The Birthday Burger

I’ve often written here about food being integral to a celebration. For me and for many.

This, I believe, is most definitely true for birthdays. The celebration of another year past is always made better by a satisfying meal.

This week I celebrated a birthday. Not mine…my sister’s. She turned the big 5-0 on Wednesday. And she wanted to spend it with me, which honored me greatly.

It got me to thinking about the way we celebrated birthdays when we were kids. We got to pick our birthday dinner, which, for me, was always manicotti. It was my favorite thing.

Dad didn’t make it very often. It was a special occasion dish. So it made birthdays feel very special.

Before you ask, no, we’re not Italian. We’re mostly a mutt mixture from the British Isles. But for some reason, manicotti became soul food to me. :o)

Dad would make a filling of ricotta, spinach and ground beef, combining the two filling recipes that came on the box. Sauce was the Smith family recipe…a jar of prepared sauce, some tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic and onion powder, dried herbs. He might or might not have started with some frozen leftovers.

When we were little he followed the instructions, boiling the noodles and filling them when they were soft. Such a pain! Then, before they started putting out the ‘ready to bake’ variety, he would stuff the shells uncooked, add water to the sauce to give the noodles something to soak up, and baked it. Easier by far!!

Of course, birthdays would not be complete without cake. That was mom’s territory. And there was always something spectacular. Winnie the Pooh, Holly Hobby, Marvin the Martian, a piano, books, 3-D dolls…you name it, my mom made it into a cake. And not only was it beautiful, it was damn tasty, too.

Well, there was no manicotti or beautiful cake this week for my sister’s birthday, but there was some really, really good food.

At my sissy’s request, we went to Red Mill Burgers on Phinney Ridge. It has always been high on my list of best burgers in Seattle. The Bleu Cheese and Bacon Burger is to die for. It’s so cool to order your burger and look over at the grill to see the wall of bacon waiting to be paired with a patty of beef.

This burger is just the right amount of juicy. It’s not too messy at first, but after three or four bites, you get past the point where the crispy edges of the toasted bun can no longer hold in the sloppy, melty blue cheese and the juice running from the perfectly meat.

They add tomato and lettuce, but don’t add mustard or ketchup. Those are on the table so you can dress your burger yourself. I appreciate that. I’m not a huge fan of ketchup. I like a little occasionally, but if I have a choice, I wouldn’t have it on my burger.

Oh…it was a heavenly lunch. My sister and I couldn’t even finish our burgers. Good thing we just shared the onion rings (which are apparently legendary…they were pretty fantastic).

We started the day with pedicures at Gene Juarez and ended our time together with coffees from Cloud City Coffee in Maple Leaf.

It was a short time, but it was great fun. We had some amazing food, had a lot of laughs, cried a little bit. And I’m sure Mom and Dad were around somewhere. They would never miss a birthday.

It was a privilege to share such a milestone day with her. And I’ve got six years to figure out what we’re going to do for my 50th!

I love you, Sissy. Happy Birthday!