If You Get to be 60, You May As Well...

Invite your entire family to cook your birthday lunch for you. They did a fabulous job. We had so much fun cooking and playing with each other and our food. There we all are in the picture above. We've eaten. We've changed from our cooking clothes into our Indian clothes. For those who saw the skinny-legged pants for the boys and didn't know how they would fit - they fit. They are below as well, but here they all are in the picture above:

Top row: Gabriella and Chris, Trina and Mark, Sandi and Jeff

Middle row: Karen holding Torin, Ivan and Tara, Eric on one side of me with Cindy on the other, Julie and Adam, Peter

Bottom row: Natalie and Kevin and Maggie, Adrian and Palmer.

Pshew. That's a lot of folk. We cooked at Ramekins in Sonoma and they organized the day very well. Everyone had a printed recipe and the work station had ingredients that were pretty much measured out, knives and bowls. Chris and Gabriella aren't singing there on the right. They were studying the recipe for the grilled peach and blue cheese salad. The peaches were beautiful. Jeff was hanging around with the pretty young ladies. Tara and Julie had knives, he should have been careful around them. Trina appears to be grilling. Tara and Julie cut corn, asparagus and zucchini for the mixed vegetable ragout.

It wasn't all work. Who knows why Mark and Kevin decided to attack each other with cleavers. Maybe it was just the camera. They were involved with one of the sauces. I think it was the one that went on the steak. To their right is their chef/assistant.

I worked with the group on the left. Mary was our chef. Adam, Palmer and I made the dessert. Palmer is 7. He did a very good job with everything he touched. He got to use one of the very sharp knives to slice the peaches and strawberries. He used one of those hand squeezing juicers to squeeze a lemon. He had a ball. He got involved with different stations and was given a board scraper as a souvenir. His grandfather is in the background setting up his camera. Peter took movies of the whole event. I advise you not to ask. I carry the resulting DVD in my purse.

Jeff and Sandi prepped the mushrooms for the Mushroom Quesadilla. The quesadilla used hand made tortillas. Many in the group helped roll them.

Cindy and Eric are with the last chef, Elizabeth. Poor Cindy loves to cook. She got to make the roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Talk about a thankless job. Elizabeth had her run them through a food mill. Eric kept offering to help with that chore, but Cindy is tough. I'm not positive, but I think she did it all by herself.

Natalie and Adrian fixed a crowd favorite - shrimp skewered with basil and prosciutto. Num. Adrian grilled them later. They both helped make the mustardy mayo that was used as a dipping sauce. Wow, those were good.

Karen was the pied-piper of the two little ones. She and I have cooked at Ramekins a few times. And she does adore her grandchildren. We had thought the kids could help do things like roll tortillas. What they really wanted to do was play with Grammy. I got the three grandchildren together for a group shot in Indian clothes. Maggie looks like she will be asking for alms at any moment. There are more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/pnorman811

I think we all had a great time. And if you get to be 60, you may as well.