Birthday Weekend

I turned the big 2-8 on sunday, and had a wonderful weekend celebrating the oncoming rush of middle age. I usually do pretty low-key birthdays, and expected it to be more low-key than usual as I am in a new city and can count the number of people I know on two hands. But it was lovely, My lab surprised me on friday with ice cream cake at lab meeting, and some of us went out after work. On Sunday, I went to see The King's Speech and to dinner with a few people, and talked on the phone until I was hoarse.

In the meantime, I filled the weekend with the things I like to do-cooking, of course, reading, and curling up with the simple cat and the helper cat for some quality time

When I cook, I like trying things I've never done before, so this week I tackled two: ricotta cheese and croissants. The cheese was very simple, and way better than store bought. I used it to make lasagna for dinner:

Croissants were harder and very time consuming, but not as bad as I expected them to be. They turned out great, delicious and buttery. And now I have 6 regular croissants and 15 pains au chocolate (pains aux chocolate? I don't remember french grammar) wrapped in foil in the freezer to be toasted on those mornings when I need a treat just for getting out of bed! Happy birthday to me indeed