Celebrating a Birthday on Tuesday

 

Birthday Flowers

It was my daughter's birthday on Tuesday.   She received this beautiful bouquet of flowers from her former supervisor, who has since retired.  

And my friend R, who was my daughter's Montessori teacher, ordered stringhoppers and yellow coconut sambol for her birthday meal:

Stringhoppers and Yellow Coconut Sambol

R had told me that she was ordering the stringhoppers and they and the coconut sambol would be delivered directly to me, but, the lady who makes the stringhoppers doesn't do any curries to go with them.  No problem - I cooked a fish curry and "kiri hodhi" (milk gravy), which is made with coconut milk, onions, green chilies, curry leaves, turmeric, salt,  and lemon juice.  Sometimes, hard boiled eggs are added to the milk gravy, or boiled potatoes to make a white potato curry, but, what I made was a basic milk gravy.  The fish curry was made with frozen pollock fillets; again, the gravy was made with coconut milk, onions, tomatoes, curry leaves, yellow curry powder, chili powder, green chilies, salt, and lemon juice.

Fish Curry (Front) and Milk Gravy (Back)

Birthday Lunch

Daughter was very surprised by her birthday lunch when she came out of the meeting that had taken up the morning!  

When daughter took her lunch break, we drove over to R's apartment to give her some of the fish curry and milk gravy for her stringhoppers, along with a couple of pieces of the birthday cake, some oranges from the garden, and some chocolates.  Both daughter and I were very touched by R's kind gesture.  In pre-Covid times, we might have gone out to lunch but, this year, lunch was delivered.

After lunch, daughter went back to work.  

I spent a quiet afternoon, doing a bit of housework, walking around the garden, etc.  Neighbor T called to offer me an empty cardboard box (she knows I've been using flattened boxes as weed block in the side yard), but, I didn't need any additional boxes.  She mentioned that she had put the box outside and I realized that it would be difficult for her to flatten it and put it in the recycling bin, so, I went over and disposed of the box for her.  Then, I watered the front garden.  

I had cooked some salmon for daughter's birthday dinner.  She had it with more of the stringhoppers.  Afterwards, we ate some cake with mangoes and ice cream.  

On Tuesday, I was grateful for:

- Being able to celebrate my daughter's birthday with her
- Friend R's kind and generous gift
- A safe drive to R's and back
- Delivery people
- Shared laughter

Tuesday's joyful activity was celebrating daughter's birthday!