Artisanal birthday desserts, Brooklyn style

Locally made, artisanal desserts at my nephew Ariel's Brooklyn birthday party included cup cakes and a firetruck cake almost too intricate to eat (well, Ari didn't seem to mind carving it up!).

Pregnant cousin, oven roasted tomatoes

I've never really considered making sun-dried tomatoes, and I'm still not sure I will, given how time-consuming the process appears. But it's apparently not a particularly complicated operation. The caterer at a baby shower for my wife's cousin let me in on the recipe for her "oven-roasted" tomatoes. It seems she just halves tomatoes, adds some olive oil and seasoning and roasts them at super low heat for a few hours, flipping them once. Even without any marinating, they were delicious, topped with crumbled feta. (For the record, I wasn't invited to the actual shower, but I sneaked some leftovers the next day.)




Summer Hill Catering, in Madison, CT, also served up lox with dill sauce as a passed hors d'oeuvre. For dessert: intricately constructed, absurdly sugary, double frosted cup cakes from a local pastry chef.