Happy Birthday to ME....happy new year to you

Happy New Year, y'all!

It's my birthday! So awesome already. This morning after prayers, I heard a muffled boom. When I looked outside, I realized that my perfect view of NYC also afforded me a perfect view of the post ball drop fireworks. The best firework show I've seen in years.

It was a perfect start to my birthday. Truly rang it in with a bang.

I was so excited, that I started to cook right away. I took the lamb out of the marinade and then added to a pot with garbanzo beans, diced tomato, sliced raw sweet potato, collard greens, red onion, and mojo marinade straight from the bottle. Then I popped it in the oven on 170 to warm up the pot and a couple of hours later turned it up to 175. It's been cooking for the past 10 hours and the lamb is starting to become fall apart tender.

My cake is so cute. I took it out of the fridge and put on the candles. Then I put it back in the fridge because I didn't want to eat it until my call with the NMF later today (that's when I'll post the pictures).

More updates to come...