July, August, September. Three months in a row. Three birthdays in a row. July – yours truly. August – Constant  Companion. September – Daughter reached her own milestone as we remain (almost) sheltering in place.

Actually, last week she went to visit the new apartment of some friends for game night ; another day, she joined another friend in town. These were her first forays since Friday, March 13, not counting the walks in the neighborhood. She feels like she’s returning to life outside of zoom!

My birthday (a milestone for me) was celebrated with a family excursion to an out-of-town Asian grocery, lunch from a favorite Caribbean hole-in-the-wall, and a so-so carry-out Greek dinner.

We celebrated Constant Companion’s birthday with one of my new zoom food, one of his favorites – schnitzel. Desert was cooking outside of the box. I made my first (maybe my last) baked Alaska. A nice celebration.

Daughter’s desires were minimal. She had arranged several zoom activities with friends; they were enjoyable time at a distance. Her dinner request was for chicken from our local chicken place – Pollo Tropical, and no cake.

I had three lonely egg whites left over from the weekend experiment – almond, cottage cheese pie (see Sept. 21 post). That called for meringues. On the other hand, I had several chocolate cookie recipes that seemed to fit the bill. A flourless chocolate cookie which found its way into my in-box last week was the choice, with some changes.

Start by lining you baking sheets with the parchment. (I actually used parchment paper rather than my go-to Silpat.) The recipe calls for spraying the paper with cooking spray – I forgot this step and had no problem. Whisk together the dry ingredients: 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 cup of cocoa powder, 1 tsp espresso powder (rumored to bring out the chocolate flavor), and ½ tsp salt. (I had about ¼ cup of hazelnuts in the freezer. I baked them about 3 minutes in the toaster oven, ground them roughly, and added them to the dry ingredients.)

Add the wet ingredients: three large egg whites, 1 tsp vanilla extract. (I did not add the 2 cups of dark chocolate chips, too much chocolate, even for me.) It takes some time to mix and thoroughly incorporate all the ingredients into a rich, dark brown mixture. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes.

Scoop batter onto prepared baking sheets (I used 2 tablespoons for this step), about 12 per sheet. (Oops, I was supposed the let them rest another 30 minutes; I’m bad a reading recipes). Bake in a pre-heated medium oven, 350 degrees F, for 8-10 minutes. Cool about 1 minute on the baking sheets, then slide the parchment, cookies and all, onto the cooling racks. When cooled, store in an airtight cookie tin – well those you don’t eat right away!

No more annual celebrations in our household, we have no birth records of our beloved kitties. That doesn’t mean that we won’t celebrate for other reasons, or no reason at all. The night before Daughter’s birthday, the air on our front porch was oh, so sweet. The jasmine started the celebration with a huge bloom –