Celebrating with a Birthday Dinner that included a new recipe for Baked Potato Casserole. Yum … so good!
I only have one son in law, but I don’t know that I could have chosen a better one. So when I get a chance to spoil him a little, I try to make good use of the opportunity. There’s a family joke that when Nathan’s coming for dinner I fancy up the place and pull out all the stops. And in Sept. of each year, I get that opportunity, because he has a birthday. So this week we celebrated a little early with a Birthday Dinner and one of the hits was the Baked Potato Casserole.
Nathan is a huge fan of our steaks. He tells everyone that they taste as good or better than any restaurant, so with that kind of reviews he gets steak as often as possible. Actually, one of the things that makes Nathan such a great son in law is he’s very complimentary and easy to please. That means he’ll eat almost anything and then tell you it was good … even if it was burnt toast! Like I said … couldn’t have chosen a better one. So of course, Nathan got steak for his Birthday Dinner … along with Baked Potato Casserole, salad, homemade mac n’ cheese for the kids, rolls, lots of sweet tea and Oreo Pudding Poke Cake.
Table Decor
But before we wander into the food, let me tell you a little about the table decor. I have several sets of dishes and couldn’t quite decide on what color scheme to use for the Birthday Dinner. I think I’d narrowed it down to yellow and red, but when I went to purchase the food and flowers, I saw these gorgeous beauties. I think they’re Spider Mums, but whatever they are I just couldn’t not choose them. And just so happens that I have dishes to match, so home with me they went.
All this was thrown together the day before, so there was no real planning put into it. I just started pulling out all the stuff that might work on Sunday night to see what would work and came up with the table setting. The flowers were the key to pulling it all together and I especially loved how that simple centerpiece turned out.
You’ve seen the vintage bottles before at my Vintage and Burlap Bunco non theme, but this is the first debut of one of my new pieces … the brick mold. The brick mold was purchased from one of the Daily Deals sites and it’s a true antique brick mold from Chicago dating back to the 1920s. And you can tell it was well used, because it came with lots of character.
When I saw it online, I had to have it because for one thing I was tired of having to continually borrow the box I’d had made back from my daughter. I knew immediately that the brick mold would replace the wooden box Chris made and it would also make a great conversation piece.
And the Food
Other than the steaks, the only things I chose special was the Baked Potato Casserole and the Oreo Pudding Poke Cake. As for the Oreo Pudding Poke Cake, it was not my favorite … but then you have to remember I’m not a fan of chocolate cake. I also didn’t really care for the texture of the cake. The chocolate cake part of it was good … very light and moist. The part I didn’t care for was the pudding part. To me, it gave the cake a soggy texture on top. BUT, the guys liked it. So there you have it. You’ll have to try it for your self.
This is just not a pretty dessert, so it is what it is. 🙂
As for the Baked Potato Casserole, it was a hit. A lot of the times when we have steak, I go to the local meat market and buy potatoes stuffed with shrimp to go with them. It’s a bit of a drive from where I live, so that just shows how good they are to make that special trip. The Baked Potato Casserole reminded me a lot of those potatoes and it was almost as good. It’s filled with lots of cheese and bacon that helps to make it something extra special. So this recipe I give 2 thumbs up!
And yes, I did add about a half cup of extra cheese to the top to finish off the package. And after looking at the original picture again, I realized I forgot to add the green onions … after I bought them, too. I’m getting bad about doing that. I’ll have to start paying closer attention.
In the end, it was some quality time spent with my favorite son in law and some delicious food. So good that, except for Gunner, I think we all over did it. Good thing Nathan only has one birthday a year! 🙂
Want to see more tabletops and try some more recipes? Click below
Salad, Salad, Salad … Hosting Lunch With Friends
Brick Street Chocolate Cake … a chocolate lover’s dream!
Celebrating the Red, White and Blue
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