Strawberry Ice Cream

Happy Father's Day!

Whenever there is a celebration during the summer months, I feel as though it is necessary to celebrate with a batch of homemade ice cream. Today was no exception. I have been craving  my grandma's super creamy, rich strawberry ice cream for quite some time. {okay - for a few years...I haven't made it in a long time} And today was the day that I decided to finally give in, and make it for us to enjoy. I am so glad that I did! I forgot how easy and delicious it is. It is different than any other strawberry ice cream recipe I have seen because it uses strawberry soda pop in it. The flavor it gives it is wonderful. I am picky and I do not like real strawberry pieces in my ice cream, like the recipe calls for. I just don't enjoy biting into a frozen strawberry. Of course being an old family favorite, it does call for raw eggs. You could substitute them with the pasteurized eggs easily though. 

After the ice cream was done churning, I scooped it out into clean, sterilized Mason jars. I filled them to just under where the ring screws on, covered the top with a piece of plastic wrap, and then tightened the lid before putting them in the freezer. It keeps them fresh without forming ice crystals, and one jar will feed my family of 3 for dessert...or snack :) I got about 5 jars out of this recipe, minus a small bowl, or two, that my daughter and I ate while getting it transferred.

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

{printable recipe}

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

2 pints half-and-half

2 cans {3 cups/24oz} strawberry soda pop

1 cup chopped fresh or frozen strawberries

In a large mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and the half-and-half while continuing to whisk the mixture.
Gradually stir in the strawberry soda pop, so it doesn't fizz.

Whisk until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour into the ice cream maker.

Add in the strawberries, if desired.

Freeze according to your machine's instructions.

After freezing, remove the paddle and transfer the ice cream to the freezer to let sit and ripen. 

Guacamole Dip

We go on dip binges at my house.
Dips make amazing snacks, and sadly I will admit--many times they are dinner on busy evenings in my house.
Last weekend at the Farmer's Market I picked up some fresh veggies with the intention of making guacamole. Well, my mini schnauzer mix/crazy dog Chuckie had other plans for my avocados. He wanted them in his belly. He stole them both off the counter while I was having a lazy moment when my daughter was taking a snooze. And he ate them. All of them. He didn't even leave the seeds. He is crazy.
I didn't want to the store just to buy some avocados, so when we went to the store to stock up after my daughter and niece's "leaving the refrigerator door open all night fiasco" I was sure to pick some up. And finally today, I made the guacamole dip!
It is super simple to make, and I like to make just enough for two people to enjoy. Otherwise we eat way too much, or it goes bad before we have a chance to eat it all. I picked up ripe avocados, and my daughter was able to just squeeze the avocado out from the shell. It was the perfect way to mash them!

Guacamole Dip
{printable recipe}

2 ripe avocados, peeled, seed removed & mashed
1 Roma tomato, diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded & diced
1/4 cup diced onion
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/3 cup lime juice

Mash the avocados with the salt and minced garlic.
Add the tomato, jalapeno pepper, and onion.
Mix well.
Add the lime juice and stir until well incorporated.
Place the seed from one of the avocados on top of the dip, cover with saran wrap and let chill in the fridge for a few hours.
Serve with tortilla chips.

Coke-n-Lime

Hello Thursday!



Wow, did this week fly by for anyone else? It sure did for me!
At first I didn't think it was going to. It started out a bit rocky for this gal.
Do you ever have those moments where you think, "am I having a quarter-life crisis?" {I raise my hand high into the air waving it wildly back and forth} yeah, that was me this week.

Tuesday night my daughter and niece were eating leftovers in the fridge before bedtime. Sophia just figured out how to use the microwave {okay-she knows the "start" button will heat up things just enough for her} so they were having a ball with those leftover pigs-in-a-blanket and the hubs and I didn't pay too much attention. I told them it was bedtime...daughter fought it, I ended up sleeping with the two of them in her twin sized bed, and gave myself a huge pain in my neck. yadda yadda yadda...
Here's the kicker--I got up the next morning to find that they didn't ever shut the refrigerator door when they done the night before!! Everything inside was bad. The light bulb burnt out, my daycare kids would be arriving in less than an hour. Fan-tas-tic morning!

