Cathy's Birthday

Caviar Pasta

Crab in Spicy Sauce

Cathy and I were supposed to go to India for a month and we had to cancel the trip because of an ear infection that caused Cathy to loose hearing in her left ear. The doctor assures us that there is no permanent damage and that her hearing would return. We were bummed out because we were looking forward for the trip, but it would be impossible for her to fly until the ear has healed.

We had difficulty deciding on what we would do for her birthday, but ultimately decided to cook some favorite foods. I said I would do all of the cooking and cleaning and that she would only supervise. The night before the her birthday our neighborhood experienced a complete power failure and when we woke up we had no idea when electricity would be restored or if we could even cook (or see our food). In addition it was incredibly hot in LA well over 110 where we live. With no power and no air-conditioning it was not an auspicious way to spend a birthday. Luckily the power was restored at 10am the air-conditioning cooled the house down and I was able to cook (with supervision).

Billy / Kevin brought a great Borolo and Shrimp, Tim brought a delicious coconut cake and I made two of our favorite dishes.

We started by making: Spaghetti with Caviar, Scallions and Chopped Egg. The recipe is from The New York Times. This is an outrageously good and easy way to prepare Caviar. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Jan 1, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

We then made Creamy Spicy Lobster. The sauce is terrific but it MUST be made with Kewpie Japanese Mayo. We found the recipe on The Fine Lobster Blog called: Creamy Spicy Lobster: a twist on a Nobu Classic. Everyone loves it! We served Japanese Rice with it. We purchased excellent canned Lump Crab meat from McCall's Meat and Fish. It is called: MeTompkin. Look for it! You can find the recipe on our blog Sep. 5, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

We ended with the delicious Pineapple-Coconut Birthday Cake from Porto’s that Tim made. I didn’t know that Porto’s had birthday cakes. It was moist and good. I would definitely be buying cakes from them again.

Just as we brought the cake in with all of the candles burning Gerry (Cathy’s step-mom) called us from Chicago. It was a great and wonderful surprise and Gerry got to hear us singing Happy Birthday.

From what started as a bad day, it turned out to be a happy birthday with family and friends.