My Birthday Delights

It's my birthday and I'll eat if (and how) I want to!

For breakfast Patch is making me pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. YUM! She's making it right now (yes, I slept in for my birthday)

I think I'll try making baked cucumber strips today with cucumber from the garden for lunch. Here's the recipe from delish I'm thinking of: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/oven-fried-zucchini-sticks-recipe-5380 although I am planning to use gluten free flour in order to test out the recipe and if it works, I'll make some for a friend of mine on a gluten free diet some time. If it turns out to be great, I'll post the recipe.

I know, shock of all shockers, we have a garden in the desert. It requires a special flooding technique to grow fruits and vegetables in our back yard. Twice a week Patch and Carlie drag the hose over there and flood the 6 by 6 area we've designated for growing fruits and vegetables. They've built it with ridges all around, so it's easy to flood between the ridges. So far we've really enjoyed the cantalope and cucumbers. It looks like the corn will be ready next. Things seem to be growing in alphabetical order which is hilarious. I wonder if the watermelon will be ready last. Speaking of which, if you want a watermelon and live in the area, please do let us know. Patch and Carlie won't be able to eat them all on their own.

I am allergic to watermelon. On a funny side note, we did not plant the melons, they were in the compost. If you don't want things you've eaten to magically grow in your garden, throw the seeds in the trash. But if you enjoy surprise fruits and vegetables, put those seeds in your compost. That's how we got our tomatoe bush as well. It grew right out the side of the compost bin. Composting our fruits and vegetables mixed with a slight bit of starter manure from the horse stable down the street has been the real miracle key to growing things in the desert. Now we have grown beans, cantalope, cucumber, corn, peas, tomatoes and watermelon. The beans sprouted and then died because the weather really did get too hot for those spindly little vines to stand up to. But I can see growing them again at the begining of next spring.

For my birthday dinner we will be eating food from The Original Burrito Company over in Ahwatukee. They recently moved into the building KFC used to inhabit. It's even got a drive through! I am so happy for them that they have been able to expand their business in such a way. Local, family run businesses doing well makes my heart happy. So supporting a local family owned business on my birthday and eating a special treat from my favorite restaurant is a great combination. So although I'm intolerant to chicken, I'm going to have a big ol' chicken, bean and cheese burrito for dinner.

I'm not supposed to be eating cake either, but for my birthday was told by both my integrative and endocrynology doctors to splurge. So we'll be having angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream from a spray can. Not exactly healthy, but occasionally it helps me stick to eating healthy foods if I splurge with the occasional sweet treat that reminds me of the foods we ate growing up. Angel food cake with all it's big fluffy delight and big fresh strawberries on top reminds me of Irvine. Summer in Irvine used to mean going out to the strawberry fields and picking through the leftovers. They would sell whatever you could fit in your bag for a buck. Fresh, hand picked, and delishous strawberries! What a great sensory memory for my 39th birthday.