Joseph's 30th Birthday, Pastrami-Spiced Brisket, Potato Salad, Spinach Cheese Pies, Shrimp with Orange Chili Glaze, and Mom's German Pancake

On the plate: Pastrami-spiced brisket, potato salad, spinach cheese pies, shrimp with orange and chili glaze, and Mom's German pancake

Soundtrack to cook to:  My 5K playlist (although I obviously wasn't running a 5K).  It's filled with *NSync (oh yeah!), Black Eyed Peas, Gretchen Wilson, The Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder, and plenty of other songs to get you amped up and get your booty shaking. :)


Happy (belated) birthday to Joseph!!  Joseph turned the big 3-0 on July 13 this year and his parents came into town to join in on the celebration (and go to a conference as well - kill two birds with one stone, why not?).  It's been so awesome to be able to celebrate birthdays 16 to 30 with Joseph thus far, since that's how long we've been together.  Yikes!!  We're oooooold.

For the top of our wedding cake (the one that you freeze and eat a year later), we chose to have it be red velvet.  We ate it a year later and we both swear that it IS the best red velvet cake that we've ever had.  Since then, we've been chasing each and every red velvet cake to see if it would be as good as our wedding cake.  Sadly to say, we haven't found the right one.  They're either too dry, or the cream cheese icing doesn't taste right, or the cake itself doesn't have the right taste.  Thus, for Joseph's 30th birthday, I decided to do a yelp search to see if I could find the BEST red velvet cake that the greater Boston area had to offer.  I schlepped all the way over to South Boston (which is only about 4 miles away, but takes about 40 minutes to drive there) to a cute little bakery called "Sweet Tooth."

Not only were they able to accommodate my request for a square red velvet cake, but they were able to personalize it 4 days before Joseph's birthday.  They piped a stethoscope on it, which I thought was a cute touch for a medical student.  After taking it out of the refrigerator and allowing it to sit for 20 minutes, it was definitely the best red velvet cake that we've had since our wedding.  Hooray!!  The long trip was definitely worth it and was a delightful surprise for Joseph.
 

The delicious (but incredibly large) cake that I ordered for Joseph
for his 30th birthday.

We were singing happy birthday and Alex sang, "Happy biiiirthday
to Allllex!"  It made us all crack up.

Joseph taking a breath...

...making a wish...

...and blowing out the candles!  

Ta-daaaa!

We ate at the cake for a week and froze the remaining third.
I HIGHLY recommend going to Sweet Tooth in South Boston for
a delicious red velvet cake.  It hit the spot!

I wanted to make Joseph a delicious birthday dinner that was special because it had things in it that he enjoyed, but also catered to the other guests' diets that we had for dinner (Joseph's parents, my sister, and her boyfriend Pete).  *I apologize for not taking step-by-step pictures, but I did not have time to do so while I was cooking.  My sister and I were cooking like crazy for almost 2 hours in order to get dinner ready on time.

Joseph is a big meat eater and I recently saw an incredibly easy recipe
for pastrami-spiced brisket.  I prepared this brisket in the morning
and let it cook for about 11 hours in the oven.  I cooked an almost 5 lb brisket
for 6 adults and one child and had some leftovers for the next day.  The link that I have
above does a step-by-step and it is very easy to follow.  The result
was a deliciously sweet, savory, and tangy brisket.  The mixture of
mustard with the brown sugar along with the coriander seeds were
a delightful change to the traditional barbecue-like brisket preparation.
This one is definitely a keeper and a crowd pleaser.    

Green beans from the farmer's market seasoned with olive oil,
salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  I absolutely love green beans
during the summer and had some customers that like their vegetables
at the dinner table, so this was an easy side dish.

Wheatberry salad strikes again!  I made this recipe in the previous
post and made it once more for Joseph's birthday dinner.  I absolutely
love this salad because it's wonderfully summery, healthy, and hearty
at the same time.

The world's most delicious potato salad that I've ever had!!
I cut 1 lb of small red potatoes into quarters and cooked them
in boiling water for 11 minutes.  As the potatoes were cooking,
my sister prepared the sauce.  Since I couldn't find mustard seeds,
she used a whole grain mustard sauce which worked perfectly fine.
Once the potatoes are drained, then mix the sauce, yogurt, and fresh dill
(this is where you really shouldn't skimp on the fresh dill - don't do dry
or else it just won't be as good) together with the potatoes and I swear,
as my dad says, "It'll make your tongue slap your brains out!!"

RUN, do not walk, but RUN to your local grocery store, get the
ingredients and make this potato salad recipe tonight.  It's
the best one you'll ever make, I swear.  You've got the wonderful bite of
the dill, the sweetness of the sugar, and the tanginess of the mustard
and balsamic vinegar.  However, there's a lovely creaminess that the
Greek yogurt lends as well - and is much healthier than using mayonnaise.
You don't feel guilty when you eat this potato salad.  

