Who Like Ice Cream?

Making homemade ice cream

5 Minute Fudge

5 Minute Fudge

Cookie Salad

Cookie Salad

Easy to make strawberry ice cream

How to make the easiest Strawberry ice cream

I received a 1 1/2 electric ice cream maker for my birthday and have really enjoyed making fresh ice cream.  Skimming through forums on the internet I came upon this amazing recipe that I'm now hooked on.  The best part is it's low fat and still delicious. Another wonderful thing about it is it has only 3 ingredients.

2 cups crushed strawberries
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar

Mix up well and freeze  in a 1 1/2 qt ice cream freezer.  At first I was leery to try this recipe because I'm not a big fan of buttermilk, don't let that get in your way.  It is fabulous.  

I love you meringues

 

 Valentine’s Day is a wonderful time to remind those around you that you love them.   One activity I enjoy doing with my girls is cooking.  For this Valentines holiday I invited my girls to help me make meringue letters for my them to give to their Daddy.  Not only are these nice to look at, but they are also very yummy to eat.  This recipe came from a recipe book Costco gave out. 

 

To get started you need a couple of cute helpers & these items:

Parchment paper

6 Large egg whites

Pinch of salt

1 ½ teaspoons cream of tarter

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 ½ cups sugar

Pastry bag with a large flower tip

4-6 ounces jelly beans

 

Preheat oven to 170 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

 

In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar with an electric beater until soft peaks form.  With the beater running, add almond extract and then gradually add sugar.  Beat until stiff and glossy.

 Notice how shiny it got.

 Spoon Meringue into the pastry bag.  Pipe meringue onto the parchment-lined baking sheet in the letters you want.  

 

Select jelly beans you want to use and gently press the jelly beans into the sides of the meringues. 

 

Bake for 2 ½ hours, or until hard. The meringues can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in an airtight container.  Makes 10-12 (4” letters).   

 

They turned out very cute and the girls loved help make them.  Their favorite part of course was testing the jelly beans out to make sure they were yummy enough to put on the letters.  

 My official taste-tester approved. 

Valentines fun: Symphony Fudge

14 Days of Valentines fun:

How to make the most delicious fudge to give to your sweetheart.

This recipe is so simple and easy and all calls for is:

4 cup sugar

1 Pint Heavy cream

16 oz almond symphony candy bar (chopped)

2 cubes of butter

Mix sugar and cream in sauce pan.   Bring to a boil on medium heat and continue to boil till a soft ball stage on your candy thermometer.  (approx 20 minutes) .  Remove from heat and add 2 cubes of butter.  Mix well and add chopped chocolate and beat with a mixer.  Pour into a 9x13 pan.  Let cool over night.  It gets more smooth and creamy as you let it sit.  

This recipe is the best fudge I've ever tried.  How can you go wrong if it's made with a symphony bar.  

Berries on a Cloud

This is one of the most amazing desserts I've tried. 

It is sooooo easy.  The only hard part is waiting the time it take to make each layer. 

It is so worth the wait though.

CHERRIES BERRIES ON A CLOUD

Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1913,144190-224197,00.html Content Copyright © 2012 Cooks.com - All rights reserved. 6 egg whites 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar 1/4 tsp. salt 1 3/4 c. sugar 2 c. chilled heavy cream (whipped) 2 (3 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened 1 c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla CHERRY BERRY TOPPING: 1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling 1 pkg. (16 oz.) frozen strawberries, thawed 1 tsp. lemon juice Preheat oven to 250 degrees. In a large bowl beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until foamy. Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat. Spread in a well buttered 8 x 13 inch pan.Bake 1 hour, turn oven off and leave the meringue in the oven with door closed for 12 hours longer. In a chilled bowl, beat cream until stiff. Blend together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Fold into whipped cream. Spread over meringue. Chill 12 to 24 hours. Cut into serving pieces and top with cherry berry mix. Topping: Blend all ingredients together. Serves 12.

Making the house smell like a home

Milk chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside.  Beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy.  Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until mixed well.

Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bate for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. 

Remember the most important part of the recipe is to include children helping you make it and Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips.  Without these two their not quite as good. 

These are my favorite kind of Chocolate Chips. 

Spider Webs

Week 9: Day 3

Projects: Spiderweb, Blind blocks, Fruit loop necklaces.

Scissor practicing

While Fluttershy practiced with her scissors Rarity did Stacking cups.

Counting worksheet that Fluttershy did. She's been getting better every day with counting and number recognition.

Spider Webs- We created these using a marble, black paint and a paper plate.  We rolled the marble around till we got the affect we wanted. 

Fruit Loop Necklaces- I think the thing they were both most excited for with this activity was they had to pick out and eat all the marshmallows.  When I went to buy the cereal the kind with marshmallows was on sale so I bought it.

 

 

Block Fun

Blind Blocks- Without looking at the shape, I had Fluttershy tell you what shape it was..

Rarity perfecting her stacking.

Computer fun

Creating a Jack 'o lantern 

Zucchini Bread

Nothing makes the house smell like home like something baking in the oven.  Fluttershy was my official mixer.  She loved when I had her help with the mixer. The hardest part for her was waiting for the bread to cool so she could have a sample. 

Publish Post

Here is the recipe for the Zucchini Bread.

Week 9 Lessons

Play School Weekend Fun

I love the weekends. Its a chance to have fun and play. This weekend the girls and I made this lap book. I love lap books for the reason that they can be used many times over. When I need them to be entertained while I'm fixing dinner I'll pull out one they haven't seen in a while and they entertained. My girls love flipping through the books they colored.

Noah's Ark Lap Book

Motor Skills:

Fluttershy had fun gluing the verse together making an accordion book.

Sequencing activity:
Here she laid in order the cards.


Coloring:
Fluttershy coloring her book. Her current coloring style is fast and done.


Playdough Time:

Playdough is always a great activity. There are so many different thing you can do with it. Here Fluttershy is making letters.

Cooking together:
Our last project of the day was making these super yummy chocolate chip cookie bars. Fluttershy did all the mixing and was the official taste tester of the chocolate chips which she gave a thumbs up. Mmmmm... we couldn't wait to try them.
You can get the recipe from the like above.