Okay, I sadly don’t have time to write an in-depth post about every meal in Scott’s birthday week.  But I do have time to tell you what recipes we used.  Not one was a loser.

And who gets the credit for this tasty menu?  Scott.  Birthday boy picks birthday food.  His birthday week always includes more fun recipes than mine does, but I have no one to blame but myself.  Now I just have to figure out what our kiddo wants for his first birthday week.  Cheerios covered in avocado?  Hmm.

1. Nicoise Salad (The Kitchn)
2. Fried Chicken (Pioneer Woman) with Buttermilk Biscuits and Salad
3. Pesto-ish Chicken with Farfalle (inspired by Giada DeLaurentiis)… this is the only one that I did very much off-recipe.  I used a Southern Italian Herbed Chicken recipe from Giada and was going to use a Pesto Farfalle recipe as well.  Turns out the sauces were very similar, so I pieced them together into one recipe.  Made the chicken, made the uncooked sauce (much like pesto), made the pasta, combined into a heaping pile of deliciousness.  It saved lots of time, and we still had all of the tasty elements.  But I can vouch for the flavors of the Southern Italian Herbed Chicken.  You can find that recipe here or in Giada’s Feel Good Food.
4. Green Chile Chicken (Pioneer Woman)… I used to swear by her Tequila Lime Chicken recipe, but I think there’s a chance that this is even better.  Maybe I would have to make them both in the same week so I could properly compare.  It’s a tough life.
5. Bucatini All’Amatriciana with Spicy Smoked Mozzarella Meatballs (Giada De Laurentiis)… This one was not for the faint of heart.  There are multiple kinds of meat and cheese in the recipe.  Not a ton of veggies.  But.  It’s delicious.  So if you’re feeling like a bit of hearty Italian fare, you’ve found your recipe.  The flavors are rich and layered.  The pasta is a nice back-drop of simplicity for all of the richness.  It’s a winner.
6. Thai-style Steak Salad (Serious Eats)… the only heresy I committed here was adding edamame to the salad.  It was nice to have the extra veggies in addition to all of those delicious herbs.  Lots of light, fresh flavor here.  Plus some steak so it isn’t too herby and light.  You would hate for it to be too light, you know?  🙂
7. Cake!  The cake is important.  Hazelnut Crunch Cake with Mascarpone and Chocolate (Giada again, because we like her).

The cake was probably my favorite food of the week.  Big surprise, right?  The chocolate cake base was simple to make (thanks to the use of a box mix as recommended), and then it got fancy after that.  I’m terrible at making caramel anything, but the caramelized hazelnut crunch element wasn’t a killer.  And then everything together was just amazing.  Mascarpone whipped cream?  WITH CRUNCHY CARAMELIZED HAZELNUTS?  Yes, I’m screaming because it was so good.  But the kicker was the orange-chocolate crumble on top.  It was so unexpected and wonderful.  Thank you, Giada!

Happy birthday, Scott.  I’m glad you have such fun food taste.  Now it’s time to eat some lentils and spinach and 15-minute meals.  Whew.