Nuggets: Birthdays

Family birthday dinners are a forever long tradition in our family. This weekend we had a three-in-one birthday dinner to celebrate Nicole (last month), Andrew (on his birthday), and Jesse’s (next week) birthdays. Mom made black bean soup and a salad, and I brought my no-noodles lasagna (Jesse’s new favorite). We had a great time hanging out together.

:: Balloon wars. One should never underestimate the amount of fun to be had in hitting each other with balloons. Mom and Dad had filled Andrew’s room with balloons on his birthday eve and we spent a lot of evening attacking each other with them. You’d think it would get old, but just when you though it was over… someone would start another battle. I have to say that arm is actually sore from smacking so many balloons.

Balloons

:: Cake. Mom made a cake filled with 21s for Nicole and Andrew, and 33s for Jesse. The colorful balloons on top of the cake are as old as I am. I’m pretty sure they’ve been on just about everyone’s birthday cake every year!

Cake

:: I was pretty excited to give Andrew his Math geek gift. In our house, you know it’s a good gift when it causes Dad and Andrew to spontaneously burst into problem solving. Perfect gift… weird men!

GiftClock

:: Andrew got several nice gifts. One of the things Nicole got him was personalized guitar picks. They had their picture and a birthday message printed on them. She’s so smart!

Picks

:: We sang happy birthday to all of them and they blew out their candles. Nicole also made a peanut butter and jelly pie (at Jesse’s request) and a key lime pie.

Birthday people

Happy birthday to all, and to all a good night.

The 21st Year of Andrew

Andrew

Happy birthday Andrew! I was looking back at some of your pictures of this year and… you’ve had a pretty awesome year. I can’t wait to see what you will do and all that you will accomplish in the year to come. I hope you have a great birthday!

Andrew and MilanAndrew playing guitarFam at the lakeAndrew and Nicole

Nana’s Shortbread Cookies

My great grandmother’s shortbread cookies are a must-have Christmas treat. When we were kids we had so much fun getting to decorate these cookies with tons of icing and sprinkles. We cut shapes of snowmen, candy canes, and holly. So when I finally gave in and bought special, wheat-free flour this recipe was at the top of my list to try.

These cookies are SO good and the recipe is SO simple. As you can see this recipe card has been well used through the years.

Shortbread recipe

The jury is still out on the flour until I try it in a few more recipes. I’m using it very sparingly since the package of flour was so expensive. I only made half of the recipe, just to see how they turned out.

Namaste flour

The only thing I noticed was that it didn’t bind together as well as normal flour does. So I had to add a bit more butter than the recipe called for. This changed the taste of the cookies slightly, but they weren’t bad. Extra butter rarely makes things bad. 😉

Cookie mix

Since all I had was circle cookie cutters, I thought I could make the cookies look like tree ornaments. I decorated them with my soy-free chocolate chips before baking.

Decorating

I sampled a few and the rest went into the freezer to savor throughout the season. Since I only made a few, I don’t plan on sharing! The rest of family will have to eat the ones made with normal flour. 🙂

Finished cookies

These are super easy and fun… give them a try! Enjoy!