Birthday Bliss

Remember when you were little and the entire week before your birthday you could barely contain yourself you were so excited? I used to love to celebrate my birthday mostly because my mom always made it special. The week before my birthday arrived, my birthday rock would be put out on the kitchen table for everyone to see. What’s a birthday rock you ask? A birthday rock is a priceless item created by my Grandma for most members of my family. I included a few pictures of my own rock so you can get the idea. Each birthday rock is a little different and it’s a pretty big deal when Grandma decides to make a rock for someone outside the family. She just made my boyfriend of many years a birthday rock last year…I told him that’s his official “Welcome to the family.”

But I digress. The other really special part of my birthday was that my mom would make us absolutely whatever we wanted for our birthday dinner. During my red meat loving days I requested roast pot (what I called pot roast) with mashed potatoes, year after year. The house would smell so good all day of onions, carrots, rosemary and potatoes. Once I entered high school, I switched it up and requested some sort of pasta.

My mom scoured her recipe books and found a recipe for hot brie pasta and a chocolate snowball cake. Both recipes were a huge hit and continue to be my “birthday dinner” even to this day. For some reason when I make my own birthday dinner it isn’t quite as exciting and doesn’t taste quite as good as it used to when my mom made it for me…must have been that love she threw in there!

This pasta is simple but decadent and the cake is ridiculous. If you are a chocolate lover and like me, very rarely use this phase “This is too rich for me” then this cake is for you. I wonder what everyone else considers their “birthday dinners?”

Hot Brie Pasta
Makes 4-6 large servings

Ingredients
1 pound ripe French Brie
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup fresh basil
4 large cloves fresh garlic, minced
4 large tomatoes, cubed
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1 lb angel hair pasta
6 oz fresh grated parmesan cheese

Remove the rind from the brie and cut into irregular pieces. Combine with next 6 ingredients in large bowl and let stand for 2 hours at room temperature. Don’t stir after you have combined ingredients.

Cook pasta as dente (don’t overcook) and drain in collander.

Toss hot pasta with Brie mixture and some of parmesan cheese.

Top with additional Parmesan cheese and serve at once.

Chocolate Snowball Cake
Makes 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 tbsp dark rum
1 tbsp instant coffee

2 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 pound)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, diced
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs

1 1/2 cup chilled whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 10-cup ovenproof glass bowl or 10-cup metal bowl smoothly with foil. Spray foil with nonstick spray.

Combine dark rum and instant coffee in small bowl or ramekin; stire to dissolve coffee.

Combine chocolate chips and butter in large bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of sommering water. Stir until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over water.

Using electric mixer, beat in sugar, then coffee mixture. Beat until mixture cools to lukewarm, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Transfer batter to foil-lined bowl.

Bake cake until top is cracke dan dry and tester inserted into center comes out with some moist better attached, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Cool cake in bowl in rack 15 minutes-center of cake will fall.

Press edge of cake firmly to level with center of cake.

Regrigerate cake uncovered until cold, at least 6 hours and up to 2 days.

Invert bowl with cake onto platter, allowing cake to fall onto platter. Lift off blowl’ peel off foil.

Beat cream in large bowl until peaks form.

Spread whipped cream all over cake, mounding cream in center. Cut into wedges and serve or refrigerate up to 6 hours.

Get the Skinny-I always use fat free cool whip rather than whipped cream on this cake and I love how light and fluffy it is on top of the oh so rich chocolate cake.

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