Skip to main content

Happy Birthday Brooke


Brooke wanted a Kahlua Bundt cheesecake for her birthday this year.  A few years back when we made this with my sister it was way too much food. So, Brooke and I decided to cut the recipe in half. I spent my day off baking this Bundt masterpiece.

While the cake was baking I started my first ever cased sausage. I've made crumbled Italian sausage a couple times, but never made them into true wieners. We got a sausage stuffer with our wedding bounty and our wonderful Realtor got us a sausage making cookbook for our nuptials. 

For my first sausage I made Spanish-style fresh chorizo. It's basically Italian sausage (i.e. fennel, red pepper flakes and garlic) with wine, booze and vinegar; nothing like the Mexican equivalent. 

I also wrapped Brooke's present during the day. Once she got home she had to open her present.

I always write little notes on her presents. This time I just mentioned that I'm her husband.

I had no idea what it was. I knew he picked something off my list, but I was so confused.

She's been wanting this windmill cookie press for a long time. I made her dream come true.

It's a Dutch tradition to make speculaa cookies for St. Nick. They were usually found in wooden shoes on St. Nick's. I want to start this tradition in my own household.


Then my mama's came over for some cake.

Emma gave me homemade wool dryer balls and sugar scrub. Cevonne and Jose gave me a sprayer that hooks up to our bath faucet. Since our only shower is in the basement they wanted us to be able to shower upstairs.

I helped Emma light the cake candles that read "Hapy Birtday." The cheesecake was baked into a Oreo-hazzlenut crust.

I've used these same candles for my last 2 birthdays. 

The birthday girl is really excited.
While the ladies talked about women stuff, Olive and Tyler watched JT and I stuff the sausage.

Scott and Jose held up their sausage.

Once I stuffed the sausage we twisted them into links. I probably should have pricked it like the directions told me. Some of the link popped out of their casing.

I said "Say cheese!" and she signed "please".

Brooke and I went out to Victory 44 for dinner after our guests went home. The pork belly and Korean pork bbq that we ordered were delicious, though I probably won't be ordering kidneys ever again.

After dinner we had a drink at Donny Dirk's. 

Brooke's besty, Amanda, wondedred what a zombie-themed bar looks like, so Brooke sent her this horrible cell phone shot. 

After we each got a very strong drink we headed home and that's how Brooke's birthday ended.

Comments

Amanda said…
This post is just so cute. You two are a lovely married couple. Scott, it was so nice of you to treat Brooke for her birthday with a cake, dinner, and a wonderful present. Cevonne/JT, you guys are funny. How nice that you wanted the Tuskas’ to be able to shower upstairs! : ) (Have you used it yet?)
AWWWW…I’m a besty! That made my day!! :)

What a great birthday! I think that the picture of Brooke in the dark with her cake should be her new profile pic. :)

Popular posts from this blog

A 250th 4th of July in Three Lakes

A couple of weeks after we were last up at the cottage, you say? Not soon enough, we say. We assumed dinner would have already been done by the time we arrived so we stopped to eat at Culver's in Rhinelander. While we were eating, I got a text from my dad saying he was in Rhinelander with Chelsea at Urgent Care. I guess Viola had taken a hard fall. When we got to the cottage Daniel was just starting dinner.  We hadn't seen Viola since Christmas, she's a little girl now. She was super shy around us at first.  She did also just get back from the hospital. I'm not sure if I approve of fireworks the night we get there, but due to scheduling conflicts that's when Three Lakes got in their fireworks show. 2nd of July fireworks would do. The next morning Blake made us croissant breakfast sandwiches for breakfast. Then Viola and I played down by the dock. Theo would have made a good big brother. Chelsea gave her boys haircuts and even trimmed my neck hair. Every boat we own ...

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Day 1  Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19  precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month.  I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho...

Japan Family Trip - Part II: Exploring the Shrines and Wilds of Nikko

We had originally planned on taking the bullet train down from Tokyo to Kyoto for a day or two. While being epically fast, it was a bit spendy for the four of us.  After talking to Brooke's coworker we settled on a two day trip to Nikko and its World Heritage Sites to break up our week in Tokyo. This turned out to be an amazing decision. The town is teaming with beauty from ancient shrines to epic waterfalls and some of the best meals we had on our trip. Kyoto didn't seem all that appealing to me when I started researching which location to go to. I too am glad we chose to head north to Nikko.  When we booked our Tobu Nikko Spacia X tickets I upgraded to the premium seats thinking that we'd be sitting facing one another. Instead we ended up with 4 individual seats, two in the first two rows and two in the last two rows. It turned out just fine with the kids sitting in front of us in two groups. Meadow and I were seated at the front of the car. Once in awhile we'd pas...