Hello--Cutest Kid Ever Alert, Some Awards and Whole Wheat Bread!

There are no words.

But I must tell you the story.  Taylor found a pom pom on the floor yesterday and that led to he and Sam making crowns.  We got them made and since they had a lot of glue (kids use a lot of glue!), we set them aside to dry.  Later, I taped the ends together and Sam was pretty excited about his crown.  He ran in to Taylor's room to show him and this is how he looked when I went in the room.  Yes, it's upside down.  Dang cute!  He wouldn't even let me show him the right way, he was happy with it just the way it was!

This cuteness even makes up for the fact that last night after I was almost done with the dishes, Sam scooted a chair up to the sink and wanted to play in the water.  I let him.  I finished the last of the by-hand dishes and told him to leave the water running just how I had it and be careful.  I went in the living room (just off the kitchen, but you can't see the sink from where I was.)  I checked on Sam every few minutes.  He was filling a couple cups up back and forth and having a good time.  He always makes a little of a wet mess, but was doing okay.  Well, Kevin came upstairs moments later, entered the kitchen and saw Sam squirting the entire kitchen with the sink hose!  Not only that, but water was gushing on to the floor from the counter in quite the flood!  I'm not sure how he did it in the amount of time since I'd last checked on him, but it took about 10 towels to clean up!  Sigh.  Like I said, it's a good thing he's so stinkin' cute or he'd have been in trou-ble!

(Taylor wouldn't let me take his picture with his crown on.)  Also, it seems in all the pictures of Sam lately, he's just wearing a onesie shirt or just a diaper.  I've been just putting these shirts on him because his newest thing is to take his pants off.  He was even doing it after I'd tuck him in bed at night.  I always go check on him before I go to bed and his jammie pants were always on the floor.  With the snapping onesies, he can't take anything off!

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I wanted to send a shout out and THANKS to a few blogger friends who have given me awards recently.

I got this Kreativ Blogger award from Carla at Chocolate Moosey.  Thanks a bunch, Carla, that's awesome!   And I also got the same award from Peach at The Peach Kitchen.  She is a cute gal in the Philippines with a fun blog in which she showcases places to eat there, interesting food and yummy recipes.  Thanks for thinking of me for this award!

 

I'm supposed to now tell you a bunch of boring stuff about myself (7 things to be exact) and pass this award on.  So I'm passing it on to all the blogs I've got listed as favorite links on my blog.  You all rock!  Yada, yada, yada, there's not much for me to say about myself.

1-I don't like (make that hate) onions.  My mom always said that when I grow up I'd learn to like them.  Almost 40, still hate them.  Sorry, Mom.  I suppose it could just be that I've never grown up. ; )

2-I love chocolate.  There.  That's about it about me.  jk  But that's all you're getting today! ; )

And then, I hate to admit it, but clear back in March (she said muffled under her breath), I so kindly received this award from Melody at Cheat Day Cafe.  I feel like such a heel having never acknowledged this on my blog.  I really am grateful when people think of me and send me these awards.  So, Thanks, Melody! 

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

And just how horrible of me is it that after receiving the "FRIENDS" award from Melody, I blew it!  Anyway, thanks and sorry.  Again, I pass this one on to ALL my friends!  Ya'll know who you are and can accept this award and pass it on if you'd like! ; )

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Last week Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod (How awesome is she?!) posted a recipe for some Honey Whole Wheat Bread.  I'm a sucker for good homemade bread, especially when I saw that the mixer does all the kneading and it only had one rise time.  I had to try this one.     This bread turned out great.  It made two big, beautiful loaves.  I wrapped one up and put it in one of the boxes of recycle stuff I had for our recycle guy who comes every other week on Tuesday's.  But I forgot this past week, so after emailing him, he said I could put my stuff out on Friday and he'd come pick it up.  This guy does a lot for our environment, for our own laziness and he doesn't get paid much to do what he does.  He recycles just about everything, too.  It's only $12 a month.  I think that's pretty good and beats loading up all our "trash" and taking it to a recycle center.  That's the only way they do it here in own town.  I kind of wish it was required here (it was in Tucson where we lived before).  It kind of drives me nuts when I go jogging in the mornings and see SO much garbage to be thrown out that could be recycled.  Okay, off the high horse.  I'm not  the greatest at it, nor have I always been this way.

