A birthday party

Margie had me load the uncooked pinto beans that she had been soaking all afternoon into the car in such a way so that they would not spill, unless we hit a moose or something. We then headed to town to throw a party for Rex on his 32nd birthday.

I can hardly accept the idea that Rex is 32, for I am only slightly older than that, myself. The gap of years between us just keeps narrowing and if it continues on like this, it won't be long until my youngest son is older than me, and that will be a very strange occurrence. 

I do not believe that anything like it has ever happened before in all of history.

We arrived in Anchorage about 4:00 PM, as the sun was going down.

The party was to be at Melanie's house. I was so tired when we first arrived, that, after I hauled the beans up the stairs and into Melanie's house (she was still at work) and helped Margie rinse them off, then refill the pot and put them on the stove to boil, I laid down upon the couch and there I stayed as Margie cooked.

After about an hour or so, other people began to arrive. Lisa got onto Melanie's computer. Charlie went out into the kitchen to put his raspberry cheesecake on the counter and to melt chocolate chips. I maintained my spot on the couch, but every now and then raised my pocket camera up into the air to take a picture.

Rex and Kalib arrived at about the same time. They greeted each other robustly.

Bear Meech and Diamond watched in wonder as their house filled up with more people than they are used to seeing.

And that's Cassie, Rex's dog, the one that came with Stephanie when they got married. No, Stephanie cannot be seen in any of these pictures. Perhaps in time, I will provide the required explanation, but this is just a time to give space.

Even as Kalib played with his grandmother's phone, Melanie's land line rang. But the receiver was not about. Rex is living for awhile in Melanie's basement apartment and had taken the receiver down there. He jumped up and ran down the stairs to get it.

You guessed it - when he picked it up, he heard Kalib gibberish on the other end.

Lavina cooks the frybread. This would make it Navajo frybread. If Margie had cooked it, it would have been the same but then it would have been Apache frybread.

As for me, I maintained my position on the couch. I was really tired and lazy.

When Melanie left work, she went straight to the airport to pick up Ryan, who had flown in from Calgary to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. Ryan and Melanie were special friends during their college days at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and spent some time in Europe together.

We all loved Ryan then and we still do, just as we love Charlie. And they are friends.

Here is Charlie's cheesecake, covered with the melted chocolate chips, which solidified into something very hard. A fork could not pierce this chocolate armor, an ordinary table knife could not cut through it.

The only way to get through the chocolate chip frosting was to saw with a serrated knife.

But... oh, was this cake good! The chocolate, the pumpkin cheese filling and the raspberries...

an absolutely magical combination!

You probably wish you could see the Navajo/Apache tacos that we made out of Lavina's frybread and Margie's beans. I should have photographed them, but I was too busy eating my share.

Ryan pets Diamond. In fact, he "overpets" Diamond.

Charlie saws his way through the chocolate on a piece of his cheesecake as Kalib jumps up and down.

After the food had been eaten, we all engaged in good conversation.

Jacob and Lavina had brought a store cake and regular birthday candles to go along with it. The candles could not be found, but someone did find these three big ones somewhere in Melanie's house. 

Kalib helped Rex blow them out.

Jacob gives his little sister some love.

As Rex unwraps presents from Jacob and Lavina, he finds the missing birthday cake candles.

Rex continues to unwrap his presents.

Soon, it was all over. Rex hugged Kalib goodbye. We all hugged each other goodbye. And then Margie, Kalib and I headed back for Wasilla, leaving Jacob and Lavina to spend the night in town with Melanie and Rex to begin a new year of life.

Comments

[Ash]

The picture of the two cats, Bear Meech and Diamond is, for the lack of a better and more profound word, amazing..

[gdwyer]

ok you know that it was going to happen! LOL if you photograph food you have to post the recipe!!! happy belated bday rex!

[debby]

YOU ARE A GENIUS! You have solved the big riddle. Our children are getting older, but we are not. That exactly it. I was trying to figure it all out, but could not. I've been gauging my age by the same measure that I use for the kids. Silly me. Now I understand why my kids are getting closer to my age.

[Wasilla, Alaska, by 300]

Ash - Thanks! That's because Bear Meech and Diamond are not only amazing individuals, but they are quite profound as well.

gwyder - I have passed your request on to Charlie. He improvised a lot and is trying to remember.

Debby - I'm glad that I solved the problem for you.

Now I am also a little puzzled. I remember someone asking how Bear Meech got his name, but I don't see the question here.

H'mmmm..... anyway, the name just came out of Melanie's head.

[Charlie Earnshaw]

Here is the idea behind the Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe that I used to make this cake for Rex's birthday.

Pumpkin Cheesecake mostly as taken from:

http://www.momswhothink.com/cheesecake-recipes/pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe.html

with a few slight modifications as I could see fit to experiment with.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 Tablespoons melted butter
1 Tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar

Filling:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 teaspoon pure raspberry extract
1 teaspoon pure orange extract
3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt

Toppings:
3oz of Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips
3 oz of Guittard real semisweet chocolate chips
1 splash of vanilla
1 small package of fresh raspberries

Pumpkin Cheesecake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, butter and brown sugar and press onto the bottom and halfway up the sides of an 8" springform pan. Bake for 5 minutes.

2. Beat cream cheese in a large mixing bowl until fluffy. Gradually add brown sugar, the pumpkin, the vanilla, raspberry extract, lemon extract, and orange extract, and the spices.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after adding each one.

4. Add the salt, beating until creamy, then pour the mixture evenly into the prepared crust.

5. Bake for 55-60 minutes, until top is browned but cheesecake is still slightly jiggly.

6. Transfer cheesecake to a wire rack and cool 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan sides to loosen cheesecake.

7. Cool completely, cover and refrigerate overnight.

8. Melt Chocolate Chips together in a pan and add a splash of vanilla to make a crazy hard topping that only Bill Hess can cut through with a serrated knife. Add the fresh raspberries to make it look enticing but also as a way to hide the extremely tough chocolate layer.

Your guests will admire it at first and then post pictures of it when it is no longer a slice of pie on Facebook! (It still tastes good though!)

Take care and be careful with the Chocolate!

Charlie