Dad's 89th

Today would be my Dad's 89th birthday if he was still alive. I have lots of fragmentary memories of birthday celebrations past, dinners-and-a-movies we went to - I seem to remember My Fair Lady followed by dinner at Le Mont on Mount Washington; that must've been 1964 - IMDB says the movie came out on Christmas that year.

There were also celebrations when Dad wasn't there - we went to the newly opened Grand Concourse at Station Square (now it seems to be owned by the Muer chain) when he was in the hospital - that must've been 1978 Christmas season, before he had his first heart valve replacement in February of 1979. The reservation was so hard to get, my mom wasn't going to give it up just because Dad wasn't there. And there was his memorial, on the first birthday he missed, December 1998 - speeches in Heinz Chapel, and then across the street to the Pittsburgh Athletic Association for the reception, where they let me bring in cookies, because in Pittsburgh, they're so used to that from weddings.

Not sure what do in dad's honor tonight - I bought shallots and arugula, and have a basket & a half of grape tomatoes, so I could make the Martha pasta that's on the Jan. 2010 "light" issue of Everyday Food - roasted tomatoes & shallots with arugula, on rigatoni - for dinner. It's not really such a Dad dish, though - he wouldn't have cared for the green stuff thrown in at the end. But I have lots of the Lora Brody ruggelach, and canned peaches, so we could have the Dad dessert: chilled canned fruit, cookies, and tea. He'd probably have had Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux, but he'd have liked the ruggelach, too.