Lemonade IceCream Sandwiches

As soon as I told 8 there were 3 comments on his Dirt & Worms post, he wanted to run out and video the dessert he'd made for us all tonight. I think I might just have the next Food Network Star in my house! Can you tell I'm one proud mama? Here's his set-up.

Ingredients: Breyers Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream & Girl Scouts Lemonades Cookies.

Here's the finished product. 8 wanted to know why he couldn't eat 2 of these. I just couldn't let him eat 4 cookies. I have to ration out these Lemonades. We can only get them once a year.

Let us know if you make this treat.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Bear with me. I think I broke a personal record for number of photos in one post. Our GreenDay kind of turned into GreenWeek. We celebrated with all things green, gold, and rainbow.

The kids embroidered rainbows. I'm glad the boys still find crafts with mom fun. And wow...4 is really good with a needle and thread. She wants to learn to sew.

4 is in a book club with some other 4 & 5's from our homeschool group. They meet once a month. Since not all of the little ones are reading...the mom's each take a turn bringing a book to read, craft to do, and snack to eat. A. is Irish and loved sharing some of her St. Paddy's traditions with the girls. After the story they hunted through the house for magical leprechaun beans. The leprechaun left the seeds for them to find. On the 17th, the seeds were to be planted and at sunset they would find a treat.

The boys helped 4 with the planting. 7 watered each seed.

8 decided to make plant stakes for each of the seeds.

A's seeds grow lollipops, but we were short on candy here. Our magic seeds grew golden dollar coins.

The kids strung rainbow necklaces with Fruit Loops. This is such a treat as we normally eat Kashi cereal or others with very low sugar. My only stipulation was that they use a pattern while they were stringing. I like how 8 mirrored his pattern.

We had an Irish dinner with G. We'd discovered that 8 no longer has green shirts. He's more into blue these days. His one green shirt was a polo...so they decided dinner needed to be fancy. 4 picked out a dress. I pulled down my chargers...they're gold.

G. prepared a corned beef and baked a loaf of Irish Soda bread (his family recipe).

I steamed carrots, fried cabbage, and M. put the potatoes on the BBQ. We didn't want to heat up the house...it was 92 in So. Cal. Maybe not completely traditional, but it was so Yum! and lots of fun.

For dessert, we enjoyed a pot of gold. Lemon pound cake, Lemon Curd, and fresh whipped cream.

ACK! and YUM!

ACK! I was going to start the decreases on the 2nd front of my Heathered Hoodie...after 5 repeats of the XO cable pattern...and somehow my gauge on this front was off. AGAIN! So, I frogged it and I'll knit this front for a 3rd time, checking with the other front after each repeat. I think on my next sweater I'll knit both fronts at the same time!

YUM! I got the Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas. I made her scones yesterday morning. We changed out the pecans for walnuts because we have TONS of walnuts from when M picked them in Napa. M is thrilled with this recipe. Maple & Walnuts! The only thing that could make this better for him would be bacon. This is a cruddy time for me not to be eating wheat*. I took one bite. But, I don't want to risk it with eating more.

*Healthwise* In December I gave up gluten. This wasn't some fad diet for me. In recent years, 2 of my cousins have given up gluten and felt tremendously better. For them it helps with the pain of Fibromyalgia. One horrible day in early December I ate a packet of instant oatmeal for breakfast (trying to use up things we have) and a flour tortilla (bean burrito) for lunch. I had the worst stomach pains ever. I know that instant oatmeal has added gluten. I'm sure the tortilla had all sorts of other bad things in it too. I felt like I'd eaten a bottle of glue...yes, that's gluten for you. The next day I gave up gluten. I felt SO much better 48 hours later. For 30 days I was gluten free. Then I added back oats (but only steel cut oats), so I'm not truly gluten free anymore. And I'll have soy sauce if a recipe calls for it. But, I'm still not eating wheat. At a birthday party on the 31st, I thought I'd try a cookie (my Italian friend makes the best Italian Almond Cookies with Icing). I paid for it the next day with a bloated tummy and a tummy ache. So that pretty much will keep me from trying to eat wheat for some time.

Cooking Update!

I did say that I would share more about the meals that must have made me gain 10# over the weekend. It's easier for me to cook with M home, so I decided to try some fun new recipes. And we had been watching food network while I worked on my dishcloth for DRT.

Saturday's breakfast was Buttermilk Waffles with Strawberries. Since it's not strawberry season, and since I'm a bit lazy in the mornings...we used jam. But, no one seemed to mind. I think the trick here is the cinnamon with the strawberries and the whipped cream. Everyone loved these. M thought they reminded him of all the things he loved about his birthday cake.

Monday's breakfast was to be Apple-Maple Chicken Sausage Breakfast Sammies. But we slept in a bit because M got home so late from the ER. 7 made these with me for lunch. I added an egg to hold the meat in little patties. And, this was supposed to serve 4. I used my large Pampered Chef scoop and made 10 patties. These fit perfect on a English muffin. M did eat 2, but still this recipe would serve 4 men.

For Monday's dinner we had smoked ribs. It was totally worth the $60 thermometer that M bought. M has been asking for a smoker. I found a website with instructions on how to turn you BBQ into a smoker. I think we'll stick with this for awhile, but I really see a smoker on the birthday list next July.

And a bonus recipe for you. Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding. This is WONDERFUL! I didn't make this. A friend brought this over for us to have during "B" week. Yes, we're eating our way through the alphabet again. Do make this. It's so YUM!

Hope you're hungry. Go cook something wonderful.

BarBersQ

This totally isn't going to turn into a restaurant review blog. But, this place was so good I just had to mention it. Some of you are planning trips to CA. Some of you live close enough to make a visit to Napa. If you're ever in the area, you have to stop at BarBersQ.

On our vacation, my mom watched the kids so M & I could enjoy a dinner out. This place has been called the Best BBQ in the West by Sunset Magazine. It's just blocks from my Gramp's house, so we had to give it a try. The slick stainless steel style was clean and fresh.

The food was amazing! I had a BBQ chicken sandwich with potato salad on the side.

M had the Pulled Pork sandwich with a butter lettuce salad & citrus vinaigrette.

It was so good we went back later in the week with M's parents. If you're ever in the area, it's worth a stop. And if you're not in the area...plan a trip.