Banana Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks

I know you are probably thinking we do nothing around here but eat extra creamy cheesy mac n cheese and gobs of ice cream.  Totally not true, I promise.  Soon I will post about the veggies in our raised rock garden in the back yard and fun things you can do with way too much zucchini.  So no worries, we don't need to be rolled room to room like Violet at the Willy Wonka chocolate factory just yet, because here I am again posting another ice cream recipe. We got our 2-quart  ice cream maker on father's day this year and have made a new little batch of ice cream about once a week since then.  We enjoy tiny amounts in our "baby cones" and make it last all week that way.  So many of our recipes have turned out pretty good lately and I want to share them. This latest recipe by far had the most professional, scrumptious taste yet.  I believe it was this exact batch of ice cream where hubby started to ponder us selling it for a profit, so you know it's going to be awesome. It's our first attempt at banana caramel ice cream with chocolate chunks.

Banana caramel ice cream can ONLY be made better with chunks o' chocolate!

If you must know, my absolute favorite thing to put on vanilla ice cream, is chunks of bananas and warm caramel sauce, so this recipe is right up my alley.

bananas and caramel, a match made in heaven

Now how to turn my favorite flavors into a complete ice cream was the trick, but I was ever so willing to try. You will need:  (Printable recipe found here)

2 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup smashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
1 tsp banana extract
1 tsp caramel extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped regular chocolate chips
drizzle of caramel syrup (optional)

My three favorite flavors, together... at last.

As always, start by pouring the 1 1/2 cups of whole milk into a large bowl.  Add the 1 cup of sugar and stir with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until the sugar has dissolved.  

Add the 2 3/4 cups of heavy cream, the cup of smashed bananas, and the 1 teaspoon of banana extract and 1 teaspoon of caramel extract and stir until mixed together.  Pour into your inner canister in your ice cream maker (that's been chilled in the freezer for 12-24 hours prior) and turn it on for 20 minutes.

 
After 20 minutes, it's time to add your "add ins" (wow they were named properly, no?).  Pour in the chocolate chunks and let it mix in for about 5 more minutes.

Swirl baby swirl!

Isn't this the purdiest ice cream you done ever seen?

It's ok if you want to lick your monitor right now.  I won't tell.

After 5 minutes your ice cream will be at soft serve consistency and we like to switch it over to a 2 quart Pyrex bowl to freeze it up to a scoopable state.While it was still soft, we decided to drizzle in some caramel sauce.

Then stirred it around to get a "swirled" effect

Then into the freezer it goes to harden up.  After that, scoop it into your favorite cone or bowl and your have yourself a delectable treat. I believe it was the caramel extract that really put this recipe over the top into flavor town.

Banana caramel ice cream with chocolate chunks is calling your name right now.

 This by golly was the best attempt yet!  The flavor was out of this world delicious.  Thanks for letting me share.  Hey what's your favorite kind of ice cream?  What should we try next?
  

Pop Up Shade Tent

Well it's another super warm summer day here, and can you believe it got up past 90º?  Almost too warm for me as, I am most happy being a shade girl.  Matter of fact a few years ago when I was pregnant with my third child.  I started getting hives if I would go out in the sun.  I went to a dermatologist to find out I am actually allergic to the sun (a milder form of solar urticaria).  I am ok out in the sun for a little bit, but if I get a sunburn it will turn into painful and itching hives. I blogged about it once here.  We love to spend time with our girls outside and I don't want to miss out on anything, so I need a way to bring some portable shade with me.  I did a bunch of online research last summer and found the coolest little pop up shade tent that works like a charm.

We absolutely love our little shade shack  (ironically shot in full sun, but I wanted you to see the front of it)

The greatest thing about this three-sided tent is it folds down into a small, easy to carry, lightweight circle (about an inch thick) with a strap you can throw over your shoulder.  Once you get to the area you want to be in, you unravel it and it pops open in one easy movement.  You can literally be set up in in seconds.  It comes with a set of tent stakes that you can pin the corners down with or you can fill the side pockets with sand to weigh the thing down.  I got a GENIUS idea from a lady reviewer at amazon who suggested bringing four 1-gallon zip lock bags and filling THEM up with sand then using the sand bags to weigh down the tent. That worked perfectly and it was easier  and less messy when it was time to go.  We just empty out the sand and then tuck the empty plastic bags in the pocket of the carrying case and use them each time we need them.

