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

Sisters, a Brother and Walking Chicago

  Summer always seems to mean one thing: weddings. Whether I'm shooting or attending, we're bound to end up at a few every year.  This time around we were heading down to Chicago from my big sister Katrina's nuptials. I feel like all our vacations are centered around a wedding or something wedding related. I wish we could go on a vacation without having to worry about being somewhere.   It also means a few repetitive trips down I-94. There aren't nearly enough unique stops off the interstate. One outlier is Foster Cheese Haus , the only organic Wisconsin cheese shop I know of. Run by the folks behind Castle Rock Organic Farms , we always try to stop by. Unfortunately for us they were closed on Wednesdays, but at least we got to spy on their darling garden out front.    Brooke and I arrived in Necedah. We decided to stop at Brooke's sister Brittany's home along the way to cut the ride in half and get her dressed hemmed.   ...

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

 Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

Dakotas Road Trip: Badlands and Black Hills

  I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going.  Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream.  We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy.  I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.