Big Birthdays and Baby Back Ribs

If there's one thing the Santa Eulalia Gang, aka The 10:27 Club, knows how to do, it's celebrate a birthday. And it was with festive spirits and grateful hearts that we all gathered last week to wish an enthusiastic Happy Birthday to our honorary leader and dear friend, Marcial Artavia, aka The Sausage King, aka Costa Rica Dundee. As his 62nd birthday approached, his adorable wife Seidy took charge. Keeping it simple, she decided on typical Tico fare of rice, red beans, yucca, home-baked bread, chicken simmered in a spicy sauce and a beautiful salad adorned with a pink plumeria from her garden. Eroca provided one of her now-famous desserts, Pineapple Upside-down Cake. 

Feast for a King

The rest of us contributed a few appetizers, plenty of beer and wine and Marcial's favorite indulgence, J&B scotch whiskey. It was a feast fit for ... well, a Sausage King! With his family all there, including his mom Haydee who did the honors of blowing out the single symbolic candle, and the entire Santa Eulalia gang gathered around him, it was sure to be a fun evening for Marcial as indeed it was.

Eroca, Marc, Sue, Marcial, Seidy & Stephen (Layne's hand in foreground)

Plumeria from the yard

Eroca presents the birthday cake

A birthday hug from Mom...

A birthday kiss from Seidy

Since most of the female members of the Santa Eulalia Gang were in attendance (all but Carmen), the event gave us a chance to take a photo together wearing the stunning earrings that Marcial and Seidy's oldest son Felipe makes. They feature a Dream-catcher design in your choice of colors and use coconut shell as a frame. Felipe is making these to sell in an effort to earn tuition money for college. 

Showing off our earrings

The "official" Santa Eulalia Gang earrings

Felipe hopes to study architecture at a private school here in Costa Rica but the cost to register is pretty steep. So he is offering these beautiful earrings at only 5000 colones a pair, or about $10, as a way to save enough for tuition. If you want to wear the official Santa Eulalia Gang earrings and help this young man get into college, send me an email at mailto:pksunlove@gmail.com and I'll put you in touch with Felipe.

As usual the rest of our week and weekend was busy with our regular trips to the gym, hikes around the neighborhood and the community fiesta that is every Friday's feria. We always see dozens of people we know there. On Friday night Chris and Sue and Marcial and Seidy came to our house to enjoy some of Chris' amazing North Carolina barbequed baby back ribs. Oh, wow, were they juicy, falling-off-the-bone delicious! Slow-cooked in the oven for a few hours then slathered in Chris' homemade sauce for a final browning on the charcoal grill, they were some of the best I've ever had. (Unfortunately, we were so busy cooking and eating, we forgot to take photos.) Along with his cole slaw and my baked beans and potato salad, we were completely satiated by the end of the evening. No wonder Layne and I have trouble losing weight, despite all our exercise. But with food this good, who can resist? Certainly not me! Pura Vida!

P.S. Thanks to my wonderful loyal readers, this blog is about to hit the 50,000 all-time page views mark! Thank you so much for your continued readership, support and encouragement.  

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