Around the Kitchen Table: Our Favorite Birthday Meals + 5-Book #Giveaway #ATKT

MADDIE DAY here. Some of us celebrate our birthdays all month, and November is mine. In fact, today is my actual birthday!

My cake from three years ago, with all the names
various loved ones call me - except Edith!

November can be very dark in New England, as the day length dwindles to a near minimum, so a birthday helps. I'm always happy to have candles lit in my honor at the beginning of the month. And then there's New England Crime Bake next weekend, a joyful gathering of writers and fans and editors and agents. Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, follows a couple of weeks later. It means food and family,  sans gifts or elaborate decorations. Some years I've also had a new book release in November or at the tail end of October, but not this year. 

But first November starts with birthdays, mine and others. My granddaughter, Ida Rose, squeaked into Scorpio territory two years ago with her October 20th birthday (trust me on this - Hugh checked his ephemeris). My bestie Jennifer is also a Scorpio, plus several other women friends I felt an instant affinity to when we met. (Two important lovers in my distant past were also Scorpios.)

Jennifer and me two years ago -
we've been friends for 48 years!

Bloggers, let's share our favorite birthday meals. I'll start. As a child in southern California, I would request roasted chicken and roasted potatoes, my mother's French cut green beans with slivered almonds, half a steamed artichoke with melted butter, sliced avocado, and chocolate or marble cake. 

Now I request to be taken out to a favorite bistro or other gourmet dinner when it's just Hugh and me, since he doesn't enjoy cooking. I like to finish a special meal with a decadent chocolate dessert, a decaf espresso, and a cognac. 

If my sons are going to be around, they cook for us, and nothing makes me happier than having them working together in the kitchen while I sit. We chat and laugh and do a bit of kitchen dancing. (Every birthday needs kitchen dancing!) 

MLKers and readers: Did you request certain foods as a child? What kind of food do you celebrate your day with as an adult? Favorite kind of cake or birthday dessert? And do I have any fellow Scorpios among the MLK group or our readers? Dish!

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LUCY BURDETTE: Wow Edith, your birthday requests were so specific! In my house growing up, the birthday person chose the cake--that's the tradition I've carried forward. 

My sister and I were born close together, so we often shared an angel food cake frosted with whipped cream. Now my surrounding birthday people mostly want chocolate. 

Luckily, I have a wide range of chocolate recipes to offer! Here's a fairly recent chocolate Guinness cake--so yummy!

 

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LESLIE KARST: I always requested cherry pie for my birthday instead of birthday cake. And my mom would oblige, baking one with little cookie-cutter pastry horses marching around the top. I wish I had a photo, because her pies were so darling! 

Nowadays, I still love me a cheery pie, but am far more interested in the main course--my favorite being steak-frites with sauce bèarnaise. 

steak au poivre, no frites

My sister's birthday is the day after mine (plus five years), so we try to celebrate together each year and often cook for ourselves. Luckily she has the same food taste as I. But I often skip the bèarnaise sauce, since it's a bit of a pain to make. (And we send someone out to McDonald's for the frites.)

 

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I still have that
cake plate! 

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Happy Birthday, Edith! (And Maddie, too!) Like Lucy, the tradition in my childhood was that the birthday celebrant got to choose the cake -- and birthdays were about the only time we had cake, being People of the Pie, preferably cherry pie. And I too chose angel food cake for my birthday, with frosting -- I have no idea what kind it was.  

And that brings up a poignant memory. For my mother's last birthday, the family was gathering in the retirement community in Helena, MT, where she lived. She asked for angel food cake and strawberries, but I did not think it would survive the 160 mile drive, in August, over the mountains. So I called Safeway. "Oh, sure, hon, we can do that for you," the bakery woman said when I made my request---and she did. I showed up, and picked up a grocery bag packed with a fresh angel food cake, strawberries, glaze, and a can of whipped cream -- and birthday candles. It was a kindness I have never forgotten. Here's my version of Angel Food Cake with Strawberries. which I often make in my mother's memory. 

Mr. Right and I like going out for birthday celebrations, and since his is mid summer and mine mid winter, it's a great combo -- especially if we're someplace warm like we were last year. 

Birthday tiramisu,
in Honolulu! 

But even if we've gone out, I still enjoy making my own birthday cake, to keep the celebration going. No longer the creature of habit I once was, it might be a carrot cake, like this Carrot Graham Layer Cake, or Walnut Cake, or Almost-Flourless Chocolate Torte. The dinner itself, out or at home, is never the same twice -- one year in a small beach town in Mexico, it was street tacos with beer followed by coconut ice cream because that was all that was available. And you know what? It was perfect!

Happy Birthday, all you November girls and boys! 

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MOLLY MACRAE: My birthday is one week after Halloween. I’ve always loved that and I’ve had some wonderful birthdays. Here I am with my friends Martha Lee and Maureen, and my brother Andy celebrating my birthday and static electricity with balloons stuck to our hair in 1959.

As kids (six of us), we were sometimes asked what kind of cake we’d like to have. But right around when I turned nine or ten, Mom got it into her head that I LOVED ice cream cake roll and that’s what I got every year from then until I went away to college. It made her so happy to put it on the table with candles that I never had the heart to tell her I don’t like ice cream cake roll at all. My brother Jack and I agree that the best and only birthday cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. As for a favorite birthday meal these days? Nope, haven’t got one. I like most everything we have at home (and if someone were to fix something for my birthday that I don’t like, I wouldn’t have the heart to tell them).

Happy birthday fellow Novemberistas! That’s not a real word but it collects all the November Scorpios and Sagittarians together and we can say it with flair and the clicking of castanets.

