Over BYO lunch on the plaza next to our Michigan Avenue office yesterday, Kate and I discussed how impossible it is to reconcile the passage of time these days. It seems you blink and the next milestone is achieved, the next month is past and the next life landmark is looming. And it’s all you can do to keep up.
Shiraaz’s birthday yesterday only brought that into sharper focus. It marked the beginning of a new academic year from him, the approach of autumn for us all and the fact that we are, resist as we might, slowly turning into grownups.
But we are of the belief that aging is a successful operation, so we celebrated in style. Dinner at David Burke’s Primehouse, where we enjoyed their signature Himalayan salt-aged steaks, kicked it off. Then we returned home for a homemade birthday dessert scaled for two. I’ll share the simple menu with you here:
On Wednesday night, I whipped up a batch of Martha Stewart‘s/Nigella Lawson‘s no-churn vanilla ice cream. (I hadn’t planned ahead long enough to but the bowl of my ice cream maker in the freezer. Fail.) The whipped cream and condensed milk concoction went into a loaf pan, layered with Ghirardelli caramel sauce. Yum. I served surprisingly light and creamy ice cream atop a batch of brownies perfect for two — it’s so hard to make desserts in small batches, isn’t it? — which I baked in my convection oven. Minimal effort for maximal fun…with a candle on top.
Amina Elahi 