Sheesh, where was I?  Oh, the bread!  It's great, simple and 100% whole wheat.

I only made one minor change to Maria's shared recipe.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread, Stouts' recipe, adapted every so slightly from Maria at Two Peas and their Pod

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 T vital wheat gluten (find it at Whole Foods, Bob's Red Mill, King Arthur, etc.)
2 packets of yeast (I used rapid rise)
2 1/2 cups warm water
In a large mixing bowl (preferably a KitchenAid), add the 3 cups flour, wheat gluten, and yeast. Stir. Add in warm water and stir until combined. Let sit for 10 minutes.
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 T lemon juice  (I used distilled vinegar, as I was out of lemon juice or lemons)

1 T salt
3 1/2-4 cups whole wheat flour

Mix the oil, honey, lemon juice, and salt in a small bowl. Add to flour mixture after the 10 minutes. Mix until combined. Add in the additional flour and mix. Now knead the dough for ten minutes with the dough hook. When it is done divide the dough into two loaves. Make sure they are even. Shape them into loaf form. Place the dough into 2 loaf pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Cover with a clean towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After the loaves have risen, bake them for 30 minutes.  (I only baked mine for 25 minutes, they should be a golden brown.)  I also basted my dough with an egg white wash before baking it.

Look at that!  Can't wait to make this again!

Great recipe, Maria!  Thanks for sharing.

The Cuteness of My Boys and More Summer Treats--Lemon-Up Floats and Lower Fat Banana Ice Cream

Would ya look at this--I've said it once before, even quite recently, but seriously, could there be more blue eyes and an angelic face on a kid?  (Yes, he needs a haircut big time!)

And then there's this guy, who thinks he can ride a bike, but can't even reach the pedals.  It doesn't matter, he's cuter than pie.

And a really rare occurrence--all four of them together.

Of course, it's because they are all enjoying a treat together before bedtime, which seems to be an every-night thing around here. 

You remember the pink lemonade sherbert I told you about recently?

A little recipe recap for you--

Katrina's Refreshing Pink Lemonade Sherbert

1  1/2 cups half and half

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup agave nectar (or sugar)

1 can pink lemonade concentrate

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

3 drops of red food color (optional for darker pink color--I did use it_

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to mix thoroughly.  Process in ice cream maker following manufacture's instructions.  Put the thickened mixture in a air tight container and freezer at least two hours.  Or enjoy it immediately in glasses with straws!  It was like a really yummy, thick, tasty Slurpee.  Be careful, this is the brain freezing kind of stuff! ;)

We had some leftover, so I scooped it into cups for the boys and topped it off with some 7-Up for  delicious

LEMON-UP FLOATS (I came up with that name and thinks it's pretty darn cool!)  The boys love Root Beer Floats, and they really liked these.  (It helps that they don't get pop much, so they think it's pretty awesome when they do.) 

Sam wasn't up for trying for one more group picture.

And one more quick summer treat.  I looked at a lot of recipes, but ended up coming up with my own

Lower Fat Banana Ice Cream, by Katrina

2 cups half and half

8 ounces fat free sweetened condensed milk

2 bananas, mashed

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl.  Add to ice cream maker and churn according to manufacture's instructions.  Freeze for about 2 hours.  Mmmm.  This is great with some chopped nuts on top, or a little chocolate, or some chocolate chips and peanuts, or.....lots of things!

TWD--Tribute-to-Katharine-Hepburn Brownies

This week's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe was chosen by this really cool girl, Lisa, who is not even a TWD blogger.  What?  Lisa recently won a contest for coming up with a new logo for Tuesday's With Dorie.  Check it out.

Lisa has a really funny blog called Surviving Oz.  She is an American living in Australia and she loves us TWD bloggers.  Since she won, she got to pick this week's recipe and you've got to 1--go check out her blog and 2-see her posting about these brownies (and GET the recipe!).  She never bakes from scratch and her brownies look de-lish and her write up is a great read! 

