My Sweet Pea is 1! And Mom’s Birthday, too..

This weekend was full of birthday fun! Coincidentally, Ozzy and Grammie Jacky share the same birthday!

I can’t believe that my little goober peanut is already 1 years old. Time flies! Charlie and I had fun looking back at the zillions of pictures of Ozzy over the past year..makes me feel a little verklempt!!

Such is life, I guess!

We had a birthday bbq for Ozzy and mom this last Friday, so naturally, the 5 days leading up for the event were filled with scrambling to scrub floors and wash windows and mow and weed and bake and cook..you get the picture. At least now that everything is clean, though, maybe I’ll be more apt to keep it that way?

Dad brought over steaks to grill on the barbie, mom brought salad, charlie was a good boy and made homemade rosemary sage dinner rolls and veggies and dip…I made Ozzy a wonderful doggie birthday cake, OF COURSE, and made mom a cranberry orange trifle for dessert. We had lots of good eats! It was not until after everyone had eaten and gone that I realized I got no artsy food pictures of the homemade rolls or cranberry trifle :’[

So I got this great doggie birthday cake recipe online called “Bow Wow Beef and Bacon” birthday cake. Doesn’t that just sound like something a dog would drool over? I thought so. Recipe as follows, with 2 star ingredients:

Real bacon bits and strained beef and gravy baby food Lets just say Ozzy was salivating the whole time, thus I was obligated to let him like the spoon!

Cutie

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 jar of strained beef baby food
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup bacon bits

Directions:

• Stir flour and baking powder together in a mixing bowl.
• Cream together the butter, oil, baby food and eggs.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the wet mix, and then stir in the bacon bits.
• Pour into a greased and floured 8″ x 8″ baking pan.
• If desired, sprinkle a light layer of bacon bits on top as a frosting substitute.
• Bake in a 350 degree F oven for approximately 35-40 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back when lightly poked. Oven times may vary

His sniffer was going wild when it was baking..

So I also made a cranberry orange trifle:

Cranberries:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur)
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries

Pastry cream:
1/2 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cornstarch
2 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Remaining ingredients:
1 (10.75-ounce) loaf pound cake (such as Sara Lee), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon orange rind

To prepare cranberries, combine 3/4 cup sugar, orange juice, and Grand Marnier in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; cook 3 minutes until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Add cranberries to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 8 minutes or until cranberries pop. Spoon mixture into a bowl; cover and chill.
To prepare pastry cream, combine 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Gradually add milk to pan, stirring with a whisk until blended; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Gradually add half of hot milk mixture to eggs, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return milk mixture to pan; cook over medium heat 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and salt. Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl until custard cools to room temperature (about 25 minutes), stirring occasionally.

Arrange half of cake cubes in the bottom of a 2-quart trifle dish. Spoon 1 1/2 cups cranberry mixture over cake; top with 1 1/2 cups pastry cream. Repeat layers. Garnish with rind. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and chill at least 4 hours.

Like I said, I didn’t get a blog picture, but the one from the Cooking Light website looked very similar, of course:

Charlie’s rolls were made from this recipe:

Potato Rosemary Rolls
Makes 18 small rolls or 12 hamburger sized buns
1 potato, cooked and mashed
1 lb (3 1/2 cups) bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 – 1 cup water
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon dried rosemary or 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground sage leaves

Cook the potato until soft, either by boiling or baking in the oven or microwave.

Mash the potato. Removing the skin prior to mashing is optional.

Combine the flour, mashed potato, yeast, salt, pepper and herbs in a large bowl. Add 3/4 cups water and knead or mix for 5 to 10 minutes, adding more water or flour until a consistency you are comfortable working with is reached.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a moist towel and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, typically 60 to 90 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl, gently degas it, and shape it. For rolls or buns you can weigh them if you like or just eyeball them. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place them in the center rack and bake them for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake them for another 10 to 20 minutes, depending on size.

Allow the rolls to cool before serving. They keep very well too, so you could bake them a day or two ahead of time and still serve them for Thanksgiving.

Now onto the bbq!

Beautiful picture of mom!

Ozzy’s cake was frosted with cream cheese, then decorated with a peanut butter/honey frosting, and sprinkled with bacon bits..

Congratulations, Oz! You’re 1!

He clearly couldn’t get enough of it.

Neither could nick..

Happy Birthday, Mom!

All tuckered out with his new toy..