Robbie's Birthday

Monday evening we hosted a little Birthday get-together for our good friend Robbie. It was thrown together last minute (Sunday night I sent out an emergency email to my three kitchen-savvy girls back home for quick recipe ideas), and after a super-speedy grocery shop Monday morning, I spent the day in the kitchen prepping for the evening.

The Menu:

- Cheese & Crackers (as Annie says, "No cheese platter, no party!")
- Meatballs
- Bite-sized Twice Baked Potatoes
- Onion & Mushroom Tart
- Caprese Bites
- White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
(And I threw together a pizza later on in the evening with onions, mushrooms, zucchini and pesto.)

The timing of it worked out brilliantly, as everything could be prepared throughout the course of the day and then re-heated or set out just as people were arriving.

Everything was delicious, but the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake was by far the biggest hit. I'm so happy I found this recipe - the only change I made was in the crust, I used Speculoos cookies (a traditional Belgian cookie) instead of chocolate cookie crumbs. Next time, I'd like to use fresh raspberries, but I really can't complain about the result using raspberry preserves. This is absolutely going into the "must make again soon" file.

All this in addition to some beer, wine, bubbly (and a shot of whiskey) made for a very happy birthday boy... Cheers, Robbie!