Food is an important part of celebrating. It just is. And we like food anytime, no celebration required. Here’s a sampling of the birthday fare this year:
Bialys. Adrian always talks about bialys (sort of like bagels, but different). Apparently you can only find them near New York or that part of the east. I even went to some place called Mikey’s Brooklyn Bagel Shop or some such thing and they didn’t know what I was talking about. So a couple months ago I found this recipe and decided I’d make them for his birthday. I am very afraid of making breads because it never seems to come out like I imagine. Here, the dough wasn’t rising right, but it came out okay in the end. Maybe not having anything in my head to compare it to was a good thing.
On Saturday, since his birthday was on Sunday this year, we went to the Il Fornaio Risotteria in downtown Seattle. It was good, as always. It’s hard to find real Italian food (Olive Garden doesn’t count, though I still argue it’s not bad for what it is, you just can’t compare it to actual Italian food).
We split a pizza for an appetizer. It was a little oilier than we felt it should be, but the pesto and veggies were good. Note the nice thin crust. Ahhhh. Looking at the picture makes me want to go to Italy. Or at least back to the restaurant, which is substantially cheaper than flying to Europe.
Adrian and Morgan with the desserts. We had creme brulee AND a chocolate fudge-like cake. Both very good. (Oh, and we had main courses of a grilled pear ravioli and the porcini risotto. Yummy.)
The rest of the birthday food got a little drawn out because my big plans for Sunday didn’t work out until Monday, but I’ll spare you the details. We’ll just say Saturday was the celebration day. 
Happy belated birthday! Glad you guys had a great time and can’t believe how big Morgan is getting…
Ditto to Diana’s comment – happy belated birthday, Adrian! Wow, time flies – it kind of feels like just yesterday that we had that joint birthday pool party for you and Cortland at the Merediths’ home, but that was four years ago now! Craziness. Well, I’m glad to see you had a fabulous celebration.
And Emily, major kudos on braving SK’s bialy recipe! I love SK, but her recipes are always so complicated, I don’t have time to try making them. Well, except for the zucchini pizza, which was fab. Anyways, I share your fear of bread-making and am so impressed. Those look yummy!
Hi Emily, I was in hopes that you might share the recipe for bialys. I love trying new recipes. I also love bread baking. I have used your recipe for the veges and pasta you gave one time. I check your blog at least a couple of times a week as well as check on Elder Hefler. I am so proud of him. Cathy isn’t the only one counting down the days until he comes home. I will be there too.
Till later, Grammom