Zombies eat plants?

We had a fun little celebration for Mckay's birthday. He got some awesome presents, but I think his favorite one is the one from his parents:

It's a really fun computer game. In order to protect your family from being eaten by Zombies, you grow plants in your yard that defend and fight the zombies. Sounds awesome! Mckay has been playing pretty much non-stop since he opened it, so I think he likes it. He also got some CDs that he's been wanting from his amazing wife.

For his birthday dinner I made short ribs that were recently featured on Julie's and Katie's blogs. The fall-apart tender and flavorful meat was paired nicely with some German potato salad and corn on the cob. Unfortunately, the camera battery was dead and we were too hungry to wait, so there are no pictures of the delicious dinner. You'll just have to try out the short rib recipe to see for yourself.

For his birthday "cake," Mckay requested Cream Puffs filled with Bavarian cream. I think he likes to keep me on my toes and give me a challenge, because I had never made either of those things before in my life. The cream puffs were actually really easy and pretty quick to make. I think I'm going to make them more often. The bavarian cream was definitely an adventure to tackle. It's made by heating milk and adding eggs slowly while stirring so as not to cook the eggs on contact and have scrambled eggs floating in your pudding. Surprisingly, I did really well with that part. I think my down fall was in adding to much unflavored gelatin as a thickening agent. When the cream set up, it was REALLY thick and gooey, almost like a mayonnaise consistency. The cream still tasted pretty good though.

I think there's a reason why instant Jell-o pudding has become so popular. It's so much faster, easier and tastes better.

It was fun to try making a new thing. And If it's to make this man happy,

I'll make bavarian cream any day.

Happy Birthday Mckay. I love you.