Friday, January 8, 2010

Happy birthday


At left, the "plateau des fromages" (from left, clockwise: Nocciolino di Ceva, Caciocavallo Podolico, Castelmagno d'Alpeggio, Epoisses, Pecorino di Farindola, Holzhofer, Salva Bergamasco; in the middle: aged Stilton).
At right, the "dead bottles" (left to right: Cerasuolo di Vittoria Valle dell'Acate, Nero d'Avola Zahir Santa Anastasia, Lessona Tenute Sella, Chianti Classico Castellare, Notarpanaro Taurino
That's life, a few days ago i turned 45. My birthday happens to fall on january 6th (in Italy we celebrate the Epiphany, a day in which the Befana - a kind of good witch - comes to bring coal or candies to kids if they behaved good or bad). And this coincidence of celebration had always meant tons of obvious jokes.

This year we organized a nice party at our house. We invited some old friends for lunch, those which we don't meet very often because of the distance. We were 10 people.
I was surprised to see E. had grown so much. She is 11, now, and it's three years she has been studying to play piano.
I was listening with pleasure and emotion to her playing my piano that i haven't touched in years. It reminded me of my experience with that instrument, and i made a resolution to put my fingers back in shape with some musical exercises.


Maddie in her b-day hat
Besides the animated political discussions (all the opinions anyway from the good side), that happened to start after the second glass of wine, we kept up to date about the news in our lives.

The menu was very easy. Some snacks with the aperitif, tomato sauce pasta and some cured meats. But the very main course was the plate of cheese (that we bought at La Casera at Verbania Intra and at La Salumeria di Elena Debiasi at Trieste), which was a big success.
In the end, obviously, the birthday cake, baked by R: a cheesecake and a hazelnut and chocolate torte.

Maddie of course was playing the role of the spoiled dog, in exchange for plenty of snuggles, while Mr. Bentley was not as bad tempered as usual. He even accepted some treaties from the "enemy" hands of my mates.

1 comment:

tychecat said...

Happy Birthday. Welcome to Middle Age ;-)
You should have included some vintage port to go with your stilton. We're working on a recently decanted bottle of Warre's 1977. After 33 years, it's about ready.