A Birthday

Once in a great while you find a friend that you immediately bond with, a friend you trust and want to be with, a friend that makes your life more enjoyable because you share common interests and can just enjoy each others company. Its even rarer to find a friend like that and then marry her but for whatever reason fate let me be in that rarefied company and my best friend and wife Holly has just turned 51.

I met her when she was 29, we started dating when she was 33 and we married when she was 36 and we have been through job changes, raising our combined 5 kids together, grand kids, moving cross country, a war, and now retirement.

Life is good and Happy Birthday to my beloved wife Holly.

I started out her day by making her a French Omelet with fresh Dungeness crab. For a French omelet you break 3 eggs into a bowl and lightly mix them (just enough to break up the yolk and lightly mix it...you do not want to beat it or whisk it), then in a non stick omelet pan you melt some butter until it foams a bit and is hot (but don't brown it), you pour in the eggs and let them cook for a minute or so turning the pan and pulling back the egg that has set to let the still uncooked egg on top down to the bottom of the pan. The key here is not to over cook it as you want the center to be really moist and slightly runny when you take it off the heat. You can then add a filling (in this case fresh but cooked crab meat), then slide it off the pan onto a plate and fold it gently. It will continue to cook a little so if you do it right it will be moist, delicate and perfect. I added some fresh chopped scallions and some flat leaf parsley and you can also add some fresh herbs to the pan after you pour in the eggs but go easy....eggs and maybe one other ingredient are the stars here.

 

It was a stormy and rainy day and this little fellow got battered by the wind and rain and has taken up residence here for the last few days. We took a break from chores on her birthday and played games (a dice game called 10,000 mostly), read and just relaxed and this little Hummingbird hung around all day to keep us company.

I made her a 2 layer chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and decorated it with these cheesy letters because I am terrible at cake decorating.....I can bake them like no tomorrow and they will taste great but they usually look like they were decorated by a 3 year old. It tasted good anyway.

 

And so here is the birthday girl and my best friend. I knew when I started dating her that she was the one almost right off the bat as animals love her, she is an outdoors person who thrives on adventure and challenges, she is a crack shot and very competitive,  and she never complains about anything. Of course being a cutie didn't hurt.

 



So how did we end the day? Well some things are just not for the blog!