Root Beer Float Ice Cream

Couldn’t help but to have one last smidgen of ice cream before we trade all that cold yummy goodness for Autumn. Besides, if I’m suppose to act like fall is here–then it really shouldn’t be 82 degrees outside at 7 o’clock at night. Sheesh.

Anyway, this is by far the easiest ice cream recipe you’ll ever make–so why not make it while summer weather is still hanging on? I mean really…

Root Beer Float Ice Cream

Ingredients

1- 2 liter bottle of A&W Root Beer

2 regular sized cans of sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)

Directions:

Pour root beer and milk into an ice cream freezer–and freeze until it turns into ice cream.

See? I told you it was simple. Now the hard part will be not to eat it all yourself. Yum…

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Perfect Whole Wheat Bread

My pretty little daughter is becoming quite a bread maker.  We’re sharing her luscious recipe with you today. Grab it quick–before she changes her mind…

about sharing, I mean.

Sometimes I just need some good old homemade whole wheat bread.

It soothes a myriad of ailments, and makes my house smell good to boot.

I’ve been working on perfecting mine, as I’ve never been especially good at yeast baking. I think I may have finally gotten to where it at least rises every time. For a while there, I had these solid little lumps of doughy whole wheat. Kind of like a brick. One of those hasn’t shown up in my kitchen for a while now, though, so I think I may be out of the woods on that particular phase.

The next phase of my breadmaking career was the part where I kept making loaves that were too dry. They tasted great, and held together just swimmingly right out of the oven. Then, a few hours later, they were a crumbly mess. Too much flour, I was told.

Then, about a month ago, a lovely woman taught a class at a church activity about bread making. I had the same wheat grinder as her, and the same mixer, so I figured I couldn’t blame the bread problems on my equipment, at least. So I went. She gave me the perfect recipe, and I haven’t had a bread problem since.

So, my lovelies, if you’re a little less than savvy in the bread making department, maybe you should give this little beauty a try. It makes your house small absolutely amazing, and it tastes great too.

Download the recipe here.

Homemade whole wheat bread. Yum.

~ April

Nature’s Bounty

One of the most amazing things—for me–about summer,  is that around just about every corner, we are blessed with fruit and vegetable stands. So on the off chance that the gardens don’t do so well, we can always run down the street and grab a bushel of tomatoes to can…or pears, or peaches, or apples. This one is about a block away from our house.

But if you want a slightly different experience, you pack up the kids and head on over to the local Farmer’s Market. This one at our Thanksgiving Point often has more things than produce–but it’s always an adventure. Jewelry, wood work, furniture and even clothing were all over the place–mixed in with the fruits and veggies.

The little gal chose a hand carved wooden spoon for her treasure.

I was drawn to the peaches, apples and real, live local honey butter. Yum is just not a big enough word.

We gobbled up a loaf of banana bread from this gal and then went back for more. I tried to pretend we weren’t the same people who had just been there…I thought maybe a foreign accent would help…but she totally caught on. So we bought two more loaves.

Hey, they were small, ok?

While we nibbled on the banana bread the sky started looking a bit strange…

and dark…

and rainy…

and cold.

As it started pelting down, we hightailed it to the car asap with our bounty so we didn’t get soaked. I mean seriously, who wants to drive all the way home in sopping wet, sticky clothes? Nobody–that’s who!

Ummm…wait.

Oh, never mind.

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Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Marvelous twist on a classic favorite.

And tell the truth–you know that positively everything is genetically enhanced when chocolate is involved. I read it somewhere–therefore, it is of course true. You will also be pleased to know that this sweet little cookie was approved by the State Childcare Program as a good snack choice for daycare children because it has so darn much oatmeal in it. So you can breathe easy while you snarf these down…they’re good for you…heh, heh.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups butter

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1cup sugar

2 eggs

3 tsp. vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

2 tsp. baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

6 cups oats

12 oz. chocolate chips (optional…ok, not really)

Heat oven to 375*. In a mixer bowl, beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from pan.

Have them for breakfast with a glass of milk.

Call it oatmeal.

heh.

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Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
 
 
:
Ingredients
  • 2-1/2 cups butter
  • 1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 1cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2-1/2 cups flour
  • ½ cup cocoa
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 6 cups oats
  • 12 oz. chocolate chips (optional...ok, not really)
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 375*. In a mixer bowl, beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from pan.

 

 

Baby Peach Love

We found this treasure, smuggled from the big box from Farmer’s Market. Some little soul had hidden it away with the toys, before nap time.


One would think that there just isn’t anything more scrumptious than a juicy, tree-ripened peach…

and dang…

they’d be right.

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