Irrationally Exuberant

First, I have never met as many people who do NOT celebrate their birthday as I have since I moved here. Why is that? Were all my friends so badly scarred by their suburban birthday parties that they can never have another one? And why do they say “It’s no big deal. Just another day.”

I call B.S.

I have *always* felt that if you celebrate ONE day a year, it should be your birthday. Not Christmas or Hanukkah or Halloween or Boss’s Day. It should be the day of your birth! If you can’t/don’t/won’t celebrate the day that marks the fact that you exist, the one day out of the whole year where you can say “Hey! Guess what world? I am here! And I am loving it! And, dammit, give me a present to commemorate the awesomeness of me and my life!” Okay, I don’t actually believe that presents are necessary, but do you get what I’m saying here? Maybe it should be, “And, dammit, I’m going to give you all presents to commemorate how glad I am to be here and that you are sharing in this amazing journey with me!” (That’s much better.)

You are alive. This is the one day to celebrate it and shout it from the rooftops.

If you wanna celebrate mine with me, it’s on Monday. No big plans. Dinner with friends. Maybe picnic style somewhere where we can see the lake? And the whole time I’ll be thinking, “Yay for me! Yay for being alive! YAY YAY YAY!!” with the biggest cheesiest grin on my face knowing that this is my day to celebrate me, my life and the friends that are in it.

OK, so I made the pie and the verdict is in. It was just okay. Here are the problems as I see them.

A. The crust wasn’t flaky enough, it got too soggy. This however, is a solvable problem…not one I’m too concerned about in the first attempt. I mean, first of all…I didn’t even make the crust myself.

B. The “sauce” was too saucy. In other words, it was too thin. I think in pie form this dish would be much better if the caramelized rummy goodness were more like a pecan pie consistency…maybe.

C. The brie didn’t come through well. I blame this mainly on the quality of the brie. I also think making the above changes would help by giving more textural complexity, less melding of flavors, and allowing more successful eating while the pie was still warm. (Mmm, gooey brie)

D. Not sure this is a problem, more of an area that requires further investigation. I’m thinking something should be done differently with the pears themselves, less cooking time? Maybe mix some smaller dice into the sauce and then top with larger pieces? …who knows!

So, anyhow. Below are some more lovely pictures of the pie.

Now, let’s get on with the more exciting part of this whole venture. While making the pie I sliced my finger! YAY! Ok, so you may be thinking either this girl is crazy or she is being totally sarcastic and not in the spirit of the blog…but you would be wrong! HAHA!

BECAUSE…for Christmas I was the proud recipient of a canister of Pirate band-aids. That honor may have had something to do with my tendency to say ARgggg, when I’m annoyed etc and then laugh at myself by following it up with “I’m a Pirate.” Just a guess…

Anyhow, I was very unfortunate in that I had not inflicted any damage upon myself since receiving what will from this point on be referred to as “The Glorious Gift.” So, as you might expect any well adjusted person to do…immediately after slicing into my finger I remembered the band-aids and practically skipped (no joke) over to the living room to retrieve them. And of course, afterwards I took pictures!