagna noodles & a variety of cheeses.

Pairing Wine: Riesling, compliments of Dad's wine making

When we go to dinner at my parents, Mom always makes sure to have a super huge salad. Half for me, a quarter for her, the rest for the guys to split. :-)

My traditional birthday cake is always white with chocolate icing. It's my all time favorite, at least when it's made by Mom! She made Happy Day cake, which is an older recipe that she's tweaked a little to make it healthier. I love cake!

After dinner, we played pinochle. All of my hands looked about like this...decent but nothing special. Mom & I were a team against the guys, just like last weekend. We lost, but only by a little! I guess they deserve to win sometimes, too. ;-)

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! It always goes by WAY too quickly!