A Weekend of Birthday Celebrations

Decorated birthday cookie.

There are three birthdays in our family in July and August (*not counting mine).  Meredith's birthday was in mid July, Dan's birthday was Monday, and Granddaughter Grace's birthday is August 7th.  We decided to celebrate all three with a cookout Sunday evening. (We celebrated Dan's birthday again on Monday with family and friends.) 


Everyone likes hamburgers so we grilled those.  For sides we had potato salad, mac n' cheese, baked beans and a salad. 

All is ready.  Waiting on the burgers.

Granddaughter Grace particularly likes a decorated large cookie as opposed to cake so to please her I picked up a cookie at Harris-Teeter.  There were several flavors of ice cream (all from Local Fresh) for folks to choose their favorite. (vanilla, chocolate, Carolina Crunch, maple walnut, and cookies n' cream)

Birthday cookie.

When I was in Ireland recently, I found these little silver earrings. A perfect gift for Grace.

Tiny little silver earrings I found in Ireland for Grace's 14th birthday.

On Monday we celebrated with cake and ice cream for Dan's 88th. 

Dan's cake made by Macy Cakes. 

Cake and ice cream. 

It was a fun weekend.   (*My birthday is at the end of August, and we will celebrate at a later date.)

A Baker Yes, But Not Just a Baker

Mushroom frittata.

Macy is known for making beautiful and delicious cakes for special occasions, and I first met her when she made a birthday cake for my friend Virginia last year.

Birthday cake Macy made for my friend Virginia, a cat lover.

 Recently though I learned that Macy was looking for some part time work while she was on vacation from her regular job as Assistant Food Director at White Memorial Church.  She had mentioned she would in addition to baking cakes, prepare meals.  I jumped at the opportunity to have someone help with making meals to freeze for use when I was too busy or too tired to make a meal.  I am on a low salt diet and don't use ready made TV dinners because they are so high in sodium.  I make TV dinners from scratch and to have someone help with this is a God-send.

Last week she came for her first gig as a Chef.  She had proposed three different entrees with two sides each and had sent me a grocery list.  I did the grocery shopping and had all the necessary food ready for her arrival.

The first entree was a delicious meatloaf.  There were six dinners with this entree with sides of green beans/wax beans and mashed potatoes. 

The meatloaf just out of the oven.

Meatloaf dinners with beans and potatoes.  The meatloaf had a delicious sauce for topping.

She had everything planned and moved smoothly from one task to another, actually multi-tasking as she went.  I was so impressed.

After the meatloaf was in the oven, she began making chicken gumbo.

Macy preparing the chicken for the chicken gumbo.

 The sides for the chicken gumbo were rice and green peas.  Again six meals with this entree.

Chicken gumbo, with rice and green peas.

Finally she made a mushroom frittata, with green peppers, zucchini, onion,

Macy's recipe for the mushroom frittata.

The frittata is out of the oven. 

Six of the eighteen dinners ready for the freezer.

After four hours Macy had prepared 18 meals with a bit leftover, had cleaned up the kitchen and was ready to depart for another job. Yes, Macy is amazing and although a great baker, she's not just a baker.  She's a great cook too.  Dan and I have already enjoyed some of the chicken gumbo---yummy!  We're looking forward to more Macy Dinners.

Macy Cakes

Virginia's Birthday Cake with a "cat" theme.

I first met Macy when she bought a bookcase we had listed on Craig's list.  I didn't know until we became FB friends that she was a cake maker extraordinaire. It was then I saw posts of her beautiful cakes, and recently I had her make a birthday cake for our friend Virginia.  The cake was beautiful and delicious.

Moist and absolutely delicious.

Here are some of her creations:

A 50th wedding anniversary cake.

A beautiful wedding cake.

A Blessing of the Animals Cake at White Memorial Presbyterian Church.

A House Divided Groom's Cake.

A Baby Shower Cake.

A Chemistry Themed Birthday Cake.

I was so impressed with this chemistry themed cake for a youngster's 7th birthday.  Glad to see a young boy interested in chemistry at that age.  And I love the H2O in Thomas' name.


You can check out more of her creations at her blog:  Macy Cakes

You can bet the next time I need a special cake, I will call Macy.

Virginia's Birthday

The cake made by Macy Aguirre.

Friend Virginia was here for her birthday yesterday and will be here today for Thanksgiving.  Virginia always has two cats and they are always black and white, so we had Macy Aguirre make her birthday cake with a "cat" theme.  Macy did a wonderful job.

Centerpiece.

Salad.

We had oyster stew, salad and garlic bread, and of course cake for dessert.  Not only was the cake beautiful it was so very delicious.  Virginia and Dan both said it had been a long time since they had had a cake so moist and delicious.

Delicious and moist cake.

Virginia opens her present.

We gave her this salad fork and spoon set that I brought back from Cuba.

Virginia likes cats.

Check out Macy's blog :Macy Cakes