Happy 16th Birthday Emily!

If you were one of my kids you wouldn't like birthday cake. I don't think that it is a genetic trait, certainly not a dominant gene since both my husband and I enjoy cake. I guess it could be a recessive trait, but it would be unusual for all three kids to share it.

I blame it all on Matthew. When Matthew was a toddler, he had very definite opinions about what he would eat. He wouldn't eat chicken fingers, he'd eat the grilled sword fish from his parents' plates. He wouldn't eat boxed macaroni and cheese, he'd eat stuffed shells. He loved melons and ice cream. Which is what he ate for his birthday. By the time his brother came around, Matt had dissed many delicious cakes. I believe that he forced his obsession with ice cream onto Joe. Emily didn't have a chance to develop a normal birthday cake routine. However, if there was birthday pie, my kids would be all over it.

So for Emily's 16th birthday we had delicious brownies, ice cream, fudge sauce, strawberries and whipped cream. It worked for her.

Dinner was Ina Garten's chicken pot pie . I thought that I made good chicken pot pie, until I tried this recipe. Some times we look for recipes that say you are special, I celebrate you. This is one of those recipes. Well worth the effort.