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CLEO COYLE: Happy Birthday, Edith! Because my February 2nd birthday lands on Groundhog Day, I start the day by celebrating with the most famous groundhog in the world and the people of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Getting up before sunrise, I brew a pot of coffee and video stream this lively party that goes on all night long with tens of thousands attending and culminating in the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil at the break of dawn....

I almost always re-watch the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day movie that week, and (unlike Bill's loop of a life in that film) my birthday meal varies, depending on the winter weather and my writing deadlines, but there will always be cake! 

I have been enjoying the Red Ribbon cakes on my birthday for years. This beloved Filipino bake shop has some wonderful varieties, including the Choco Mocha Crunch Cake with honeycomb candy, and the light and creamy Mocha Roll (one of my favorites, pictured below). Highly recommended. May you all have a delicious birthday! ~ Cleo 

Cleo's "Red Ribbon"
Mocha Roll Birthday Cake

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KIM DAVIS: Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, Edith! My mom had six siblings who all lived in the vicinity of us. I had a lot of cousins so as a kid all of our birthdays were big events when the family gathered together. I don't remember what was served for meals--it was potluck style no doubt--or even what kind of cake was served. What I do remember with great fondness is the homemade ice cream made with the old-fashioned hand-crank churn with lots of cracked ice and rock salt since my birthday is in August. That ice cream was the BEST and as the birthday girl, I got to lick the ice cream off the paddle when it was done. One year--I was probably six--I decided I'd be helpful and water the grass with the melted water left in ice cream churn. Let's just say I learned my lesson that grass and plants do NOT like salt water! On my actual birthday I got to choose what to have for dinner with my immediate family and I'd always choose tacos with my dad's homegrown pickled jalapeños. As an adult I make my own birthday dinners and generally have swordfish or every once in a while, steak. And for a birthday dessert, it's always ice cream although I buy it instead of making it.

While birthday cake might not be my ideal dessert, I jumped in wholeheartedly to learn how to decorate cakes when my granddaughters came along. As my youngest granddaughter put it every single year, "it's the best birthday ever," whenever she'd see the cake! The princess castle is from her 4th birthday and I made the two towers from slabs of homemade gingerbread cookies, while the stacked center is all cake. 

I always let them choose a theme for the cake and then I'd come up with a design. The hardest theme I had to work with was when my youngest granddaughter, turning seven, insisted it had to be gummy worms 😕It took me a few weeks to think on it, but finally landed on this cake:

A tropical forest with gummy worms and cookie crumb dirt on the base! No matter how you celebrate, wishing all the November birthday people, the happiest of days!

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: Happy Birthday, Edith!  At one time we had four family birthdays in November--my Dad, niece, grandmother and my late husband.  It was a busy month! I don't remember any special meals for my birthday although when I went to stay with my grandmother for a week during the summer she  always made my favorite--potato soup and "German pancakes" (crepes) filled with sweetened cottage cheese and dusted with cinnamon.  Birthday cakes always came from the local bakery--white cake with white icing.  Now I choose chocolate every time! Funny cake story: when I was pregnant with my younger daughter, my water broke in our local Chinese restaurant.  For many years afterwards we would go there to celebrate her birthday. On her tenth birthday, a strange car pulled into our driveway.  It was the owner of the Chinese restaurant with a cake for my daughter.  I suppose he never forgot the trauma of my nearly giving birth in his restaurant!

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VICKI DELANY: November! The month of my birth as well. It’s been a heck of a long time since anyone made me a birthday cake. (Sob story, I know). My children don’t live near enough to me for a drop in dinner or just a night out, so I am quite often on my own. Which I don’t mind. Really!

This year, I’m going to Ottawa to go out to dinner with my eldest daughter and my mom.  Admittedly, it’ll be as much if not more of a treat for Mom (turning 101 in January, and we have a big celebration planned for that), but I’m looking forward to it. My daughter knows all the best places.

I can’t complain too much – on my 60^th birthday I was in South Sudan, 65^th in Amsterdam, 70^th in Mozambique. Next year it’s the 75^th and we will be doing something involving international travel for that.

I do like to bake however and several times I’ve made this celebration cake to take to events like children’s birthday parties, and last year for Christmas Eve when we had children at the table.  You don’ have to be a kid to enjoy this cake though as everyone loves it.  (Caveat, mine always turns out a lot muddier looking than the picture in the cookbook. But it still tastes great).  

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Vanilla Cake
with Sprinkles from Vicki Delany

One other thing about November birthdays.  My granddaughter, Isla Webb, was born on my 70^th birthday!  Here’s a picture of my daughter serving my birthday cake shortly after we got the word that the baby had arrived. 

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LIBBY KLEIN: Happy Birthday Edith! My birthday is December. Also known as the month of getting the shaft. I'm trying to make the "half birthday" a thing. I don't remember food or special cakes for any of my birthdays. I only remember the year Santa came to my party. As an adult, I want one thing for my birthday. To have it in another country. I need to team up with Vicki! I threw my granddaughter a pool party for her 4th birthday and we had a seven layer My Little Pony rainbow cake. She still talks about it.

 

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    What about you? How do you celebrate your special day? Favorite kind of birthday cake or dessert? And are there any fellow Scorpios among our readers? 

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DEADLY CRUSH by Maddie Day

SILENT NIGHTS ARE MUDER by Libby Klein 

BULLETPROOF BARISTA by Cleo Coyle

THERE'LL BE SHELL TO PAY by Molly MacRae

ESSENTIALS OF MURDER by Kim Davis

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