Birthdays are one of those days when you are allowed to be a little selfish about the menu. If I am the one choosing dinner, I am not necessarily looking for the easiest thing to cook or the recipe that will perform best on social media. I want the foods that I genuinely enjoy eating.

Since my birthday is September 8, I thought it would be fun to skip the usual tips-and-tricks post and answer a much more important question:

If I could build my ideal birthday meal using the Blackstone equipment in my backyard, what would I make?

The problem is narrowing it down.

Start With Homemade Calzones

If I am choosing one of my favorite things to make, homemade calzones from the Blackstone pizza oven are near the top of the list.

And when I say homemade, I mean I tend to make this more complicated than necessary.

I make the dough from scratch. I make the sauce. I have even made the ricotta cheese myself. Then everything gets stuffed inside the dough, folded over, sealed, and cooked in the pizza oven until the crust is browned and the cheese inside is hot and melted.

Could I buy dough, sauce, and ricotta at the grocery store? Of course.

But there are certain recipes where I enjoy the process almost as much as eating the finished food, and calzones are one of those for me. If it is my birthday meal, I am willing to put in the extra work.

Or Maybe Hibachi Wins

This is where my birthday menu starts falling apart, because hibachi is another easy contender.

Hibachi is one of those meals that feels like the Blackstone was built for. Chicken or steak can cook in one area while vegetables are going in another. Fried rice gets spread across the steel, sauces come together, and everything eventually gets mixed into one big meal.

It is also naturally a family-style cook. Everybody can choose what they want, and there is usually far too much food by the time I am finished.

That sounds pretty appropriate for a birthday.

If I am forced to choose between calzones and hibachi, I may need someone else to make the decision for me.

Or we celebrate for two days.

That seems reasonable.

Smoked Chuck Roast Deserves a Spot Too

Then there is one of my favorite combinations of the Blackstone pellet grill and griddle.

I love making a chuck roast low and slow on the pellet grill until it becomes tender enough to shred. I cook it with an au jus and onions so that all of that beef gets mixed back into its own flavorful cooking liquid.

Once the beef is ready, the griddle takes over.

Pile the shredded beef onto a good roll, add cheese, toast everything on the flat top, and serve it with the au jus for dipping.

It is rich, messy, and exactly the kind of food I want when calories are temporarily not invited to the birthday conversation.

This is also one of the things I enjoy about having several different Blackstone products. The pellet grill can handle the slow part of the cook, and then the griddle provides the heat and texture to finish the sandwich.

Birthday Dessert Has to Be Ridiculous

A birthday meal needs dessert, and I feel like this is where restraint should officially end.

My Great Griddle Off-winning blueberry brie dessert grilled cheese would certainly be appropriate. That recipe combines buttery toasted bread, blueberries, melted brie, and sweetness into something that sounds a little strange until you actually eat it.

It also has some personal significance because winning the Great Griddle Off in 2023 with that sandwich became a pretty memorable moment in my Blackstone Cooking journey.

But I could also see using the pizza oven for dessert, cooking something with fruit on the griddle, or creating some entirely unnecessary birthday dessert involving ice cream and far too many toppings.

Again, birthday rules.

The Funny Part Is That I’d Still End Up Cooking

There is something slightly ridiculous about choosing a birthday meal that requires me to spend the day cooking it myself.

But I actually enjoy that.

Blackstone Cooking started because I enjoyed experimenting with food and sharing what I made. Over time, it has turned into videos, social media posts, a blog, Griddle Crew experiences, events, competitions, and opportunities I never would have predicted when we bought our first Blackstone back in 2019.

So spending part of my birthday outside cooking does not sound like work in the same way it might to somebody else.

Give me some music, a cold drink, people hanging around the backyard, and something good cooking on the Blackstone, and I am pretty content.

So What Is the Final Menu?

If nobody forces me to make a reasonable decision, I think my birthday spread looks something like this:

Homemade calzones from the pizza oven.

A little hibachi because apparently we need two entrees.

Smoked chuck roast sandwiches because we have already abandoned moderation.

And blueberry brie dessert grilled cheese to finish things off.

Is that far too much food?

Absolutely.

But if there is ever a day when an unnecessarily ambitious menu is acceptable, I feel like your birthday has to qualify.

Final Thoughts

Most of the time when I write about Blackstone cooking, I am thinking about what might help someone else cook dinner, learn a technique, or try something new.

This one is just for fun.

My birthday menu would not be built around what is fastest, easiest, or most practical. It would be a collection of foods I enjoy making and eating with the people I care about.

And that is probably the best birthday meal anyway.

Good food. Family. A hot Blackstone.

And preferably someone else volunteering to clean the griddle when we are done.