Happy Birthday to Me!!

Happy belated birthday post! Well, I'm officially over the hill now that I'm the big 24. In fact, I just told my financial advisor that I'm just waiting on him to give me the ok for retirement. His laugh leads me to believe that he thinks I'm only kidding. Ron, I'm not.

For my big 24th, my darling Quantity Control Expert threw me a fabulous pizza potluck party! I was surrounded my some of the best people I know: people that come over bearing food and drink for my party!

The QCE had the brilliant idea of buying pizza dough and having people bring over different toppings to throw on the pizzas. We had sausage and chicken and artichokes and pine nuts and sauces and cheese and veggies of all kinds! The man-tern (man intern) lent us his pizza stone and peel, which turned out pizza so well that I felt the need to get my own afterwards. But those pizzas definitely went much smoother with the Designated Bowl Licker's pizza making expertise!

I was so busy in the kitchen, I hardly got to see the pizzas before they were snatched up! This one had pesto sauce, chicken, peppers, onions, pine nuts, and artichokes, and that's just what I can easily identify. Plus, the man-tern recommended that we mix up olive oil with minced garlic and Parmesan cheese, and then brush it onto the crust straight out of the oven. Oh dear lord, was that ever tasty!

Here's my Director of Food Output, hard at work on a slice of pizza! Sadly, my Director will be working remotely since he's moving to fabulous New York City for work. This just means more care packages!

My fellow food friend Mike brought over a trout dip that was amazing! He also introduce us to an incredibly simple but fabulous appetizer: fresh radishes dipped in butter and sprinkled with fleur de sel. This guy is so awesome, he even left the rest of the appetizers for the QCE and I to munch at work the next day!

There was so much food! We made five pizzas with all sorts of different toppings. There was salad and appetizers and all sorts of wines and beers that my dear friends brought!

And, of course, there was cake! The QCE pointed out no one could make a cake that lived up to my standards, so I should therefore make my own cake. Since I took the day off work, I had plenty of time to make my very first birthday cake!

You may be thinking how weird it is to make your own cake. But I figured that if I'm going to screw up someone's birthday cake, I should probably do it on my own cake instead of someone else's! Maybe I should say practice. I should practice on my own instead of someone else's!

But I was really happy with how it turned out. It was really clean and not covered in crumbs like they usually end up. And, bonus, I had tons of fun slacking off from work and making a cake!

Oh no! Cake on fire!!!!

And look at how much better that writing is!

Blowing out the candles and making a wish that 24 is even better than 23!