Peanut Butter Salted Caramel Tart

This is the first complicated recipe I tried while pregnant with Levi. I took it from Martha Stewart, but changed up a few things in the caramel sauce. If you love peanut butter and peanuts, this will tantalize the taste buds. It was a perfect mixture of peanuts, rich chocolate and salted caramel. I made this dessert for the Stuy Christmas party.

For the Chocolate Crust:

• 2 1/3 cup Oreo boxed crumbs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted

For the Caramel Sauce:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoon butter 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 cup roasted salted peanuts

For the Peanut Butter Mousse:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup power sugar
• Salt
• 1 1/4 cups smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy cream

For the Chocolate Ganache:

• 7 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the chocolate crust: Combine cookie crumbs, granulated sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Stir in butter. Press mixture into bottom and 2 1/2 inches up sides of 9-inch springform pan. Bake until dry and firm, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool.
2. Make the caramel sauce: Heat brown sugar, butter and heavy cream in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, and add vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, and stir in creme fraiche. Refrigerate until cool but still pourable, about 45 minutes. Fold in peanuts.
3. Meanwhile, make the peanut butter mousse: Beat cream cheese and confectioners' sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add peanut butter and vanilla, and beat until combined. Whisk heavy cream in a separate bowl until medium-stiff peaks form. Fold one-third of the whipped cream into peanut butter mixture. Fold in remaining whipped cream in 2 additions.
4. Assemble the tart: Pour caramel sauce into cooled chocolate crust. Gently spread peanut butter mousse over caramel in an even layer, making sure they don't blend together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Make the chocolate ganache: Place chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Bring cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour cream over chocolate, and let stand for 1 minute. Whisk to combine. (Use immediately.)
6. Remove tart from refrigerator, and pour in ganache to cover surface. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Lunar Quilt

When it came time to make a quilt for baby Levi, I had hoped to make one like Benjamin's chick-chick quilt. However, I thought it best to not make them similar in the end. I found a cute moon and stars quilt, but couldn't find a pattern, so I created this one. I used minky left over from Benjamin's and then found fabric with stars and moons that would tie it all together. 

I machine appliqued the stars and moon....adding in detail of the eye and mouth of the moon. I like the machine quilted pattern of the stars and swirls.

The backing is also minky, which makes this a very soft and warm quilt. I hope the Levi will be able to enjoy his quilt as much as Benjamin had loved his chick-chicks.

Yellow Ruffle Quilt

I loved making this quilt. There were so many ruffles to make the columns of yellow ruching. This is a baby quilt I made for my cousin Donna's baby girl.

My machine quilter did an amazing job of getting it all quilted together. I told her I would probably never make another quilt like this again and her response was that she would probably not ever machine quilt one like this again. We both agreed!

Colorado Adventure

We went to Durango, CO and met up with my parents. First day in Colorado we went to Mesa Verde National Park. To start the day, Mike showed Benjamin the proper way to eat a waffle.

 On our drive we stopped off at a scenic overlook. 

Here is my classic shot of Mike taking pictures. Benjamin also got a chance to take pictures. He managed to get a hold of my camera and took a picture of every single hiker on the way back up from seeing the Spruce Tree village. I think I deleted 50 pictures of people's waistlines.

Benjamin had a fun time visiting with Nonna and Abuelo. He thought Abuelo was the best for taking him up and down some of the stairs.

Here's a nice picture with my parents. Mom hung out with me and Benjamin while Mike and dad went on a tour of one of the bigger cliff villages. We watched chipmunks scurry across the parking lot looking for crumbs.

The next day we took it easy in Durango and went for a Sunday stroll along the Animas River.

We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and Benjamin got a hold of my camera again and took this lovely picture of me!

The following day, we boarded the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train. This was the highlight of the trip for Benjamin.

In Silverton, we picked up a little choo-choo-train and here he is showing it off to our conductor.

Abuelo spent some time with Benjamin teaching him about cameras. He finally became so exhausted with the train rocking back and forth that fell asleep with camera in hand.

Outside the train station, Benjamin discovered a huge pumpkin that fascinated him.

Our final day we spent lunch in Ridgeway at the True Grit Cafe, surrounded by John Wayne memorabilia. Then we went to Ouray to walk Main Street and visit the gift shops. It was a pleasant trip!

Breakfast

 Benjamin had his first yerba mate this morning. There's a little bit of Argentine in this boy. Yeah!!!

His waffle ended up with butter, syrup, biscoff and red plum jam. I remember we used to eat our waffles with our hands when we were little. Sticky fun mess this morning!