THIS might be my favorite TWD recipe yet.  Why?  The biggest reason is because it is SO simple to make.  But heck, they are also brownies and they are delicious--no matter how you slice it! ;)  I have no idea if Dorie hit it just right with making these brownies just like Katharine Hepburn's, but I do know that Dorie has come up with a great brownie and if the key was what Katharine always said--"don't put too much flour in your brownies", then this is it.  I'm not ashamed to say that I made these brownies four different times over the last week. 

We like them!  I'm excited and happy that "we", as in all of my family, like these.  No cake, no frosting to fret about and I've shared them with some friends and neighbors all of whom raved about what a good brownie they are.    Somebody stop me!  jk

So here's the deal.  The first time I made them, I added the nuts, walnuts that is, and semi sweet chocolate chips.  (Note--all four times that I made these I left out the cinnamon and the coffee--don't care for either one in my brownies!)  I have to say, the nutty ones are my favorite.  I just really think a brownie with nuts is much better than one without!

Pure brownie perfection.

We had to do something fun with the brownies.  So they became the base for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Fro Yo Sundaes.  (The same concoction I made the Andes Mint Fro Yo from on a previous post.)

 

Good! 

The chocolate chip cookie dough is from The Perfect Scoop.  You can get the recipe here, among other places, I'm sure.

Next, a few days later, I made the brownies sans nuts because one of my sons thinks he doesn't like nuts in brownies. ;)  He loves them like this---

Just extra chocolate.  Yum.  (But missing nuts!)  Um, these still got eaten right up!

These got a dousing of the peanut butter ice cream I recently posted about with some hot fudge on top. 

(Yes, we've been eating a lot of ice cream 'round here lately!)

Next up I went for the classic peanut butter/chocolate combo.  Whipped up the brownies--did I mention how easy they are?  Melt butter in pot on stove, while it's melting, add cocoa (I never sifted it, I'm lazy).  Let sit three minutes.  Whisk in eggs, then sugar, vanilla and that little bit of flour and salt.  That's it.  Add mix-ins.  Put in 8x8 pan (I always lined it with foil and lightly sprayed it with cooking spray--once baked and slightly cooled, cool to room temperature and chill in fridge for the best, easiest cutting.)  My 8x8 pan is a darker metal, so every time I baked these, I baked them at 300 degrees instead of 325 degrees.  I baked them for 25 minutes at which point they passed the toothpick test and looked done.  They were perfect every time.

With these peanut butter ones, I chopped up 8 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and added them to the batter.

If you're the peanut butter/chocolate fan, you'll love these like this!  The kids ate them up and the neighbors loved them. 

And just because three times just wasn't enough for these, I made them again yesterday.  You know the drill, melt butter, add cocoa, eggs, sugar, vanilla, flour and salt.  Then add 3/4 cup of these--(still cleaning out the baking cupboard here).  I have been known to love the Junior Mints and York Peppermint Patties in my lifetime.  And they were terrific in the these brownies.  And just to be different, I baked them in an 8 inch round cake pan.

I added a Hershey's Kisses Mint Truffle to the top of each brownie wedge as well.

If you like the minty brownies--you'll want to whip these up. 

Puhleeeaassseee, go see other versions of these brownies by visiting the Tuesday's With Dorie blog and checking out the list of other baking bloggers.  I can't wait to see the other's brownies!

By the way, he's feeling much better, but his eyes don't look so good! ;)

Happy Independence Day--I Scream, You Scream...

I'm SO grateful for the USA and what a wonderful country it is!  Celebrate and be safe and give thanks for ALL you have.

On that note, I'm not really sure what we'll end up doing--Sam has looked like this since he woke up from his nap Friday afternoon.  (I'm writing this late Friday night.)

That yogurt container is his barf bowl.  Yep, not sure why or what's up, but Sam woke up from his nap with a pretty high fever and has been barfing for hours.  Mah poor bebe!  I may be staying home with him while Dad and the boys go watch the fireworks.   We'll see.

