This Summer Make your Dessert Sparkle!

One of the joys of a childhood summer are sparklers. My boys look forward to that time of day when the sun has set and they can light the world on fire... figuratively speaking, of course! Influenced heavily by a few images I had saved onto to my Pinterest board, I thought it would be fun to add some sparkle to my kids' dessert. What could make a warm brownie a la mode even sweeter? The magic and glow of a sparkler, of course! Sparklers truly make those spectacular summer nights even more memorable.

To make your Sparkling Warm Brownie a la Mode you will need:

2 glasses 

1 brownies cut into a circle shape to fit the bottom of the glass

2-4 scoops of vanilla (or your favorite) ice cream placed on top of the warm brownie

Optional: Hot fudge, caramel or butterscotch sauce drizzled over ice cream

2 sparklers placed into the center of the ice cream, anchored by the brownie

Serves 2 - Double recipe if needed

Pardon our poor quality, rushed iPhone photos!

2 Ingredient Strawberry Ice Cream :: No machines required!

This was totally Martha Stewart's idea. And I stole it. She used peaches. She called it Sherbet. I used strawberries. We think it tastes more like ice cream than Sherbet. No matter what you call it, it's a fun quick, and easy frozen treat. We loved this for it's simplicity and ease. We loved it because you don't need a fancy ice cream maker. We liked it because it was relatively quick and well, we're an impatient lot. We like instant gratification. And come on, admit it, you do too!

Ingredients

4 cups strawberries, frozen, stems removed

1 can sweetened condensed milk

That's it. Crazy, right? We know!

Directions:

Freeze 4 cups of strawberries and place in a Ziplock bag in your freezer. Lay flat so they don't freeze together. Freeze for about 2 hours or overnight. We always have frozen strawberries on hand for smoothies, and baking. 

In a blender pour in the condensed milk and then add the strawberries. Bend until smooth. When smooth pour mixture into a metal loaf pan. Place in freezer for about an hour. 

After remove and serve!

Note, this is delicious but very sweet. You may want to cut down on the sweetness by adding a little bit of while milk to the mixture, say, about 1/3 of a cup. Test to taste. Kids might like it sweeter than the adults.

If you go strawberry (or any berry or fresh fruit) picking, this is a great way to use up a ton of berries. Fresh berries tend to go soft and start to turn fairly quickly. This is a great and fun summertime activity to do with kids of all ages. 

In the blender, always add the liquid to the blender first!

Otherwise the frozen berries will merge and freeze together and blending will be tough!

Pretty in pink!

Ready to scoop...

Ready to eat!

For a perfectly red, white and blue treat add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and top with fresh blueberry!

Stylish notes on food :: Happy National Ice Cream Day!

Do you know how this feted day came to be? Read below to find out!

Meanwhile why don't you plan on taking the kids out to their favorite local ice cream store... or venture out a try a new one! I think we will be taking a stab at making our own ice cream today. Yesterday while I was weeding next to the house I found this massive raspberry bush right next to the garage! Most of the berries were intact as they had been covered up by the vines. As I did more weeding and pruning I discovered more raspberry bushes... Perhaps as many as a dozen in the woods next to my property. Raspberry bushes are very prickly things so I think later today we'll coat ourselves in bug spray, pull on some jeans, long sleeves and gardening gloves and go berry picking. Maybe we'll make raspberry ice cream... or maybe we'll just sprinkle some on top! How will you have your ice cream today?

If you want to try your hand at homemade ice cream David Leibowitz has a fabulous method that doesn't require and ice cream maker. We have one of those ice cream balls, and we adore it, but I think we are going to try David's method today!

If for some reason you can't have your ice cream today, fear not, it's ice cream month there's still a week left in July! (You may want to mark your calendars in advance for next year, so you don't miss out!)

Now read on and you will see how this day came to be!

It was after President Reagan's proclamation that the 3rd Sunday of every July became National Ice Cream Day... so raise a spoon, raise a cone and let's make a toast to National Ice Cream Day!

