Brain Freeze and Roasted Brown Sugar Plum and Cherry Topping

Greg’s (my husband) 26th birthday is on the seventeenth of this month. (Right behind him is my 28th.) I have been racking my brain over what to do and/or what to make. How do I make this day special?

Last year, I made ribs with homemade sauce and pretzel crust banana cream pie. Delicious. I think we should go to a restaurant this year. However, Greg is usually against spending the cash and I don’t know where to go.

With our focus on the trip home in September, it seems that nothing can compare so why try? But it’s my best friend/my favorite person in the whole world/supportive, loving husband’s birthday! If only I could get him to have 2 weeks off and move the date towards mid-August. He needs a break. (By the way, still no nephew. What’s the record for the longest pregnancy?)

Actual gifts are not given. We try to make sure the birthday person has an extraordinary day and that could involve making a meal or dish that the other loves, eating out somewhere and/ or going to a place the birthday person enjoys (out on the trails/reading at the bookstore/sightseeing/sometimes it’s just about sitting still for once)…and it has to be chea…budget-minded. These are places we’ve exhausted and they don’t feel as special. We’re giving them a rest so that we can regain that thrill. The idiom “absence makes the heart grow fonder” works for locations too.

Greg and I say “I love you” several times a day and when we have time with each other, we’re holding hands, sitting close or hugging. There’s no lack of affection between the two of us. For years, we’ve written love notes to one another on our birthdays (and when we just feel it) but I don’t want it to become the “fallback gift.” I do love this though-it needs a rest to maintain its potency. Don’t get me wrong, we bicker frequently, in public and private, over some idiotic things, and we make fun of each other but we also understand and cherish the others sense of humor. Our household is full of laughs. How do you make a wonderful a day full of these moments even better?

He has been eating bowls and bowls of ice cream recently; perhaps, the idea lies in the cold treat. Brain freeze and all. His ice cream last week got an oomph with the addition of seasonal roasted fruit. We both loved this. You can roast nearly any fruit with some brown sugar and get a delectable result. This method is my obsession right now. It sounds too simple to be THAT good but it blows my mind every time and releases me from brain freeze. The warmth meets the cold with the caramelized brown sugar drizzled over top and the next thing you know, you plop another scoop in the bowl or feel bummed because the fruit is gone. Just try it and you’ll see.

Roasted Brown Sugar Plums and Cherry Topping
Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients:
2 plums, pit removed and quartered (apricots, peaches, pluots work too)
1 cup cherries, pit/stem removed, halved
3 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a shallow baking dish, place the fruit, cut side up, and sprinkle the brown sugar over every piece of fruit. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until fruit is soft and sugar has caramelized into a sauce with the fruit juice. Serve immediately alone, over ice cream, with whipped cream or yogurt.