The most important thing in the post? The birthday cake. I made a really great vanillary cake with orange icing, flavoured with orange zest, orange juice and orange liqueur! It was awesome and once I've perfected the recipes I'll post them.
Close up! I grated some orange chocolate on top with a microplane, to make it extra sexy.
Inside shot....
This glass was a pressie off my friend Maz. Here it is filled with sparkly rosé.
Tuesday was a gloriously sunny day (which is unusual as I don't remember a year when it hasn't rained on my birthday!!) so I made a rad playlist of mid 90s dance and 80s music and we sat out on the balcony. I bought a disposable barbecue and made some ace food to go on it. It was awesome and just soooo freakin hot. We all got a bit of a tan line! :)
The food I did was the last of my jersey royal potatoes, cooked till tender. Then splashed with olive oil, some fresh rosemary and thyme from my garden, lots of sea salt and 3 or 4 smashed garlic cloves. Then you wrap them up in foil and either chuck 'em on the barbie for half an hour or in the oven at 200C/400F for about 35 mins (which is what I did). This is Jamie Oliver's method that I saw on TV about 5 years ago and it rocks so hard, I used to make them all time.
I wanted the food to be awesome, but didn't really want to spend the whole of my birthday morning in the kitchen. So I took 2 packets of cauldron tofu and sliced them up into big triangles. Then I poured a jar of reggae reggae cooking sauce over them and left it to marinate. I love Reggae Reggae Sauce and the new jars of cooking sauces (which I can't seem to find on the website) are on special at Sainsbury's this week - £1 a jar!! I bought two and this was reallly good! I just chucked them on the barbie until it was starting to char.
To go with - garlic bread and that is a sauce I made out of soya yoghurt, fresh mint, a squeeze of lime and some salt & pepper, just because the tofu was really spicy and needed something cooling on the side. I forgot to get a pic but I also roasted some asparagus on the barbie too and it was delicious.
I made some simple veggie kebabs with mushrooms, peppers & red onions.
This salad looks like a right old mess but it was delicious!! I soaked some finely chopped red onion (a couple tbsp, just what was left after making the kebabs) in the juice of a lime. Then I added a small avocado, chopped and mashed it so there were just a few chunks left in it. then I added some orange pepper (what was left after making kebabs), some fresh mint and coriander and a bag of salad leaves (rocket and baby chard). Then I added butter beans and a lemon vinaigrette. Simple but it was really REALLY tasty!
Maddie (my friend's pup) was happy too, she got to spend the afternoon soaking up the sun and swapping between different laps!! She likes those cushions!!
OK and yesterday's dinner. I got home and was really not in the mood to cook much but I threw brown rice on to cook while I cleaned up the kitchen. I made Jessy's cilantro / lime rice (awesome stuff!!) and some guacamole. I got some canned sweetcorn and dressed it with a bit of chilli sauce and white wine vinegar and then cooked the rest of the butterbeans with some red pepper, tomato puree, onion and some spices. It was pretty good for something I chucked together.
Really yesterday I was craving nachos, as I'd picked up some Nacho Cheezly at the weekend but I didn't have any tortilla chips. So I bought some today and made nachos. I used up the leftover rice from yesterday and threw in some onion, red pepper, tomato puree, spices and tomatoes. I used up the leftover guac and some sour supreme that I bought when I got the cheezly. They were good but I was a total pig and made 2 layers - It was way too much for one, I only ate about half.
I actually enjoyed the Cheezly. Normally I don't really like vegan cheeze but the nacho stuff is pretty tolerable and went really well with the nachos.
The 3rd celebration is a meal out on saturday so I'll post the pics of that next week!
That cake is lovely. And hooray for nachos, they are the best.
ReplyDeleteLoving that cake! And all he b'day foods you made look very tasty, esp. the garlic bread and the rice and avocado bowl, yum!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am jealous of your sunshine! We've had over a week of raiiiiiiiiiin!
