To Each His Own

Birthdays are special in my house. In my large family, having a birthday meant selecting your own menu for dinner. Whether we chose spaghetti, blueberry muffins, fried chicken or angel food cake (my favorite), my siblings and I told Mom what we would like and she would make it ---- perfectly.

Now that I am a 'grown up' with my own kitchen, I am (or so I am told) very opinionated and have a lot of preferences when it comes to my meals. These opinions include a distaste for Wonderbread, a general unacceptance of sandwiches for dinner, and a preference of homemade mayo to Miracle Whip. In addition to that, I don't enjoy making bacon and I have a heavy dislike for crumbs, which is always caused by toast (forgive me, I am my mother's daughter). Due to the aforementioned 'issues', I am not a fan of making BLTs which is Nate's ultimate meal.

As it does with each of us, his birthday rolls around every year and I ask him how he would like to celebrate. His annual response is, "BLTs with Wonderbread and Miracle Whip". This year I tried to talk him into different bread and homemade mayonnaise, but he wouldn't hear of it - a traditionalist at heart. His only allowance in my change of the menu was thick-cut applewood smoked bacon versus lean turkey bacon.

For the dinner, his brother, Trent, joined us and the three of us celebrated Nate's birthday with BLTs prepared the old-school way, just as he had requested. We finished the meal with a strawberry rhubarb crumble and ice cream for dessert. While this may not be my ideal menu, it was definitely a very satisfying way of spending the evening. Happy Birthday Nate!