To the April Finish Line

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Saturday, 23 April

Scilla or squill. Whatever you call it, this little blue early sign of spring is beautiful.

 

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Sunday, 24 April

The first planting of spring. A flower box for the front steps.

 

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Monday, 25 April

Bourbon time.

 

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Tuesday, 26 April

JD and me, hanging around waiting for her dad to show up for our weekly dinner together.

 

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Wednesday, 27 April

A CSO performance that included two dance pieces performed by the Hubbard Street Dance Company.

 

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Friday, 29 April

Party prep. Did as much of the food preparation as possible the day before. My first fear was there wouldn’t be enough food for 60+ guests. My second fear was there wouldn’t be enough room to store it all. It all worked out–with two kitchens humming and four of us chopping, mixing, baking and preparing over two days.

 

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Saturday, 30 April

The big day finally arrived! My one-year cancer-free anniversary party! I could think of no better cause for celebration and wanted to give back to everyone who’d helped me in one way or another to get through the past year. A good way to give back the positive energy that I’d been the grateful recipient of last year.

Everyone brought a craft beer to share and we had a big beer tasting that went on for hours. The photo above was taken very early in the evening. By the end, we had three beer buckets overflowing with a varied and impressive array of beer.

I wanted to make sure everyone was well fed for the tasting and I tried a bunch of new recipes, including a brie and arugula sandwich with apple mustard, lentils on crostini, stuffed dates, spiced almonds, and stuffed cucumbers. Had the old standby favorite veggie pizza and for dessert, peanut butter cookies, bourbon glazed shortbread and a killer chocolate caramel pretzel bar made by a friend who’s a pastry chef. The evening was a success on all counts and it was great fun to see everyone in one place, together. A tad bit surreal, actually and unfortunately, over much too soon.