The Birthday Mama!

Mama's birthday is always a joyful celebration:  we do know how to enjoy ourselves!  Summer birthdays lend themselves to delicious (and easy to prepare) dishes.  The hardest part is settling on the menu -- so much choice.



We settled on starting with a salad of tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozzarella with a drizzle of olive oil.












We moved on to grilled oysters with butter and garlic.

And then we had rice pilaf, grilled salmon with rosemary, and chicken.

We ended with a fresh lemon bundt cake (it had 9 lemons in it!).  Arby helped blow out the candles.

It was a splendid day -- relaxed and easy but also full of laughter and happiness.  We're blessed!












 In a day that was full of nice things, I think that one of the high points were the water snails.  I'd gotten them for the summer class on snails and they seemed to be asking to go to Mama.  As soon as she clapped her eyes on them, everyone's fate was sealed -- those are going to be two very well-taken care of and loved mollusks.

Happy birthday, Mama!