ice cream story

Um....is it crystal clear yet just how much I love desserts?  If not, here's another post to help you understand.  So we had a date night and somehow ended up at Molly Moon's ice cream shop in Wallingford.  How on earth did that happen?  Well anyway, as we were standing in the (actually pretty short) line, I laid my eyes on this item:

 ?!?! Molly Moon has an ice cream cookbook?? How did I not know this existed?  So of course I purchased it and spent the drive home deciding which recipe to make first.  Since I had a hard time deciding between the Stumptown Coffee and Scout Mint, and since Scout Mint won, I knew I had to make the coffee ice cream first.

 So the process involved "marinating" ground espresso beans with the milk, cream, and sugar over night, then pouring the mixture through a "fine mesh sieve" which we don't have....so I tried using cheesecloth and a strainer.  I can't say that it worked that well.

  But after a couple of passes through this contraption, I thought it had reached an edible substance.

 Then you put the mixture into your ice cream maker and let it do the rest. I added chopped chocolate pieces in the final mixing minute.  Then into the freezer to set a bit.  The hardest part about making ice cream is the waiting!

Final verdict: it was yummy but WAY strong!  We were afraid to eat much before bed, thinking we'd be up all night. So, through no fault of Molly Moon, this attempt was a bit of a flop.  But, you know what it means? I'm just going to have to try again. So sad... :)

strawberry pops!

There are so many, many reasons to love summer...one of my favorites being the abundance of yummy ripe fruits.  Last weekend our friends Jess & Jeff kindly shared a bowl full of strawberries they had hand-picked that day - at the height of ripeness.  I needed to do something with them pronto, so they wouldn't go bad (what a shame that would be!).  Good thing I have been thinking about this recipe for frozen strawberry bars ever since I first made them last summer! 

They're called Strawberries n Cream Pie Ice Pops.  You have to love a recipe that has only five ingredients!  And I happen to have ice pop molds. . . don't you?

strawberries

sugar

greek yogurt

lemon juice

graham crackers

All you have to do is cook the strawberries with some sugar for about 20 mins, then mix all the ingredients together and BOOM! you're ready to stick these bad boys in the freezer. 

 

it helps if you chill the molds in the freezer before filling them.

All of this does involve some thinking ahead - you really need to be patient with the whole freezing thing.  Not my strong point.  Because usually when I get an idea for a sweet treat, I want it eat it five minutes ago.  You know?

YUM!

happiness is...

...fresh baked bread!Even if it IS from the bread machine. I did a Google search for "best bread machine bread" and found this recipe. I have to say that it turned out just as good as the reviews said it would! I followed one reviewer's advice and added an extra 1/2 teaspoon salt, with excellent results.

oh...the guilty pleasure of white bread...

cupcake day

Sunday was cupcake day! I made my favorite cupcakes from this book. Warning #1: the recipes in this book are EXTREMELY involved. Warning #2: the recipes in this book are EXTREMELY delicious and you will want to eat at least 3 cupcakes in one sitting.

So my favorites from the book are the German Chocolate Cupcakes. The key to the amazingness of this recipe is putting chocolate chips on the tops when they are still warm. Then you frost over them. OMG. seriously.Two of my favorite ladies were over to help keep me from consuming the entire batch that night. Thanks gals!

sunday supper

Do you love this? He puts all the ingredients in separate little bowls as he cooks...food network-style. If this organization got your mouth watering, you should have tasted the stew!

homemade ravioli!

Jamie made homemade ravioli! Homemade ravioli, people!

in a jam

Oh I was SO very proud of myself yesterday. SO proud. I made strawberry freezer jam all-by-myself. Yessirree. Read proud. Look how pretty it turned out!

THEN I tasted the jam.

So, it wasn't BAD. In fact, it was hard to put my finger on it. Almost ... sour patch kid. I don't know quite what went wrong, but my final verdict is that it tastes like really really REALLY sweet strawberry jello. yikes. Perhaps a little more research on method and another try will do the trick! In the meantime...dessert jam?