20May2019 Belated Birthday Bashes for Luke and Chance

Chance's birthday always seems to come during Finals Week at Berkeley and we haven't been able to celebrate his birthday properly on his actual birthday for the last few years now. This year was even worse, since he was down in Long Beach to judge a debate tournament on the 6th, which is a pretty sad way to celebrate your birthday, right? And then he had papers to write and exams to take and so we didn't see him until the weekend of the 19th/20th. He had an exam until 10pm Friday night, so came home Saturday early afternoon.

Saturday evening, I made him Bolognese lasagna with dairy free cheese. I made this for Christmas Eve last winter, and it turned out wonderfully. Without the real cheese, it is lighter and healthier, but you don't miss it with all the flavor. I use a little Italian sausage to cheat, since it is a vegan recipe, but that's about the only change I make.

Here's the recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/2018/03/how-to-make-vegan-lasagna-bolognese....

And for his birthday "cake" he requested lemon bars for the third (fourth?) year in a row. Most recipes require you to make lemon curd, which is a little tedious if oh so delicious, but I managed to find a recipe that used the baking in the over to make the lemon curd and thicken it all. And it had an olive oil shortbread crust as well, bonus! Chance loved them! You might think olive oil shortbread is weird, but if you use a good olive oil (extra virgin, mainly), you don't taste the olive oil at all, it just has a hint of savoriness that goes really well with the lemon curd.

Recipe here:
https://food52.com/blog/22952-5-ingredient-lemon-bars-big-little-recipes

And since Luke had had his real birthday dinner/cake with the girls on a sleepover in Belmont, we also made pork dumplings for his family dinner on Friday night, and then sang Happy Birthday to him along with Chance on Saturday. Luke loves lemon bars too, so it all worked out.

We got Chance for a few days at least, he left Sunday afternoon to attend a graduation party for a good friend of his who was on his debate team at Logan and also attended Berkeley. Lucas was ROTC, and is headed to Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in the fall. Chance also had his first official day of work at the Nuclear Policy Working Group, so he thought he should make an appearance at the office and meet with the graduate student he will be working with for the summer. He's essentially researching and writing 4 articles for publication, and while he won't be 1st author on the papers, he will be listed, which is awesome for an undergraduate student. And it is all fantastic practice for graduate school, which is coming up in the next few years.

And the pictures!

Luke's cake with the girls: