Jairin's 11th Birthday

Since Rob had to go to Arizona for the week of Jairin's birthday, we had two birthday parties. The first celebration was Friday night before Rob left. We had margarita pizza and lava cakes. In case you can't tell, this is Jairin with a very very yummy lava cake. Several of us prefer lava cakes to traditional birthday cake. In fact, this is such a favorite in our house, that we have it several times a year. After all, there are a lot of birthdays. You can find the recipe, which comes from Paula Deen, the plump southern chef who uses real butter in many of her recipes, below. I include it, not for your sake, dear reader, but for mine. I don't want to lose it, so I have to have several copies located in various places, my blog being one of those places. The key to an ooey gooey middle is to NOT overbake them. When the recipe says 13 min., it means 13 min. As we say in our house, "No fat, no sugar, no good!!"

Paula Dean's Molten Lava Cakes

Ingredients
6 (1 ounce) bittersweet chocolate squares
2 (1 ounce) semi-sweet chocolate baking squares
10 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425°F Grease 6 (6-ounce) custard cups.
2) Melt chocolates and butter in the microwave or in a double boiler. Add flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in eggs until smooth. Stir in vanilla and Grand Marnier. Divide batter evenly among custard cups.
3) Bake for 14 minutes. Edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Run a knife around the edge to loosen and invert onto dessert plate.
4) Top with vanilla ice cream or raspberry sauce. (Topping optional).
5) Enjoy!

(We leave out the "Grand Marnier," of course.)



Jairin opened 3 of his 5 presents on Friday. This is a picture of excited? ecstatic? evil? Jairin with his favorite and longed for present, a Nintendo DS. Actually, it was so expensive that it is half of Adam's birthday present too. This was Adam's idea, for us to get the boys a Nintendo DS to share. Adam swore he wanted a Nintendo DS so badly that he didn't care if all his other presents were small. So, we let Adam open the accessory pack, 1 1/2 months early. Jairin also received a year's subscription to National Geographic Kids, and a gift card to use towards the purchase of a Nintendo DS game.
Jairin's next party was on his actual birthday. For breakfast he chose toaster strudels. He opened his other two presents before school which were 1) a huge roll of Tobblerone bars (six in all) and a huge package of Japanese gummies, and 2) a two-month subscription to Roblox on the internet as well as unlimited computer time for the day. He took brownies to school to share with his class.

This time he chose Nachos for dinner.







After dinner, he chose to have a giant, macadamia nut, dark chocolate chip cookie. Unfortunately, in order to put 11 candles on his cookie, we had to use several pink candles. Bad Mommy for not thinking ahead. (With so many girls around, it's hard to remember to stock up on blue things too).

His biggest thrill was the phone call from Rob who told him a new Nintendo DS game was in the mail as consolation prize for Daddy not being here for his birthday. Hopefully, he won't wish Daddy away every birthday in the hopes of getting an extra present :-)!!