Celebrating with ribs and lemon

French-style yogurt cake with lemon

I was all ready to throw together an “instant” cake for son #1’s 14th birthday.  But then A Homemade Life is still sitting by my stove.  Molly loves to bake so I knew she’d offer a preferable alternative to a box mix.  Sure enough – French-style yogurt cake with lemon. I debated if I had enough time to make it or if several pieces of cut-up lemons in the fridge would provide sufficient juice. Son #1 overheard my out-loud thinking and jumped right in.  ”Yeah, it will work,” holding up a quarter cup measure and eyeing the lemon segments.

Jon loves lemon anything.  Just like his mom. While zesting the lemons for the cake batter, I remembered that my son has me bested in this category. Suddenly I had a clear recollection of pushing Jon around in a stroller at an arts fair when he was 4 years old. After drinking the fresh lemonade, he sucked on the lemon rinds.  And then he wanted more rinds, not lemonade.

Molly’s cake did the trick. “This is really lemony,” he noted. No one missed the traditional frosting. I drizzled lemon syrup over the warm cake and then topped it with a lemon icing that’s more like a glaze.  Topped each slice with freshly whipped cream and added a few sliced strawberries. Divine. And even more dangerous than the evil banana bread.  I’m going cold turkey on white flour for the next week.

Oh, the ribs. The trusty pressure cooker came though again for BBQ country pork ribs with sweet and spicy sauce.  My husband declared, “This is it. This is the only way we should ever eat ribs again.” The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender after 25 minutes under pressure, then crisped by a quick run under the broiler. With coleslaw and a sliced baguette, dinner was done. A happy high calorie birthday dinner – just what a growing boy needs, right?