Vanilla Ice Cream (Better than Dairy Queen? You be the judge!)

I LOVE ice cream and probably always will.  For 7 years while in high school, college and beyond I worked at Dairy Queen.  When I first started I was told after awhile you will hate ice cream.  Well guess what...they were wrong!

Recently, my wonderful sister and brother in-law bought me the KitchenAid ice cream attachment.  I have to say I don't know why I never got one sooner.  We have made ice cream in it almost ever week since Christmas.

While on a recipe hunt for good ice cream, my co-worker mentioned he had an awesome vanilla ice cream recipe and he generously shared it with me.

Simple Vanilla
Radcliffe's Recipe

2 Large Eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

Seeds of 2 vanilla beans or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

I chill everything including the mixing bowl before I start:

1. Start up the mixer add the eggs and mix till fluffy

2. Add sugar a bit at time mix until blended.  I add 1/4 of a cup at a time.

3. Pour in cream, milk and vanilla mix until blended

4. Transfer to icecream maker, mix for 25 mins or until it looks like soft serve.

5. Transfer to airtight container lay wax paper on top of ice cream (this will help the top not to form ice crystals)

6. Freeze until solid

 

(Left): After the eggs and sugar were mixed


(Right) In the ice cream maker starting to mix up

 

This ice cream is AWESOME!!  My whole family loves it.  I recently did have some Dairy Queen and I would rather have this any day compared to Dairy Queen.  YUM!  

Oh, the Places You'll Go

Something a little different for a Monday!  I had to share a story about my son, Brady.  Brady is a sweet, loving, full of energy crazy 4 year old.  He is ALL boy.  There are days when he completely drains the life from me and other days he just surprises me.  He is just like me, as much as I hate to admit it.  

Well I went to go pick him up from preschool and directly in front of me is a bulletin board titled, "Oh, the Places You'll Go".  It doesn't take me long to find Brady's paper (right at the top).   The question on the paper is, "What do you want to be when you grow up?".  As I scanned the papers I saw a lot of: fireman, policeman, doctor (the typical response from a 4 yr old).  When I took a closer look at my son's response, I had to laugh. 

"Brady wants to be Sonic", Sonic the Hedgehog.  It didn't surprise me at all.  On the way home in the car I asked Brady, why do you want to be Sonic?  His response was simple, "Because he goes fast". This really got me thinking, I wish some decisions were just that easy.  For years I have gone back and forth about what to get a masters in.  The main reason I haven't decided is because, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.   Yet my 4 yr old has it all figured out!  I wish everything were that easy!  Oh to be 4 again!

IHOP Pancakes (my version)

My son LOVES pancakes, he would eat them everyday for breakfast if he could.  So when I found this recipe I knew I had to give it a try.

Cookin' Up North's IHOP Pancakes

1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (I do 1 1/4 cup milk with 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of white vinegar mixed in)
2 tablespoon melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder,and salt.  Mix the egg with the buttermilk and add to the flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Add the melted butter, vanilla and sugar. Fry on a greased griddle. Serves 4.

 Here is Miss. M enjoying her first pancake!  I think she likes it!

 This recipe is a weekend staple at our house.  My son says, "thumbs up mom".  And what's even better is they freeze great and are very easy to heat up in the microwave during the week.

DIY Envelope Pillow Case

The grass is finally showing here in Pennsylvania and the spring like temperatures are starting to roll in.  Or at least I hope.   I have been feeling the need to add some color to my living room to make it feel springy  (is that a word?).

So I made a quick trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics and found some great home decor fabric at 50% off!  I decided I would make some envelope pillow cases to change the pillows.  I purchased 1 and 1/4 yards (total guess) and hoped it would be enough.

Once home I found a great tutorial at Texas Cottage for easy envelope pillow cases and I followed that to make mine.

First I measured my pillow, 18.5" by 19" on the long side.  I then determined what I need to cut.  18.5" x 42": 19 x 2 (for the front and back) and then add 4" for the seams.

