We celebrated Rose’s 10th birthday last night. 10 is kind of a big deal, both for us emotionally, and for her milestone-ally. We wanted it to be really special.

After a weekend in New York visiting friends Rose wanted to celebrate with family at home. She asked for Shane’s ribs and he basically took it from there, with a few gentle reminders from me about how people might want some vegetables.

Shane’s now makes ribs with ease in his Smokey Mountain Smoker. This is a relief, because there was a time when he would labor for days over only to declare them unfit for dinner because the meat didn’t fall off the bone in quite the right way. He spent a good part of the past week preparing and smoking the ribs and making Boston Baked Beans from scratch along with a couple of homemade sauces. His new go-to site is Amazing Ribs (dot com).

Family pulled us through the rest. My sister made two batches of cornbread (one “chunky” and one plain) with fancy herbed butter. My mom made a batch of our family favorite Blair Slaw (recipe below). Ronni brought one of her amazing salads. And JP Licks took care of the cake for us (chocolate Oreo & mint chip ice cream with Oreo garnishes).

Aside from arriving late because of the car accident, things were pretty easy. My mom decorated while we were away—thank goodness I saved the hand-cut hand-glittered birthday decorations from when she was five— and had the periwinkle and/or cornflower balloons and roses delivered (by my dad).

It was a truly lovely night and seeing our amazing girl so happy and gracious kind of made up for the heartbreak of her hitting the double-digits.

• Blair Slaw •
from our friend Blair’s mom

3 cups shredded cabbage
2 cups thawed frozen peas
3 cups chopped scallions
3/4 cups toasted chopped almonds (or pecans, or both)

Dressing:
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons curry powder (toasted in pan until golden-er)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

Put chopped cabbage, peas, and scallions in a large bowl. Chop nuts and toast gently in the oven or a pan until just golden – watch to make sure they don’t burn. Set nuts aside.

Mix dressing ingredients to combine and add to salad bowl with cabbage mixture and nuts. Toss dressing, cabbage mixture and nuts until evenly coated. Serve cool/cold.