BUT--I Scream, you scream, nothing is more yummy and soothing than ice cream!  Ahhh.  I've been making some good ones!

A refreshing Andes Mints Frozen Yogurt

I actually made most of this concoction (minus the mints) into another kind that I'll tell you about next week, but it was too much to all fit in the ice cream maker at once, so with about 1 1/2 cups of the yummy white liquid, I churned it until it was nicely thickened, then stirred in some Andes Mint pieces--just another thing that needed cleaning out of my storage.

Vanilla Fro Yo (Any add-ins welcome), by Katrina

1 cup fat free half and half

1 cup whole milk

1  1/2 cups fat free vanilla yogurt

1 cup whipping cream

2/3 cup sugar

Mix all these very contradicting ingredients (fat free and full fat--well, it made for some middle-of-the-road good stuff!) in a large bowl with a wire whisk.  Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacture's instructions.  Stir in add-ins.   Transfer ice cream to an air tight container and freeze for at least two hours.

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Yesterday I also made some refreshing Pink Lemonade Ice Cream.  No, these are not all getting eaten as quickly as you might think, but the freezer is becoming well stocked!  I got this recipe (which I adapted a bunch) from yet another great blog, Finding Inspiration in Food (although, many recipes for lemonade ice cream can be found all over the internet.)  This is like a perfect lemon sherbet (How many of you out there pronounce it SHERBERT?  I do.  Kevin thinks me silly that I do, but it's always been sherbert and always will be, I'll even just ignore that the Windows Live Writer thinks that is not a correct spelling and has underlined it so rudely in red.  Well, take this computer.  I'm not changing it.  Okay, I feel better now.)

Katrina's Refreshing Pink Lemonade Sherbert

1  1/2 cups half and half

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup agave nectar

1 can pink lemonade concentrate

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

3 drops of red food color (optional for darker pink color--I did use it_

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to mix thoroughly.  Process in ice cream maker following manufacture's instructions.  Put the thickened mixture in a air tight container and freezer at least two hours.  Or enjoy it immediately in glasses with straws!  It was like a really yummy, thick, tasty Slurpee.  Be careful, this is the brain freezing kind of stuff! ;)

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And finally FOR NOW, last but certainly not least, today I made Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Peanuts.  YUM!  I found this recipe at Erin's blog, Dinner and Dessert.  She used a recipe from David Lebovitz' book that I really need to get, The Perfect Scoop, but she added a little something that really kicked it up a notch!

Peanut Butter Ice Cream, adapted with additions by Erin at Dinner and Dessert
Source: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz (My ever-so-slight changes, suggestions and adjustments are in red.--Katrina)

¾ cup smooth peanut butter

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 2/3 cups half-and-half

Pinch of salt

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Covered Peanuts (recipe follows)

Puree the peanut butter, sugar, half-and-half, salt, and vanilla in a blender or food processor (This will leak out all over the place in a food processor--just trust me and use the blender!  It may even work to just whisk it well with a wire whisk or the whisk attachment of your mixer.) until smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (I did not chill it, everything was already cold!), then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  After churning, stir in Chocolate Covered Peanuts.

Chocolate-Covered Peanuts

4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts (My peanuts were dry roasted, unsalted and I only used about 3/4 cup)

Put the pieces of chocolate in an absolutely dry heat proof bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water to melt the chocolate, stirring until smooth. In the meantime, stretch a piece of plastic wrap over a dinner plate.  (I just melted it in a microwave safe dish, stirring every 20-30 seconds and I lined the plate with waxed paper and after spreading this chocolate peanut mixture on the plate, I stuck it in the freezer while the ice cream churned.)

Once the chocolate is melted, remove it from the heat and stir in the peanuts, coating them with the chocolate. Spread the mixture on the plastic-lined plate and chill.

De-licious!

