We Heart Birthdays!

Birthdays are a VERY big deal in our house. This is not only because of the (fun fact) that my brother and I share the same exact birthday, two years apart, but I have to imagine the birthday over-celebration started approximately six decades ago with the birthday of my mother.

Peeps, I have never, ever met another person who loves her birthday as much as my mother (GA). Since her big day was yesterday, we decided to have my parents over for a birthday celebration tonight. And of course, I had to pull out of all the stops.

I am not going to write down every single ingredient of every single dish - if you are interested in a specific one, leave me a comment or email me or whatever and I will give it to you. This has nothing to do with the fact that I've been gently asked by a certain magazine to not record their recipes, and everything to do with me being tired and a little lazy and a lot busy after a hectic weekend that is still going strong.

An Overview:
App:
Lima Bean Dip, Food Network Magazine (October 2011)

Green goodness

Main:
Turkey Roulade, Prevention Magazine (November 2011 - huh?!)
Wild Rice with Shitakes & Toasted Almonds, The EatingWell Diabetes Cookbook

Turk-tastic

Dessert:
Chocolate Lover's Dream Cake, Betty Crocker's Super Moist Cakes, April/May 2009 (Note: There is absolutely nothing healthy about this - but the birthday girl really loves chocolate bundt cake.)

That's a lotta chocolate

Reviews:
I was a little concerned about the lima bean dip - it calls for a bacon topping that I skipped (sheer laziness), but it was actually really good - the kid really liked it, as did the 'rents, the hubs, not so much, declaring it "too green."

Everyone (except the kid) loved the turkey and rice. I kind of thought the turkey was a little dry, so the added "gravy" helped. The rice was OK - nothing special - but who doesn't love wild rice with mushrooms and almonds? The dessert was very chocolatey.

I'm not going to provide a ranking of tonight's meal because it was all over the board. As was the conversation - but as usual, we had a lot of fun and kind of ridiculous moments.

Special Note:
Not only was my mother's birthday yesterday, but today marks what would have been John Lennon's 71st birthday. In his honor, one of my favorites: