Celebrating 40

There was warm sunshine and family.

And lemonade.

And there was Paella...

I didn't take many photos of the relaxing and playing... I didn't get any photos of the adventure down to the Beaver dam.

I was too busy having fun making a ginormous pan of yummy food.

The view from my station was lovely though.

And I was happy knowing that my Farmboy was in his element, enjoying himself greatly, and that he was about to be fed the birthday meal of his wishes.

Isn't it pretty?

The Paella certainly shut the conversation down for awhile... Its serious business you know, this eating of good food.

How I made the Paella this time (compare to last time):

Put 14 cups of chicken broth and a large pinch of saffron in a stock pot on the stovetop in the kitchen over medium-high heat.
Heated paella pan over coals on the grill.

Browned 3 pounds of chicken tenders in olive oil.
Added 8 cups of chopped veggies (2 each yellow onion, green pepper, red pepper).
Cooked until softened.
Added 32 ounce can of diced tomatoes with juice.
Seasoned with salt and pepper.
Added 3 cups of brown rice.
Stirred and cooked for a few minutes until the rice was becoming transparent.
Added the piping-hot chicken broth and saffron mixture.
Let the whole concoction sit and simmer until the liquid had nearly been absorbed (about an hour), checking the bottom every so often to be sure it wasn't burning.
Near the end of cook time, I added 8 pre-grilled sliced Isernio's Chicken Italian Sausages.

It was very close to perfect this time... the sausage was a great addition, and the seasoning was just right. Farmboy still thinks that there is something missing, so there may be a little more tweaking next time. We'll see... everyone else thought it was just right.