Happy Birthday

Celebrated DA's birthday with a dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. It was very tasty. Of all things - it had the best olives. The olives were served on a bed of ice. Very interesting. We've watched Jamie Oliver's cooking shows for years - way back when he was a young man with a show called "the naked chef" so it was fun to visit his place. I dont know how frequently he works in the kitchen there, but the food was good none the less. (He wasnt naked - the food was!)

B wasnt able to join us for DA's birthday dinner as she is on her school trip for a week to a campground on the Dorset coast. I've heard it's a beautiful setting. I'm sure she is having a blast, but I think it's been raining there so I bet she will return with a moldy, stinky suitcase.

Of course what would "an American birthday in England" be without a little cake drama. I swear, you'd think I learn. I had saved some Nestle Tollhouse choc. chips to make DA a choc. chip cake, but I had to come up with "1 yellow cake mix" and "1 box of pudding". I went to Tesco, the largest grocery store around and they did not have ANY yellow cake mixes. Not even an empty spot on the shelf for them. The extent of their baking was " chocolate cake mix, brownie mix, cookie mix, victoria cake mix and bisquick" That's all folks. So made another trip to my favorite store (Waitrose) and they had the same selection of cake mixes. No Yellow cake! I did find some "angel whip" or something like that which sounded like pudding.

I ended up making DA a "chocolate, chocolate chip cake" which turned out very yummy. Even better served on English pottery plates. ha.

Oh, for his gifts, you ask. He got a tiny stove top espresso maker, 2 espresso cups (plain white - wont make him drink out of all flowery cups!), and a salad spinner (ha. but he eats salad every night so he needed one). I did all my shopping at the local cooking store. Can you tell? It might just beat L's gift last year of a blender for his birthday gift, but just barely!