Dh's Birthday BBQ and Bananas Foster

Chef John at the Big Green Egg (grill)-- Leg of Lamb Extrodinaire!

John and I enjoying a glass of wine as the leg of lamb cooked on the grill. Beautiful day.. a treat where we live!

(There are two dachshunds in this picture.. can you spot them?)
Here is the recipe of the day... we had bananas foster years ago, before we were married.
Click on the picture and it is big enough to read the recipe if you want to try!
Now that John travels to New Orleans for business a lot, he has sampled some great resturants and got this book from the library which has Brennan's recipe. The boys and I were going to make it for him as a gift, but as things got tricky we called him in... he is the master in the kitchen. More on that later...

Ralphie giving out free birthday kisses.
(tilt your head to the left)
John takes over with the Bananas Foster. It is like this giant pile of brown sugar, with some butter in the saucepan and you warm it... try to melt the sugar. It was not melting... I was worried.
(That was when we got John)
Then you pour on banana liquor and rum. He bought this giant bottle of banana liquore which we figure will last us at least 30 years. Ready to light the pan and FLAMBE'! Oui!
It is lit! Darn, the picture doesn't show the fire! He is sprinkling sugar and cinnamon in it and it sparkles! At the fancy resturants they do this at your tableside...
Stephen waiting for the kitchen to catch on fire and Bryan laughing. :)

See that giant bottle of banana liquor?? :0

Happy Birthday Cake!

Had to get a shot of the birthday cake for Stephen's 17th before it was all gone. (This was taken with my new digital camera last week).

Can't you just imagine someone coming at it with a knife for the next slice...?

I always make a chocolate cake (boxed) with a double batch of homemade butter cream frosting for the boys' birthdays. This rich concoction is plenty for twice a year. Youza it is sweet! Boys said it was the best cake ever this year. :)

And, I am on a 'training' program (trying to train my body to lose some fat.. lol lol) so I didn't serve myself up tastes of batter and frosting while I made it. It was so weird to cook and not eat while I was doing it.. but that is a habit I am trying to change.

So, when I did have a taste of the finished cake, it was better than ever.

As one of my favorite quotes says:

Enough is a good as a feast!

Angel Eggs Anyone?

Two of my guys in particular love deviled eggs. But when they were little we renamed them Angel Eggs, for obvious reasons!

Today I was at our brand new wonderful Goodwill store looking for ceramics to smash up for my new craft endevor (more on that later) and I found this wonderful platter. It is made just for Angel Eggs!



















I just loved it. And the price was right at 3 dollars.

Here it is filled:




















And it must have made the eggs look appetizing because dh does not usually go for them. But when I showed him the platter he took one. And look..it looks kind of like it is still there.. cute!