One week till take-off

It's thursday. I start medical school in a week. I needed a picture which captured my feelings on this. Ah, this is just the one!

Plaxico

Alon and Elyse recently welcomed a 3rd member into their family. His name is Nathan Fisher Finkelstein, but he will always be known as Plaxico to me. This picture is from his Bris which I went to a couple of weeks ago. This was the first bris I had ever attended and it was quite an experience. I'm super stoked for Alon and Elyse, and judging by the way they look in this picture, they're super stoked too! Mazel Tov!

Happy Birthday, Luke!

So the birthday party this year was a rousing success. I only have a couple things to add to what I already posted. First, Luke is the awesomest best friend ever. He gave me a clay pot smoker for my birthday, which he then proceeded to teach me how to use by making an ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL smoked pork shoulder which we have been eating for the past week. Awesome.

Second, I am so stoked that Anne and Brian Fullerton were able to make the party because, as I knew they would, when the evening got late, they found a way to bring Bon Jovi into the mix and you can see the results of that little escapade in the pix below.

Third,

Luke shows off his meat.

Putting the pork shoulder in the smoker. Too bad I don't have any 'after' pix because it was awesome.

Parrish, Pam, and Luke make sure the pizza oven continues to function properly.

The smoker, doin it's thang.

Pizza happiness with everybody at the picnic table. Oven builders: stoked.

Pizza Margherita, underway.

Me, Christina, and Anne enjoying the Bon Jovi appearance.

Just like old times at the Webb...

Brian gets into the mix with his sunglasses on, inside, at night. He's so cool...

Uh huh. Fire chief Fullerton, on the scene.

Kelly, Anne, Parrish, Russ, Will, and Camille all singin along to 'Livin on a Prayer'.

Will, dude, you been workin a little too hard!

A Very Special Birthday Cake

My friend and college classmate, Anne, along with her two sisters Susan and Mary Lee, and her husband Brian, have a tradition that they make a cake for birthdays which is in a, a-hem, very particular shape. Anne promised me that she would bring one of these cakes for Luke and my birthday party this year and so she did. We had a great time singing happy birthday and blowing out the candle together. All in all the cake was outstanding as well. Thanks to Anne and Brian for coming to the party, and for making the cake! Susan and Mary Lee, we wish you could have been there!

Luke practices his fatherly 'disapproving glance', as I plead the 5th.

But eventually we found our collective sense of humor and blew out the candle.

Awww.

Pizza Oven Phase 3: Eating!

Phase 3 of the pizza oven construction was the final firing and the cooking of some pizza. Happily, we accomplished this on my 31st birthday last weekend. It was outstanding! Luke and I started the fire around 9 AM and kept it going through the morning. In the early afternoon, Parrish, Pam, and James showed up to help us make some pizzas with the new equipment. For the first pizza attempt, I removed the wood from the oven so that the pizza was the only thing inside. In hindsight this was a bad idea as the oven was not hot enough. We noticed that the pizza was cooking slowly, so we got an oven thermometer and checked the temperature. Sure enough it was only about 300 degrees which is obviously too low for cooking pizza properly. SO we ate that pizza (because were were hungry), called it a mulligan, and re-fired the oven. For the 2nd attempt, we left the wood burning in the back of the oven with the pizza in front. This turned out to be the ticket, as we managed to keep the oven at a piping 500 degrees...perfect pizza cooking temperature. We proceeded to roll that way through the evening and into the night, producing the best pizzas that I have ever made at home. The crusts were crispy and delicious (thanks to Suze for getting extra dough at Bertuccis!) It was huge fun, and super tasty. Here are some pix:

Firing the oven at 9 AM.

Parrish, Pam, and James prepare the first pizzas.

Tasty smoke emanating from the closed oven as it works its magic.
Smoke comes around the gaps of the door. Mmmm-mmmm!

4 cheese and caramelized onion pizza underway on the granite slab.

Buon Appetito!

Banana Pudding

For this year's birthday party, the thought occurred to me to make banana pudding. I had never done this before, but that was slim deterrent. I am a huge fan of this traditional southern dessert which is basically an american-style trifle. We used to have it all the time when I was a kid, and it's a perennial favorite. I didn't really know where to start with getting a recipe, and I didn't really have time to survey the literature or call Mom about it (it was late when I had the idea), so I decided to turn to my ever-trustworthy copy of "The Joy of Cooking" which provided a great recipe including making the pudding itself from scratch. The kicker was that I was provided the option of making a meringue topping or one from whipped cream. Being the unabashed high-risk cook that I am, I elected to go for the meringue. Never mind I had never made meringue before. I didn't realize what an involved process this was. However, I read the 'about meringue' section in "Joy" and soldiered on ahead. The result was, if I say so, pretty outstanding. It was beautiful, and it got hoovered within minutes of being cut...very satisfying. There is one thing that I would add to the 'Joy' recipe, however: booze of some kind...maybe bourbon or brandy.