Birthday Ups and Downs

Yesterday was my birthday, and so I created a photo log of all the food, except my breakfast cereal, that I ate - just for you! I call it ups and downs because of a few things: some of the food was great, some was ethically horrid to the point of sending me to the brink of anger, some of my photography was totally out of whack, and my presents were great: I got a Christian book on tape, a new apron, and doughnut pans. Read on, if you dare!


This is my birthday cake that my ten-year-old, GR, made all by herself. She was disappointed that it turned out to be enough batter for only one layer, the frosting was thin, and she forgot to mix in the chocolate chips. But, I assured her that nothing tastes better to a Blessed Mama than something that was made from love by one of her Blessings. And, this tasted good! It was a marble batter with vanilla frosting.

Here's my slice of that delicious cake. The photo doesn't do it justice.

We went to the same Ethiopian restaurant for lunch, Queen Sheba, that we went to last year. They have a lunch buffet that we like to hit, and it's darn good!

We went to an all-vegan diner, Sugar Plum Cafe, and got some sweets from their bakery. I ordered from the day-old section (half price, you know), and I got a carrot muffin with frosting. I really only got it for the frosting because it was the only day-old choice with some. Four-year-old JK ate his red velvet cupcake frosting in the car on the way home. What I like is they use beet juice instead of dye to color their frostings. This stays in line with our Feingold plan, so it was perfect for us. Well, anyways, typical for JK, he ate the frosting, took a bite or two of the cake part and handed it to me, saying he was full. Then that's when a plan started formulating in my head. I put my unsuspecting frosted carrot muffin on the table...

...set down JK's partially munched on cupcake...

...and SCRAPED off the frosting, smearing it all over JK's topless cake. And voila, I had just what I wanted: chocolate with frosting. I gave the soy-free, gluten-free carrot muffin to my eatin' machine hubby, G.

We headed later over to my parents who were taking us out to dinner. My amazing mom is always trying out recipes for us. She brought out chips and salsa and made homemade hummus for the first time. She found a recipe that had peanut butter in it. It was so good! I am very proud of her. You can see JK is enjoying some, too.

We headed over to the Noodle House, a restaurant near their home in Carmichael that I've really liked in the past. I always order the same soup, so I was really looking forward to it. We started off with our usual spring rolls and peanut sauce.

My soup is Number 91, which is described as a hot and sour soup with noodles, tofu and vegetables. The noodles are served on the side, and I add them in as I wish. Not hard, right? Never had a problem before. Well, first off my mom's dish arrived about fifteen minutes before anyone else's - I don't like that when that happens. They also brought out tofu on a small plate that I was supposed to add to my soup - weird. Well, it turned out they thought my mom's dish was mine, and that I wanted tofu on the side. I explained I had the soup with tofu in it, and they finally understood, I thought. Moving on... Then my dad's dish arrived about another ten minutes before "my soup" arrived. Something looked different. First off, the noodles were already in the soup, but I thought maybe they just changed their procedure. No big deal. The broth looked different though, and G noticed an oily residue on top. As I started swirling my spoon around, I couldn't see any tofu, but I did pull up a suspicious looking chunk of something. G hoped it was a very large piece of ginger, so my mom tasted it, and confirmed it was indeed chicken. Chicken?! I called the waitress over and said there's chicken in my soup, hello??? She went over with me again what type of soup I ordered, and I explained. Up until this point, with just my parents served, and with me getting the wrong dish, I was still chalking things up to "things happen" and not getting too stressed. So, about ten minutes later, my dad now done, my mom eating slowly, my soup came back out. I gave the before-mentioned tofu to the kids, who were so hungry. (The picture above is from this soup.) Still no food for G or the Blessings. I didn't want to eat in front of my children, especially JK, who kept asking about his food. I asked about their food, and was told they were "working on it." About another ten minutes later, my mom was about done by now, their food arrived. The girls ordered a sweet and sour, and JK just had simple steamed veggies with tofu and rice. His came with an obvious sweet and sour sauce, and I didn't notice until later that the girls came with a brown sauce. Hmm. So, I thought, let's see if JK will eat his even though there's this sauce on it, and he seemed to do fine, so I let it go. I started on my soup. It definitely tasted different, and there weren't many veggies, and only three pieces of tofu. Not to worry, they're having a bad night, we're still coming back. About half way down, I pull another piece of chicken out! What???? I call the waitress over, now I was irritated - very - and asked what was going on. Well, I actually told her I knew what happened before she had a chance to answer. They brought the soup back into the kitchen, fished out all the chicken they could find, and added three pieces of tofu back in. Not only is that unsanitary, it's illegal! I expressed my frustration and disbelief, and said I wanted a new soup, unmarred, and packaged to go. My dad was not to pay for the new soup or old. I couldn't believe it. I was ready to come back again and forgive all the errors up until I discovered their gross slip of the hand. What if it was seafood, and I had an allergy? I explained that I was vegan for ethical reasons and how much this offended me. Then we all looked at the girls' brown sauces, and I gave all the food to my parents.

This is my mom at the restaurant with SR and GR acting silly. Their expressions capture my feelings of thinking of going back to that restaurant ever again.

We went back to my parents' home for my mom's Blind Date Bars. The picture, again, doesn't do it justice. It's a chocolate cake foundation with chocolate chips and walnuts. So, it ended on a happy note. Yay!