70 Years is a Good Start

In my experience the holiday season is always filled with a lot of:

• Food
• Eating
• Drinking
• Guilt about how much food you ate and booze you drank

For me it's also a time of Birthdays, not only mine, but my Mom and Mother-in-Law's are in December and about 4 other friends and relatives.  So the older I get the less inclined I am to buy store bought gifts; instead opting for the ever popular homemade variety. 

In my case gifts sometimes come in the form of homemade food or a poem.

See, the beauty of giving someone food you made for them is they can't return it and keep the cash, just kidding.  No, the real beauty is enjoying food with the person you made it for. In the most recent case this took the form of pasta and cake for my Mother-in-Law's 70th Birthday.

This time last year my MIL was fighting a battle to recover from a debilitating stroke that robbed her of her memory and ability to live her life fully. I was lucky enough to have the means to leave a soul sucking job and help take care of her. 

What a difference a year makes. Mom is back to pre-stroke health and vitality and we celebrated her 70th birthday last weekend with the following menu:

• Boiled Maine Lobsters
• Asparagus Casserole
• Stuffed Shells
• Spice Cake

Two of the items I want to highlight here because I took pictures of them at various stages of the cooking process and because they were damn good.

Italian Heaven In a Pan

Stuffed Shells with whole milk ricotta, roasted garlic, fresh basil, Asiago cheese, marinara sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese.



Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting laced with orange zest & cinnamon, topped with roasted sliced almonds


The hard part was not digging into the steaming pan of shells that lay at my feet on the car ride over to my in laws.




Happy Birthday Mom, 70 Years is a good start.
Love
Tracy