A Birthday Celebration with a Famous Chef

I have to admit; this post is about five days late. Last Saturday we celebrated Mark’s birthday. Mark is a dear friend of ours. Beck often stays with Mark and his two dogs, Bosco and Petey, when Mike and I are out of town. I had told Mark that I wanted to do something for him to celebrate his birthday, which was Monday November 3rd. I had been perusing the latest copy of “Everyday with Rachael Ray” and saw a really cool recipe that had a funny story behind it. The name of the article was called “Italian Lessons” and was about Anna Boiardi, who is the granddaughter of a famous chef that most children are familiar with: Chef Boyardee. Now don’t jump to any conclusions, I wasn’t about to have a dinner party serving food that resembles “Beefaroni”. The recipe was for a basic Basil Tomato Sauce and Cheesy Meatballs served over freshly made pasta. I did want to make fresh pasta, but for the sake of time, I bought fresh pasta. The story included other recipes for a complete meal, but I wanted to pick and choose for the party. The recipe was FABULOUS. The pasta dish was so good, and the leftovers were especially good, Italian food always tastes better the next day. I highly recommend picking of November’s issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray to read the article and get the recipe.

For dessert I made a double layer chocolate cake and served it with vanilla bean ice cream. I used one of my favorite recipes from, http://www.foodnetwork.com/. I have used this recipe, A Chocolate Cake That’s Got is All, a couple of times and it may be a little extra work, but it is well worth the result.
Brushy (Mike), Marissa, Jonathan, Chase (Deb & Tony’s son), Mike, and I had a wonderful evening celebrating Mark’s birthday.

Cassius had a lot of fun playing with Chase that evening as well. He kept a close eye on him, as he does with any young person that visits us. I woke up in the middle of the night to find Cassius snuggled up with Chase, and he wasn’t happy when I made him the dog bed in our room.