My sweet, thoughtful, fun-loving 16 year old boy spent considerable time last year studying the audio speeches of Sir Winston Churchill so that he could imitate his cigar-chopped voice speaking great lines.

Right now I hear him in the other room playing around with the voice and the speeches with his sister. They are laughing in a wonderful sibling way as they wash dishes.

My heart is full of joy.

Food

My life often seems to revolve around food.

I spend a lot of time cooking, planning to cook, cooking some more, eating and cleaning up. I read food blogs for fun. I also read cookbooks for fun. Sometimes it's not fun and I'm reading out of desperation for something to match my cupboard's ingredients for dinner that everyone expects in half an hour. During the past five years I have transitioned my diet to wheat free, dairy free and low on corn products. I try to eat local, organic foods. I also have an athletic husband and family of teenagers. I'm broke. But when I'm not racing the timer I know that everyone is thriving and I like this way we are choosing to live. 

Which brings me to the point of this blog post: a chance to talk about food. 

Yesterday, I made this cake for my youngest's 15th birthday. If you're not a car person, I'll tell you this is a Maserati wheel. I was told it's cool. I was also told by said 15 year old that he's never seen the badge close up since the car always whizzes past too quickly. The chocolate cake underneath all that fondant and icing is our go-to for everything cake. 

Before the cake we went for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant that Pieman and I had enjoyed for our anniversary. K2 is also a foodie so it was a good opportunity to introduce the kids to a new cuisine. My mom and dad came too and BTG, who had been told what to expect in terms of beans, stews and lentils, actually seemed to enjoy what she tried. Yes! CTM wasn't too keen on the injera, which is the bread used to sop up the beautiful food but he still ate his 16 year old full. 

After the meal we had coffee served in individual pots and espresso sized cups. The waiter/owner brought out a cast iron pan in which he had roasted the beans for us to see, smell and hear before he went on to prepare the coffee. We've not had the whole coffee ceremony but one of these days I'd love to.

Because cake and coffee and celebration is important.