A Communal Birthday Celebration

It has become a tradition for 3 dear friends to celebrate their birthday together.  We were all born the same year, all attended the same secondary school (a long time ago!) and all continue to stay in touch...........that has to be good reason for a celebration!

So Happy Birthday Dee and M....here's to many more.

Since our birthdays fall in different months, we averaged the days of the year and came up with "our" birthday as sometime in late August.  Life is busy, but we finally got together and marked this auspicious occasion.

This year's theme happened to coincide with the happenings in the back garden.  So it's no surprise that our lovely wine paired meal was Tuscan inspired. Tradition has been that we celebrate in a grand fashion with a lovely tasting menu paired with yummy wines.  Some of the meals have lasted hours.  This one was no different.  In fact we had so much fun, it turned into a slumber party.  Who said old farts can't party?

We each prepared a course or two each and selected lovely wine pairings to compliment each.

My course was very interactive;  interactive, not out of design, but necessity!!

Have you ever experienced things suddenly breaking down in your home?  Well that happened around here.....and as with most things around here......it happened in a big way.  Over the course of 2 days we lost the dishwasher, microwave and yes, the very well loved and often used pasta roller attachment for the KitchenAid.  With the menu planned and no time to shop, I resorted to hand rolling the pasta for this dinner. Well actually, I coerced my two birthday buddies into hand rolling the pasta for dinner.

In the true Tuscan tradition,

Hand-Rolled Pici with a Hearty Ragu (click on Pici to view the recipe)

With antipasti to nibble on and luscious wines to sip we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. I think we have stumbled upon a new tradition.  The Pici was fabulous and the process was rather amusing.

Check out the video to see the Pici makers in action.   You also get a glimpse of Garden Guru working away in Tuscany.

So that's how 3 friends and a few of their guests enjoyed their birthday this year.  Fun times, good food, yummy wine........great friends!

Life doesn't get much better than this.