Celebrating and more Celebrating - Building Those Family Memories!

I’m sure we all agree, this is a busy time of the year . . . perhaps the busiest with 

Thanksgiving, Christmas and the start of the New Year! Much to celebrate making it busy for sure and for my family, even busier as my son’s birthday is January 2^nd, my daughter’s birthday is January 19^th and my daughter-in-law’s birthday is February 18^th . . . we will continue to celebrate for a couple months!

With my family, I have always had the birthday person choose their menu . . . some are fairly predictable, and others tend to surprise me from year to year. My son chose steak, bacon, mashed red potatoes, green beans and peanut butter pie (I’m adding French baguettes).  So, today I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my recipes for this “birthday dinner”.

Starting with the bacon . . . I will be baking it on a cooling rack in a shallow pan – 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or so, until the bacon is the way we like it. I’ll place each slice on the rack and flip them part-way through. Since I try to keep “oven use” in mind as I fix this dinner, I’ll fix the bacon in the morning, then just before we eat, I’ll take it out of the refrigerator and “steam” it briefly in a covered fry pan.

The steak is sirloin steak and my hubby will “pound” it for me to tenderize. Then I’ll add “Canadian Spice” and broil it in my oven. Pretty simple and straight-forward – if my son’s birthday was in the summer, we would grill out, but Michigan in January is typically not your best weather for grilling out! Flame-broiled will still make for a tasty steak!

I’m going to half-peel the red potatoes and boil them. (I just trim off half the red skin, because too much skin tends to build up around the mixer blade making for skin clumps in the mashed potatoes.) After they are fork-tender, I’ll put them in my new KitchenAid mixer, add a little milk, butter and salt then let them mix until they are creamy! Of course then I’ll add a bit more butter!

Since I have a nice, new KitchenAid mixer, I decided to make French baguette bread – I found a recipe which I’m looking forward to trying . . . you’ll find it at this link. A couple years ago, my daughter-in-law gave me baguette pans, so I have high hopes for this new recipe to turn out in a tasty way for sure!

My daughter is making the peanut butter pie – I’ve written about this tasty treat before and you will find the details and recipe at this link.

My mom is bringing the green beans . . . and this rounds out the birthday meal!

I love preparing the birthday meals for my family members each year . . . do you do anything special for birthday-meals for your family members?

My new KitchenAid mixer arrived a couple days ago, so the first thing I fixed with it was peanut butter chocolate chip cookies – my hubby’s favorite, which seemed appropriate, since he got it for me! I plan to make more cookies today to have on hand for the birthday dinner as well so, I thought I’d share my favorite cookie recipe with you.

Ingredients –

• One stick of softened butter
•  ½ cup of peanut butter
•  ¾ cup of sugar
•  ¾ cup of brown sugar – packed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 ¼ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Chocolate chips – I use dark chocolate and not quite a cup, but use what you like!

Directions –

• Cream butter, peanut butter and sugar
•  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until light and somewhat “fluffy”
• Add dry ingredients and mix
• Add chocolate chips

Bake at 375 for seven minutes and, enjoy!

I do have to say, I love my new KitchenAid mixer! It runs quickly, smoothly and quietly. It is easy to use and makes baking and cooking much easier for me (something I appreciate with my MS). I am also happy to be able to see how solidly the KitchenAid mixer seems to be built – it seems quite sturdy, so I think it will last me many, many years!  My hubby surprised me with this mixer . . . I will enjoy using it to fix tasty things for him and the whole family for years to come!