Salted caramel chocolate tarts

I decided to make these for a girls' night last weekend. They're mini chocolate tarts, filled with caramel and have a few grains of sea salt sprinkled on the ganache topping.

Just thinking about these turns me into Homer Simpson when he's dreaming of donuts.

Since there were going to just be a few of us, I made a half batch of the tart dough and ganache, but made a full batch of the caramel, figuring I could find some devious way to use it. I thought about making truffles, but they're fairly time consuming. So, I went the easy route, got some vanilla ice cream and have been enjoying caramel sundaes (with chocolate jimmies) for the past few days.

Hmmmmm.....

Hot Patterns Weekender/Martini Jacket

I really think I could make everything on the Hot Patterns site. I've already made the Kimono wrap dress (and am going to make another) and got some amazing fabric to make the Tokyo Joe tunic top. Right now, I'm working on the Weekender/Martini Jacket.

I may need a few martinis just to get through it.

All these patterns are labeled "Advanced Beginner" based on the sewing skills needed for each project. I think you might need to be a "Super Advanced pattern reader" to figure out how to actually sew the pieces together.

The Kimono dress had some loose instructional drawings with the instructions, but I think I could have used some more precise instructions (and one piece was mis-labelled) to help me figure it out. The Martini jacket just has written instructions, no illustrations, and it's driving me crazy. I don't mind ripping out seams if I've sewn something wrong, but I do get a little peeved if I have to rip out seams because the instructions are vague and I can't figure out what I'm doing.

I am going to finish the jacket because it will be really flattering and useful, but my girls might learn a few new choice words from me in the meantime.

Challah

The Challah is delicious! And the recipe makes 2 loaves, so I froze one, after 2 rises and shaping, to make later. I've had toast and fruit for breakfast all week. So yummy.

I also made some dark chocolate and peppermint sorbet. It's one of Dorie Greenspan's recipes from Baking: From My Home to Yours. She's one of my favorite cookbook writers. Her Paris Sweets book is the one that really got me baking again. Seriously, pick it up if you don't have it already.

Cardboard box playhouse

My oldest girl, The Bean, loved "making a house" out of those interlocking floor mats in our playroom downstairs, so I thought she might like a playhouse. I remembered seeing some cardboard playhouses at Costco and did a Google search to see if I could still find any. I did, but even better, I found instructions on how to make my own. As we have a million boxes in our garage from various carseats, toys and diapers, I figured this was something I could do fairly cheaply and easily.
I did have to get some more duct tape, so while I was at the hardware store, I picked up 2 jars of sample paint and then got some stencils and craft paint at the craft store.

The walls of the house.

Half of the roof on.



Fully built.

All decorated!

The girls absolutely love it. It took a few days, mostly due to me working only during naptime to keep distractions down, but it honestly wasn't too hard to make.

Is it possible to love a cookbook too much?

Living "at altitude" makes baking tricky. Air pressure differences wreak havoc with any variety of chemical reactions, leading to fallen/dry/crumbly/etc. baked goods. I've usually dealt with this by just decreasing the leavening or sugar and things have turned out pretty well.

Now, I'm baked out of my mind, thanks to Pie in the Sky. I can't stop making things from this book. The angel food cake... The devil's food cake... The butter cake...

And now I'm all about making bread. The basic bread recipe is delicious, and I moved on to the cinnamon-raisin and honey whole wheat variations. Today, I went out and got a bunch of eggs to try the Challah. What are the bets that I eat the entire loaf all to myself?