Happy Birthday to Me

I am 43 today. Wish I had something profound to say, but I don't.

My family and I celebrated all the May birthdays yesterday in a combo birthday/Memorial Day bash.

I made some killer baked mac and cheese. I'd stolen Ella's recipe, but became internet curious and found several places singing the praises of this recipe. It's Martha Stewart, yet I have to say that it's idiot proof, which is what I need in a recipe. I want a lot of room for flakiness and fuck-ups without poisoning my family.

It's a fantastic dish, as long as you like mac and cheese, and I plan on making it for holidays. It's hard to find a staple in a family of good cooks, so I'm clinging to this one (even though I ganked the idea from Ella. Believe me, I feel kind of guilty about usurping this dish).

I had just been telling Tattoo Queen that a bummer about celebrating all the birthdays together is that I will never again have a say in the birthday cake. Which is a teeny-tiny complaint, because really, I don't care about celebrating my birthday. But on rare occasions, I miss deciding cake flavor.

That thought wasn't in my mind ( I had expunged it in a weekend chat with TQ) as I sat on my sister's deck, enjoying my beer and family. Then Ella came down the steps with a cake.

Do you ever have those moments when you can actually feel the wheels of your mind turning as sight gets processed into actual thought?

That's what happened. I thought the cake looked weird, then noticed it had a bottle on top, then noticed the bottom looked like a book, and then- OMFG! MY FAMILY GOT ME A TRUE BLOOD CAKE!

The bottle was a bottle of True Blood (made of cake and covered in ganache), the bottom was the hardcover of DEAD UNTIL DARK with the title written on the binding and the cover on top. It was a thing of truth and beauty, and I was stunned, absolutely stunned, with happiness.

You know how pretty desserts never taste nearly as good as they look? Au contraire. The cake was chocolate mousse and delicious. I took a ton of it home and plan on eating it for lunch every day this week.

Of course I didn't have my camera, but Ella took some, which I'll post because ain't no one ever had a cake as purty as that one.*


*Well, maybe at least one person. Ella's sister-in-law's sister had the first TRUE BLOOD cake. My family got the idea and bakery's number from her.