Birthday Dinner for K

Last night's birthday/Christmas dinner with K and her mom was just perfect... they got here at 5:30 and didn't leave till after ten o'clock. K is always so surprised when we fuss over her the way we do, but she's just a very sweet girl and she fusses over us so much when we go to Babbo Bruno's.

We didn't expect K and her mom to bring holiday gifts here, and we were surprised when they did. I had gifts for them, but we're not on a tight budget like they are. K works and goes to school, and they have to put money aside to pay for K's college classes. They gave my husband a box of chocolate truffles and a gift card for Best Buy, and K and her mom picked out a beautiful black shawl for me (from SteinMart).... it's embroidered with a peacock, and fringed with black beads. K knows I love shawls and wraps because she sees them on me when we go to the restaurant.

K didn't open the Christmas gifts we gave her.... she's saving those for Christmas morning, as she always does. But she did open her birthday gifts, of course...... I bought her a pretty green handbag, one of the popular crocheted ones with little spangles on them.... all the young girls are using those down here. I also gave K a pair of earrings that I bought for myself up in NY, about 20 years ago. They look like one-carat diamond studs, but they're actually very good cubic zirconia stones, one carat each, set into sterling silver. I wore those for all these years, up until two years ago when I got real diamond studs in white gold. I kept the "old" ones, knowing that I would pass them along to someone who would like them, and K was just the perfect girl to give them to. Like our young Miss C, K is very sentimental about things like that. Last year, I gave K an antique black-beaded choker-necklace that I had found years ago at an antique shop. I wore that necklace a lot and loved it, but as you get older, chokers don't feel as comfortable as they once did. I gave it to K for Christmas last year, and with her long and slender neck, that necklace looks better than it ever did, and she wears it over and over and just loves it.

I gave K's mom a long necklace of glass beads, also from one of the local antique shops.... D loves long necklaces and they look great on her because she's tall. I also wrapped up a photo of Barry Manilow that I had gotten from the Manilow Fan Club. They send me a photo every couple of years, and each time, I pass it along to a Manilow fan because I already have two signed photos of Barry hanging up on the wall in my sitting room. Two years ago, I gave the photo to J (he's a Manilow fan also), and this year, D got the photo... which she said is going up on the wall in her bedroom. For both K and D, I wrapped up a Christmas cookie cookbook with a Christmas serving plate. I thought it would be a nice gift for the holidays, but I didn't realize that D loves to bake cookies for Christmas, and she just loved that cookbook. Perfect gift for her, so I was happy about that.

Anyway.... last night was just a very nice night, and we all enjoyed it. We had a simple Italian dinner.... baked chicken and spaghetti, with hot focaccia........ and for the first course we had the Crab/Artichoke/Parmesean soup that my husband brought back from the downtown Whole Foods Market the other day. (Just a small cup of that soup for each of us, because it's a thick, rich soup.) The highlight of the dinner, however, was dessert.... and it was so simple.

On one of the Food Channel's shows.... Semi-Homemade, with Sandra Lee.... she used flaked coconut to decorate the rim of martini glasses. Well, we don't serve drinks, but I used her idea with the coconut to trim the antique green glass sherbet cups for dessert. You dip the rims of the glass into honey, then you dip the glass into a bowl of shredded coconut. When you lift up the glass, the rim is covered with the coconut and looks so pretty--- especially with the dark green glass sherbet-cups that I had bought from J's antique shop a few weeks ago. All I served was ice cream in those cups, but with the flaked coconut around the rim, and a little pecan square on the plate underneath the cup, it looked like a gourmet dessert. Plus, I added a little candle on the top of K's ice cream (just as she does in the restaurant for us) so that made her serving even more over-the-top.

Those coconut-decorated glasses looked so festive on the table last night that I'm going to do the same thing for Christmas dinner. My husband has already made the plum pudding for Christmas, and we'll be serving that, but I will also have the coconut-glasses ready in the fridge and serve everyone just a little scoop of ice cream as well. It will be the perfect surprise at the end of Christmas dinner. I'm so glad I splurged on those green glass sherbet cups at J's shop.... I just knew I would use them again and again. Come to think of it, I can do the same thing for our St. Patty's Day lunch... the possibilities are endless.

The brass lantern that I found at the Alvin antique shop with V last weekend is going to get a lot of use in the center of our dining room table. Right now, it's decorated for Christmas with red Mardi Gras beads in the bottom of the glass, surrounding a glass votive holder, and there's a sheer red ribbon tied into a bow at its base. I had that in the very center of the table, and put some brass-colored Christmas angels around it. I can change the colors of the beads for St. Patty's Day... or use purple and pink for Easter.... once again, the possibilities are endless. I can even fill that glass globe of the lantern with red hearts for Valentine's Day. A great find for just six dollars.

Another cloudy day this morning.... seems like forever since we've woken up to sunshine. Still nice and warm outside, but we do miss seeing the sun first thing in the morning. I swear, for the past week or so, the early mornings have been more London-y than Texas-like.