B-day bash

We gathered at Brian's parent's house tonight to help Eric celebrate his 27th birthday. We played bocce ball and washers but were chased inside to eat because of all the flies. Welcome to late August in Kansas.

A birthday tradition for him, we ate some of Eric's favorite foods, including yellow cake with chocolate icing (courtesy of Grandma). And I made a couple of Eric's favorite recipes, bruschette with basil from our herb garden and a special strawberry-banana drink.

There's a great story behind the drink. It's actually a chilled soup recipe that I made for a dinner party several years ago. Eric, being the creative guy he is, didn't want the sweet pink concoction in a bowl and sprinkled with granola as I intended to serve it. Nope. He ladled it into a pint glass and added a shot of rum. I've made the recipe a dozen or more times since then, but always as a drink mix and never as a soup.

Cheers to the b-day boy!


Strawberry-Banana Soup/Drink Mix
2 pints (4 cups) strawberries
4 ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 cans coconut milk or cream of coconut
1 cup half & half
1 cup apple juice
Juice of 2 lemons
Rum (optional)
Garnishes: whipped cream, strawberry slices (optional)
**
Puree ingredients until smooth. Serve cold with rum, if you're up for it.
Source: Loosely adapted from a recipe by Tanya Tandoc

A few other images from the party: