It's my birthday and I will bake if I want to...

Yes, it really is my birthday and this is the first time in a long time that I have had off on my birthday. Manatee and I went back and forth on whether to go out to eat or not, then I decided I wanted to make dinner for us and a very close childhood friend. This was for two reasons. One, and the more practical of the two, I have had a 'twitchy gut' as one of my friends calls it which is generally more twitchy after eating out. Some of it has to do with hidden fats and oils, some with bad luck, some with poor choices on my part. Secondly, I feel a lot of pressure on my birthday to do things, that I somehow need to live up to the day. In California, I had no plans one year so I booked a manicure, pedicure and massage. The massage released some kind of a emotional floodgate and I was left sobbing for an hour afterwards for no apparent reason. Lesson learned.

Since I like baking and cooking, I thought why not spend the day doing that and then have a nice, healthy, home cooked meal to share with the people I love. It was a bit of no-brainer. At first, I wanted to pull out all the stops and have some super fancy dishes I have never made before. That thought didn't last too long. I am going to some oldies but goodies with only exception being the appetizer which I am making up based on a couple of different recipes/ideas.

Shredded Carrot Salad (Around my French table)
Thai Spring Roll Cups
Chicken Pad See Ew (Ultimate cookbook with my own variations)
Double Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (An amazing Weight Watchers recipe so I can have it for breakfast the next day and not feel bad about it)

Notice the recurrence of carrots? This brings me to my next point. I hated, hated, HATED carrots as a kid. I thought they were the most repulsive thing ever. Too sweet to be a vegetable, not juicy enough to be fruit. It always amazes me how our tastes evolve throughout time. This is one of the reasons I keep my cooking magazines. Though I generally pull out recipes that appeal to me, I know that in three years, next year or even next month, I may have a new taste or developed a new liking to a food. I also try to keep trying foods even if I didn't like them before.

As a now older woman, that is my sage advice. You never know what you may start liking.