Izzy (and Mama) Eat: The Gourmand Goes To College...

Tales of Empty Nest and College Boy Eats.. The Next Chapter

Sunday, May 6, 2007

I Saved the Cake: Grandpa's 98th Birthday Party

Another weekend, another party. Today we celebrated Grandpa's 98th birthday. For some odd reason, I chose to do another "Make your own pizza party". Funny but today nobody was making pizza but me. I was the short-order pizza cook. I made 13 pizzas in all. I guess older folks don't want to get too involved in the cooking process, they just want it to appear in front of them. It was fun but didn't give me much time to mingle with the guests.

This week's menu was slightly different. For appetizers I had olive bread and olives and then I served a big salad with romaine lettuce and balsamic vinaigrette. Dessert was chocolate layer cake, strawberries and whipped cream. Thankfully, I did manage to salvage the cake last night. Indeed it was slightly misshapen but nothing too catastrophic.

The guests seemed to enjoy it but it was hard for me to taste it since I am suffering from my yearly three week allergy season. In fact, because my taste buds are somewhat impaired, the cake reminded me of a Suzy-Q, which I can't say is a fond association. I decided to replace some of the oil with butter and I think it may have been better with all butter.

What was most important, however, is that Grandpa and Izzy both loved the cake. Izzy had to have a second helping after dinner and was chasing the cake plate around the kitchen. I had high hopes for this cake but it still is not my ideal, which, by the way, was the cake they used to make at the now defunct Grange Hall restaurant. If only I could find that recipe somewhere.


p.s.
Grandpa seemed to be having a fine old time gnawing on his pizza (after all eating pizza without teeth must be somewhat of a challenge).

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