It’s My Birthday, and I’ll Cook if I want To

There are few things in life that give me more pleasure than cooking for people. Sure, I’ll cook for myself, but it’s not the same. I want to share. Food is love, and spreading the love makes me happy. Maybe I was an Italian Nona in a past life?

It was my birthday last week, and it had been a while since I’d had a proper birthday party. So I decided to throw myself one. The building in which I live has a beautiful, and deeply underutilized, rooftop garden overlooking Coal Harbour, and my friend Jenn generously offered to bake me a cake, so what more did I need than that and a bunch of my closest friends? Okay, maybe some wine…

The challenge with cooking for my friends is that they have all kinds of dietary restrictions–gluten-free, vegan, no pork, you name it. So I had to create a menu with a little something for everyone.

Here it is:

Pulled Pork Tacos with homemade BBQ Sauce and Asian Slaw
Vegan Pulled Pork Tacos (yep, vegan pulled pork–a huge success–recipe to come)
Cold Minted Pea and Cucumber Soup with Herb Drizzle (based on this recipe)
Chips with Lili’s Salsa Fresca
Cruidetes (okay, raw vegetables, cut up) with Vegan Green Goddess Dip
Chocolate-Chip cookies
Lemon-lavender shortbread (inspired by some I had at the Penticton Farmer’s Market)
Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
Apricot Oat Bars (this recipe, made with a jar of the Apricot-Date preserves I recently made)
AND Birthday Cake!!

It’s a testament to how much fun I was having that I did not take one photo. Not a single one. These are cobbled together from the Facebook/Flickr/Instagram streams of various friends.