We just celebrated Claude's birthday. For his cake, he requested a Nutella Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake. I wasn't sure if I'd find a recipe, and when it came down to it I just made it up. The result was actually very good. Here is the recipe - with a few alterations from my first attempt. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 1/4 C fine Chocolate Graham Cracker crumbs (11 crackers)
2 T Butter, melted
3/4 C Sugar
2 8oz packages Cream Cheese
3 Eggs
1 T Vanilla Extract
1 pint (16 oz.) Sour Cream
1/2 C Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 C Nutella Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
1 C Peanut Butter Cups, chopped
Directions:
1. Grease a 9-inch spring-form pan. Preheat Oven to 325-degrees F.
2. Prepare the crust: mix together the chocolate graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until crumbs are moist. Pour mixture into prepared pan and gently coat edges with crumbs. Press the crumbs gently into the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time. Fold in vanilla and sour cream. Pour 1/3 of this mixture into a small bowl. Set the remaining 2/3 aside.
3. Mix peanut butter into 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture. Set aside.
4. Place Nutella in a microwave safe bowl and heat until warm - do this for 10 second increments so that you don't overheat it. Set aside.
5. Layer the batters as follows: plain cheesecake batter, Nutella, peanut butter batter. Bake for 45 minutes.
6. Turn off the oven and sprinkle the cheesecake with chopped peanut butter cups. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for 1 hour then remove to counter to cool. Once cool, refrigerate overnight. Serve chilled.
We made it through camping trip #2. Praise the Lord! This we will count as a complete success, even though we had to leave early due to rain. The kids had a great time, Claude and I are learning more of how to best plan (and not plan) for our little family, and we're already talking about going out one more time before the end of summer.
What we learned this time around...
Don't call it a vacation. Call it camping. For us, our expectations can easily get in the way of enjoying the time together. Camping just doesn't match up to those vacation expectations. Camping is a lot of work even when we're not preparing meals, so from now on we will distinguish between the two.
A car is just as good as a second tent. Yes, we did put one of our children to bed in the car. Don't worry, there was plenty of ventilation and it ensure that all of us were asleep before dawn.
Less is more. Less stuff means that we don't have to go back to our apartment for more supplies. Less time means that we avoid catastrophic meltdowns. Less meal preparation means we have more time to play.
So, Lord willing, here's to another round of camping before the season is out!
Praise God! Joshua overcame his stubbornness over swimming on this trip. I think he was excited at his progress in becoming comfortable in the water.
Apparently you have to be tough to go camping??? Actually, this was her camera smile...
Abigail loves the water!
After approximately 30 hours of camping, everyone crashed.
Chew Family Camping Take 2 commences in the morning. Our first attempt was only mildly successful. Everyone came back alive - this is what made it successful. It was too cold the first night for our sleeping bags, Claude ended up with allergies and a cold/flu on our second day, and we left in a hurry before we even attempted going to sleep our second night.
Oh, and did I mention that we had to take two trips to transport all of our gear from our apartment to the campsite. Yes...two! Two parents, three toddlers, and all the stuff we thought we needed did not - I repeat did NOT - fit in our Toyota Corolla. I know, you're not surprised. But somehow Claude and I were.
The extra car time needed to transport all of our stuff added some interesting dynamics to our trip. Tantrums late at night, screaming infants wanting to be nursed while we drove over the Hudson River, and general grumpiness from the adults on board... It was not a pretty sight. And I'm fairly certain that the few camping neighbors we had on our 36-hour sojourn were not terribly disappointed to see our loud family depart.
All in all our first attempt was, as I said before, mildly successful. Additionally it was quite traumatic. But, just as in childbirth, we began to forget all of the pain and hardship of our first try at the great American family vacation (aka the only truly affordable vacation option for us) and found ourselves contemplating a second trip.
In light of that first epic camping adventure, we have made some adjustments. Firstly, we have opted for a camp resort, complete with a pool, playground, and mini-golf. Admittedly it is not the most luxurious accommodation but the amenities will serve us well. Secondly, we have decided not to cook. No, we're not fasting. We are simply changing our camping ideals from let's-do-everything-ourselves-to-save-money to let's-eat-out-because-we're-on-vacation. Meals out plus some ready-made food from the local grocery store will make for a less stressful trip. At least that's our hope.
To show a contrast between our two trips, I have included two pictures.
This is what we packed on our first trip. Plus a few odds and ends not shown here.
And this is what we are bringing on our second trip. Trying to keep it simple!
Lord willing we will experience a greater measure of success than we did the first time around. This shouldn't be too difficult because a) our first trip was only just barely a success and b) nothing is impossible for the Lord!
So, here's to our latest outdoor adventure. Look out Catskills, here we come!
