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I had a wonderful birthday.

The house is quiet now, finally -- inspiring me to goof around with the camera for a birthday self-portrait:
Not much different from last year.
(From this angle, you can't see all my new gray hairs.)

I spent a good part of the day cooking, although I did manage to get us all out to the Y for our circuit class.

Before lunch, I made the lady fingers and brewed the espresso for the tiramisu. I couldn't find my notes from the last time I made it, so I winged it... again.
Somehow, these ingredients combine to produce...

... these lady fingers. Since they're going straight into the tiramisu, I form them with a spoon. It's quick and easy.

The espresso smelled divine, but we resisted the urge to drink it.
My Krups Il Primo, older than my children, still working perfectly.

We had lunch at Rubio's, since they emailed me a free lunch coupon for my birthday. How could I resist a free mahi-mahi burrito? DH joined us and we had a great time.

After lunch (and a few errands), I put together the filling (more separating and beating eggs: the first stage is to make a zabiglione), into which you fold the marscapone. Then you whip the egg whites separately and fold them into the marscapone mixture.

Once that was done (and fussing with the double boiler is such a pain!), assembly was a snap.
Trader Joe's Bittersweet Belgian Chocolate, grated with a small cheese grater, was the perfect accent.

For dinner, we had some quick-sauteed shrimp and then pasta puttanesca. Well, DH and I had the puttanesca; the kids had their usual Ragu.

A fine mess -- the prep for the puttanesca: olives, capers, anchovies, tomatoes; recipe from The New Basics Cookbook.


DD arranged the candles.
Yes, it says "4" in pink and "6" in green.

There wasn't much left.

Calls and messages from family and friends really made the day. If all birthdays could be like this -- I did what I wanted to do! -- no one would ever mind having one.