Day 2 for #2: Dad's Birthday

This morning was orchestra and #2 had no appetite, but I made him eat anyway.  I can't imagine how hungry he would be by the time lunch came.  That's too long to wait.

Today was his dad's birthday and I spent most of the day preparing our meal.  I had to bone and skin a duck, fry bacon, dice onion and mushrooms, mince garlic, boil pasta, slice tomatoes, make my own salad dressing, and assemble the salad.  #2 said it was one of the best dinners he has ever had, so hopefully that will make this week easier for him.  We also enjoyed some sparking apple cider marionberry juice.  Now he just said, "If I had chosen to make my own dinner, I would have been so mad!" 

If we were rich, we would go out for our birthdays, but we almost never do that.  Eating out with six people, it's easy to spend at least $50.  I only spent $29.72 and I have leftovers, plus ingredients to use for other meals.  I bought a huge bag of chopped romaine lettuce at Cash and Carry for $2.80.  We can use that for at least another few days.  Unfortunately, #1 dumped my entire container of homemade dressing on the salad and it should have lasted for another two salads.

My husband sat down to dinner and grinned, "Is this duck?"  There was a dish he loved at our favorite restaurant years ago, but it was discontinued.  All I remember is that it had pasta, duck, mushrooms, and the sauce was kind of a brownish color.  I did some searches for "pasta duck mushroom recipe" and found this.

Duck Pasta

I had just made my first recipe with duck called Spicy Duck Ragu, which was really good, but not at all like the one he liked and a little too spicy.  The amazing thing was, it tasted even better leftover, so I probably will make it again someday.  I printed out the recipe for Duck Pasta and have had it for at least a year.  Surprising people is one of my favorite things to do!

I should have taken the picture before I added the suggested thin coating of mozzarella.  That makes it look less appetizing.

#3 asked me, "Are you going to surprise me for my birthday dinner?  Please don't!"  Yeah, he wouldn't touch the dinner, but #1 loved it and he's usually kind of picky.  Our daughter wouldn't eat it because she found out the meat was duck, but she did eat some bacon.  I caught #3 trying to get into the truffles my friend gave me after he had only milk for dinner.  Nice try!  He's now eating some plain noodles.

Now for my laugh of the day.  At times my kids have commandeered my camera and taken some rather inappropriate photos, so when I was uploading my pictures and saw the thumbnail of this, I seriously thought, "OK!  Who took a picture of their bum?!"

It was just the duck!  Now imagine it tiny.  Wouldn't it kind of look like a bum at first glance?  I totally forgot I took a picture of it.  So if you were wondering what a whole duck looks like, now you know. 
And this is how a professional bones a duck.  He doesn't hack away with a dull knife until he's lucky enough to get some meat off of it like this "friend of mine".