Patrick's 13th Birthday dinner

Jim's (and my) cousin Patrick is also his godson. He turned the big 1-3 this weekend, and we volunteered to host the family birthday dinner at our house on Sunday.

Didn't get any photos of the main course, but the spread was delicious:

Mozzarella and Prosciutto Chicken on the grill

Prosciutto wrapped beef on the grill

Steamed veggies

Baked potatoes

Cheesy garlic bread

Chicken tenders for the kids, or the kids at heart :)

Dessert was simple:

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing

Vanilla cupcake cones with chocolate icing and magic shell chocolate sauce

My sister-in-law got me a few great cookbooks for my birthday - one of which was this "200 Barbeque Recipes" book - so I thought I'd try some new recipes

Great stuff in there! There I found the recipe for the chicken, the beef, and the cheesy bread. All easy. All delicious. The book does not come with my husband though - griller extraordinaire!

For the chicken, it said thighs but I used breasts. Pound them until somewhat thin. Season with salt and pepper. With the smooth side of the breast down, place a basil leaf or two on the breast. Then add half (they said quarter) of a bocconcini ball. Roll up the chicken, and wrap in a slice of prosciutto. Skewer it to keep it together, and grill until cooked through.

For the beef, it called for two eye round roasts (about 1 1/2 lbs each). Then make a rub with olive oil, lemon zest, fresh chopped thyme, salt, and freshly ground pepper. Rub all over the two cuts of beef. Then wrap the beef in about 6 slices of prosciutto each, and secure with bakers twine. Roast on indirect heat for 25 minutes, then wrap in a double layer of foil and rest until cooked to perfection - about 20 more minutes.

Cheesy bread was great. One small french loaf. Cut into about 20 slices, but not all the way through the bottom crust. Mix olive oil, crushed garlic and chopped fresh thyme and set aside. Then slice about 4oz of mozzarella thinly, and insert a slice in between each slice of bread. Then brush the entire olive oil mixture all over the bread. Wrap loosely in foil and grill on indirect heat for 5-10 mins until the cheese has melted.

For dessert...I used the old standby. Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe. This time I used her chocolate version of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Why had I never tried this before?? It was TO DIE FOR! I guess I fell in love with the chocolate cake and original buttercream so long ago, that I never even considered making the chocolate buttercream. But Patrick likes chocolate cake so I thought I'd make it. YUM!

Just some large sprinkles around the edge and a quick royal icing to pipe. A little too runny, but oh well.

Martha's recipe recommends two 8" rounds when making this for a layer cake, but I think I am more comfortable with the 9" rounds. Makes for more manageable slices, and there is certainly enough buttercream to cover the larger cake. Even 10" would be fine.

For the cupcakes, this was a collaboration between my sister-in-law (check out her blog) and I. She made the cupcakes - but baked them right inside the ice cream cones. Yummy already, right? She used a light and airy vanilla recipe from Magnolia Bakery. Then she brought them over to my house, where we topped each one with real chocolate ice cream. We immediately doused them in magic shell chocolate sauce and sprinkles. YUM! Then we popped them in the freezer until ready to serve.

LESSON LEARNED: Make room in the freezer ahead of time AND put the cones in some kind of container that will keep them upright in the freezer. You can probably guess that we did not do the above steps - hence the "lesson learned". And that's why you can see choclately fingerprints all over the cones in the photos. Oh well. They were DELICIOUS!

Happy 13th Birthday, Patrick!