Birthday queen!!
Before we got to celebrating Karen, I spent the afternoon doing a little nesting. I washed all the laundry in the house, cleaned the baseboard under my desk (which my dirty shoes scuff all the time), straightened up, reading some Ina May Gaskin and made some date balls!
Emily calls these Coconut Date Energy Bites but date balls is just easier to say 
I made her recipe except I swapped toasted sunflower seeds for pumpkin seeds. The recipe is AWESOME and they were so easy. Loved the addition of oats and sunflower seeds. Sadly I ran out of coconut so mine don’t have the pretty sprinkled donut hole look. I ate two for a snack, put 5 in the fridge and frozen the rest!
Cocktail hour:
Followed by a delicious dinner!
We had turbot filets that I picked up at Whole Foods in some blackening spice. This fish was delightful! Just covered in seasoning and then seared in a pan of hot safflower oil until crispy on both sides.
Caprese salad on the side
Can’t get more delicious than garden tomatoes and basil! With slices of fresh mozzarella and drizzles of aged balsamic, olive oil and sea salt.
And finally, we roasted up these quirky tiny potatoes I found at WF. 400* for 40 minutes after tossing in roasted minced garlic, salt, olive oil and pepper.
For something different, we made a yogurt-dill-lemon sauce to go with them. This was just about 2/3 a cup of plain yogurt with about 1 heaping tsp dried dill, 1 scant tsp lemon, 2 pinches salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.
And of course, the birthday desserts. We enjoyed two amazing items from Paradox.
A Buttermilk Tart – loved the crunchy raw sugar on top!
And a classic NY Cheesecake – incredibly thick and rich!
Happy Birthday To You!
big happy bday to karen!
The best birthday present for Karen would be a little bundle in her arms…
Beautiful lady. Happy Birthday, Karen. Tried Emily’s Date Bites when she posted them a couple of weeks ago. Delicious!
What a lovely celebration 🙂 A happy, happy birthday again to Karen!
Looks like a beautiful birthday dinner! And those date balls sound good, especially with sunflower seeds
OMG that dinner looks SO delicious! Every part of it I am almost 100% sure I would love! Th eroasted veg, the caprese salad, and ESPECIALLY the fish! It looks like its cooked perfectly!!!
That dinner looks AMAZING! I am going to definitely make that soon.
A wonderful birthday celebration.
Happy Birthday Karen.
Such cute little ‘tatoes! Everything looks deeelish. 🙂
Love those baby potatoes! And happy birthday to Karen!
Happy Birthday, Karen!! You come up with the best post titles.
love those potatoes!
The little potatoes are so cute! I need to look for them at my WF!
Baby potatoes!!!!!
: )
What a nice dinner! You are lucky to have such a good relationship with your MIL. I hope she gets to lend a hand during the first few weeks after the baby is born. It was always such a help to have people helping with meals, laundry, dishes, etc… after my babies were born. Sending you labor vibes!!!
We had hoped my youngest (he’s 3) would be born on my sister-in-law’s birthday (ironically, her name is Karen also!). Nope. He wanted his own day. He came the following day. Maybe Baby KERF feels the same way! Happy birthday, Karen! Looks like a fun and delicious celebration!
Those potatoes are darling!!! At first glance I was sure they were chickpeas. What a lovely, scrumptious birthday celebration!
That seared fish looks really good — seared to perfection!
Matt looks so much like his mom 🙂
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
Your mother-in-law is absolutely stunning, just like you!
*Squeals* Those potatoes are soooooooo cute!
What a lovely dinner. And Happy Birthday to Karen! 🙂
What a lovely looking 60, happy birthday Karen!
Happy Birthday Karen!
Today’s my birthday too! Guess Karen and I have the same one!
Happy b day!
Happy Bday to Karen and fab dinner and fab looking date balls/energy bites – love making raw little bites like that. Fun to toss stuff into the food proc and just see what happens!
wishing a happy birthday weekend to karen!
i guess baby did not want to share his birthday with his grandma!
Like so many others here I am LOVING the itty bitty potatoes!!!! Why do we love tiny little foods so much? I don’t know but if I spotted those on a grocery shelf there’s no way I’m going home without them! Ha!
Happy birthday to Karen. 🙂
Happy Birthday, Karen! The salad looks incredible and those little potatoes are too cute!
A huge happy (belated) b-day to Karen!! A photogenic celebratory dinner for sure!
My rainy Saturday looked a lot like yours. Oh, and Emily’s date balls are working their way up my priority list this weekend – yum!
Happy birthday to Karen! I can’t believe how tiny those potatoes are – I’ve never seen ones like them before!
It’s 9:00 a.m. and no post…..anybody else thinking what I’m thinking? Maybe Karen’s birthday present is a day late? ;0)
I rarely post before 9:30 — but thanks for the wishful thinking!
Some good friends of ours had their first yesterday (a girl!) so I was hoping the same for you!!
Ha.. I thought the same thing! Dang.
Happy birthday Karen! Looks like a great way to celebrate!!!
Lovely dinner and lovely guest of honor. I hope those desserts were as tasty as they look! Happy Birthday Karen!
Our little Love Bug was born the day after Bob’s birthday, just sayin… Love and 60 hugs y’all!
The coincidences in our families are just crazy!!
Love those tiny potatoes…more skin to enjoy!