Happy Birthday Drew!

Our son Drew, turned 23 on Thursday.  TWENTY THREE!!!  How did this happen?  Drew is the baby.  Our girls were 6 & 8 when he was born.  Even after they were all grown up, we still had a kid.  Not anymore.   I can't believe how fast time has gone.  How fast it continues to speed by.  Now.  Especially now.  I want to enjoy every moment.  I want to savor the time.  Drew had to work on Thursday so we celebrated his birthday last night.  I always let the kids pick the dinner of their choice for their birthdays.  Drew wanted scallops and shrimp.  So I prepared a surf n turf dinner.  I wish I had planned to photo the prep and the after.  But I was busy running around and didn't have the time.  I have been cooking since I was a brand new bride of 19.  I remember cooking things like stuffed grape leaves, and beef wellington.  As our family grew, it became much more ordinary things, like spaghetti, meatloaf, chicken and rice....you know, the things three kids would eat.   I don't know if it was the combination of foods, the company,  everything getting finished up at the same time to allow for so many items being served hot at the same time.  A fluke?  Whatever it was, last nights dinner was one I will remember for a long time.  I think it was one of the best meals I have ever fixed.  Not fancy .  Nothing served on my best china, or in my prettiest serving pieces.   We did it family style, in a mish mash of serving pieces.  But it was delicious!
I put a dry rub on two tri tip steaks, and let them come to room temp before Greg grilled them.  I marinated jumbo sea scallops and soaked the wooden skewers in water so that they wouldn't burn when they were grilled.  I fixed a couple of pounds of jumbo shrimp, and oven roasted delicate asparagus spears.  I cooked a large pan of scalloped potatoes before everything else went into the oven, so that I could finish off the asparagus and shrimp in the last few minutes while the tri tip was resting before slicing.   The green salad was prepared before everyone arrived, and then tossed in dressing just before serving.  One of the hardest things in preparing a large meal, is timing.  If you can learn to prepare all that you can ahead of time, and use multiple heat sources when cooking, you can have everything go to the table piping hot.  If you are serving any type of roast, or large cut of meat, it needs to rest before slicing, so the last minute things can finish off while you let the meat rest while covered in aluminum foil.  Gennifer started our delicious night of feasting with an appetizer from Pioneer Woman's cookbook.  Hot artichoke dip with crusty baquette and blue corn tortilla chips.  No picture, sorry.  It was yummilicious though.

Tri Tip roasts, with two types of salsa, which I purchased because I didn't have the time to make homemade yesterday.  Scalloped potatoes, garden salad, oven roasted asparagus.

Sweet succulent jumbo sea scallops, and tender jumbo shrimp.  It melted in your mouth.  I saw this recipe for shrimp on Pinterest.  How I love thee.....I was dying to try it.   So easy too.  You take one stick of butter, put it on a large tray or sheet with sides.  Pop it into a hot oven to melt.  I set the oven at 375.  When the butter is melted, take sheet out of the oven and put your shelled, and deveined shrimp onto baking sheet.  Then take one envelope of dry Italian seasoning mix, ( I used Zesty Italian Seasoning ) and sprinkle onto shrimp, and mix a bit. Slice up a couple of fresh lemons and lay those slices onto shrimp. Put tray back into oven, just until shrimp are pink.  The recipe says to cook for 15 minutes, but truly that is about twice as long as you need to cook them.  Watch them close, and don't let them overcook, as shrimp will become tough if you cook too long.   THIS WAS FABULOUS!!!!!!!  Really...SO CRAZY GOOD!!!!!
There were no leftovers to wrap, except  a couple slices of tri tip.  Clean up was easy.  After a fun dinner with lots of laughter, we sang happy birthday our boy...no longer little.  All grown up.  23!!

Non of my kids like cake much.  So birthday "cake" is usually something like a donut tower, or cookie pizza, or in this case, double fudge brownie sundaes.  I made the brownies the night before.  Using a box mix of fudge brownies, mix as per instructions on box.  Then pour half of the batter into pan, and for my twist, I sprinkle a layer of chocolate chips, then top with remaining batter and bake as usual.  So gooey and fudgey, you will flip!

Happy Birthday son!  May all of your wishes come true!  And for my birthday, all I want is for you to get a haircut.
Greg and Jake in their matching (by accident) shirts from Stone Brewery.

Drew and his darling girl, Diana.

The only picture I got of Gennifer she was making a not so nice gesture!  Apparently she didn't want her photo taken.  So I should post it!!!  But I won't because she knows my password and she just goes into my blog, all on her own, and removes any photo of her that I post if she doesn't approve. 
Eri wasn't able to be there last night, and we missed her and Noah!
Last night while we were still sitting at the table after dinner, I caught a glimpse of the girls standing in front of the glass domes that held goodies.  By the time I dashed to get my camera, Hannah had already run off, but I caught this of little Clairey.

Oh how our girls love their sweets!!!   Just like their Gamma!  I didn't get many pictures last night, but here are the girls giving Uncle Goo their gift.  He looks like he loves it!

Yesterday was such a busy day for me.  I was having our knitting/crochet group here to my house during the day.  So I knew that I had to be very organized to have everything prepared for dinner that night too.  I just put out some cookies and snacks for the Knitty Bitties.  Everyone brings a sak lunch, and then we just munch and stitch.  I made that wonderfully refreshing punch that Gennifer found on Pinterest.  1 can of limeade, 1 liter of Sierra Mist or 7 Up, and 2 sliced cucumbers.  I added 1 1/2 liters of the soda this time and liked it better.  It is so refreshing.

I went out to see what I could snip for a small vase of flowers, and nothing is blooming yet.  All I could find were a few snips of geraniums and some nasturtium.  But I loved this in a simple rustic vase.

All of the ladies brought something to share, so we had so many goodies.  And Joyce made a delicious pasta salad too!  I never got a single picture while they were here.  These were taken after they had gone home.  Deb brought these delicate crunchy delights from Corner Bakery.   OH MY GOSH!!!!!  You must run and get them if you ever pass a Corner Bakery!!

Joyce also brought this bag of yumminess for my family.

Chock full of dried fruits and whole walnuts!!!  YUM!!
Denise brought me this fun book!!!  Perfect for the LIST MAKERS in your life!

Such a fun day!!!  And yesterday afternoon, right after the Knitty Bitties left, I peered around the kitchen corner to see what Noah was doing.  I saw him sitting like this on the coffee table, engrossed in his show.  He is looking so grown up lately.  He and Hannah both, they are becoming such big kids.  They will start Kindergarten in August!  This picture is blurry, but I loved it so!

That's a wrap.  It's Saturday morning, and we have a lot going this weekend.  We are meeting up with Greg's sister and her kids tonight at the beach for dinner.  And tomorrow we are going to a Super Bowl party at my husband's new boss' house!  Yikes, I had better behave!!
See ya!
XO  Kris