Happy 14th Birthday Michael.
Love to you on your birthday and wishing you every happiness, always.
FF Ruthie
Handmade card by Froo Froo Marlene, his other grandmother
Fourteen Years Today
Tag: celebration
Good Friends Host Retirement Dinner
For me? Wow!
We had trouble finding a date when I wasn’t out of town. And-
They both still work full time. They also have lots of activities with their kids as I do (grandkids), too, but finally we coordinated a date. Just yesterday- Sunday. Everything was so welcoming.
Doesn’t matter I will be retired 4 years in June 😀. I thought it was lovely to be entertained royally and then sent home with homemade cookies, decorated so lovingly.
I am fortunate to have such very good friends who cheer me on and celebrate my retirement.
A beautiful table set with China and candles and linens and the dinner was delicious.
P.S. check out my host’s GOT shirt with matching package of Oreos. He was ready to watch the upcoming battle everyone was anticipating.
Thanks for a lovely dinner.❤️
Babka or Paska for Easter
This loaf was purchased at Weiland's Market in Clintonville Ohio Babka or Paksa. That's what's on the Reinecker's Bakery label.
Babka
“the Polish and Belarusian noun babka and the Belarusian,Ukrainian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Russian baba means “grandmother” or “old woman”, and as applied to the pastry probably refer to its shape, a tall cylinder, sometimes with corrugations resembling a skirt’s pleats.[1] “
or Paska.
“Paska breads are a traditional element in the easter holidays of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Romania, Moldova, Georgia and parts of Bulgaria”
“Paska is made with milk, butter, eggs, sugar, except in Romania, where the recipe most commonly includes sweet cream, cottage cheese and/or sour cream with eggs, sugar, raisins and rum. An egg and water mixture is used as a glaze.”
I can tell you that it tasted delicious. It is said to have a Brioche-like quality and there is a richness due to those moist golden raisins and the bread has just a hit of sweetness. Add a little butter. Mmmmm.
Here is a recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker for Paska Easter Bread and it has FIVE egg yolks.
Here is a recipe for Polish Babka Easter Bread from King Arthur’s Flour with three whole eggs.
Traditional King Cake for Mardi Gras
“The King Cake tradition is thought to have been brought to New Orleans from France in 1870.” Wikipedia
This King Cake created at the Party Cake Shop in Brookline on the Boulevard where I got the Paczki last Thursday.
Here is a Traditional New Orleans King Cake Recipe made with yeast .- a brioche like dough https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/traditional-new-orleans-king-cake/
Fifty Years Ago Today
Sharon and Chuck celebrate their fiftieth anniversary today, January 24th, but the surprise party was last Saturday. Right in the middle of a winter storm.
Only a few people couldn’t make it due to the weather.
Kim and James planned the event and their mom and dad were definitely surprised.
When the caterers Tessa and Maria arrived with all the delicious food, despite the treacherous roads, we knew the party was a GO! Everyone had a wonderful time at Chuck and Sharon’s fiftieth anniversary celebration.
Once a schoolhouse, there was a slate blackboard where party guests wrote greeting with chalk.
Grandson Simon tied balloons onto the mailbox
Karon and Sharon
Charlie showing 5 and zero.
Tessa and Maria braved the elements to deliver the dinner.
Crosswalk Surprise Friendship Avenue in Bloomfield
Crosswalk Surprise Friendship Avenue in Bloomfield 
Patience is Required with Chocolate AND Cake from the Oven
Important to be patient. I’m not.
Melt chocolate slowly on the lowest heat, don’t scorch or burn. Ruin a lovely rich bar. Managed that step but………Oh no.
The cake stuck! Not sufficiently cooled when tried to extricate the cake from the pan. Even with buttered parchment paper. 
Cake tester broom below. 
Glued together. Frosting saves the day. Butter and chocolate. No one even knows repairs were necessary.
Delicious.
Yes, it’s the moon AND fireworks
Yes, it’s the moon AND fireworks at the same time. Columbus Ohio with the family last week for the gigantic fireworks display. We had a nice evening together.
it’s the annual effort to improve my fireworks photography.
And I am celebrating another year with my Fourth of July birthday today.
Happy Birthday to me.
May 26, 1976
May 26, 1976.
Here I am, new mom, holding firstborn Mark.
Here’s Mark in 2003 with firstborn Anna.
Remembering my bicentennial baby on his birthday, with love,
Ma
A Wish for Every Happiness
A wish for every happiness, always.
Cheers to the newly married royal couple.
Love one another is the perfect theme for the world.
Today I saw my parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary (1939-89) champagne flutes in Mark and Erika’s China cabinet. Mark and Erika (2002) and Laura and James (2011) both used these flutes at their weddings.
I had set the alarm this morning for five AM but Grandma Mar woke up before then and texted me upstairs. We’re here together this weekend, watching the grandkids. We woke up the girls and they made it down to the couch. They fell back asleep, snuggled in blankets until we woke them up when the bride arrived at Windsor Castle.
Friends I know were watching snd texting from Florida and Pennsylvania. It was a very happy day. Wishing Harry and Meghan a long and happy life together.