Random updates from the first week and a new dessert

Well, we've had a great, busy first week of sabbatical. I've run a lot of errands (including Crate and Barrel by myself - woohoo!) and Rollie has done a lot of work around the house. Wednesday he spent the entire day cleaning out and organizing the garage. He'll blog about it later, it looks SO good! He worked 7am-5pm in 100 degree heat. The only break he took was 2 hours in the morning to take Lydia to gymnastics and out to lunch. They had a lot of fun on their "daddy/daughter date".

Another day Rollie went golfing with friends and got rear-ended on the way home (praise God that everyone was OK!), which has added to his to-do list before we leave on Thursday. Yesterday we all got flu shots and went to the Children's Museum.

Riding trikes at the Children's Museum

going through the "car wash"

We had our small group (bible study) last night and I made a chocolate-chestnut mousse cake to take for dessert. I have to give credit to our babysitter, Stephanie. She watched our 2 kids and our friends Owen and Emily's 3 kids and got them all to bed without any issues. That's 5 kids 3 and under!!! 2 3-year olds, a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and a 6-month old! That's what I call a rock star.

So... the Chocolate-Chestnut Mousse Cake. YUM! I've wanted to make this recipe since I saw the picture in the Martha Stewart mag. (I'm a sucker for her recipes and the amazing pictures just draw me in!) I love mousse and haven't made any since before we had Lydia. Our small group loves a good dessert so this was the perfect reason to try the recipe. It was really good and fairly easy. I made it Thursday and on Friday I just had to invert it onto a platter and make whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

This stunning dessert is a simple-to-make icebox cake. Chocolate shavings are easily made with a vegetable peeler. Martha Stewart Living, December 2009

Yield Makes one 8-inch cake (I have 9 inch cake pans it filled the whole pan.

Serves 8 (I cut it into 12 to serve our small group, and the pieces were plenty large)

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, for pan

1 jar (7.4 ounces) peeled roasted chestnuts (I finally found them at AJ's Fine Foods. This was the hardest part of the whole cake!)

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon light-brown sugar (I used dark brown, b/c that's how we Leemans do it)

Pinch of coarse salt

3 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (preferably 61 percent cacao), melted and slightly cooled, plus more for shavings (I used one Ghiradelli bar total, 4oz)

1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream (I used the whole carton, 2 cups, using 1 1/2 cups for the cake and 1/2 cup for topping)

24 chocolate wafer cookies (since I had a larger cake pan I needed a few more Oreos. You just scape out the filling and use 1 cookie. This means more filling for your extra Oreos... bummer :)

Directions

Lightly coat an 8-inch round cake pan with oil, and line with plastic, leaving a 4-inch overhang.

Finely grind chestnuts in a food processor. Heat ground chestnuts, milk, 3 tablespoons sugar, and the salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbles form at edge.

Whisk together yolks, cornstarch, and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium heatproof bowl.

Slowly add hot chestnut mixture to yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return to pan; cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until thick, about 2 minutes. Transfer to the bowl of a mixer. Add vanilla and butter. Beat on medium speed until cool, about 5 minutes. Stir half the chestnut mixture into melted chocolate.

Beat 1 1/4 cups cream until soft peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold half the whipped cream into plain chestnut mixture and the other half into chocolate-chestnut mixture.

Pour chestnut mousse into prepared pan. Cover with 12 chocolate wafers, working in a circular pattern. Top with chocolate-chestnut mousse and remaining 12 chocolate wafers. Fold plastic overhang over top to cover cake. Refrigerate overnight.

Uncover cake; place a platter on top, flip, and unmold. Remove plastic. Beat remaining 1/4 cup cream until soft peaks form. Spread on top of cake. Garnish with chocolate shavings.