Births and Days

You know what I remember about last weekend?  Cheese.  A constant barrage, unending, flowing mountains, rivers and streams of cheese.  I do admit to loving it, second only to chocolate as a food item for satisfying my deepest cravings…but I quite possibly had my fill.  Maybe that’s not true.  Like all good things, moderation is the key, but it’s funny how celebrations and cheese seem to go together.  It could be the company I keep, for they all seem to be cheese-heads. Happily they also have a penchant for a sweet from time to time.

It was a particularly busy weekend.  All weekends seem busy lately.  I guess I have to put the blame on spring because I can think of nothing else.  Everyone has tossed off that winter coat of hibernation and wants to get out and “live, live, live”!  I’m no stranger to this and could be as much to blame as anyone.  Aside from loving a good party I really like to stay busy.  Idle hands and devil’s playgrounds aside, I’m not very good at sitting still even when tired.  Sometimes you just need some sugar-extracted energy to keep the party rolling.  My run-down workaday week remedy: the tried and true sugar cookie.  This is the same cookie I made at Christmas-time to give as gifts, but it also makes a great quick and fun to dessert to take to an upscale or low-key birthday party.

Our good friend Randall had her birthday last Saturday.  We started the weekend off (Friday night) with an extravagant dinner at Picholine.  This is the same restaurant owned by the chef of Artisanal, but it’s finer dining and less bistro.  The chef is known for his love of cheeses, and this is why Randy chose the place.  She could possibly be the biggest cheese-head I know, and I’ve gotten some of my love for specific types of cheese from her.  She always has a selection on hand of new and interesting things as well as old favorites at most of her gatherings.

Saturday night we had a party at Axis Theatre’s beautifully renovated office space.  It was a fun time full of people I hadn’t seen in quite some time, many with significant others and kids in tow.  We are getting to an age where everyone seems to have kids, and it’s exciting.  Sometimes the kids are the most interesting guests at the party and are certainly entertaining.  They also love sugar cookies.  I’m sure their moms and dads love a large open table full of goodies (such as sugar cookies) that their young children can easily access and choke down four or five before anyone notices that they are racing across the ceiling.  Next time I might need to bring some higher pedestals to put them on…

Randall seemed to have a great time being surrounded by friends and yes, cheeses!  There was a spread from Murray’s on the table that would put anyone to shame and I’m not afraid to admit I ate some of everything.  Stinky, salty, hard, soft and downright funky cheeses with our friend Paul’s homemade bread, some crackers and a chilled glass of sparkling apple cider.  Who wouldn’t be happy?  The cookie shapes I chose this time were in honor of Randy.  First were the “R” and “S”, which are her initials.  The second were the bones in honor of her love of dogs, particularly her dogs Vivian and Leonard.  We managed to go through five-dozen cookies without batting an eye and I couldn’t have been more pleased.

To carry our cheese mongering even further, we had brunch with our friends Izabella and Jonathan on Sunday afternoon.  What do you think we had to eat?  You would be correct if you said cheese.  I think of J & I both as cheese connoisseurs, and from time to time we get a tasty morsel from one of Jonathan’s many trips around the globe (he’s a pilot).  I remember the first time we all had cheese together was at a symphony performance in Central Park in the summer.  It was a warm day with a blanket full of food on the lawn, listening to music under the stars and followed up by a fireworks display over the park.  That was a good day, and some good cheese I might add.

Our Sunday brunch was nice and we talked about home projects, gardening and their impending baby shower!  We decided to have it at the end of May since Izabella is due at the end of July.  It seems like time has just flown by, and their baby will be here before you know it!

Finally, there is no cheese involved in this last tale other than “saying cheese”!!!  Nathan and Andrea finally had their baby, Finn, and we were invited to meet him at the hospital!  He is absolutely adorable and tiny and precious, he even let me hold him for a bit without crying so I think he’s going to be a good guy when he grows up.  Apparently he is quite the little eater, much like his dad, and hopefully we can look forward to many farmer’s market excursions in the future possibly wearing a cute sun hat…Finn wearing the hat, not me silly.

It’s so strange to have someone close to you have a baby.  I’ve known Andrea for many years now, and Nathan for quite a few as well.  I knew her long before they met, and was happy to discover down the road of a secret work romance going on between the two.  Here we are now, a wedding come and gone, a wedding cake come and gone and a baby now enters our midst to change everything.  We “Sex and the City” girls are growing up too, just like the movies.  I’m still not sure if Andrea is Carrie or Miranda, maybe a little bit of both, but I still stand by that I’m a Samantha all the way.  As Carrie would say, “we will always have New York”, but now we get to have families and houses and full lives that we never quite dared believe would happen when we were in our twenties.  Good things are worth waiting for.

Several more of our friends are “due” in the next couple of months and I guess that means the baking business will eventually grow.  I mean, somebody is going to have to make cupcakes, cookies and cakes for all of these birthday parties.  I certainly hope I’m the one they ask to bring the goods.  It makes me happy to do it, even in the midst of a busy life.  My life probably wouldn’t be so busy if I didn’t have so many good friends, and for that all the effort is worth it in the end.  I’m very thankful.  It’s just who I am.

P.S. In hind site, maybe I should have made a cheesecake this week.