Ellie, Nik, and I all celebrate our birthdays in a two-week span in late September/early October.  Nik and I don’t generally give many (or any) gifts to each other but we do love good food!  So our birthday dinners are a big deal.

First, for Nik’s birthday, I made him roasted lamb breast, winter squash risotto, and fancy salad.  (Lamb breast is a cut of the ribs with lots of delicious fat!:))

For Ellie’s birthday dinner, we made sushi, one of our favorite meals.  We didn’t manage to take any pictures of the beautiful sushi rolls we made but we did get the birthday girl in action, eating plain sheets of seaweed.  She loved them! 🙂

For my birthday, I told Nik that I didn’t care what he made for me as long as I didn’t have to plan, shop for, or prepare it! 🙂  So he surprised me with pork carnitas with all the fixings and the last batch of fresh salsa of the year.  Yummy!

They tasted as amazing as they look.

It’s a little ridiculous to have three cakes in two weeks so Nik and I just indulged in some good Haagen Daz ice cream for our birthday treats.  I did make a cake for Ellie though.  She had requested “chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry” for her cake so I figured chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce would be perfect.  When it came time to eat it though, Ellie refused it all except for the ice cream.  So next year, I’m getting the cake and Ellie gets just ice cream!

Lest you feel sorry for Ellie that she only got a tiny cake, you should know that I also made a big cake for everyone to share at our small group for our church that night. 🙂