I love birthdays, and I stretch my celebration out for as long as I can get away with it.

This year’s celebration started at the end of July when my sister and niece arrived in the United States. They both have summer birthdays, so we three celebrated our birthdays together. We had lunch at a local grill that has great salads. I had a three salad plate that was delicious and healthy.

The week before my birthday, DD and ESS came for the weekend. We went swimming at the lake and had lots of beneficial food. ESS also has an August birthday. My niece said, “Aunt Suzanne, you two need a cake.” It’s hard to explain why you don’t want birthday cake.

On the day of my birthday, HH, my niece and I met SS for barbeque. Again my niece said, “Aunt Suzanne, it’s not really a birthday without cake.” There was a pie shop across the street from the barbeque restaurant. I said, “How about birthday pie?” She agreed, so the four of us shared a pie. The choices were a pie with beneficial fruit, and a thick double crust or coconut cream pie with very little crust. I went with coconut cream. If I’m going to eat an avoid, it should be memorable, and this was one of the best coconut cream pies I have ever tasted.

A few days later my niece and I had lunch with one of my friends. The server tried to talk us into cheesecake. I told my niece that I never ordered cheesecake in a restaurant, because nobody’s cheesecake could compare to my mother’s recipe. She just barely remembered eating her grandmother’s cheesecake when she was a little girl. I said, “You’ve been telling me I should have a birthday cake, how about if we make Granny’s cheesecake?” She loved that idea.

I’ve posted the recipe in other blogs, so I won’t post it again today. However we made one change that made it extra good. My mother used a baby toast called Zwieback for the crust. I’ve substituted wheat free cookies and I’ve substituted walnuts. This time I didn’t have any cookies, and I was out of walnuts…what to do? I ground up pecans and patted them into the pan.

Oh my, it was delicious. Better than walnuts, better than the wheat free cookies, better than Zwieback.

A pecan crust would be fabulous with a fruit torte. It would complement a quiche. I think you could use pecans in almost any recipe that calls for a pat in crust.