The shade shack, from the back

This is the back of the tent.  You can see the "lumps" on the side in the lime green area where we put our sandbags in to weigh it down.  The girls had a great time filling them up, it was like a game to them.  If you have the shade shack arranged this way with the back zipper closed up, you will have three sides of protection from the sun and wind.  There are also two mesh windows that you can keep closed or roll up (the have a Velcro attachment) as needed.  You also have the option of rolling up the back flaps to let a nice breeze in.

Open one flap or both

When you are at the beach there is normally no shade.  It is so nice to come in from playing in the sun and cool off (or warm up if it's cold and windy) under the shade shack.

As you can see there is no bottom to the shade shack.  This is actually a good thing.  This means if you have little ones, they can build their sandcastle under the tent.  You can put a blanket under there and let a baby take a nap.  We also keep our cooler and bags in there, to protect them from the hot sun.  Another great thing about there being no bottom to the tent is you can put it in grass!  You can put it over a kiddie pool.  The options are endless.  We've even put it in the girl's bedroom and had an indoor "camp out".

This April we had ourselves a little picnic with our cousins in a grassy field with no trees.  It turns out my little redheaded niece is also allergic to the sun.  So we sat in our little shade tent now and again to get some shade time in and not melt in the hot sun.  Oh by the way, did I mention it has a sun protection rating of UPF 30?  (That's ultraviolet protection factor).  Some people reviewing this said it did not stand up against strong winds.  We have taken it to the Washington coast beaches 5 times now, and they are known for their super strong windy beaches.  Of course you have to be smart and angle it in a way that it's not going to take off or lay down flat in the wind. We've had to adjust the back flaps or the windows to make it work just right.  Each time we've gone and it's been windy, we've still been able to use it no problem, and we are talking that winds strong enough to fly a kite without even trying.

Why yes... this is me in my tent, windy day, flying a kite without looking and texting simultaneously, thanks for asking

As you can see we just love this thing.  There's a strong breeze blowing in the above picture but the tent is still standing.  We have our bags in the shade and I'm doing a bit of multitasking by texting and flying a kite without looking.  LOL.  But seriously, if you have some little ones or you yourself need some easy to pop I shade now and then, I highly recommend this shade shack. It's the best $50 bucks I've spent in a long time

How Does Your Shadow Grow?

Just a quick post, as we are making the most of a gorgeous sunny day here in Washington.  We did a little science experiment with our shadows.  The girls love playing with sidewalk chalk.  Many a rainbow, flower, stick figure and hopscotch game have lovingly been scrolled on our driveway.  My hubby even gets into the act sometimes and will write strange little sayings that I'm sure totally confuse the heck out of our neighbors. I bet one of them might even have a blog reporting on his zany antics.  If they don't, they should.  Last week he wrote "No Squatch Zone" (as is Sasquatch).  Another time he wrote "No Plane Landing Zone", which my 6 year old wrote underneath "Yes Planes Land Here".  I just shake my head and pray they are not reading too closely.  Anyway, back to the shadows!  My girls had the sidewalk chalk out in full force and we decided to trace their shadows.

We love our dumpy little shadows.  They were shorter than our real selves.

We did this at lunch time and their shadows were a bit on the short and squat side. (I didn't take many pics at high noon due to squinty eyes, so we waited until they were in the shade) Our neighbor came out later and said he thought these were "airplanes with heads" lol. 

My youngest modeling her pink airplane, with head.

Then we had a great idea.  What if we came back later in the day, how would our shadows change?  Well around dinner time our shadows were now long and lean!

Very long and lean.  (A big thanks to our neighbor girl Elisa for assisting in the tracing action)  She noticed before she could draw them while sitting in one place.  Now she had to scoot along the ground to finish.

Not only were they long and lean, but they were turned 90º. How sciency!  Even our heads were tall and skinny.  They thought that was hilarious. Elisa was the tallest of all.  She went all the way across the road.

Here is little us sitting next to really tall us.  They also got a big kick out of the occasional car that passed by.  "They just ran over my face!" says my littlest.

