Homemade Ice Cream and Waffle Cones

Hello?

Helllloooooo, is anybody out there?

 

Oh Hey.

 

I thought for sure you would have closed the door on me by now.

Thanks for hanging in there!

I had a long winter filled with 

a lovely little thing the docs call anxiety,

but now I'm BACK!

And ready to present to you....

 

Exhibit A:

Homemade ice cream with Panini grill waffle cones

 

 

We're crazy. I know.

It all started when Jake got a summer internship at Zion's Bank Corp in SL and I got an internship with USU Extension down in Farmington, so we decided to move in with the husband's parents for the summer. We wanted to have a place in Logan but didn't want to pay rent in two places and were lucky enough to find someone to live in our apartment for the next few months. Everything was going fine until Mother's day happened.

 

My M-I-L got a Kitchen-Aid ice cream maker and Jake and I got all caught up on the idea of homemade ice cream (and really, let's be honest... the idea of any kind of ice cream gets us kind of caught up) and found ourselves up to our ears in visions of fudge ripples and peanut butter patties swirled inside a peanut butter chocolate ice cream and jam-packed into a cinnamon-y vanilla infused crispy crunchy waffle cone.

Seriously... at this point, there was just no going back.

We were destined to be together.

 

Ice cream + Mulfords = true love.

 

For reals though...

does anyone else love ice cream as much as me??

I think not.

But maybe after trying this tasty treat,

you'll be rounding on my level of infatuation.

Maybe.

 

 

Chocolate Fudge Swirl Peanut Butter Ice Cream

 

Yield: 1 quart

 Adapted from: The Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

For the Ice Cream:
2 cups half-and-half
¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
½ cup smooth peanut butter

 

For the Fudge Ripple:
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
½ cup water
6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

 

For the Peanut Butter Patties:
6 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Directions:

 

1. To make the Fudge Ripple: Whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture begins to bubble at the edges. Continue to whisk until it just comes to a low boil. Cook for 1 minute, whisking frequently. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla, and let cool. Chill in the refrigerator before using. (Fudge Ripple can be stored for up to 2 weeks, covered, in the refrigerator.)

 

2. To make the Peanut Butter Patties: Mix together the peanut butter and confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Line a dinner plate with plastic wrap. Pinch off small pieces of the peanut butter mixture, about ½ teaspoon each, and drop them onto the dinner plate. Once you've used all of the mixture, freeze the patties. (The patties can be stored in the freezer, well wrapped, for up to 1 month.)

 

3. To make the Ice Cream: Whisk together the half-and-half, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and whisk in the peanut butter, stirring until thoroughly blended.

4. Chill mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Fold in the Peanut Butter Patties when it has finished churning. Just before you remove the ice cream from the machine, spoon some of the Fudge Ripple onto the bottom of the storage container. As you remove the ice cream from the machine, layer generous spoonfuls of the sauce between layers of ice cream. Avoid stirring the Fudge Ripple, as it will make the ice cream muddy.

 

 

 

 

Our Panini Grill Waffle Cones turned out more like lopsided bowls, than perfectly shaped cones, but they had delicious flavor and are totally worth a try!

Add it to your list

I read this 

and you should too.

Hit me up if you wanna borrow it and I'll send it your way.

(Just make sure you have a solid day to devote to reading it, because you're not going to want to put it down.)

In the meantime, you can check out her blog,

or watch this video where she talks about her new life...

What an inspiration!

An Ode to Women

You are a woman. 

A gentle, kind-hearted, understanding 

and thoughtful human being. 

A nurturer and bearer of life.

A beautiful individual with the capacity 

to think outside yourself

and do for others what they can't do for themselves.

You are smarter and more talented

than you give yourself credit for.

You are stronger and more faithful 

than you let yourself believe.

You have an innate ability to see the world 

in a way that nobody else can,

because you're the only person that can be you.

You deserve all the good that the world has to offer

and must never forget that you are worth being loved.

You are a woman

And you are more beautiful than you think.

Food for the soul

I read a good quote today and thought I would share.

"Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better...My declaration is that this is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us, especially in times of need. There is help. There is happiness.. Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying... Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."

Jeffrey R. Holland

And here's a recent picture of my nephew hanging 

with Elder Bednar and Elder Snow, just for good measure...

Hang in there everyone... good times will come!

Brazilian Shrimp Soup

Writer's block. I hate it.

But the only thing I hate more than writer's block,

 is feeling so bogged down by the winter blues 

that if my only excuse for not writing was writer's block, 

I'd be feeling pretty good.

Once when I was in elementary school we watched this show about a kid who lived on another planet where the sun only came out once a year and he was locked up in a room of some kind and was going to miss the sun (or did miss it? Can't remember...) and was completely distraught about it. For some reason (probably because I was disturbed by being forced to watch such a WEIRD movie) I have never forgotten this image, and every day that the sun doesn't shine I imagine myself being locked up in that room, fearing that I might never see the the dang thing ever again!

 That's a little dramatic...

But things are looking up.

Sunshine is in the 7-day forecast!

Let us hope that Logan's sucky air quality decides 

to clear up and let it shine for a minute.

 Or 1,440 minutes....

But that's just me being unreal. 

Hey, you know what else is unreal? How good this soup was.

I was utterly surprised, as I have never mixed all of these combinations of flavors, but it seriously worked.

Check it out! 

Brazilian Shrimp Soup

Adapted from: Food & Wine
Serves: 4
Total time: 1 hour

Photo c/o food & wine

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil 
1 onion, chopped 
1 green bell pepper, chopped 
5 cloves garlic, minced 
1 cup uncooked brown rice, cooked (there should be about 2 cups cooked rice)
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes 
1 3/4 teaspoons salt 
1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes
5 cups vegetable stock

1 (13.5 oz) can unsweetened lite coconut milk 
1 pound medium shrimp, cooked and shelled and cut in half horizontally 
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper 
1 scant tablespoon lemon juice 
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro 

Preparation:

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the rice, red-pepper flakes, salt, tomatoes, and water to the pot. Bring to a boil and stir in the coconut milk.
3. Bring back to a low simmer and stir in the shrimp, black pepper, lemon juice, and parsley. (Make sure not to overcook, as shrimp will get tough).
4. Serve with crusty bread. Mmmmm

The best thing about this dish is that sea-food-phobes can still eat it too, because you can easily switch out the shrimp for 1 lb. of cooked, diced, boneless, skinless, lifeless, friendless, (and anything else that needs to be "lessed"), chicken breasts. Seriously though.

The next best thing is that

it was even tastier the second day.

  Enjoy!

craigslistjoe

Documentaries.

I like them.

Mostly because I like to learn about people 

and the interesting things that make up their life.

Tonight as I was surfing Netflix for a good flick to pass the time, 

I stumbled across craigslistjoe 

and decided to give it a shot.

I'm so glad I did, 

because it was seriously incredible!

You NEED to watch it!

(I am giving you fair warning that there was one scene that could

very definitively be defined as "kinky" (which I did not watch, thankyouverymuch)

and there were a few curse words),

but the entire thing made me cry with happiness 

that the world is good.

You've got to watch it... 

and then let me know what you thought!

In the meantime, 

check out the trailer

Cutest.

Many of you have probably already seen this, but I thought I'd share because I thought this was the cutest proposal video of all time. I'm friends with him on fb so I watched it there the other day and was already planning on sharing it with ya'll, but then it went so viral it made the news! Kinda cool.

Enjoy!