Mom’s Birthday and Japanese New Year

By the time you’re reading this I should be in Las Cruces, New Mexico, having left from my home in California at 6.30am PST.  And it’s probably been a long 750 miles.  A very long 12 hours of driving.  Yack.  So I prepared a post for you in advance!

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Mom’s Birthday (New Year’s Eve):

Mom didn’t want much for her birthday as she got a lot of it for Christmas, so she asked for a home-cooked meal and dessert that she didn’t have to make.  Um, how could I say no?!  We settled on making Eggplant and Zucchini Parmesan for dinner and boy was it good; we pretty much had nothing left!

I made a mistake in the beginning though. I roast my eggplant slices at 425 for about 20 minutes before I batter and fry them, but I seemed to have forgotten that when I started, so one part had no breadcrumbs, wasn’t fried, and was just eggplant, marinara and a bit of cheese on top.  That portion ended up being mine.

 

But this is what the rest looked like, battered, fried (lightly in Canola Oil), cheesed and marinara’d up, then baked to warm through!

I had one and a half towers with some roasted brussel sprouts and butternut squash and a sourdough roll.  More vegetables were consumed while sitting at the table talking…

But here’s my brother with his “Man Bib” at the table.  Craig is notorious for always getting anything tomato based, like marinara, on his clothes when he eats.  It’s mostly when he’s wearing white, but not always. Mom got him that for Christmas.  What a riot.

For her dessert we made some cake, that came out really thin, so I compromised and made: Marbled Cake and Chocolate Pudding Trifles!

That’s how the boys had theirs.  I made Mom’s prettier, with candles:

I should have recorded it, but here is my brothers singing.  I’m betting all the neighborhood dogs were howling too.

 

I’m not a fan of cake, so I had a small glass of Vanilla Frozen Yogurt w/ a bit of leftover Chocolate Sugar Free Pudding on top. Nom.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Japanese New Year:

Normally we have this at my Uncle’s because my Aunt is out from New Mexico, but since we all met up in Arizona last week, we were invited to join my Aunt’s side of the family and their Japanese New Year’s Feast!

Check out the awesome Sushi Madness:

  

My Aunt was awesome enough to make me plain rice balls and bring small sheets of nori to wrap around it.  I had it alongside some pickled cabbage and pickled cucumbers…oh man have I missed those!

I also brought along my leftover Eggplant Parmesan since I wasn’t sure what I would be able to eat there!

 

I had some seconds of a Japanese Football (I don’t know the real name, but it’s a tofu skin stuffed with rice; the tofu is sweet) and more cabbage and cucumber.

I ate some King’s Hawaiian Bread afterwards, along with some chips and the homemade salsa that was brought…I went home with a very happy belly.

Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope you’re ready for a great 2010!  I know I am, I’ve got goals up and ready to be accomplished!