Dan's Lucky Day

Dan likes to say he's naturally lucky because he was born on St. Patrick's Day. Based on observation, I suspect this is true -- and this year he was doubly lucky, because his birthday fell on a Tuesday. Since we were staying in rather than going out, it only seemed right to do things up properly, home-cooking style.

Dan is a fan of the wings. Josh is a master of the wings. This resulted in deliciousness.







The wings (in Teriyaki, Meat, and Defcon 2 sauce) were accompanied by carrots and celery with a homemade blue cheese dipping sauce, coleslaw, an enormous tub of cheese balls,



and homemade yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting.



The cake recipe came straight out of The Mixer Bible, a cookbook I have found to be indispensable ever since Dan bought me Fat Man (my KitchenAid stand mixer) for Christmas. Made entirely of Real Food, it was moist, fluffy, and divine. I also realized that this was the first time I'd made a traditional layer cake from scratch, ever. I guess I should make them more often.

Rounding out the menu was a phenomenal beer (more lambic than beer) that Josh will have to post the name of so you can run out and buy it by the case, and chocolate chip mint and peanut butter cookies by Katy (of which Eli has promised he took good pictures).

Happy birthday, Dan!