We’ve been a little indulgent with food lately. My birthday last week was fantastic. I chose a tiny (ten little tables!) pasta restaurant in Los Gatos that did not disappoint. Their fresh, handmade pasta and creamy sauces were divine.

And then! Tyler sort of surprised me by inviting some friends over for cheesecake. If he meant for it to be a true surprise, he failed. The entire dinner he was concerned about “making it home by seven”. Obvious, much? ;) But it was wonderful nonetheless. I need to train Tyler to grab our camera more often, because we don’t really have any pictures of any of us together.

Yesterday we broke the rules and made margherita pizza for dinner, with real cheese (haha, it’s funny the things that excite me now). I made a crushed tomato sauce using organic heirloom tomatoes, garlic, basil and oregano. Then we topped my homemade dough with fresh mozzarella and chopped basil from my garden. (I used this recipe for the dough). We might have weekly pizza night and try other fun combinations because it’s something that’s easy to include Jack in kitchen.

I also made these black bean brownies from chocolate covered katie, and I’m embarrassed to admit that we ate the entire 8×8 pan in about a day. At least they’re healthy and low-calorie, right? Jack and Tyler especially loved them, even after I told them what was in them. Seriously, go make yourself a pan right now because you can’t even tell. The texture and flavor is spot-on; it tastes just like a regular brownie.

Tonight we’re making these spring pot stickers from smitten kitchen. I hope they turn out well, because I’m really excited to try making them homemade for the first time. I think we’ll serve them over rice and broiled asparagus.

This next week Jack and I are headed to Utah (woo!) while Tyler goes backpacking in the mountains with his brother and dad, so I’ll be MIA for a bit. I get to see my entire family, and I’m really excited. It’s not every day that all five of us kids get together with our separate families. I’ll miss Tyler, but hopefully being around my family will help. I got Jack a pair of  headphones for the airplane and downloaded a few apps for the ipad mini. It’s our first time flying without Tyler, but so far Jack has a really good track record of liking airplane travel so I think we’ll survive. ;) Wish us luck!