This weekend it was Ali’s turn at a birthday, and naturally it fell upon me to plan it all out. I usually do quite well with the whole party planning business, the only real downside is that each year I tend to raise the bar. This has led to an unfortunate cycle whereby I am compete against myself year after year in a bid to ensure my wife’s birthday happiness. It pretty much boils down to being a lot of work, but she enjoys it all so genuinely that it would be impossible to stop.This year I baked a black forest cake from scratch (one of my first ever forays into baking), as well as doing a slow cooked BBQ roast on my new grill. This was also my first time with the new BBQ.
I’ll tell you what, it’s not just a clever saying, cakes are easy. Wait, pies are easy. You can’t have cakes and eat them too. But pies are difficult to make. From now on, you can’t have your pie and eat it too, and it’s as easy as cake. Measure, mix, bake, done. The hardest part was spreading the whipped cream on the cake, which I managed a so-so job of. My spreading skills did cause my buddy Julian to quip “you’re getting more whipped cream on the floor than on the cake”, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Plus, the floor was decidedly too clean before I began and I’m an excellent multi-tasker. I’d rate my cake at a 6/10 when compared to professional cakes. Though mine tasted better than those would have, because the secret ingredient was love. And sugar. And cocoa. As an aside, leave it to me to make my first ever cake from scratch and choose a flavour I don’t like. Bah!
The roast was awesome, but a bit of a fiasco. Ali’s parents were driving up from Cold Lake just for dinner, then returning home. This equates to six hours of driving for two hours of visiting. Sadly, it took me about an hour and a half to get the BBQ lit, so they had to leave before I was ready to serve dinner. It wasn’t my fault though, I didn’t know what I was doing so I called my Dad. He’s an old schooler when it comes to BBQing, so his advice would prove invaluable. I took notes on what to do, then I got to work. First I pulled a Homer and completely doused the coals with lighter fluid. I carefully reached in and lit the blaze. Then the wind blew it out. So I added more lighter fluid, and carefully leaned in and lit the blaze. Then the wind blew it out. Then I stepped in a secret dog poop my puppy had left for me to find. Then I swore. As I’m cleaning the dog poo out of my sandals my brother calls to wish my wife a happy birthday and tells me that I need some solid fuel if it’s windy. I rush off to Canadian Tire and grab the first combustible item I can find and rush back home. When I arrive, my in-laws are already there. Crap. I finally get the BBQ lit and start to visit. When I go to check it the coals are hot enough I notice that half of the coals are hot and ready to cook, while the other half have gone out. Crap. I relight the other half, and add some more coals to the first half so that it won’t burn out before the other half can start up. 40 minutes later both sides are warm and it’s time to put the meat on, but my in-laws have to leave before it will be ready. Crap. To make up for it I served the cake prior to their departure. At least that way they got something for their trouble.
I was preparing dinner for eight, so when three left, there was way too much food. I tried to compensate for this by eating way too much food. While I was unable to make up for the lack of three additional people, I did pretty good, and best of all I didn’t feel sick afterwards. I did however reek of garlic. Mmm. Garlic.
A good time was had by all, and everything turned out well. Despite my lack of BBQ lighting skills. Hazaa! Now to sit back and relax until next year.
