January 18, 2025

WEEKLY MENU 01.19.25

We’re still loving our way through January with Baby Boy’s Birthday on the Weekly Menu 01.19.25 ~

Of course, we’ve got dinner covered for every night during the Weekly Menu 01.19.25, whether we’re eating in or heading out for a special birthday din-din.

A Birthday Dinner requires that the Birthday Boy chooses his favorite meal. Baby Boy usually leans towards Italian, but this year, he has opted to eat at a funky, cool, incredibly delicious Japanese place in town called Bar Ronin. Mama still gets to make the cake while thoroughly enjoying a family dinner.

Here’s a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Weekly Menu 04.28.24 — As a busy bee with his brothers~

The graduate with his incredibly proud family

I’m cheating a bit with the cake.

Baby Boy adores chocolate cake. I’m using a box mix that we’re bumping up and cooking in layers. I make the cake according to the box – but when I add the wet ingredients, I’ll add a tablespoon or so of instant coffee granules. You don’t taste coffee in the end result, but it makes the cake richer somehow. I also mix in about a cup of chocolate chips before I pour the cake into the pans.

I use THREE cake pans to make this dessert extra special. (Affiliate links follow – see disclaimer page for details.) Split the cake batter evenly across the cake pans before cooking according to the instructions on the box. These pans are ideal to put into your cupboard – because they’re so versatile. I use them for setting up my breading station too. (Make sure to use a silicone whisk with these so you don’t scratch the pans.)

I’m not making scratch frosting either – so I’ll make the frosting extra tasty by adding a capful of vanilla. Plus, I use two cans – three layers is a LOT of cake to frost!

Spoiler Alert:

Baby Boy prefers the canned frosting to the more labor-intensive alternatives. And it IS his birthday. Don’t tell the food police.

I use my vegetable peeler to decorate the top of the cake by making chocolate curls on top of the whole frosted shebang. Check out how here:

One more look at this cutie – and his brothers – from a year or twenty ago:

Weekly Menu 01.17.21 — ^{The Birthday Boy is in the middle.}

Weekly Menu 01.19.25

There’s plenty of eating in addition to the big day, though. Sunday night is a crockpot meal with beef cutlets, store-bought stuffing, parmesan cheese, and pasta sauce. It’s easy and tremendously satisfying. We’ll finish with Bert’s requested dessert – an Italian cream cake. The thing is, we’re having another cake on Wednesday (see above if you forgot why) so I’m going small batch with Sunday’s dessert.

Cutting a recipe in half is always a little dicey, but that’s how I roll. Honestly? It’s all about the frosting with this cake, although the chemistry lesson with the buttermilk and baking soda is fun, too. As long as this cake is adequately coated, Bert will be happy with the results.

And the pork chop on the Baby Boy’s Birthday? It’s a suggestion we would be having if we were going to be home for a standard Wednesday night dinner this week.