The hubs was off of work, so we, including the daycare kiddos, took a big ol' family trip to the grocery store to restock up! Only to come home and find that our crazy dog, Chuckie aka Chuck Norris, had got out the little side door in his kennel. Not a big issue? Oh yes! For this one-year-old mini Schnauzer/floozie farm dog for a mama it means FREEDOM! In this particular instance it meant "knock over THREE potted plants, tear all the leaves off each and every one of them, spread the soil all over the kitchen floor, knock the glass vase full of water holding peonies all over the soil to make it nice and wet and drag the flowers around the house leaving those itty bitty petals everywhere. Especially behind the couch."
It was a DISASTER when we came home. Plus we had 4 kids with us and over $200 worth of groceries. This is the culprit. The photo is from today - when he decided to eat a pink marker my daughter refused to pick up off of the floor:

To top it all off, last night my laptop took a big ol' crap on me about 7:30 pm-ish and I had to complete an intro speech for my Public Speaking course...by 10pm. So, guess who treated herself to a fancy new $300 laptop from Walmart since that's all my town has? Again, this gal! It isn't what I had in mind {saving for that new Macbook...ahhh that is what I want} but oh well! This one does everything I need it to do. Plus, paying $278 for a computer isn't too shabby. I can't complain!

In comparison, today was fabulous! Menards is having a sale, and I received back a nice rebate from them...so that meant we got our girl a new pool! woo hoo! I am ready to soak up some rays in it! And drink one of these...Coke-n-lime!
Thanks for listening-or reading, rather-my rant. It felt good to get it all out :)

Now, I do love Coca-Cola. Really, I mean love. I enjoy the vanilla variety, the cherry, of course regular, and even the lime. The hubs? Not so much. Only the hard stuff for him ;) When I'm craving a bit of extra flavor, I like to add some frozen lime concentrate to mine. I just buy the concentrate, thaw it enough to make it into ice cubes, and there you have it! An easy way to add some flavor to your Coke! I just add one or two cubes to my glass, pour on the cola, and give it a stir.

Coke-n-Lime

1 can frozen lime juice concentrate

Coca-Cola

Thaw out the concentrate enough to put into ice cube trays and freeze.

Remove desired amount from tray, add to a glass, pour over the Coke. 

Enjoy.

You can also just scoop the lime concentrate from the can if you are making a lot

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I decided that this week would be the perfect week to kick off my new weekly recipe post..."52 Weeks of Cupcakes". 

Cupcakes are one of my favorite things to bake. The possibilities of cake and frosting combinations are virtually endless. Making cupcakes at my old job is in fact what started me making and selling them. There are tons of cookbooks devoted to cupcakes, and recipes are being created and shared everyday. So I want in on the fun!

I chose to start out with one of my personal favorite cupcakes, the Snickerdoodle Cupcake.

I have found whenever you make a cookie into a cupcake the batter is a lot thicker, and not as soft or moist as just a regular white or chocolate cake would be. 

This cupcake is very dense, but the super creamy buttery frosting, with the sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar help even out the hardiness of the cake. 

I already said that this is one of my personal favorite cupcakes, and I think the best way to enjoy this cupcake is to make it into a little sandwich. Just tear the bottom off and put it on top of the frosting. This way you will get to enjoy cake and frosting evenly in every bite :)

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes & Frosting

{printable recipe}

Makes 18 cupcakes

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350°

Cream together sugar and butter; add eggs one at a time.

Add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and ground cinnamon

Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter, alternating with adding the heavy cream

Combine until no flour remains visible and cinnamon specks are well distributed.

Using a 1/4 measuring cup, add the batter to paper-lined cupcake tins.

Bake for 15-18 minutes - until edges are golden brown.

Remove from oven and place cupcakes on a cooling rack.

Frosting

1 1/2 cups butter, softened {I like to use salted - salty/sweet}

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Ground cinnamon and sugar {combine and set aside}

Cream butter and vanilla.

Beat in heavy cream until soft peaks forms.

Add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Pipe on cupcakes.

Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

**I keep a salt shaker filled with 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon in my cupboard for a perfect ratio and it is super simple to sprinkle evenly on these.

Week in Review

The last week flew by for me. Even though it was a bit stressful at the beginning {school, housework, kids, husband...need I say more?} I had a great ending to my week with a day spent at Adventureland {a roller coaster park}, and then today my daughter and I met up with my sister for the Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market!

It was a day full of fun, and a nap, which felt really good after the past few days of activities!

The biggest cause of my stress - my summer courses. I took a 4 week World Religions class...intense!! The last day was Friday. WOO HOO! Each week included 3 power points/outlines/exams. This week was the only week all 3 courses overlapped each other. Thank goodness!!

One of the most exciting things I did this week was create an instagram account for my cute long-haired basset hound, Bruce Lee! You can follow him and his {lazy} adventures here @mrbruceleetheebasset 

 

My daughter took her BFF with us to enjoy the day at Adventureland! And the hubs and I had fun watching them! Everyone thinks they are twins when we are out and about!

