Hospobaby's 2nd birthday

Hospobaby’s second birthday fell on a Tuesday this year so we decided to give her a weekend birthday bash. Instead of a grand party we thought we would buy her a bike and spend as much time with her as we could, doing things that she enjoys.

We started on Saturday evening with staff dinner at our restaurant Sidart followed by cake pops covered in hundreds and thousands from Whoopie pie. Sunday morning we grabbed a quick bite at Toru café in Ponsonby Central. Hospobaby got her favourite gingerbread man and stole crinkle chips from each of our plates. She tucked into my soft shell crab sandwich and her dad’s Serrano ham and truffle toastie.

Tummies full we headed off to Butterfly creek. Hospobaby fed the Billy goat and alpacas, got scared of the crocs and was in awe of the butterflies. On our way home we made a stop at the supermarket. One of Hospobaby’s presents was to help her dad cook whatever she liked for dinner. In theory this sounded like a great idea at the time, which was much harder to execute. Zoya couldn’t move past blueberries and corn in the produce section. She had a tough time deciding between making pasta or tacos. We settled on the pasta, we had basil growing in the vege garden to make a pesto sauce.

At 5 pm the father and daughter chefs donned their aprons and set to work. Hospobaby counted the garlic cloves and put them in the liquidizer, along with the basil and pinenuts. She learnt how to use a microplane to grate the Parmesan. She helped her dad put the orecchiette into the boiling water.

Corn kernels kept disappearing from the chopping board and into Hospobaby’s mouth. Sid showed her how to use a whisk and beat the eggs for our mini pavlovas, they whipped cream together and added passionfruit. Finally she got to decorate the mini pavlovas with blueberries, feijoas and strawberry ice cream.

As I sat across the table enjoying the beautiful meal cooked by my two beloved chefs, I couldn’t help but feel proud of Zoya as she kept basking in the glory of the fact that she had helped make this meal.  A weekend with the family doing what we love best, I wonder how many more birthdays we can get away with preserving the happiness and innocence and celebrating just being together.

Hospobaby’s birthday Orecchiette pesto pasta- Serves 4

For the pasta

2 corns on the cob

350 gms Orecchiette pasta (dry shell)

2 chicken thighs (boneless and skinless)

olive oil

For the pesto

100gms pinenuts

bunch of basil

5 cloves garlic

olive oil

50g grated Grana Padano parmesan cheese

Salt to taste

Boil the orecchiette as per packet instructions and drain. Cut the chicken thighs into 1 cm pieces and sauté in a pan with some olive oil. Using a knife slice the kernels off the cob and add into the pan to sauté. Put all the ingredients for the pesto into a liquidizer and add olive oil as required till it blends into a smooth paste. Once the chicken is cooked add the pasta to the pan and the pesto. Toss quickly and turn the flame off, as further cooking will split the pesto. Serve with grated Parmesan.

Note

Orecchiette is easily found in gourmet shops like Farro fresh