This is the final installment of "A Year of Chocolate Desserts."  Yay I did it!  December's dessert is Chocolate Peppermint Pie.  This is the perfect Christmas pie!  I love everything peppermint, so I loved this pie.  It was super easy to make too!

{Chocolate Peppermint Pie}

This has been a year long project.  So, let's review:

{Chocolaty Rice Pudding}

{Candy Corn Boo Bark}

{Peanutty Brownie Bites}

{Choco-Toffee Bananas}

{Smoky Road Fudge}

{Cocoa-Cinnamon Sorbet}

{Classic Egg Cream}

{Chocolate Cookie Stacks with Lemon Cream}

{Hot Fudge Easter Sundaes}

{Cran-Raspberry Truffles}

{One-Bowl Mocha Cake}

I've linked all of the recipes in the picture captions.  My favorite one from the year was....drum roll please......the Peanutty Brownie Bites!  The One-Bowl Mocha Cake and Peppermint Pie were close seconds.  I enjoyed making a new chocolate dessert each month this year.  I hope you'll try one (or more) of these recipes sometime!  Enjoy!

The Year of Chocolate Desserts challenge is almost complete!  November's dessert is Chocolaty Rice Pudding (recipe here).

I was dreading this dessert for two reasons.  One, I'm not a fan of rice pudding.  Two, I can't make rice.  I literally can't do it.  I mess it up every time.  Every.  Time.  I never get the rice to water ratio right.  The rice is always either soupy or crunchy.  So, I don't make rice. 

It was a Thanksgiving miracle that I was able to correctly make the rice and the pudding. 

This turned out how I expected.  It was ok, but keep in mind I'm not a rice pudding fan.  The recipe called for pistachios as a garnish, but I opted for whipped cream.  Overall, not bad.  Not my favorite of the year, but not bad. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This month's chocolate dessert is Candy Corn Boo Bark, perfect for Halloween!  I used this super easy recipe to make this boo bark.  Instead of regular candy corn, I used s'mores candy corn.  Yum!

Happy Halloween!

I've been anxiously waiting for September since starting this "A Year of Chocolate Desserts" project.  This month's dessert combines my two favorite things:  peanut butter and chocolate.  I used this recipe to make September's dessert, Peanutty Brownie Bites.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  I've been waiting all year and it was totally worth it. 

This one is my favorite so far this year.  These were easy to make, but they stuck to the pan even though I greased it like crazy.  Next time I think I'll use paper liners.  Otherwise I would highly recommend this one if you like brownies and peanut butter.  Enjoy!

Right on time this month.  August's chocolate dessert is Choco-Toffee Bananas.  Despite it's odd look, these were pretty good.  It was the perfect week to make a frozen banana treat since the temperatures decided to rise into the upper 90's. 



These were pretty easy to make.  You just need bananas, chocolate, pecans, and crushed Heath bars.  Frozen chocolate covered bananas on a stick?  Yes please! 

It was back in January that I had the great idea to make all twelve of the "A Year of Chocolate Desserts" from my January/February issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine. 
I managed to make each month's dessert on time (even while being pregnant, giving birth, having an infant to care for, etc.), until now.  I'm not going to lie when I say I completely forgot about June and July's desserts. 

Because I can't stand to have an "incomplete" in anything, I trudged on to make the next two desserts. 

I probably chose to forget about the desserts because June's dessert was Cocoa-Cinnamon Sorbet.  I hate cinnamon.  I wanted to skip this one all together, but like I said I can't not complete something.  Even if it's cinnamon.  Honestly, the Cocoa-Cinnamon Sorbet wasn't terrible.  I could barely taste the cinnamon, and it was a nice cool treat on a hot day.  Overall, not bad despite it's appearance.

{June:  Cocoa-Cinnamon Sorbet}

July's dessert is Smoky Road Fudge.  I really liked this one.  It was a perfect summer version of fudge with a s'mores/rocky road like flavor.   

{July:  Smoky Road Fudge}

Because I've randomly mentioned the desserts here and there over the past six months, I compiled all of the desserts so far this year.

