Alex's Birthday Bash

After I got back from my fishing trip in New York, I headed directly over to my relatives’ for my little cousin’s birthday party. As always is the case at these kinds of family gatherings, a lot of food and drink was involved. It was essentially a buffet-style pot luck with every family member contributing a dish or two, so there was a large spread of food from which to choose.

A diverse mix of dishes filled the dining room table, ranging from Chinese barbequed pork spare ribs, typical American picnic potato salad, to an Italian-inspired orzo, tomato, and basil antipasto salad. My aunt and uncle are big on grilling too. They have a nice Webber that gets lots of usage throughout the year, so we also had the pleasure of feasting on an array of grilled items like eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, Vidalia onions, marinated flank steak, chicken wings, and swordfish.

In addition to that massive Webber grilling beast parked on their deck, my aunt and uncle are now proud owners of a 6-burner, commercial-grade stovetop and oven range. It cost almost 5 grand! For anyone not into food or cooking, it might seem a bit lavish or unnecessary, but I’m sure they’ll make good use of it, as they do entertain quite a bit. You can always use an extra burner, right? It’s all part of the renovations taking place at their home. They completely renovated their kitchen and added a whole new wing to their home. I’m green with envy, I might add.

We ended the several-hour-long food affair with dessert – and not just one, but about four or five. Hey, my family just likes choices. My little cousin, Alex, is a chocoholic, so naturally my aunt had to get a chocolate fudge birthday cake for him. Among the other dessert items were a strawberry cheesecake, brownies, fruit salad, and chocolate cookies. Pictured below is the flan that one of my relatives baked.

My relative recently visited Mexico for vacation, ate the flan there, loved it, and had to get the recipe to bring back to make for us. For anyone who does not know what it is, flan is commonly used as a term to describe the Spanish, Portuguese or Mexican version of Crème Caramel. It is normally baked in a water bath and turned out of its mold onto a plate for serving. The flan was pretty good – light and fluffy in consistency with a mild custardy taste.