This past weekend we celebrated Sonia’s birthday. She had a party with her friends earlier in the week, and a family dinner last Friday. I am still getting used to the idea that my 12 year old is taller than me!
She wanted Italian sausage sandwiches for dinner– her idea of comfort food. For the sandwiches, I sauteed a yellow and a green bell peppers and a sliced onion with some oregano, and also a few sweet Italian sausages. I then sliced a ciabatta loaf in half horizontally, spread with pesto, layered the peppers, sausages, and provolone slices, wrapped in foil and warmed in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese melted. We had the sandwiches with a Caprese salad. It was probably the easiest birthday dinner I have ever made!
I bake cakes for all my children’s birthdays and they usually request the same kind of cake every year. Sonia’s is red velvet. I have a red velvet cake recipe on the blog but wanted to try a different recipe this time. I think I will be using this one from now on. It is from Epicurious. I made a few changes: doubled the amount of cocoa powder and red food coloring and replaced half of the butter with canola oil — the oil makes a cake more moist as opposed to an all-butter cake.
After the cake and opening the presents we spent a couple of hours playing this game.
It helped that Phoebe can read all the instructions and participate. It was a hit, highly recommend if you are looking for a family game that all ages will enjoy. It was a low-key birthday, the best kind.
I have never made a red velvet cake, I’ll definitely be trying this one. My children are grown, so I really enjoyed seeing your pictures! It’s special times like birthdays that are so fondly remembered!
Hi Judy, thank you for reading and commenting! You are right, time with the kids and family celebrations are the best. I treasure each one. For the cake, if you have leftovers (we do sometimes, when we don’t finish it over the weekend) it can be sliced up and frozen in a plastic container. This way you don’t have to feel like you need to eat it all before it goes bad. Hope your summer has been going well!