I am so glad we have my son’s birthday weekend recap full of amazing food to talk about today. It is helping to distract my mind from what my running path is looking like at the moment.
We aren’t going to talk about this today. Nope. We aren’t going to discuss the possibility of me choosing to run on the treadmill this morning rather than try to run around the mess that was once my favorite early morning running route.
Instead let’s dive right into the delicious birthday food from the weekend.
They say we should stop letting food be the center of our celebrations.
If I am ever elected president, I promise to find out exactly who this “they” is, hold them accountable as well as make those words against the law.
The little boy’s birthday was not until Sunday but the prebirthday festivities began Saturday night at dinner. For my local friends, I chose Vincent’s as our pregame meal before taking him and his best little friend to the opening night Islanders game.
The almost 10-year-old boy went with ravioli smothered in Vincent’s world-famous sauce. Vincent’s sauce is sold in many grocery stores here in New York and I looked up for you to see if they will ship out-of-state. Click here for the link to their sauce page. It doesn’t mention shipping but perhaps you can order it anyway if you inquire politely.
It is the only sauce I keep in my house. Yes, it is that good.
I happily went with the zucchini marinara which also consisted of yellow squash ribbons and I asked them to throw in extra veggies for some added fun.
If you are wondering if zucchini linguine is good, my plate can answer that for you –
Since most of you have not had the pleasure of dining with me, please understand that I can clear a serious plate. Perhaps Adam Richman wishes to challenge me vegetarian style.
Vincent’s redefines portion distortion so if Adam is up for the challenge, please tell him to bring the Man vs. Food crew here.
I mean, when the kid’s order of chicken parm looks like this, who needs to grow up?
After the Islanders game (which was so fun by the way), the kids and I headed to Friendly’s for dessert.
I am confident that you know by now which sundae I made sure we went with.
Dessert must be big. As big as possible.
That’s right. The 12 scoops of ice cream plus 6 toppings plus extra cherries and whipped cream. We are talking chocolate chip, chocolate chip cookie dough, cookies and cream, peanut butter fudge, chocolate peanut butter and who remembers what else topped with fudge, reeses pieces, crushed cookies, chocolate chips, gummy bears (so against my will) and marshmallow.
You kinda want to dive right in face first, yes?
The boys even let me share. Of course they did. I was a cool mom for the night.
Actually, I am pretty sure they still found me cool when they woke up Sunday morning.
While the boys were still asleep from their food coma, I woke up early to make birthday pancakes with my favorite Kodiak Cakes mix.
I added in sprinkles and chocolate chips for the occasion.
If you haven’t purchased the Kodiak Cakes mix yet, what the heck are you waiting for? You could be making big fluffy stacks just like me all of the time.
I topped the pancake cake with whipped cream and extra sprinkles and chocolate chips. Oh and candles since it was the boy’s actual birthday.
Notice my NHL tablecloth? I really went all out this year with the paper goods. Who can resist hockey party paraphernalia?
I even sliced the pancakes like cake. Didn’t they come out nice?
After breakfast we headed into the city. For what, we weren’t quite sure. But we soon figured it out.
That would be a super quick photo of the little boy’s Jackson Hole burger with a side of onion rings. I knew when he asked the waitress for onion rings instead of the fries that I took the right baby home with me from the hospital 10 years ago.
He even let me have a few.
Now, Jackson Hole is special for reasons other than just having the best burgers in New York:
- I grew up on their burgers as I went there quite often with my dad pretty much whenever we were in the city which was every week
- I went there for lunch after finding out I was having a boy.
- And the biggest special moment – On October 6, 2003, my father went to Jackson Hole to pick up lunch for the whole family to eat in the hospital after my son was born.
One minute I was giving birth and the next I was being fed a burger. Good times.
Now, 10 years later, I am a vegetarian, so I did not have a traditional burger for lunch yesterday.
I went with the Portobello mushroom sandwich topped with sautéed mushrooms and onions. Delicious is an understatement.
I am going to keep this recap strictly to the food but I promise I wore the kid out in the city walking around and shopping a bit.
Why couldn’t he nap so easily 10 years ago?
Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of dinner but based upon my history, I am pretty sure you can trust we had a delish dinner with my parents. I hosted a take out party at home. More Italian food. My family needs to learn to appreciate sushi.
You didn’t think I would miss recapping the cake though, did you?
Chocolate fudge iced and filled topped with rainbow cookies. I don’t mess around.
I cut the birthday boy the first slice and then kept the rest for myself.
Kidding. Maybe.
This cake was killer. It is what we call in my family: SOAP WORTHY. Meaning, you can’t just throw it out if you don’t want to eat anymore. You need to throw it out and then cover it with soap so that you can’t find yourself going into the garbage looking for it after.
I didn’t throw out what was left though. I have learned will power. Will power as well as eating enough of it last night to not want anymore today.
Cake loading is perfect fuel for my run today. The run we aren’t talking about because it may take place on the treadmill and I don’t wish to discuss that just yet.
Enough about me, how was your weekend?
The Cookie ChRUNicles 