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And since we're celebrating the Good Ol' USA, I made these---

These were really fun to make!  They are made with my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  Then the cool tie-dye, swirled icing idea I got from Holly's delightful blog, Phe.mom.enon.  We made Royal Icing (recipe on Holly's blog, but it's just your basic powdered sugar, meringue powder, water and some flavoring, like vanilla and I added a splash of almond extract.  After whipping up the icing, I made some of the icing red with, duh, red food coloring and some blue.  Then put some white icing on a paper plate, and drizzle in some red and blue and carefully swirled the three colors using a toothpick.  (I added more water to the icing than the recipe suggested until I got the slightly runny consistency I was looking for.)  Taylor and Sam helped and thought this was pretty cool.  I even thought it was pretty fun and super festive for the Fourth of July! 

We did some just blue and white and some red and white. 

  

Then we went to town with a mixture of all three colors. 

These were really fun, thanks for sharing, Holly!

These pictures were taken this morning (Friday) before Sam's nap.  He then woke up sick.  :(

Taylor looks so intent on his work.  He thought it was cool to keep swirling until it turned a lovely shade of purple!

1--I love Taylor's blue eyes.   2--How cute is Sam over on the side there with the icing on his nose!

While I was photographing the plateful of cookies, Taylor thought he should be in one.  I like his blue lips.

Stars and Stripes Forever! ; )

TWD--Perfect Party Cake

I'm sad to say and sorry to report that cake is just not a favorite thing here at our house.  So when Dorie's Perfect Party Cake was chosen by Carol at mix, mix...stir, stir for our baking this week from Baking From My Home to Yours, I seriously thought about skipping out.  The cake (thank you for the photo, Dorie!) in the book looks....well, perfect and tasty and I was actually a little intimidated by the four layers. 

BUT, since I didn't make last week's selection, I decided to just buck up and make some party cake--my way.

I made just 1/4 of the recipe and followed the recipe with everything except I made homemade buttermilk by adding a little splash of lemon juice to some 2% milk and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes.  The batter whipped up in no time and with great ease.  I like this recipe for a lovely white cake!

Then I made four cupcakes and one cute, little 3 inch cake.

The boys have been asking me when I was ever going to use these cute cupcake holders that I bought a few months ago and I decided this was the time. 

Slapped a little raspberry jam in the sliced layer of the three-inch cake. 

I whipped up 1/4 of the recipe for the buttercream.  Shh, I really like buttercream icing.  But it is SO bad with a lot of butta!  I love watching it transform from foamy egg whites, to shiny marshmallowy goodness and then into a silky, smooth icing.

Let's party!

The boys thought the cupcakes were pretty cool.  I thought my attempt at decorating them was somewhat lame, but oh well.  I did it--I made perfect party cake. 

And it was really good!

Want a little slice?  (And I do mean little.)

The lemon, raspberry and coconut were wonderful together.

Party on--perfectly.

Hey, thanks all for visiting my blog.  I try to get to all those who especially comment on mine, but sometimes may not make it there with a comment.  Thanks so much.  If you're here not as part of the Tuesday's With Dorie group, thanks also and go check out all the other awesome Perfect Party Cake creations at the Tuesday's With Dorie blog, the list of everyone is on the right.  If you REALLY want this yummy recipe, well--go buy Dorie's book, or today for the low, low price of NUTTIN"-you can get it on the link at the top to Carol's blog, mix, mix...stir, stir. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Rice Krispies Treats! and Lime Tart/Ice Cream

First of all, I've got to tell you about some more Rice Krispy Treats I made a few days ago.  You may have seen my recent post for Cookie Crisp Rice Krispies Treats.  Well, that got me thinking and I came up with Cookie Dough Treats!  That's right.  All you cookie dough eatin' lovers out there--these are some Krispies for you!  I went in search of an edible, eggless cookie dough and settled on this good one.

Edible Chocolate Chip Cookies Dough, from Elyse and Risa

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Beat the butter and sugars together until creamy, add the vanilla and combine.  Stir in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips.  That's it.  And it's edible and yummy! 