 

Love the sights, sounds, and the TASTES of the Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market!

  

My sister, Ann {ladylovescoffee} spoils my daughter - today she got a hat! We started out the morning with some fresh pastries - I enjoyed an Almond Vanilla pastry, and Ann ate a fruit tart. Then headed to Java Joe's to get that fix out of the way...but that breakfast pizza was calling our names!! So Bacon & Ham breakfast pizza it was, from Something Italian.  I did purchase some fresh veggies, I swear :) tomatoes, onions, cilantro, zucchini, jalapenos, and avocados were on my shopping list today!

After the Farmer's Market, we headed to my daughter's favorite restaurant, which happens to serve amazing burgers, Zombie Burger. It is delicious, but expect a wait to get seated. Always. Always expect a wait. Today however, the weather was great, so we scored and were able to sit outside. First time ever not having to wait. Look how fun the menu is!

My personal favorite is the #7, the Raygun. SCRUMPTIOUS!!!!!!

Sophia's usual order - a kid's grilled cheese and fries

After our lunch we needed to burn some of our caloric intake, so headed over for a walk through the sculpture park, also in downtown Des Moines...

When we arrived home, Sophia was anxious to cut some of the flowers that have bloomed on our numerous peony bushes. They are beautiful!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week, once the sunshine decided to peek out!

Raspberry Lemonade Slushie

Look who is finally holding up one of my New Year's Blog Resolutions?

Oh yeah! Finally on track again. Whew. Blogging can be hard work ;)

This is a pretty short and sweet drink that I make quite a bit!

I have a weird obsession with lemonade. I love it! It is definitely one of my favorite drinks. 

Mr. Coca Cola is near and dear to heart though also. Dang pop...

Anywho, as I was saying this is super simple to make. All you need is some lemonade and frozen berries!

Whenever I have fresh berries that I don't think we are eating quick enough, I freeze it up, so it works perfect for this. 

I just toss in some frozen berries with a cup of lemonade, blend, and I have a refreshing slushie!

Raspberry-Lemonade Slushie

8oz lemonade

Handful of frozen raspberries {or other berries}

Blend! 

Sometimes I will add a couple ice cubes to get it slushier

Cake Ball Cake {tutorial}

Cake balls have taken the baking world by storm. If you don't know what a cake ball is...then I think you must live under a rock. Really, I am sorry, but it is true ;)

Bakerella has shared with us awesome cake pops and now there a limitless supply of cake ball/pop making products. 

I happen to not really enjoy making cake pops. 

Although, I have made some, like the popular Monster High Skullette cake pop, but they are just time consuming, finicky, and unless you actually make them - they are way under appreciated for the amount of time they take to make. But, that's just my opinion. 

So to make my cake balls a more uniform size (I do use a scoop but they still come out deformed, not a perfect ball) I picked up a silicone mold. It only has 20 openings in it, and technically you could bake the balls in them with the stick, but I still prefer the cake mixed with the frosting over the ball of cake. Does that make sense?

Any who, I picked up a mold and then it laid among my cake pans unused for several months. {You can get one here if you don't have one}

That is, until someone wanted a cake ball cake! 

It was so fun to make, and now I am pretty much obsessed with them! I want to add colored balls to every cake and cupcake I make!

Making it took a little more time than just tossing a cake together, but it was so worth it!

Supplies needed:

• Cake pop/ball mold
• Cake batter
• Food coloring
• Bowls
• Spoons
• Knife
• Non-stick cooking spray
• Baking sheet
• Cake pan
• Cooling rack

1. Make your cake batter as directed on box {or from scratch}
2. Divide out some batter among bowls set aside for each color you are needing
3. Add the food coloring to the divided batters and mix well
4. Spray the mold really well with non-stick spray {the top & the bottom}
5. Place the bottom mold on a baking sheet
6. Fill each cavity to the top
7. Place the top on the mold and place in a preheated oven {350°}
8. Let bake about 10 minutes
9. Remove the top, invert the balls onto a cooling rack to let cool
10. Using a knife, trim the balls so that the excess is removed
11. Prepare the cake batter for the cake, if there isn't any left over
12. Prepare your cake pan {shortening & flour}
13. Pour a little bit of the plain cake batter over the bottom of the cake pan
14. Spread out the cake balls over the batter
15. Pour the remaining cake batter over the tops of the cake balls
16. Try to get it as even as possible - do not shake or tap the pan, as the batter might slide off the tops of the balls and they won't be baked inside, they will float up to the top
17. Bake the cake according to the directions
18. Cool, frost, and eat!

I thought that baking the cake balls twice might make them tough or gross, but they didn't. They stayed moist and had a uniform flavor with the rest of the cake.