Then hem your two short sides:  Lay the fabric right side down.  Measure and pin a 1/4 " hem on each short side. Iron them flat. On one short side hem another 1/2", pin, and iron. (This is the side that will show on the back of the pillow.) Sew both hems.

Now with the long side towards you fold the side with the 1/2" hem over a little more than half-way. Fold the other side over so it overlaps the first side. Make sure your fabric measures from fold to fold the same as your pillow.  Pin each side seam, and sew with a 1/2" seam allowance.

Turn each side right side out, and push the corners out.  Stuff your pillow in.

The great thing about these pillow cases is they are easily washable (huge benefit with little kids) and they can be changed easily.

Old furniture given new life!

For as a long as I can remember I have had the same bedroom furniture.  When my husband and I bought our home we needed a bedroom suit and my childhood furniture came with us until we were ready to buy new furniture.  Well it has been about 6 years since we moved in and the furniture is still here.  I think we have purchased new furniture for every room except for ours.  Recently I kept looking at the furniture and thinking we either need to buy new stuff or redo the stuff we have.  I hated the idea of going to buy furniture and spend tons of money.  We have a pretty large bedroom and there are 2 large dressers and 2 small end tables.  So buying furniture to fill the space would be an investment to say the least.

While searching Pinterest one day I decided to to check out some tutorials on how to paint furniture.  After doing some researching I finally decided to test out my painting skills on one piece.  I decided on DIY chalk paint.  At first I looked at purchasing actual chalk paint, but boy is it expensive.  My dad who used to own a furniture restoration business thought I was crazy, but I talked to him about the technique I was going to try and he said give it a shot.

My next thought was what color??  Rustic blue, green, mustard or red?   Too many choices...  I then made a quick trip to Lowes and found a color that caught my eye: Valspar Bossa Nova.

For the project I bought:

• Sample jar of Valspar Bossa Nova (about $3)
• Plaster of Paris (about $7)
• Varies sizes of sponge brushes (about $5 total)
• Minwax Finishing Wax (about $8)
• Sandpaper

Chalk Paint Recipe:

1. Mix 1 part warm water (1/4 C)  with 1 part Plaster of Paris (1/4 C) until all lumps are gone
2. Add 3 parts paint (3/4 C)

Original Piece

I started the project the very next day in my dining room while I had one kid running around and another hanging out  I started by doing very light sanding and wiping down the dresser with a damp cloth afterwards.  I then did a coat of paint.  I was surprised how smooth and fast it went on.  There was virtually no dry time...all the better with young kids running around.

After the 1st Coat

I did an additional 2 coast in about 2 hours time.  After completely drying I did some sanding to distress it and then wiped with a damp cloth again. 

3rd Coat prior to distressing

I then put 3 layers of wax on to shine it up a bit.

Finally I decided it needed some new hardware.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found some great knobs at $3 a piece.  All in all I'm happy with how it turned out and I can't wait until I do them all.  I figured it would be just over $100 to do all 4 pieces including the hardware.  Not bad at all and I love it!

Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake

Some know me as the cupcake maker and I haven't baked cakes or cupcakes in awhile so I decided this weekend was the time to bake again.  My parents are coming for dinner tomorrow and so I thought that was the perfect excuse to make a recipe I've wanted to try.  I found this recipe on Pinterest and it looked wonderful and slightly intimidating.  LEMON BLUEBERRY LAYER CAKE from Sallys Baking Addiction...who doesn't LOVE that combo??

In this recipe you are to use 3 round cake pans and bake at the same time.  This made me a little nervous for 2 reasons:
#1  I don't have 3 round cake pans
#2 I don't have any that are the size described

I decided to give it a go anyways and I made some slight adaptations.  I used one 10 inch round cake pan and filled it with half the batter.  After it was done baking I removed it to cool and added the rest of the batter to the same pan.   This pan was larger than the suggested so I decided it was alright to have 2 pans instead of 3.  I just had to bake them a little bit longer than expected. 

Here it is all done!  I have to say it was really good!  The perfect combination of lemon and blueberries!  Perfect for spring!