FRIEND's Birthday Dinner

Disclaimer:

When I cook, I eyeball it...that is how my mom does it, so I learn it all from her...sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't--Monday night worked :-)

Pesto Pasta:

Bunch of Basil

2ish Cloves of Garlic

Mint

Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and process it until everything in it is really fine. Boil the Pasta and mix the pesto sauce with the noodles.

Add any cooked vegetables--I like baby potatoes and green beans. But you can add anything you want.

Garlic Bread:

(I like French Baguettes and Sour Dough Baguettes. I think that Sour Dough adds a little tang so I prefer Sour Dough. We used Sour Dough on Monday Night.)

(eyeball estimate)

Baguette

2-3 Cloves of Garlic

1/2 stick of butter

Salt

Pepper

Cut the bread in half (long ways). In a small bowl use 1/2 of a cube of room temperature butter and mince 2-3 cloves of garlic and mix together. Add some salt and pepper and spread over the two halves of bread.

Put in the oven and broil it until the bread starts to brown. Keep an eye on it, it should only be a few minutes.

Dessert: (again, I eyeball)

Heavy Whipping Cream

2/3 Tbls sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Almond Extract

Berries of Choice

Pound Cake

After dinner liqueur

In a mixing bowl, mix heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract and almond extract until the mixture is the consistency of whipped cream. You can adjust the sugar levels if you want it to be sweater or less sweet. If you use sweet fruits, it is not necessary to make the whipped cream very sweet.

Dice up the fruit and mix with a shot of the after dinner liqueur (use your best judgment). This is also good WITHOUT the liqueur. Dice up the pound cake in to small bite size pieces.

Layer the fruit, pound cake and the whipped cream and serve it in a pretty glass dish so you can show off the different layers.

My Mom always tells me::

Remember that presentation is EVERYTHING!