Happy Birthday, Barbara

And the birthday celebrations continue. Summer is officially over now and in our family we recognized that by celebrating two of my sisters' birthdays that are on the same day of the year but different ages, September 23rd. One sister lives here in Seattle so we were able to celebrate with her yesterday and my other sister lives in Colorado but yes, they were born on the same day of the year. I also have a brother born on February 16th and another sister born on February 14th, pretty close. When you have seven children, I guess some are bound to be born near the same dates. My mom was a busy lady. Here's an old photo of all of us in 1979.

Barbara has lived most her life in Seattle unlike me who has moved away four times and moved back four times. She went to grade school, high school and college here so needless to say, she has a lot of friends in town. Last night, her husband, Jim, made a delicious dinner and invited a few of us over to celebrate her big day.

I brought one of Barbara's favorite recipes, dill bread.

Jim's main entree was from the Barefoot Contessa, an Ina Garten recipe for grilled New York steak here. It was amazing. There was a lot of juice with this meat which was perfect for dripping over our roasted potatoes.

Another friend brought a pasta salad, also from Ina Garten, that was orzo with roasted vegetables. I always love an orzo salad. If you haven't had this cute little Italian pasta that looks like rice, you must make this immediately.

The evening would not be complete without the birthday cake. Barbara's best friend since grade school made her a chocolate birthday cake to complete the celebration.

Add a little vanilla ice cream and PERFECTION.

You can't ask for a better meal than this and we were all very happy dinner guests. Thank you, Jim, for a wonderful evening and Happy Birthday to my big sis!

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