Monday, June 28, 2010

My birfday



No, I didn't turn three, but I guess the family couldn't find the second digit. One of my favorite cakes, the frozen Sara Lee strawberry shortcake!


In the past several years, my husband's task has been to cook a homemade meal for my birthday. Unfortunately, I only have one birthday a year. This year's meal was as usual, a strictly guarded secret, and resulted in a 2 hour slow-cooked corn chowder with Italian sausage. I had a last bowl for breakfast today - there's nothing else like a chowder that's had a couple of days in the fridge to come together just perfectly.


A couple of almost mishaps...He called down at one point wondering why the "condensed milk" the recipe called for seemed not quite right - and too sweet. Luckily, he commented on this just before making the decision NOT to add the can of sweetened condensed milk to his dish.

Then, he decided to add some fresh basil as a garnish. When he returned from the garden, he said that the basil tasted like grass, and he wanted me to try it to see if it tasted right. When he showed me the bunch of leaves he'd snipped, attached were a couple of jalapeño blossoms!

Minor mishaps averted, dinner - complete with asiago-garlic toast was delicious. And as an added bonus, I was regretful to tell him upon his request, that I did NOT have any fresh garlic. If you saw the last photo in my previous post, you know that I wasn't going to even bother with "harvesting" that shriveled up crap. Well, in a burst of energy, I did go out to see if anything was out there and sure enough, I was able to dig up about 20 bulbs of garlic. Seed stock replenished.

25 comments:

  1. Yay..Hooray..Happy Birthday!!
    Cheers..and here's to many sparklying blessings coming your way.. and magic always!
    Yum..great photos!
    Kiki~

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  2. Sounds like you had a great birfday! Food looks yummy - and mishaps avoided, hurray. Don't think jalapeno leaves would have added much, somehow.

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  3. Happy Birthday wishes Wendy!
    Sounds like a wonderful celebration!
    I am glad you actually had garlic after all.

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  4. Happy Birthday! I'll bet those jalapeño blossoms added a little oomph to his recipe. Glad you had a marvy day!

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  5. Happy Birthday! Your hubby is sweet enough to cook the home-made meals for you even with "almost" mishaps :) Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I am sure I will share some photos taken from China with you!

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  6. I love the tradition of your husband making you dinner. So glad he checked with you a few things first. I would have hated all that work to be ruined by sweetened condensed milk and Jalapneo leaves.

    The pie looks hilarious. Bet it tasted great.

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  7. Happy Birfday Wendy!!!!
    I think if he only cooks for your birthday, you should celebrate birthday week.

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  8. Happy Birthday!

    Good thing he checked with you on the condensed milk before adding it. LOL! It would have changed the entire soup flavor had he just added the milk. I think it's so sweet of your hubby to make you a birthday meal. My husband can't and would not try to cook. I asked him to buy me zucchini once and he called from the grocery story a dozen times asking how does the vegie look like and described the various vegies that he thought was zucchini. I told him to just look at the signs posted above the vegies. He said he couldn't find any zucchini sign. He ended up not buying it.

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  9. So glad you were born those 3? years ago. Happy Birfday!

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  10. Wendy, it is okey to get a year older... haha ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

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  11. Yay, happy birthday, Wendy! I'd love a day getting to act like a three-year-old. ;)

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  12. Happy Birthday! The meal looks delicious.

    (my husband cooked for me once) (and it was good too)

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  13. Happy Birthday!
    Your husband just sounds so precious :P

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  14. Happy Birthday Wendy!! Hope you had a fantastic day and have an awesome birthday week =)

    You had me in a fit of giggles over the "basil"!

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  15. Don't you think the sweetened condensed milk would have really brought out the natural sweetness of the corn? I've heard of bacon ice cream, so a sausage, corn and "basil" ice cream might not be so egregious, at least for dessert. It sounds like it was a really special burfday!

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  16. Wendy, HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY!

    You hubby is a smart cook, knowning when to ask when in doubt, haha. I'm sure anything done personally from the heart tastes most delicous no matter what the dish or ingredients :)

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  17. Thanks for the birthday wishes!!!

    James - I think your ice cream idea does sound egregious!

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  18. Hope your birthday was fantastic! And congrats on harvesting some garlic afterall. :-) The dinner your hubby made looks and sounds fantastic- great job, Mr. Wendy!

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  19. It sounds like you had a fun birthday. I had to laugh about your husband almost using sweetened milk. We had lots of lunch meat left from my mother-in-law's funeral 20 some years ago. I made some SOS (creamed meat over toast) with it in her kitchen. I kept stirring and adding more of what I thought was flour to the pan, but it was not getting thick. Finally, I tasted it, and realized it was powdered sugar I was using, and not flour. My son loved teasing me about that for awhile.

    I'm glad you went out and dug some garlic.

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  20. Happy belated birthday, Wendy, and best wishes for a bountiful and beautiful new year!

    Will this be the year you get your Master Gardener certification? An exciting moment in life to remember! Your husband is so sweet, to do that for you -- and I'm glad the jalapeno greenery didn't end up in the food. Isn't it a member of the nightshade family? ;)

    (Sorry to be so behind. My blog reading schedule has become so erratic lately!)

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  21. Happy [belated] birthday, Wendy girl!! What a great hubby you have. The meal sounds wonderful and SaraLee for dessert, YUM!!

    And harvested garlic makes for a nice birthday bonus.

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