Month: December 2018

Christmas 2018

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We got to Houston for a couple of days this Christmas.  My mom and I coordinated everyone between Austin and Houston, but we came up one stocking short, so we improvised and used a gift bag for Noni’s “stocking”.  Molly wanted to make sure Santa Claus was clear on this, so she wrote him a super sweet note:

Dear, Santa.

The gift bag is for Noni.  We only had three stockings.

Btw: the cookies are stale, you do not have to eat them!

Have a merry Christmas.

From, Molly

 

Some pics from Christmas Eve dinner, which we got on the table hot and delicious  despite being coordinated across me, None, and Noni’s helper, Patience.

 

We also saw an amazing and slightly scary performance of A Christmas Carol at the Alley Theater.

 

 

Chocolate Reindeer Comes to Life

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Molly was pretty excited about her Chocolate Reindeer idea and wanted to try it out before we go to Houston for Christmas.  I warned her it may not come out quite like she imaged and to be ready for a mess.  She acknowledged the rick, and then we went all in on making it happen!  Despite my hesitations, I really wanted to make Molly’s holiday invention work too.

Molly and I had a fun time figuring out how to bring  her vision to reality.  It was an interesting challenge and took a fair amount of planning and research!  In the end, it came out a too goopy to, uh, eat, much less bring to Houston.  But it was a fun experiment, and Molly happily ate up her practice Chocolate Reindeer.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Chocolate Reindeer Blueprint

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Molly became inspired to create a new holiday treat called a Chocolate Reindeer, inspired by a Chocolate Mousse.   Her vision is three layers of chocolatey goodness, one layer for each “official” Christmas color: red, green, and white.

Molly’s initial idea was for each layer to be melted, colored chocolate.  After some discussion and brainstorming , we decided to use a combination layers with heavier ingredient on the bottom and lighter on the top.

  1. Bottom layer: red-colored white chocolate
  2. Middle layer:  green-colored melted marshmallows
  3. Top layer: natural white-colored whipped cream

Here’s the blueprint.

choc-reindeer-blueprint.jpeg