A Paula Deen Christmas, ya’ll.

So, I haven’t been baking much. In fact, just this week I used my beloved KitchenAid stand mixer for the first time since moving (8 months ago) to our new house. Sad. But, I’m starting to get the hang of this parenting thing (ha!) and learning how to better use my time. So, we invited our sweet friends Erin and Reed over for dinner one night and looked through my cookbooks for an easy dessert recipe. I found this one and it was DELICIOUS. It reminded me of a dessert we had at FIG in Charleston, so instead of the butterscotch whipped cream that Paula makes, I made a salted caramel sauce for it. Holy yum. So amazing.

Paula Deen’s Chocolate Custard

• 1 cup (6-ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch salt, I used sea salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Put the chocolate chips in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring the cream and milk to a light boil in a medium saucepan over low heat. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and whisk until smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Whisking constantly, temper the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Stain the custard through a fine mesh sieve and divide it among the ramekins.

Put the ramekins in a large roasting pan. Carefully pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan tightly with foil; poke a few small holes in the foil for steam to escape. Bake on the center rack of the oven until the edges of the custard are slightly set but the center still jiggles (the center will set as the pudding cools), about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the water bath and allow them to cool completely. Cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Just follow this link and have your computer up while making it. It’s awesome. And so easy.

I topped them with a sprinkle of extra sea salt and holy cow. Delicious. Sorry I don’t have any pictures. In exchange, you can have this…

I made the custards again for our family Christmas dinner at my parent’s house. Little did I know that it would turn into a wonderful dinner with family and dear friends…and three bottles of Silver Oak. It was a great night.

Like the past several years,we’ve eat a prime rib, which Lane cooks. This year’s recipe (Thomas Keller’s) called for a blow torch. (Just an excuse for Lane to buy one, I think!) but it was super yummy.

So, this Christmas, I am beyond blessed with an incredible husband, happy baby, generous parents and the best friends a girl could ask for. Merry, merry to everyone.

…..

there’s not a title for this post. it’s just one I need to write for myself. a journal entry, if you will.

my heart literally aches. I’ve always considered myself a compassionate person. even before having wright. I don’t think you can be a junior high teacher without compassion. however, when you become a parent, it seems that your level of compassion exponentially grows. you now see everyone as someone’s child. you see the innocence of children so much more clearly.

as I had the TV on the news today, watching the tragedy in Connecticut unfold, I bawled. there were parents that rushed to their child’s school to pick them up because of this horrible tragedy. And one by one, classes were released. I can’t imagine waiting to see your child walk through a door after something like this. the panic, fear, and anticipation would be enough to send me into a nervous breakdown. except, there are some parents that will never see their child again.

as I rocked wright to sleep tonight, I again bawled. even though today was tough to be his mom…he was fussy, woke up screaming after we put him to sleep, and cried during our entire trip to the mall, I praised God. I will take a fussy day every. single. day. if it means I get to hold my child. my sweet innocent child.

lane and I are currently watching the disney channel. we can’t take watching the news. it is heart breaking. all I can do is pray. pray for every single person involved in this. the parents, grandparents, siblings, husbands, wives, children of those who lost their lives. for the first responders who will have images in their heads of a horrific scene that will probably haunt them for the rest of their lives. for children everywhere who are scared to go to school. for our political leaders as tough conversations are about to be had. for my sweet child, that he never, ever, ever experiences the fear or sadness that surrounds the Newtown community after this tragic event.

Santa?!? I know him!

This was a moment I was waiting a long time for. I built it up in my head to probably be bigger than it actually was, but we LOVE Christmas around here. I did lots of research on which Santa would be best for us. Galleria? Northpark? Stonebriar? We ended up going to Neiman Marcus downtown. I just love that place. Well, I love any Neimans, but the one downtown is especially my favorite.

There was no line and, even though it was nap time, Wright was super cute. Our pediatrician looks a little like Santa with a white beard and W always cries when he holds him, so I was worried about Santa. But, as you can see, Wright LOVED him!

He was just in awe of him. Which I love. Santa will  be a tradition in our family and I want Wright to have the same affection for him that we do.

While this year is special because it’s W’s first Christmas, I’m really excited about the future times when he can understand not only about Santa, but about God’s love for us that he sent Jesus to live and die for us.

We also have a tradition of decorating our house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. We put our tree up and watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. This year was especially wonderful. We’ve had to be really tight with our budget the past couple years as Lane has started his business, and while this year we still are definitely on a budget, we were able to celebrate Lane’s hard work and just the year that we’ve had. We celebrated with two bottles of our favorite wine, Silver Oak. Unfortunately, when you celebrate with two bottles of wine and decorate your tree at the same time, things are sacrificed. The bottom of the tree looks FABULOUS as far as lights are concerned. Sadly, I ran out of lights and literally threw the remaining strand of 50 on the top portion of the tree. Oops.

I love the reflection of tree in our french doors. Love our house. Love Christmas. Love my little boy and my amazing husband.

Merry Christmas from the Allens!

(Thanks to Joe Berry for taking our pictures. We are so thankful for friends with amazing talents!)