And, be it noted:  If you have a giant 6 foot shadow of yourself on the ground, you are obligated to decorate it.

My oldest thought her person needed a white dress with matching gloves and shoes

Our finished really really tall selves.  

I guess we can "chalk" this up to another fun afternoon of learning and playing...

Smores Ice Cream

Well I found out right at the end of it, but yesterday (August 10th) was national Smores day.  How I missed this memo I'm not sure. Ironically, and blissfully unaware of this pending holiday, we actually tried to make smores ice cream last week, so I thought I'd post about it now.

Our first attempt at trying to make smores ice cream

What's not to love about ooey gooey marshmallows, and melted chocolate sandwiched between two crunchy graham crackers? Girls scouts and campers everywhere agree it's the perfect end to an evening spent around a campfire.

Traditional smores in double-decker fashion             My oldest enjoying a smore around the campfire

When you think about smores I think it's the triple flavor combination that really makes them pop. Now, how to incorporate that into an ice cream is the trick.  I can easily add chocolate pieces, and even a marshmallow flavor might work, but if I add plain old graham crackers they would for surely turn to mush, right?  So then it hit me, what about Golden Grahams cereal?

 
Well it was worth a try so here is what you will need: (Printable recipe click here)

2 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of marshmallow cream

1 cup mini chocolate chips (or chopped up regular chocolate chips)
1 cup of golden grahams cereal, smashed
1/2 cup of torn up mini marshmallows

First mix the sugar with the whole milk in a bowl. Blend with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Add 1 cup of marshmallow cream and mix (will be lumpy)  Add in heavy cream and teaspoon of vanilla and stir.

Mix all of the wet ingredients together - the marshmallow fluff was lumpy here and there

Pour mixture into your 2-Quart Ice Cream Maker.  Make sure the inner canister has been chilled in the freezer for 12-24 hours before.  Turn the machine on for 20 minutes.

The ice cream seems so naked this way, but use this 20 minutes wisely and chopped up your "add ins".  Most of the time, you want your add ins smaller than a chocolate chip and mini chips are recommended.  Since I didn't have any on hand, I just used my pampered chef hand chopper and made my own "mini" chips.

Not so pretty, but slightly smaller chocolate chips

Then we took 1 cup of golden grahams cereal and smashed them up ligthly in a zip top baggie.  Don't smash the smithereens out of them, leave some chunks here and there.

Then, last minute, I got all crazy, and throwing cautionary measurements to the wind, I also quickly tore up some mini marshmallows, maybe 1/2 cup worth.

Now 20 minutes have passed on the ice cream machine, so you can add in all your nummy extras.

Smores ice cream comes to life before your eyes!

Give it an extra 5 minutes to blend all the ingredients together.

This recipe is a bit on the "full" side, and your ice cream will come up right to the top of the machine.

It is still in the "soft serve" stage at this point.  You can of course eat it now, but we like to pour it into another container and freeze it for at least 6 hours, sometimes over night. Serve them in cones or in bowls and enjoy your special treat around a cozy fire near you.

Smores ice cream and fire light.  Sigh, what a perfect combo.

All in all this was pretty awesome.  We we able to capture all three smores flavors inside the ice cream.  Be in noted the golden grahams cereal held up pretty good.  It was crunchy the first day but got more mushy as time went on.  I think it fared better than if we had added plain graham crackers in.  There were still chunks of graham flavor at the end, even though it was not crunchy anymore.  The chocolate and marshmallows were the hero of this batch.  I think for a first attempt, we did pretty good!

Unexpected Apple Art

Would you believe me if I told you my 7-year-old made this stunning piece of artwork with an apple? 

Artwork by Vivi - Age 7

The whole thing actually came about by accident.  It started when we went to the library and checked out the book "Apples, Apples, Apples" which features a bunny family that goes to an apple farm to pick apples.  At the end of the book are crafts and recipes you can make with apples.  First there was "cut the apple in half" to see a star.  They all looked up at me like "WHAT?" So I went and got an apple, cut it open, and you should of heard the gasps when they saw the star in the middle (I just love those moments when you feel like "the Great OZ" and your kids think you are the smartest person they have ever met). The next page had a craft using a squared off apple stem cut in half as a star stamper.  I thought hey, this is how I cut apples anyway, now we can use the core for crafts!

apple core for star shaped stamper

We thought we would try paint at first, but as it turns out, that was a bit too sloppy. The paint filled in the star shape and just made a runny square shape.  After stamping a while it almost started to look like a star.

