Birthday Baking

So I asked my husband what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He thought for a minute, and replied with "a simple chocolate cake, with vanilla ice cream." Ok! So I looked for a simple chocolate recipe. Found one that was so simple, I spend a whole 15 minutes putting it together. No melting chocolate, no heating milk, no chocolate shaving.

But then I did the frosting. Fudge frosting. I got to do some melting, boiling, stirring, cooling and mixing. It was fun and sooo good. Perfect amount of fudge taste to it.

His cake. The way the cake baked, caused it to go lopsided once I frosted it. I didn't notice it before or I would have done some shaving. Oops! Made for a few interesting cuts later in the evening.

So I asked my husband what he wanted for his birthday dinner. He literally looked up "good birthday dinners" online. Clicked on the first thing and called out - "I want pork tenderloin and roasted potatoes with a side of salad." OK!

So here, I am browning the pork before I throw it into the crock pot for a long slow cook.

I realize this picture looks pretty nasty. My camera batteries died, and I couldnt get a picture of it all mixed and ready to serve. It was a mushroom sauce, cooked with some white wine, evap milk and lemon juice as a sub for sour cream, and some salt and pepper. It was really good! I was surprised how it turned out! Almost like a stroganoff, but I thought it was better. I made his roasted potatoes seasoned well, browned a bit and topped with just a bit of parmesan cheese. His salad was baby spinach, feta, tomato, pepper, and oil. He was happy and so I was successful.