XOXO,

Jessica

Shaken, Not Stirred!

Another rainy day in Paradise... There are currently 4 crazy boys at home. (I am so glad that Rebecca went off to her friend's house. She would have been miserable!) I am proud to say that my two are the more mellow of the four, and yet slightly appalled that this is the case. But the play date is almost over -- in 5 minutes, no 4 minutes!

I made spaghetti and meatballs for lunch. Only our two visitors picked up a few items at Wal*Mart (hatethatstore!) and I guess filled up on chips and candy and whatnot in the car on the way over. So glad I put a nice lunch together... next time PB&J... So, while at lunch the other two boys were rude and disruptive, up and down every five minutes and at one point they both got up to tickle Christopher while he was still eating! I told them to knock it off. Nicely. Christopher mentioned something as a joke about Diet Cherry Soda in the fridge. (Diet Hansen's) The older boy got up and started acting like a lunatic and actually proceeded to go to and open my fridge in search of this cherry soda. He couldn't find it and shut the door. Christopher told him it was on the top shelf and when he tried to open the door again he couldn't! (Heh-heh... gotta love Sub-Zero!) I shot Christopher a hairy eyeball which meant knock-it-off...

Ok, it's 3:31 and their Au-pair is late dammit!

Things were fine after that. For a while. Until the boys (not mine) started running through the house. I had to tell them to slow down as I worried someone was going to get hurt. Eventually I told them we don't run through the house. (OK, my boys are human and they do run... they know they are not supposed to.) I am sure those boys are thinking "Boy, what a Bitch that EntertainingMom is!" But I have rules and I will enforce them. The boys are allowed to play in their rooms or in the playroom. Toys are not to go back and forth (risk of putting more mysterious dents and scratches in the walls.) Playroom is ideal. It is on the other side of the house over the garage. It's huge and they can play any way they wish in there. Family room is off limits when friends are over, well, they have to walk through it to get to the kitchen! And no child is allowed to enter the Living or Dining Rooms. The older two eventually play wii and calm has resumed. I am a bit surprised because I know their mother and I know their mother would not tolerate this behavior.

It is now 3:36 and she is still not here!

I broke out the ice cream ball we got from LLBean. We love it. Not only does it make great ice cream but it's fun for the kids to do. All you have to do is toss in the required ingredients, then roll or shake the ice cream ball. It's a lot of fun!

It is now 3:47 and they are gone!!

Only after 10 minutes they were bored. Which meant I had to roll/shake it... for 30 minutes!
And so I did. I kept checking the clock hoping it was nearing 3:30. It was and it wasn't. I needed to feed the boys the ice cream and I knew it wouldn't be ready on time. It was ready to come out of the ball, but the ice cream was still very soft and needed to go in the freezer a bit.

So I did a terrible thing.
I cheated.
I lied.
I swapped out some cheap vanilla stuff we had lying around!
But I had to! They boys were expecting the ice cream that they, I mean I made!
So I put the home made ice cream in a Tupperware in the freezer and I gave them the other stuff. They went on and on about how good it was too!

(Top picture store brand. Bottom picture home made!)

So I had a taste* of both ours and theirs and I have to say that without a moment's hesitation ours was far superior!

I will give the boys their ice cream for dessert. I will have to fess up I guess. I might even make Mama Henley's Ice Cream Balls... they sound absolutely to die for! I'm thinking I will roll them in crushed Thin Mints? How does that sound? We can make little ice cream Bon Bons** together and we can talk about play dates from Hell! Do you have any you care to share with us?

* Just a small taste as I am still technically on the South Beach Diet

** Or we can use the Ice Cream Ball to freeze fresh fruit juice ... can you see where I am going with this? And perhaps instead of cream you could add some, oh I don't know, Grey Goose?!!!

(And Lord knows I could use a (n extra) Strong Something right about now!)

Cheers!

4:45 I have just fessed up... my boys are eating their home made ice cream and both declare that is is much better!