Steve and I traveled to Vermont this week to celebrate my mother-in-law Joan’s 79th birthday. She and my brother-in-law Chris own The Chipman Inn in Ripton, VT, and had no idea we were coming. Us appearing in Joan’s doorway unexpected rendered her speechless, which is the only time that’s happened in the 15 years I’ve known her.

We had guests who had dairy allergies and we had a vegan, so special diets had to be accommodated.  And we thought we were golden with an appetizer of curried vegetable soup that used garbanzos and tomato as a base; it was dairy free and vegan. But when Chris took a second look at the reservation form it said she could not eat dairy, chocolate or, you guessed it, beans.

The Chipman Inn is coming into their busy season and had just become a lodging available on Expedia this week. They had a flurry of new reservations as well as a steady crowd of Inn to Inn hikers and a couple of Bread Loaf Writers Conference students. All guests were Bed and Breakfast, and a few were there for dinner as well. So we invited and guests at the inn on Joan’s birthday to join us at the family table for the party. In the meantime there were things to do.

There are always things to do at The Chipman Inn, and when we’re there we pitch in and do what we can. Steve was busy replacing light fixtures and installing towel bars in the beautiful new suite rooms while I ferried Joan to Rutland to buy some new rugs and bed skirts, and a few groceries. We had guests who had dairy allergies and we had a vegan, so special diets had to be accommodated for dinner the first night. And we thought we were golden with an appetizer of curried vegetable soup that used garbanzos and tomato as a base; it was dairy free and vegan. But when Chris took a second look at the reservation form it said she could not eat dairy, chocolate or, you guessed it, beans. So I whipped up a polenta dish with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, garlic and capers for her. The rest of the meal went pretty smoothly, although we threw some cheese on a salad and had to remake it.

The next morning we wanted to feed our vegan guest something more exciting than oatmeal, so I found a vegan pancake recipe online and premade the mix so in the morning, Joan’s birthday, Chris would be able to make breakfast and let her sleep in. When the time came he’d just add some vegetable oil and almond milk to the mix and voila! Pancakes. Except that none of us noticed the almond milk on hand was chocolate. It was still vegan, so Chris added some bananas and made chocolate banana pancakes. I added some blueberries to mine and couldn’t tell it was vegan. The recipe is here:

Vegan Pancakes

It calls for 2 Tablespoons of baking powder, and that is NOT a mistake. Without eggs to help leaven the pancakes they need an extra boost to rise. The recipe calls for soymilk, but almond milk (even chocolate) works well. So if someone has a dairy or egg allergy this is a great substitute.

Once breakfast was over I was able to start prepping for Joan’s birthday dinner. Chris had ordered a cake and invited a few friends. As it turned out their friend Carol was celebrating her birthday as well. She and her husband Marty own Robert Frost Mountain Cabins and have been both great friends and a great resource for Joan and Chris, sharing everything from tools to pickup trucks. Inn to Inn hikers Bill and Gloria from York, England, shared the feast with us as well, and Tony Clark of the Blueberry Hill Inn was making an appearance for dessert. There was lots and lots of Champagne. We enjoyed a layered Mediterranean dip with hummus, feta, artichoke hearts, and roasted red peppers. Marty and Carol brought a cheese platter. I made grilled pork loin chops with an olive, onion and caper relish, sweet potato salad, our friend Kimmie’s Napa cabbage salad (which is one of the best things in the world, IMHO), and grilled summer vegetables. I found this recipe, which makes a smaller quantity of the Napa Cabbage salad but has the same ingredients: Napa Cabbage Salad. The only difference is that I add a bit of sesame oil to the dressing.

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We had cake and ice cream, and Joan and Carol blew out the candles, but while my Champagne glass was at the ready unfortunately my camera wasn’t. Oh, well. Joan exclaimed she hadn’t had a birthday party like this since she was a kid. I believe they did something big when she turned 65, but that was before my time in the family, and anything over 10 years ago is probably fair game to forget. We’ll let it slide…

We had happy news from Chris’s daughter Alysha; her boyfriend Rick proposed and she said yes! He’d asked Chris for her hand in marriage back at Christmas and waited until she graduated medical school before he popped the question. When she called Chris he said, “Rick who?”

Men. You can’t live with ‘em, you can’t shoot ‘em.

Deborah