 

I made the traditional Rice Krispies Treat recipe, 10 oz. marshmallows, 3 tablespoons butter and 6 cups of cereal.  You know the drill.  Pressed that into a 9x13 pan.  I took balls of the cookie dough--(in hindsight, it would have worked a little better if I'd have quick frozen the balls of dough, but it still worked fine)

 

I tucked the balls of dough in and around and all over the treats that were already pressed in the pan, then when I had about half the dough left, I just pressed it evenly over the top.  That wasn't enough though, so I made another half batch of Rice Krispies Treats and pressed that on top of the cookie dough infused treats that were already in the pan.  And I drizzled 2 ounces of melted semi sweet chocolate over the top.  Now we're talking.  These were perfectly gooey, sugary Krispies with just the right amount of added YUM from the cookie dough.  If you're a cookie dough lover and enjoy those Rice Krispies Treats, you've got to try these!

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I bought some limes (regular ones, not key limes) recently and was hankerin' to do something with them.  I wanted a no-bake cream cheesy type something.  After looking all over the internet and not finding really what I wanted, I just threw some things together.  They were similar to many recipes out there, but I just did my own thing. 

No Bake Lime Tart, by Katrina

Crust:

1 sleeve plus 6 rectangles graham crackers, crushed

1/2 cup pecans, toasted and cooled

6 tablespoons butter (I used salted, it's what I had), melted

zest of 1 small lime (about 1/2 teaspoon)

Filling:

8 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

14 oz. can fat free sweetened condensed milk

zest of 1 large or 2 small limes

juice of 2-3 limes (to your taste of tartness)

8 oz tub Cool Whip

Pulse the graham crackers and pecans in the food processor until fine crumbs.  Pulse in the lime zest.   Then pulse in the melted butter until combined well.  Press into 11 inch tart pan (or 9 inch for thicker tart).  Set aside.

In cleaned bowl of food processor, pulse the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the condensed milk, lime zest and juice and pulse together until combined.  Add the mixture to a large bowl and fold in the Cool Whip.  Spread over crust in tart pan.  Let set in refrigerator for a good 4 hours or more.  Serve with a garnish of lime.

 

 

 

It looks a little unset because it had only been in the refrigerator 2-3 hours when I served it.  It tasted okay.  I actually really wanted more of a cream cheese taste, so I'm going to try it again and use 16 oz. cream cheese.  Everyone had a piece.  It definitely would have gotten eaten as it was, but I got an idea to turn it in to ice cream the next day.  It really was even tastier and more set up the next day.  But with what was left (a little more than half of it), I scraped the filling out of the crust, added 1 cup fat free half and half and 2 tablespoons of more lime juice, whisked it up really good and poured it in to the ice cream maker.  The ice cream maker did its job for a good 20-30 minutes.  Then the ice cream sat in the fridge until snack time that night.

  

I don't actually totally love fruit in ice cream, but this was really good, creamy and just the hit of lime I was looking for!  The kids gobbled it up! (All except Parker who had gone with Kevin to run a couple errands and they stopped and got Subway.  Parker ate (he's only 7!) a whole foot long and a bag of chips and a soda by himself!  He was full!  Me, myself would never even be able to eat a foot long.  Kevin is molding these kids into himself!  Kevin eats a foot long in probably less than 5-10 minutes.  Ugh!  Anyway, the ice cream is good! ; )  It was also good that it had a little bit of crust in it.  It would be fun served with some crushed graham crackers on top.  You can see the flecks of it in the ice cream.

Hmmm, what ice cream should I make today? 

Creamy CHOCOLATE Heaven!

I love this picture.  What is it?  Just about one of the best tasting and creamiest ice creams I have ever had.  It's definitely the best one I've ever made!  Where did this recipe come from?  Dorie Greenspan, of course!  I've been having so much fun with my new ice cream maker (and have probably been eating too much ice cream also!)  Well, this one is NOT the low fat/fat free kind of ice cream I eat, but man it was good!

Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream, adapted very slightly from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1  1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk (I used 2%)

4 large egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

Put the chocolate in a 2-quart liquid measuring cup or a large heatproof bowl.  Bring 3/4 cup of the cream to a boil.  Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit a minute, then, with a rubber spatula, stir the cream into the chocolate until smooth.  Set it aside.

