Ice Cream, Please!

I went to Sur La Table to buy a healthy egg cooker, but came home with this ice cream maker instead. No buyer's remorse here. This has been wonderfully fun; the kids ask for ice cream every day. (We don't actually have it every day, they just ask for it.) Here are the best recipes we've made so far (I'm not including the chocolate gelato because it was too rich for even Maddie; I didn't know such a thing was possible).

Blueberry Sorbet:
(This was the easiest and our favorite so far!)

4 cups frozen blueberries
1 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Puree all ingredients in a blender. Freeze in ice cream maker immediately.

Fresh Lime Sorbet:
(Maddie said she would remember how this tasted in heaven, she loved it so much.)

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lime juice (about 14 limes)

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer without stirring about 5 minutes. Cool completely. This is called simple syrup. Add lime juice and chill completely.
Freeze in ice cream maker.

Mango Sorbet

2 pounds frozen mango, thawed
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup milk (I added this to get it to blend; tasted great; optional)
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
pinch of salt

Blend in blender. Chill thoroughly. Freeze in ice cream maker.

Blackberry Frozen Yogurt:

16 ounces fresh blackberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
3 cups vanilla yogurt

Place blackberries, sugar and lime juice in a bowl. Stir and let stand 2 hours. Blend in a blender. Strain the mixture to remove seeds; discard seeds. Combine the blackberry puree with yogurt; stir. Freeze in ice cream maker.


Orange Creamsicle Sherbet:

1 1/2 cups frozen orange juice concentrate
3 tablespoons sugar
3 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Blend in a blender until smooth. Freeze in ice cream maker.

Brown Cow Slushy:

2 cups milk
2 cans Jones root beer
1/4 cup sugar.

Stir milk and sugar together. Add chilled root beer. Freeze in ice cream maker 12 -20 minutes.

Where's the vanilla ice cream? Coming soon...

Advice For Writers

I really want to read something by Mary Oliver, but all the Davis County library system has is A Poetry Handbook, which I finished reading Monday. Though the book did not have any of her own poetry in it, she did have some of the best advice for writers that I have found yet. Here it is:

"If Romeo and Juliet had made appointments to meet, in the moonlight-swept orchard, in all the peril and sweetness of conspiracy, and then more often than not failed to meet--one or the other lagging, or afraid, or busy elsewhere--there would have been no romance, no passion, none of the drama for which we remember and celebrate them. Writing a poem is not so different--it is a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind. They make appointments with each other, and keep them, and something begins to happen. Or, they make appointments with each other but are casual and often fail to keep them: count on it, nothing happens.
The part of the psyche that works in concert with consciousness and supplies a necessary part of the poem--the heat of a star as opposed to the shape of a star, let us say--exists in a mysterious, unmapped zone: not unconscious, not subconscious, but cautious. It learns quickly what sort of courtship it is going to be. Say you promise to be at your desk in the evenings, from seven to nine. It waits, it watches. If you are reliably there, it begins to show itself--soon it begins to arrive when you do. But if you are only there sometimes and are frequently late or inattentive, it will appear fleetingly, or it will not appear at all.
Why should it? It can wait. It can stay silent a lifetime. Who knows anyway what it is, that wild, silky part of ourselves without which no poem can live? But we do know this: if it is going to enter into a passionate relationship and speak what is in its own portion of your mind, the other responsible and purposeful part of you had better be a Romeo. It doesn't matter if risk is somewhere close by--risk is always hovering somewhere. But it won't involve itself with anything less than a perfect seriousness.
For the would-be writer, this is the first and most essential thing to understand. It comes before everything, even technique."

Happy Father's Day

Yesterday we went to my parent's house for a Father's Day dinner.





We bought Darren a pair of golf shoes. I didn't know Darren plays golf might be what you are thinking right now. And three weeks ago, you would have been right. I have always been so proud of my husband for not playing that expensive and time consuming sport. Besides, football, basketball, and all of Nicholas' sports are PLENTY. However, Darren has given into peer pressure from his work buddies and, now, he is a golfer. Oh well. He deserves some sort of reward for his five months + of hard work on the almost finished basement. (A basement that includes a playroom and theater that we all LOVE!) We love you Darren!




Here is Emily opening the shirt we gave my dad. Jordan also got Dad a shirt for Father's Day. Too bad it had a BYU logo on it. I mean, no one in this family goes to BYU anymore, right? A Stadium of Fire T-shirt would have been better, I think. Or a Texas A&M shirt. :)



My mom brought up from my grandma's house all of my grandpa's fishing lures to divide between us. Darren and Nicholas have long been waiting for this happy day.

This picture was meant to be of Jordan and family, but ended up being a better picture of Grandma's backyard. I really need to figure out Photoshop sometime soon!

Whew!!! (Wipe My Forehead With the Back of My Hand)

I'm just going to do one long post to catch up on the last month--though I just realized I haven't taken pictures like I should of! I don't have any of our two trips to my grandma's in Oasis, Darren's birthday, Emily's birthday, James' blessing or Brenik's blessing.
But--take a deep breath--here's what I've got:

Alas, these are not our bunnies, but our neighbor's.

Comfortable, yes?

So sweet.

Uncle Mike purchased new baby chicks.

I went with Nicholas on his field trip to This Is The Place State Park.

Those darn girls were going too fast down the hill--or so says Nicholas. He doesn't agree with much of what any girl does at this age. Let's keep it that way for a while.

Nicholas found the mountain man much more interesting than pulling a handcart with girls.

The dancing--definitely not a favorite. Here he is looking to see who he'll be paired up with.

His teacher, Ms. Jensen.

I think I'd go back to teaching if we could handle kids at school like they used to--I'm all for the nose to the wall. This rowdy class was quiet for the first time ever.

Maddie had her dance recital at Kingsbury Hall. Emily with her flower from Grandma.

More flowers.

Maddie did a great job--and made a beautiful kite, too!

Cindy came out for a whole week at the beginning of May--but I only have two pictures of her (this one and the one before). We had a great time eating, shopping, visiting, and did I say shopping? Holy cow--this girl buys clothes. When are you coming back, Cindy?

Nicholas, James, Natasha and Mom.

One day Emily put her foot down about spending some quality time with Dad.

The End for now.