Elizabeth's 23rd Birthday Dinner • Every Day Dress by Rebecca Collins

*Mary and Elizabeth helping to get dinner on, it’s been all hands on deck*

*here we are early in the day before I went out on the supply get (little did I know (or did I know?) it would be my last trip out in days*

With rare exceptions, we usually celebrate family birthdays at home, with dinner and a cake (of course!).

*usually in an apron with a kitchen towel at the hip, getting going with the pot pies*

*the leeks, the mushrooms, and the tarragon, all so good*

*baby gate in the background, here I am with a tray for* *Booie, our house was/is a definite Covid hotspot*

*with an egg wash and served up in an ovenproof coffee cup, the pot pies were delicious*

*we brought out the sequin tablecloth and the wine from Bill’s cellar was exceptional.*

*store bought raspberry sorbet and house made whipped cream garnished the cake*

*I sourced thes*e *new Rockstuds for Elizabeth, had to be on the waiting list, perfect gift for her for upcoming Lindsey and Ethan’s wedding season*

*my sister made them both these very fancy overskirts (Elizabeth always got gifts on Peanuts birthday..)*

*Mary and Elizabeth make their getaway (very smart girls) for ski town, leaving Covid behind*

For Elizabeth’s 23rd birthday, I made individual French Pot Pies and a Chocolate-Mayonnaise Cake, and Mary made a Roasted Butternut Squash & Pomegranate Salad with Garlicky Honey-Dijon Dressing. On Wednesday, we celebrated this birthday early in the week as Elizabeth and Mary were heading out to ski town for New Year’s Eve fun with their friends.

I scooped one-cup servings of pot pie mixture into oven-safe white coffee cups and topped each of them with a Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Shell, as the Puff Pastry Sheets called for in the recipe were all sold out. The result was entirely satisfactory. With the salad alongside, it was a lovely dinner.

*chocolate-mayonnaise cake with bittersweet glaze and gifts*

she still wears her paper crown every year that I bought for her when she was turning sixteen. I keep it in a special drawer in the dining room. I bought the orange roses at the grocery early that morning. Orange is one of her colors.

The pot pie recipe is from one of my kitchen hero’s, Ina Garten, and is in her Make It Ahead cookbook. Chrissy Teigen, Instagram and kitchen hero, penned the salad recipe in her Cravings: Hungry For More cookbook. We’ve been making chocolate mayonnaise cake which seems like forever now, and my current go-to recipe is from The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Dessert Cookbook (a gift from my sister, thank you, Tracy).

this is how Caroline and I start most days when we are together in Boston MA or Buffalo NY, a long, early am walk outdoors with her kids. Here she is tending to Peyton. Later that morning Peyton tested positive for Covid. Needless to say, it was a very *tough morning. Thank goodness William has been thus far Covid free.*

*after our walk we came home and I made a hearty breakfast sandwich, horseradish, spinach, and all*, *Wednesday, December 29th*

*this is how it’s really going, Wednesday, January 5th (quarantined in youngest daughter’s bedroom)*

I collect cookbooks and read them like novels. Currently, I’m on Day 5 of Covid quarantine, having had tested positive on Elizabeth’s actual birthday, New Year’s Day. My family has confined me to Mary’s bedroom (she’s out of town with friends), and I’ve been having a challenging time following the house rules. It’s a good thing I brought up a massive stack of books. When the brain fog relents, I can read a chapter at a time and think of better days ahead.