Bring the milk and the remaining 3/4 cup cream to a boil in a medium saucepan.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together until well blended and just slightly thickened.  Still whisking, drizzle in about one third of the hot liquid to temper the eggs so they won't curdle.  Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remaining liquid.  Pour the custard back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring without stopping, until the custard thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon.  If you run your finger down the bowl of the spoon, the custard should not run into the track.  The custard should reach at least 170 degrees F, but no more than 180 degrees F, on an instant-read thermometer.  Immediately remove the pan from the heat and slowly and gently stir the custard into the ganache.

Refrigerate the custard until chilled before churning it into ice cream.

Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

You know you want a lick.  This is GOOD and would be great with any mix-ins that go with chocolate.  I am interested to try it with a semi sweet chocolate and maybe even a milk chocolate.  But you'd be proud of me, I used a 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate and it's really good.

 

While I was careful not to eat too much of this, I needed to make a frozen treat that I didn't feel quite so guilty about eating.  I went in search of a frozen yogurt recipe and after finding what seemed like thousands of different recipes online, I ended up making up my own with things I already had and guess what this was/is darn good.

Vanilla Fro Yo by Katrina

14 oz. can fat free sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup fat free half and half

3/4 cup 2% milk

1 cup light cream

2 cups fat free vanilla yogurt (I used Dannon Light & Fit)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl.  Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions.  Chill for a couple hours  or eat it soft serve. 

 

All of the vanilla mixture was a little too much to fit in my ice cream maker at one time, so I kept out about 2 cups and after finishing the churning of the vanilla one, I refroze the ice cream maker for a while and then made this Cherry Chocolate Chip Pecan Fro Yo.

I added about 1/2 cup fresh sweet cherries, pits removed and chopped, then mashed with 1 tablespoon sugar, a couple tablespoons toasted, chopped pecans and about 2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips.  While I don't really care for fruit in my ice cream, this was pretty darn good.  The boys ate it up!

I have made  a couple other ice creams as well and am really having fun with it.  The heat and humidity continues outside and I continue to find these to do without the oven.  The boys have continued to make forts all over the house with as many blankets as they can find.

Lunch in the fort.

A couple of shots of my beautiful roses Kevin gave me for our anniversary.

Cookie Crisp Rice Krispies Treats

These were so easy and yummy and I totally just made it up as I went along.  I have an abundance of Rice Krispies Cereal and that's perfect since it's so hot here that turning on the oven means we'd fry!

Cookie Crisp Rice Krispies Treats, by Katrina

2 tablespoons butter (I used salted because that's what I had)

2 tablespoons  corn syrup (You can probably leave this out as I was just playing around, but the butter and corn syrup kind of made it a little caramel-like in flavor.)

6 ounces marshmallows (I used a combo of large and small to use up some open bags!)

4 cups Rice Krispies cereal

1 cup Cookie Crisp cereal

1/2 cup Cookie Crisp cereal, crushed slightly

1-2 ounces milk chocolate, melted

Line a 9x9 baking pan with foil, spray lightly with cooking spray.  Set aside.  In saucepan on stove on medium, melt butter, add corn syrup and marshmallows.  Stir together with a wooden spoon until melted.  Remove from heat and add the 4 cups of Rice Krispies and 1 cup Cookie Crisp.  Stir until combined.  Dump mixture into prepared pan and spread evenly with a potato masher sprayed lightly with cooking spray.  It works beautifully and doesn't stick!  Melt chocolate in microwave safe bowl.  Put melted chocolate in a sandwich size plastic bag.  Snip off tiny corner and drizzle chocolate over the treats.  Put the 1/2 cup Cookie Crisp in another sandwich bag, beat with rolling pin to break them up.  Sprinkle the crushed cereal over the chocolate drizzled treats.  Let set.  Cut into squares. 

 

This is the coolest trick I just read about on Taste of Home's website (although I since looked and found the idea in many places on the internet.).  Where have I been?  This worked so well and all this time I've been dealing with sticky hands trying to press the mallowy treats into the pan.  Just coat a potato masher with cooking spray to mash down the cereal treats.  It doesn't stick at all!  Love it.

Now that these are gone, I have to say, though they were a little crunchy for what I like in a rice crispy treat, they tasted great.  And now I have another idea, so I'll be back with that!