{January:  One-Bowl Mocha Cake}

{February:  Cran-Raspberry Truffles}

{March:  Hot Fudge Easter Sundaes}

{April:  Chocolate Cookie Stacks with Lemon Cream}

{May:  Classic Egg Cream}

So far, my favorite has been the One-Bowl Mocha Cake, I made a complete mess of the Chocolate Cookie Stacks, and my least favorite was the Cocoa-Cinnamon Sorbet (naturally).  I feel a sense of accomplishment until I realize that it's already almost time for August's dessert.  Maybe I'll stay on top of this project from now on.  Probably not. 

After hours of work, I'm excited to reveal the new blog layout!  What do you think?  Thanks to Nudge Media Design for an awesome layout!

Having time to do projects around the house is very scarce.  I have a long list of things I would like to get done, but I'm slowly making my way through it working when Katherine naps (and when I'm not so tired that I have to nap too!).

I bought this coffee table last summer, with hopes to have it done before Katherine was born.  Ha!  I just finished it this month, almost a year later.

It took me almost a year to decide what to do with it.  I wanted something simple, but chic; something that would still go with whatever decor I had going on in the living room.  I spent hours looking on Pinterest looking for inspiration.  The table has wheels on the bottom so it can be easily moved (but not easy enough for a small child to move while trying to stand....I hope).  Here is what became of the coffee table:


Now on to the next item on the list:  a new ottoman for Callie and Sammie to sit on.  The one we currently have has a huge gash through the upholstery.  Considering it's six years old and has had Callie jumping around on it, I'd say we got our money's worth.

Continuing with "A Year of Chocolate Desserts," May's dessert was Classic Egg Cream.  It turned out pretty well (surprisingly enough, no eggs used).  I topped mine with homemade whipped cream.

{May:  Classic Egg Cream}

Just for fun, here is an outtake from last week's 2 Month photo shoot.

{Photo bomb by Callie.}

We took Katherine's newborn photos when she was a week old.  I can't believe how different she looks in just a month.  My mom crocheted her mermaid outfit, cupcake hat, and crown.  I loved dressing her in these cute little outfits!  She would have had bows in her hair but her little head was so small, none of them would stay on.








Katherine is growing so fast.  She finally grew out of her newborn clothes and is on to 3 month apparel.  I'm glad the weather is finally warming up (for now!) and we're able to go outside.  Today we went for a walk around the neighborhood and spent time on the backyard swing.  I'm ready for summer! 

In keeping up with monthly desserts, this month's chocolate dessert was Chocolate Cookie Stacks with Lemon Cream.  While they were easy to make, mine turned out a little messy.  I also left out the lemon cream.

{Nailed it.}

Oh well...

Katherine is 3 weeks old this week and we're slowly adjusting to life with a newborn.  I can't believe how fast she is growing.  She already looks so much different from when we first brought her home. 

Katherine celebrated her first Easter this weekend.  I've had her Easter dress for over a month.  I bought it at Sprung, one of my new favorite children's resale stores.  She looked adorable.  Luckily I took her picture before church because after she completely destroyed it with a nasty blow-out.  Oh well.  She wore it to church and that's all that matters.  

{Happy Easter!}

I was a little nervous about taking her to church for the first time.  I didn't know how she'd do.  I was even more nervous that she'd make a loud poop sound during a prayer.  We decided to go anyway, despite our fears.  I panicked when the service started with a bagpiper.  Bagpipes?  Really?  But she slept through the whole thing (amazing how she'll sleep through bagpipes but not through the night).  We successfully made it through our first church service.  Triumph #1 of the day.  After church we went to our friends' house for egg hunting and Easter lunch.  We successfully made it through our first out-of-the-house social gathering.  Triumph #2.



Of course the Easter bunny visited Katherine and left a small basket with some baby goodies.    


I somehow found time to make this month's chocolate dessert from my "Year of Chocolate Desserts" magazine article.  This month's dessert was "Hot Fudge Easter Sundae."  It was basically a recipe for making hot fudge, but still good.   

{Hot Fudge Easter Sundae}

In other news, today is baseball's opening day.  Of course Katherine has to be dressed for the occasion.