Cream Cheese Pie Crust

This is a wonderful pie crust for fruit pies. Rhubarb especially! The thing about this crust that is my favorite is that it is sturdy enough you don't need to roll it out, I just press it directly into the pie pan. Which also makes it great for kids to help when baking pies :)

I also make it using the dough hook in my Kitchen Aid mixer. This is enough to make two crusts, so if you don't need a top to your pie, freeze the leftover, or do what my Grandma always did, and make a nice cinnamon roll-up with it. Just flatten the extra crust, cover it in cinnamon and brown sugar. Roll it up tightly, place it on a cookie sheet and sprinkle granulated sugar over the top. Bake at 350° until it is golden brown, and slice into serving-sized pieces:

Otherwise, just make two pies!

Cream Cheese Pie Crust

{printable recipe}

8oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups flour

Combine the cream cheese, butter, and the flour a little at a time in a stand mixer using the dough hook.

Mix until well combined and no flour is visible.

Roll out into desired size, or press directly into pie pan - add the filling per pie directions.

Rhubarb-Crumb Pie

Isn't rhubarb beautiful? I just love the ruby red, bright green, pearly colored stalks. Luckily my rhubarb batch is producing a ton of rhubarb this year. Sadly, last year I posted how I ignored it for eight years. Yes, it is true.
Since I harvested it last year, it is growing wonderfully this year. I already have another batch ready to pick. And I already filled half a trash bag full of the stalks. Woo hoo!! This makes me a happy girl!
I picked up an old cookbook (Pillsbury's Best of the Bake-Off Collection, 1959) on a trip last fall to Galena, Illinois, and I found some great rhubarb pie recipes I have been waiting for this season to try out. The first one I chose was a Rhubarb-Crumb pie! I did change it, and basically used it for the crumb mixture for the coating. It is WONDERFUL! It didn't come out too tart, and was just the right amount of sweet. I opted to bake it in a cream cheese pie crust (because who doesn't love cream cheese pie crust?) and my daughter was able to help with it-she put on the crumb topping.

Rhubarb-Crumb Pie

{printable recipe}

5 cups fresh or thawed rhubarb - cut into 1" pieces

3/4 cup flour + 2 tablespoons

1/2 cup sugar + 2 tablespoons

1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

Red food coloring

8" pie crust {cream cheese crust - unbaked and not pricked}

*If using fresh rhubarb you will need an additional 2/3 cups sugar

Preheat oven to 375°

*If using fresh rhubarb, place cut pieces in a bowl, coat in 2/3 cups sugar, stir well - let sit 1/2 hour to get some of the juice out of the rhubarb.

In a mixing bowl combine 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, butter and salt.

Mixture will be crumbly - it is the crumb topping. 

Set aside.

In a small saucepan add the juice from the fresh or frozen rhubarb, 2 tablespoons flour and sugar.

Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes thick. 

Add in a few drops of the red food coloring; if desired - stir in the cut rhubarb.

Pour the rhubarb and the juice into the pie shell. 

Top with the crumb mixture.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the edge is browned. 

Red Velvet Crackle Cookies

Red velvet seems to be taking over the baking world. I think anything that can be baked, is now being baked in red velvet form. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, that's for sure! I have made red velvet cookies before, and they were done the "conventional" method...flour, sugar, eggs, cocoa powder, etc. But these little gems of chewy red velvety goodness start with a cake mix. Someone asked me to make these for their graduation party, and I'm not going to lie, I totally tricked my daughter into "no more left" just so I could eat the extras. The recipe hails from Duncan Hines, and it virtually fool-proof (I did tweak it a tiny bit). The same could be done with a chocolate cake mix to make crackles, well any cake mix really! The recipe even shows to mix the powdered sugar with cornstarch for rolling the dough in, that is a good trick my grandma taught me. It is important when making crackle cookies, otherwise that sugar could just bake right into the cookie.

Red Velvet Crackle Cookies

{printable recipe}

1 box Red Velvet cake mix
6 tablespoons butter, melted & cooled
2 eggs
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine powdered sugar and cornstarch in a shallow dish, mix with a fork or small whisk.
Pour the cake mix in a large mixing bowl and add the cooled melted butter and the eggs.
Mix well by hand.
Make sure no powder from the mix is left.
Use a cookie scoop to make even sized balls with the dough.
Roll the ball of dough in the powdered sugar and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Bake for 8-9 minutes (until puffed)
Do not over bake.
Remove from oven; let sit on the cookie sheet a few minutes then move cookies to a cooling rack.

Another red velvet recipe to try:
Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies