Go Green!

Devon gets in the spirit of things.

Sabbath was my Sweet 16 birthday. Allow me to explain. When I was 17, I started caring for the 3 kids I would adopt at age 25. While most of my peers were dating, moving out, and heading off to college, I was changing diapers and chasing toddlers around. Now, in two more years, 18 years after my 18th birthday, Caleb, my youngest, will turn 18 (of course, he turns 18 6 months after me, but it's still in the same year).

So for the first time in 19 years, I will have an empty nest and lots of options. In a way, it's like I'll be turning 18 all over again. Which must mean that this birthday was my 16th. Hah! Unassailable logic at work here.

To help build the anticipation I am having special birthdays for the next 2 years---color-coordinated birthdays. A few years ago I randomly decided to have a yellow birthday...you know, corn-on-the-cob, pineapple, mac 'n' cheese. It was a lot of fun, but why stop with yellow? There are lots of other colors, too. So next year will be red and orange tones, and for the big One-Eight, blue and purple tones. But this year was green.

Oh yum.

Actually, there are a lot of green foods that I enjoy. Pesto is a no-brainer. Green jello with pineapple. Got plenty of cucumbers for a salad. Limeade for a drink, and stuffed chilies from my garden. I also tried something I've wanted to make for years. I keep seeing rave reviews for the refreshing culinary treat of chilled cucumber/avocado soup. I looked up a simple recipe on the internet (if it's on the internet, it must be true) and blended away. It was....interesting, but serving it in my white tureen presented an image, well, not usually associated with life's more appetizing moments....

MY rules are that I make foods that are naturally the theme color. No crazy food coloring in unnatural hues to ruin perfectly good food.


 My family makes their own rules.


So while we had pesto, cucumber salad, and jello, we also had green-dyed pineapple and macaroni and cheese with green french dressing,

No, it's not a nuclear experiment gone wrong.

And just when we thought we were safe, Noni showed up with a pot of corn soup. Oh, yes. She went there.

My Plate:

Of course, there's one more green food item that actually tastes---and looks---good. Mint! And nothing goes better with mint than chocolate! So for desert, we had a yummy green cake with mint chocolate tofu mousse filling, chocolate frosting, and mint filled cookies on top. Too bad by then we were all a little queasy from looking at our food. It helped not to make eye contact with the plates while eating.

But no birthday is complete without presents. I have a firm Maximum Present policy; have for years. That means that, no matter the value of the presents, I want lots. They can be individually wrapped M&M's, but by jolly, I expect to do some unwrapping! My natal celebrations were off to a nice start with the lovely art supplies I was given at church, but then we hit a snag. This year, my family dared to defy my edict. I got two presents. 

Two.

As in, 1+1

But since they were a DVD player and super rockin' awesome laptop, I have decided to forgive them.

This time. 

(I wonder if I can convince them I need 18 on my 18th birthday. Hmmmm, it's worth a shot.)