This guy has always been a top-notch dad, and over the last 3,367 days he’s proven to be an exemplary grandpa as well. Happy Birthday, Papa! We love you a ton.
Monthly Archives: November 2014
It’s my birthday! Let’s talk about cake.
Metternich, however, made lots of waves in his time,[ref]”The Diplomacy of Metternich“[/ref] as my in-laws informed me when I told them the story of the Sachertorte. I’ve been aware for some time that my in-laws are the type of people who know about the exploits of a 19th-century Austrian prince, but it’s still amusing when they bring such things up in conversation.
Anyway, Young Sacher eventually became Old Sacher. His eldest son opened a hotel, and that’s where the Sachertorte began to gain fame. People loved it then, and they love it now, and you can buy a 4.5-inch Sachertorte for only 21,90 €, which Google tells me is about $28. Or you could make your own, which is what I did last month when the Daring Bakers issued the challenge.
I used Lidia Bastinich’s Sachertorte recipe, but I didn’t follow the instructions very carefully. Rather than putting the cake in the refrigerator to set after putting the apricot glaze on, I charged straight onward into applying the chocolate glaze. And so the cake slowly absorbed the chocolate glaze, so that when I revisited it awhile later it looked like I hadn’t glazed it at all. Naturally, I blamed Lidia Bastinich’s glaze rather than user error, so I made a batch of chocolate glaze from Kitchen Lane and reapplied it. That one set up nicely, and the double-glazing led to a pretty great taste and texture.
I don’t know enough about Metternich’s diplomatic efforts to form an opinion on them, but I do know that his chef’s apprentice created a rather tasty dessert.
A menu plan in which I seek free food on my birthday
We had a delightful weekend.
Perry Mason, Mrs. Perry Mason and Perry Mason Jr. came over for trick-or-treating and other fun things all various and sundry. Pete was Darth Vader, so the Familia Mason decided to join his universe as Boba Fett, Obi Wan and Yoda. Rockford’s mother made Poppy a gorgeous Elsa dress, and I ordered a crocheted wig[ref]I wasn’t crazy about the quality, so I’m not going to link to it.[/ref] for her from Etsy. I’d expected to see a swarm of Elsi out there — the other family with whom we trick-or-treat had an Elsa, who roped her parents into being Anna and Kristof — but I only saw seven.
My favorite costume of the evening was the kid dressed as Weird Al Yankovich from the “Fat” video. I laughed loudly when he came strutting up the walk.
This is Birthday Week at our house. Rockford’s sister Mrs. Poppins celebrates today, mine is tomorrow, my dad’s is Wednesday and Pete’s is Friday. And yet there is a marked lack of cake on this week’s menu:
- Monday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
- Some warm and gooey sandwiches sound just right after the blustery weekend we had.
- Tuesday: Ordering in
- I’ll be taking advantage of all of the Free Thing on Your Birthday offers in town. Or rather, one of them. Probably a sandwich.
- Wednesday: Date night
- The kids will be having pizza. I don’t know what Rockford and I will be having.
- Thursday: Sandwiches
- So many sandwiches this week!
- Friday: Lasagna
- Pete requested a Garfield party for his birthday, so we’ll be having lasagna, garlic bread and salad. I’m pretty sure Garfield wouldn’t approve of the salad, though.
How was your weekend? Did you trick-or-treat? Do you have any candy left? Poppy had big ideas about the “Candy Fairy” coming and leaving her a gift in exchange for all of her candy, but that went out the window as soon as she organized her loot on the dining room table.
I’m linking this up with OrgJunkie.com’s weekly Menu Plan Monday thing.