Then we decided to try a couple of old stamp pads we had lying around.  Hey that worked much better!

So then the next half hour was spent filling up blank white pages with multi colored flowers.

Ok, a lot of blank white pages were filled up.  But hey, they were having fun.

These little stamps got a ton of use. (We cut up and ate the apples while we worked)

Then, I notice my middle child had twisted her star stamp while she was pressing down, and it made a beautiful rose shape.

That inspired me to do some mommy art of my own, I thought they it would look nice if a bunch of these little "roses" were in a vase.  Ps.  I'm no artist by the way, I just wanted to use up the left over paint we had tried in round one.

Art by Jenn - age 40 

By then the younger two had finished with their art attention span and had moved on to playing with toys on the floor.  My oldest sat next to me, intently watching.  When I was finished she asked if she could make another picture.  I agreed and went about cleaning up.  About ten minutes later I came back to see her creating this:

Unexpected apple art by Vivian

I was totally stunned.  Wow that was really gorgeous. Who knew when we started with, what I assumed would be a simple stamping craft, turned into a really cool piece of kid art.  Besides hanging this on the fridge, I made this my cell phone wall paper as well. The cell phone wall paper is the new "fridge" of the future by the way...

Adorable Horse Purse (pattern)

A while back I was knee-deep in my crochet obsession when I came across the most awesome free pattern I have ever found!  It was for the most adorable little horse purses.  With three little girls embedded with an ingrained love of anything to do with horses, I knew this was going to be a win win for everyone.  What's not to love about these faces?

Horse purse pattern and design from Kristie over at her blog Kristieskids

And what do little girls love as just as much as horses (if not more)?  Storing stuff in purses!  Let's put those two together and see what we get...

Horse Purse:  White unicorn horsie purse with purple accents

The lovability of a stuffed animal with the convenience of a carrying bag.  Nice.  Here is a shot of the inside "storage" area for all of your little girl's worldly treasures.

Each daughter was able to customize the colors they wanted. My oldest wanted a unicorn, so that was a little trickier. I had to sort of wing the "horn" part by crocheting a little triangle tube and attached it between the eyes.  The rest followed the regular pattern.  My littlest wanted one to look like a "real" horse and she named hers "Apples" by the way. 

My middle child is who inspired this project as I started out making her one as a surprise for her birthday.  I went with the colors of the original pattern found here: Horse purse pattern.

What girl wouldn't want a pink and purple pony purse?

The inside storage area for the pink horse

Here are some pattern tips:  When I made the pink and the white horses, I used Caron 1-pound yarn (found at Joann's).  This yarn comes in many colors and seems a tad thicker than the red heart super saver yarn. Both of those horses stood up better on their own and felt a bit more firm.  For the he brown horse I used regular red heart yarn and it's just a tad more floppy than the other two.  Also for the mane and tails I used red heart yarn.  The directions are very clear and it took a little bit of trial and error to attach all the parts (ears, legs, saddle, handles) correctly and to make then look nice.  The mane technique was new to me and it reminded me of latch hook from my childhood.  I did opt to add the embellishments of a beaded bridle and beads for the eyes.  I used embroidery thread and bought a multicolored assorted box of beads at Walmart for about $9 to get those tiny little bridle beads and then those bigger ones for the eyes. Here is a close up of the saddles, as I decided to embellish these with matching beads as well.

Close up of beaded saddles to match the bridles

This project took me about three days. One day to make all the parts, one day to attach them together and stuff them, and an extra day to attach the mane and tail and to do the fancy bead work.  These were not all day things, just worked on them a bit each day.  With the tiny beads these might not be safe for kids under three, but would be perfect for anyone over 4 years old.

I just love these cut little horse purses!

I just love how these turned out.  You can customize this for any little girl with her favorite colors.  Great as a personalized birthday gift or make them for all the girls in your family for Christmas.