That Cake looks AWESOME Sal! I was thinking of you on Tuesday - I heard it was lovely weather over there and how fantastic you got to have a BBQ on your awesome balcony!! All that food looks sooo sooo good. I'm off to Iceland today to check out the spuds - keep your fingers crossed. That Jamie Oliver has a fair few good ideas up his cheffy sleeves! I'm dead excited about the Reggae Reggae cooking Sauces - that Tofu looks so ridiculously good! Mr treehugger goes to Bournemouth for 4 days at the end of the month and he's taking a HUGE shopping list with him. Oooh yeah - where oh where did you get the Nacho Cheese from?
ReplyDeleteJeni, I got it from Holland & Barrett. Different branches seem to carry different varieties. The one where I work only carries mozarella and white cheddar but the one where i live had herbed cheddar and nacho as well!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to drool over first, that PERFECT looking french toast, or that luscious cake! Man alive, I wish my birthdays were so packed with good food!
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday! Your cake looks/sounds great! I'm glad you had such a nice day.
ReplyDeleteWell Iceland didn't deliver this time - but I will keep checking. If not then mr treehugger is bringing back spuds in his suitcase!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of putting rice on nachos! I have some nacho Teese in my fridge that I'll be using soon and I'll have to try that.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday! And LOVE THAT CAKE!
oh YUM! I have to have to throw a barbecue! Everything looks AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteHappy (2nd) Birthday Sal!
Looking forward to the third! :)
All your birthday food looks so good! By the way, I made your mango cake (only that I didn't have any mango, so I substituted pineapple for it), and it was REALLY good - thanks for the recipe!!!
ReplyDeleteClaudia
Gorgeous looking and sounding food, as always! And that is one cute looking pooch!
ReplyDeletehappy birthday, belatedly! your foods look simply wonderful from this post AND the last! i need to do a barbeque soon. as soon as it gets sunny here again.
ReplyDeletesexy cake indeed!
ReplyDeletei’ve never thought to try french toast and ketchup before, Sal – i’ve gotta try this! i love me some ketchup and i adore french toast! what a great way to start off another glorious day of birthday celebration! yay! your orange chocolate cake looks divine! i can’t wait for the recipe! mmmmmm! i love your glass of deliciousness and i’m glad the weather was the best, Sal! hooray! i love that we both roast up potatoes the same way – and the tofus ‘n kebabs looks oh-so awesome! the salad sounds awesome – how do you make your lemon vinaigrette? i’d love to try it! we haven’t had butter beanz in forever, but once our pantry challenge is over i’m restocking with a bunch (i can get them in bulk – yay!)! Maddie = the absolute cutest! i love how she’s all smiling for the camera! we’re so glad you liked the cilantro-lime rice, Sal! makes me most happyfaced! guac = my fav - yours look especially deeeeeelicious!!! i love nachos the most! that’s pretty sweet that the cheezly was tasty stuff! i can’t wait to see part 3 of birthday foodz deliciousnesses! as you say, squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday :) Belated though it is. It sounds like lots of yummy food is going around.
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued by the idea of a disposable BBQ!
I am looking forward to seeing your finale for your birthday. So much good food to look at!
Oh my dog - I just kept going back to look at the picture of the birthday cake - you are a cake baking goddess! I am so totally impressed. You have mad cake deocrating skillz. So happy for you that you had a rockin' birthday, and so much birthday food goodness!
ReplyDeleteWhere to begin? The potatoes with rosemary look great, and I can't wait for new potato season, coming soon. That's a beautiful birthday cake too! I've never heard of the Reggae Reggae cooking sauces, but they sound fantastic...will have to look online. And those nachos - mmm! All looks like an awesome birthday...looking forward to part 3!
ReplyDeleteYum...I love orangey sweets!
ReplyDeleteyour bday food is getting better and better. The cake looks amazing. I never thought of putting orange liquor in frosting. great idea. mmmm... boozy frosting.
ReplyDeleteIf I had made the bbq food, it would have taken me forever. I'm sort of slow in the kitchen for some reason.
The dog is so cute.
MMMM, birthday cake. Nice barbecue food.
ReplyDelete