My folks came to town this weekend to celebrate with me. My birthday is exactly a week after Rose’s, which means that by the time it comes along, I’m tired of celebrating and don’t really want to do anything.

But really, it’s hard to say no when my mom offers to come down and cook for us. We had my folks, sister, aunt, uncle and cousin over for a delicious dinner of vegetable lasagna, two salads, sausages and birthday macaroons. To add to the celebratory-ness of it all, my aunt and uncle also share a birthday month with Rose and me.

The lasagna was the wonderful Vegetable Garden recipe from the New Basics Cookbook. It’s a labor of love kind of dish, it literally takes hours to make. You have to prep each vegetable separately. But it’s worth the time if you can find it. Thanks mom!

I don’t know what my mom did with the salads (aside from use up a lot of my CSA veggies—thank you) but they were spectacular, as always. She says I’m a close second, but she really is the salad queen.

The macaroons were a delightful departure from cake. Not that I don’t love cake, but we’ve been eating Rose’s all week. They were chocolate chip macaroons stuffed with dark chocolate ganache. They didn’t last.

Thanks family, for celebrating with me.