My Voice?

 

My voice has gone missing. I have a cough and when I speak it is coming out rather croaky unless I resort to whispering. I've been lead to believe the whisper is preferable. Fortunately though I do not feel the slightest bit sick. It's my birthday on Friday and I don't want to be poorly especially then. Anyway, I'm sure I'll locate my regular vocal abilities in the next day or two until. It doesn't matter too much here what I sound like so I'll keep exercising my blogging voice a little bit.

 

It probably happens in most households that the person having the birthday chooses their meal (or perhaps they choose the restaurant). It's what happens here anyway. Last year Grace couldn't decide from a rather long list of favourites so I thought why not a week of meals decided by the birthday girl. It took the chore of meal planning out of my hands for the week and she chose things that we all like anyway. So I thought why not for me too.

 



A lot of our dinners are coming out of this book this week. Lentil and squash pasties , leek and blue cheese tart, spicy lamb burgers to name a few.

And for my birthday 'cake' I am finding it hard to go past this chocolate chilli tart with dulce de leche ice cream. I'm not really a fan of cake so a chocolatey tart sounds good to me. I have the magazine from the local library and the recipe proper isn't on the Taste website as yet but there is a good recipe adaptation here if it appeals to you.

And what else to eat during my birthday week. Sugar snap peas of course. They are by far the best peas this year. I always favoured snow peas but the sweetness and juiciness of the sugar snaps has actually toppled the snow peas from their pea pedestal.



 

Bunches of Broccoli Waltham. Steamed until they are only just done. The broccoli are almost all done for the season so it's time to make the most of them.

 

And because it's my birthday on Friday, Brussels sprouts will be on the menu. I love them. My ruby variety are leaving their run a bit late and I think the warm weather will be too much for them before they crop heavily but their leaves are quite stunning and worth growing for them alone. The leaves actually taste fine. As a note to myself, I am going to try starting my Brussels sprouts earlier so they have more time in the cold and lessen the chance of them bolting when the weather turns warm (usually early these days).

Of course there could be surprises in stall for me and I might be whisked out for a fancy meal but I don't think so. I love cooking and I love cooking new things. But, I will not be washing up on Friday.

Do you prefer home cooked birthday dinners or a restaurant treat?

Tracy