Butch's Birthday

Butch's birthday fell on a Thursday this year. Not only did I plan a nice dinner, I posted an old picture for "Throwback Thursday" on Facebook.

There were a lot of hilarious posts. But the funniest thing was Butch saying he would never have worn a vest and had no recollection of this. I let him off the hook by telling him that it was a Christmas gift---all the "boys" got one this particular year. He probably never wore it again after this picture. The 1970's were not known for great fashion!

For his birthday dinner, I made salisbury steaks* mashed potatoes, fried okra, applesauce and cheese bread. I made "brown butter lemon bars" for dessert. While sitting around the dinner table, we discussed our upcoming family vacation to Disney World.

The "magic bands" arrived last week. Sandy and I got them all linked to our account so that all of the necessary information was on them. We spent about an hour and a half figuring out all of the fast passes for each day.

These bracelets contain EVERYTHING! It's your room key, park tickets, fast passes, meal plan and credit card for other purchases. The "kids" are excited about the thought of "dad" paying for all of their drinks as they take the "drink around the world" challenge in Epcot---and souvenirs too!

And of course, in Disney fashion, it all comes in the cutest boxes. Just opening it is a surprise.

One of Butch's birthday gifts was the Risk game. We had one back in the 1970's that was sold with one of our lake houses. It was a nice throwback. We played on Saturday night, but we all forgot that it's a long game! We played nearly 3 hours before calling it a draw.

I found this salisbury steak recipe recently on Six Sisters and liked it so much that I decided I was going to make it for the family. Here's the recipe:

Salisbury Steak
1lb. lean ground beef (I used chuck)
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 egg
2 T. water
1 lg. jar beef gravy (I used Heinz Homestyle Beef Gravy)
Large onion (this was not on the original recipe, but in the 70's when you could find this on restaurant menus, it always was topped with onions)

Mix together first 5 ingredients. Shape in to 4 patties cook in sprayed pan over medium heat for 10 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and add sliced onions. Saute' until soft. Drain any excess grease. Return patties to pan and add gravy. Heat through. Enjoy!