Who Needs Yountville?

Whenever Munch and I are headed to St. Helena, we always make a stop at Bouchon Bakery. I usually get an assortment of macarons, a TKO (the Thomas Keller "Oreo") or two, and more recently, a couple of bouchons. Bouchons are made with the same recipe as the delicious dark chocolate brownies AudioDad & I had at our last ad hoc dinner, which I was determined to have the recipe for. After a little research, I found it reprinted from the Bouchon cookbook on the blog, Sunday Nite Dinner. So, no need to reinvent the wheel (Hooray!), and it was just as easy as mixing up a batch of brownies. I used both a muffin top pan (to approximate the mini-cake like brownies from ad hoc- it has 12 molds) and a mini-muffin tin (kinda like Costco brownie bites, but so much better! It had 24 little cups) to make the treats pictured above.

3/4 c. flour
1 c. dutch-process cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. plus 3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
12 oz. unsalted butter, melted
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used the new 72% cacao Ghirardelli chips and chopped them coarsely)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs and sugar and beat on medium speed until light yellow. Mix in the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low and add a third of the dry ingredients. Mix then add a third of the melted butter. Continue alternating adding dry ingredients then butter. Scrape bowl and add chopped chocolate. Mix well, then pour into the buttered and floured pan of your choice. Mini muffins took 17 minutes to bake, the muffin top pan took only 15 minutes because of its shallowness. These are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean- but be sure not to overbake! Cool them for a few minutes on a rack before turning them out of the pans to cool completely. Dust the tops with powdered sugar before serving.

Girls' Day Out

Grandma & Grandpa usually take Munch to preschool, but when when they cancelled last week, I happily grabbed the opportunity to spend a day with the Munchkin. After sleeping in (until 7:30!), we started our day with shopping at Target. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at Pasta Pomodoro (kids eat free on Tuesdays!), where Munch enjoyed cheesy shell pasta.



Once preschool was over, we headed around the corner to Creekside Bakery, where Munch had a ghost cookie



and we crossed the bridge to the library.



Before we headed home, we needed to gas up the car. With gas prices dropping so quickly, I couldn't say no when Munch requested a run through the car wash, playing the car wash song too, of course!

I Want Candy

Munch has never been trick-or-treating before (past her bedtime), so when I heard that the downtown stores would be welcoming kids on Saturday afternoon I knew it would be the perfect introduction to Halloween. Munch didn't quite know what was going on as we started walking down the street, but she knew she HAD to have one of the balloons that were being distributed by the bank. After getting a balloon, she started collecting her candy.



Her first few pieces got her excited because "it's so pretty"- Munch actually had no idea what "candy" actually was- we never referred to it that way, so she never associated it with the random jellybeans and Hershey's kisses she may have encountered in the past. We let her pick one thing for the way home- she chose a lollipop because she'd been so curious about them.



When we got home she laid out all her candy and admired it. She counted it, organized it, and admired it again. The different colors and wrappers were "beautiful".



It's been a couple of days now, and she checks on her candy daily. She sorts it and lays it out in neat rows. It's funny, she still isn't particularly interested in eating it, but she sure is proud of it!

We Love Gymbo!

When one door closes, another one opens...It's time for us to say goodbye to Gymbo. We started Gymboree Play & Music classes shortly after I returned to work to give Munch and AudioDad a fun activity to do during the week. Munch loved the bubbles, the music, and the climbing structures. She loved the parachute, getting Gymbo stamps at the end of class, and the make-believe play that her teacher introduced. She'd look for ducks and drop pennies into the fountain, and as a special treat when I wasn't working, would sometimes get to share a green tea Jamba smoothie and some Pirate's Booty with me as an after-class snack. She'd come home and proceed to act out everything she'd just learned, with me, AudioDad, and a few stuffed friends as her students. But she's starting to outgrow the classes, and she's ready for something more independent (from us), so in a couple of weeks we'll be starting gymnastics classes. We've already stopped by the center to check things out. Munch loved seeing the older girls do cartwheels and flips and was ready to run onto the gymnastics floor right then and there. So thank you, Gymbo and teacher Nicolette- we'll miss you!

We're Going on a Pumpkin Hunt...

Halloween is quickly sneaking up on us, so I figured we'd better get our pumpkins before it's too late. We headed to our favorite farm in Dixon, where we also go to cut our Christmas trees. It was a beautiful day, but the wind was chilly! We went on a tractor-pulled wagon ride, felt our way through the totally dark, hay bale maze (Munch loved it so much, we went through several times), wandered through their new Christmas tree maze (looks like it will take a while to grow in), and painted our pumpkins. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there- Munch got tired and cranky and we discovered she was burning up with a fever, so we quickly headed for home.
PS The Munchkin's fine- she just falls apart for a few days whenever she has a growth spurt!