My spinach cheese pies.  Joseph had complained that I had made
them for parties and then he never got to eat any of them, which was true.
  Since it takes me about an hour just to make them, I don't make them often,
unless it's for a special occasion.  Thus, I thought I'd give Joseph
a little treat and made them for him to enjoy on his birthday.
Food is love in this household.  I put my heart and soul in my cooking
and enjoy filling my loved ones with good food.  This is my favorite dish to make.

Dinner was a great success!  Unfortunately Joseph didn't get back home until around 9 p.m., so he missed our little family dinner party.  I should have taken a picture of all of the smiling faces while we were eating, but I was enjoying the dishes as well.  Good food makes for a quiet, but busy eating table.  LOL!

Thankfully, I made enough that we were able to have some leftovers for the next night's dinner.  However, there wasn't enough of the brisket leftover, so I thought I'd make another protein dish and one more simple vegetable dish for our guests.  The following recipe is from Mario Batali and be forewarned that he makes his VERY spicy.  If you're a spicy food lover like me, then follow his recipe to the T.  However, if you have customers that aren't as fond of spicy food, follow my suggestions below:

Slice green onions, garlic, and tear off and wash the cilantro.
I personally LOVE cilantro and put a little more than recommended.

Throw the cut green onions, garlic, and cilantro in a blender and
blend them together with 2 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce (I put
the rest in a plastic baggy and froze it), the juice of 2 oranges,
salt, extra virgin olive oil, zest of 1 orange, and 1/8 cup of sriracha hot sauce.
*I omitted the 1 tbsp of Asian red chili paste and cut the sriracha hot sauce
in half because that stuff is HOT!
Once the ingredients are well blended, place the shrimp (I prefer no shells or tails)
in a gallon-sized plastic baggy and pour the marinade over the shrimp.

Then I put my toddler to work!!  Lol!  He absolutely loved it
because he was "helping mommy cook dinner."  I had him take
the baggy and mix the shrimp around in the marinade to evenly
coat the shrimp.  He had a lot of fun doing this.

Alexander hard at work preparing the evening's dinner.  Afterwards,
I had him place it in the refrigerator by himself.  He was very proud
of his accomplishment as a "big boy."  :)

Joseph's mother, Linda, brought some beautiful heirloom tomatoes
from a local farm in Indiana (the Okos heirloom tomatoes are AMAZING!)
and some cucumbers from her own garden.  Thus, I thinly sliced up
the tomatoes and zucchini and drizzled them with some
extra virgin olive oil, good balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper,
and some thinly sliced fresh basil.  If you have really good ingredients,
you don't have to go overboard with seasoning and dressing them.
This was a delicious summer salad that was light and refreshing.

The shrimp took no time at all to cook.  I placed them in a pan
with just a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil and cooked the shrimp
for about 4 minutes on each side over medium/high heat.  Then
I topped the plate with fresh orange zest, and 1 thinly sliced green onion.

The result was a wonderfully smoky and spicy, with a hint of sweet
from the orange, shrimp dish.  It was a hit with the adults, but unfortunately,
it was a little too spicy for Alex, so I had to wash off the marinade
and give the shrimp to Alex that way.

We had a nice visit with Joseph's parents and enjoyed Joseph's last week of his busy rotation.  (Unfortunately I don't think Joseph enjoyed it that much, but looked forward to the weekend when he would be done.)  Here's a few pictures of Alex and his friend Arhan playing in the park across the street from our house.  It's been a great summer thus far!

Alex playing hide and seek.

Alex and Arhan playing around.

The boys playing in the trees - so sweet.

On Saturday morning (July 21), I had major pregnancy insomnia and could no longer sleep.  I was up at about 5:20 a.m. and was ready to start my day.  Since I had so much time, I decided to throw together a nice breakfast for everyone before my sister, Alex, and I left for New Jersey, and Elias and Linda left for Connecticut.  

I thought back to when I used to have sleepovers as a child and my mom would make a humongous German pancake for me and my friends to gobble down when we got up in the morning.  It's a huge crowd pleaser because it's tasty, but also because of its presentation.  

All you have to do is melt a little butter in a super hot oven, but the key is to do it in the large cooking pan that you will serve the pancake in.  Then, as you're waiting for the butter to melt, you make the pancake mixture, take the pan out of the oven, pour in the mixture, and let it cook for 20-25 minutes.  We like to sprinkle a little bit of powdered sugar on the pancake, and then squeeze lemon juice over the sugar so that it makes a deliciously sweet and tart paste to enjoy as the sauce rather than maple syrup.  I served it alongside some fresh cut fruit and turkey bacon.  A perfectly hearty meal to have before doing a long day of driving.

Do you see what I mean about cool presentation?  Here's what the
German pancake looks like when it comes out of the oven.  It always
gets lots of, "Oohs!" and "aahs!"  Then, as it cools, the center collapses,
but the rim still stays high and has a bit of a crunch.
*If you want the recipe, you'll have to ask for it, as it's my mom's and is
a special family recipe. :)

This was a great week, although it was a little busy and Joseph wasn't home that much.  Up next is our quick visit to New Jersey and our last family vacation for three to New York City.  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki