Hi!
Alex's cousin Cole, who lives in Philadelphia, graduated from Penn this month! Alex's parents flew to Baltimore and we drove to Philly with them and had a great time!
On Sunday, Alex's aunt and uncle had a nice brunch at their house. A lot of Cole's friends and their families from out of town came.
It was perfect weather to eat outside in their pretty backyard!
That evening we went to the ceremony for his specific college.
We took some pics with Cole after the ceremony.
The next morning we went to the school-wide ceremony, which was also really nice! The speaker was Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She gave such a great speech!
After the ceremony we had lunch with Cole, his girlfriend Jackie, Alex's parents, and his aunt and uncle at a cool restaurant called Fork.
I had chicken bites and Alex had pasta. We split the chocolate bark dessert....so yummy!
We drove back to Baltimore with Alex's parents and they stayed with us that night, so they got to spend a little bit of time here with us before flying back to Tucson!
That night we went to Tavern on the Hill for dinner. It POURED. We joked that there were record-breaking storms whenever they come (when they were here to help us move in last August, we had the second-rainiest day in Baltimore ever!). It turns out we were right! This time it broke the rain record for that specific day. Crazy! We got soaked walking to dinner and home, but it was fun :) We got frozen yogurt at Tutti Frutti across the street for dessert.
The next morning we went to Jimmy's for breakfast and walked around Fells Point. We found some stores that Alex and I didn't even know existed down there! It was really fun. After that Alex gave us a tour of the School of Public Health! It's really nice! It was fun seeing where he spends his days at school. It has a really big balcony with a great view, so we spent a little while up there!
We had lunch in Hampden at Golden West Cafe, and then Alex's parents drove to the airport to fly home!
We had such a fun few days with them and with Cole and his family, too!
Thanks for reading!
Hi!
Alex's birthday was last week and I chose a recipe out of the Homemade Decadence cookbook (the December Birchbox Book Club book) to make!
Me with the birthday boy!
This time I made the Peanut Butter Cream Pie recipe...oh my goodness. It's so good, and the recipe is not hard at all!
Here are Joy Wilson's exact recipes, one for the crust and one for the filling:
Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
Directions:
1) Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
2) In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and stir with a fork until the mixture is thoroughly moistened. The mixture will not form a dough ball, but will stay a crumby texture.
3) Dump the crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie dish and, using your fingers, evenly press the mixture along the bottom and sides of the dish.
4) Bake until the crust is slightly golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the pie dish from the oven and let cool completely before filling.
Makes one 9-inch pie crust
Since the crust needs to be completely cool before filling, it would be good to make this a while before starting on the filling. I'll do that next time! Also, I'd take the cream cheese, used in the filling, out of the fridge a lot earlier so it can warm up a little bit more.
Peanut Butter Cream Pie
Ingredients:
Filling
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup smooth all-natural peanut butter
Graham Cracker Crust or Chocolate Cookie Crust
Whipped Cream Topping
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 confectioners' sugar
Optional Garnish
1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanut butter cups (I used this)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped salted pretzels
2 ounces dark chocolate, melted
Directions:
1) For the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream until it holds soft peaks, 4 to 5 minutes (it took a couple more minutes for me). Transfer to a medium bowl.
2) In the same bowl of the electric mixer (you don't have to rinse it out) fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and pliable, about 3 minute. Add brown sugar, salt, and vanilla extract and beat well. Beat in the peanut butter until smooth. Remove the bowl from the mixer and gently fold in a quarter of the whipped cream. Repeat twice with the remaining whipped cream until the mixture is well incorporated but still fluffy (the consistency of mine wasn't right so I ended up mixing it all together in the mixer for a minute or two). Spoon the filling into the prepared crust.
3) For the whipped cream topping, in the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream and confectioners' sugar until it holds soft peaks, 4 to 5 minutes (again, a few minutes longer for me). Top the pie with the whipped cream mixture. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for ate least 4 hours before serving.
4) Just before serving, generously sprinkle with the chopped peanut butter cups or salted pretzels, or drizzle with melted chocolate.
5) The pie will last, well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.
Makes one 9-inch pie
This turned out so so yummy!! I've never made a pie like this...or actually, a pie at all, so this was really fun to try! Alex loved it and he had a great birthday! We had dinner at one of our fave places, Tavern on the Hill, and then came home for some pie!!
Thanks for reading!
Hi!
We picked Alex's mom and sister up at the airport last night and we had a fun day today! Alex had class for most of the day but tomorrow he only has one class! Carol, Grace, and I walked to Marie Louise Bistro for a late breakfast. We got eggs (I got scrambled) with potatoes, bacon, and toast. Yum!
Then we went to Target to get some ingredients to make peanut butter cookies!
Peanut Butter Cookies - makes 36 cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar, plus a small amount in a bowl to sprinkle on top
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2) In large bowl (we used our Kitchen Aid mixer), combine first 7 ingredients. First Carol mixed the butter until it was very soft. Then we added one ingredient at a time, making sure it mixed well before adding the next. The dough should be nice and fluffy and shouldn't stick to your fingers when you pick up a piece of it. Add small amounts of flour if it is sticky until it is the right consistency.
3) Shape into one inch balls and place two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (we did three batches of 12 cookies).
4) Flatten in crisscross pattern using a fork.
5) Sprinkle some sugar on top of each cookie.
6) Bake for 9 minutes, or until golden brown.
7) Remove from cookie sheet and let cool on cooling rack.
They turned out so good! They aren't super sweet, just perfect.
Tonight we ate at Tavern on the Hill. Alex and I are practically regulars there ;) We went there with my parents last Tuesday night, too! They have so many different types of food you can order! I almost always get the Greek salad. It's so good.
Thanks for reading!
