birthdays

So many people at work have May birthdays, and it was a really gluttonous celebration. I was more excited for these birthdays than I ever am for my own, mostly because any overeating I do can be blamed on the birthday people. Like..."I only ate more cake because I'm trying to celebrate your birthday, this is all for you, not me. I'm selfless." Right?

Chocolate raspberry torte made by the amazing Kathy for Justin's birthday

This is my favorite combination for anything sweet. I usually am not a big sweets person, but if I had a reasonable excuse, I could eat this whole thing by myself.  There was also fresh whipped cream, just FYI guys. Also, sorry about the poor attempt at "enhancing" this photo on my iPhone. That's what you get.

 Justin's mom's peanut butter and m&m cookies, perfect combo of soft and chewy, plus nice and chunky. I can only imagine how good they would have tasted with iced milk. Yeah, ice in milk.

Wonderful birthday guy #1, Justin! 

Kyle and Jeremy's birthday took a more savory route, and we had meatloaf sandwiches. Holy cow (ha this joke will never not be funny), they were so good. I didn't grow up eating meatloaf and I think it has this weird "gross food" association for a lot of people, maybe because it's called "meatloaf." I mean, when you give a food a vague name like that, it leaves room for really dangerous interpretations of what that food should/could be. But anyway, I always thought I would like it, because, what's not to like? I've never had a bad meatloaf experience, but this was by far the best.

Italian meatloaf in log form with slicing action, made by amazing Kathy's amazing husband Richard. He also made the terrine from Ann's party, so he knows his way around a sliceable chunk of mixed meat. It was ground beef and mixed with sweet Italian sausage, swirled with sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella. Sounds great, yeah? It was. I've been sneaking bites of this from the fridge.

All sliced up, check out the cheese and tomato-basil swirls

 Salad with pea shoots, mixed greens, edible flowers (I dont know what kind), oranges, and cucumbers!

Bread fresh from the Whole Foods bakery, avocado, mozzarella from the farmer's market, and a little bit of arugula peeking out

And of course we had potato chips, plus all the condiments you need, including some really intensely sour pickles from the market...I'm not sure how I feel about them. I'll have to just keep eating more until I figure it out.  The post-lunch coma was like being full up to my eyeballs. I'm still a little full from it, honestly.

 

Wonderful birthday dudes #2 and #3, Kyle and Jeremy! We put candles in the meatloaf.

And that doesn't even include all the birthdays in May...