Category : Around home

219 posts

201407/25

Dry Ice Ice Cream

I’m not sure how but I completely forgot to share this with you.

It was about a month ago… Our freezer was having an issue, which later turned out to be not a big deal. Thank goodness Mr. G is also Mr. Fix-it. In the mean time I totally panicked and sourced dry ice (and a lot of it) to keep our 200lbs of beef in the freezer from becoming the largest neighborhood BBQ anyone has ever thrown around here.

Long story short…the freezer was back up and running in short order and we had 100lbs of dry ice to play with. Since we weren’t throwing that BBQ after all, we had no need of a fake smoke cloud to roll from the garage. Still was fun to pretend.

We searched out “fun things to do with dry ice” and found you can make ice cream. Sweet! No pun intended.

We used my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer. It was the one thing that I wanted when we got married. Now 20yrs later…I’m glad I insisted we make that purchase…I use it all the time.

We weren’t really sure exactly how to make the ice cream and as you can see…we had a little trouble. The dry ice wasn’t crushed quite as fine as it should have been. This created very large bubbles as the solid carbon dioxide sublimated. In the end, it turned out perfectly.

The yummiest vanilla ice cream we’ve ever had!! In fact it was so good we decided to make more the next day…

We made another batch of vanilla, chocolate and my personal favorite…strawberry! We had fresh picked strawberries from the my in-laws garden…oh yum!

It’s certainly not an inexpensive way to make ice cream but if you’ve got some extra dry ice sitting around…it’s a great way to use it!

Blog | Kitchen

kitchen

4 Comments

halleday

201407/06

UFO…finished

I was cleaning the closet the other day and came across a seriously old unfinished project. Something I started back in the 1990’s…at first house…when I had a strawberry theme in my kitchen. I considered donating the 6 towels and let them be a project for someone else. I have a hard time “throwing in the towel”…pun intended… on a project once I start. Way back when I started these I finished one right away and started the embroidery on the second. My trouble was that the fusible web I used was so darn sticky that I had a heck of a time getting my needle through. Frustration level high!!Machine stitching was my only choice even if it wouldn’t match. I decided that my dishes really won’t care…so I won’t either.

Blog | Kitchen

T Tuesday: garden update edition

This edition of T stands for Tuesday is all about my garden….my edible garden that is.First we have the obligatory beverage. In my case, this morning, it’s still coffee resting along the deck rail. I have three boxes of herbs here and two really sad looking pots behind me in the photo. They are so scraggly and pathetic that I am ready to throw them out. My raised bed is doing really well this year. I think having some tree limbs above it trimmed has really helps get the needed sunshine.Some of my lettuce is ready for a sandwich or salad. I’m thinking I need to boil some eggs for an egg salad sandwich…oh yum. This year I decided to plant more than one cucumber plant since in previous years I’ve had such poor production. I also changed the location. They seem to be loving it here. Hopefully I’ll be seeing lots of little cukes from all those blossoms real soon.My “big garden” has tons of green bean plants that are covered in blossoms and lots of tiny beans beginning to form.The tomato plants in this garden aren’t looking so great. These are my large red variety vs the small yellow pear shaped ones in the raised bed. Hopefully they will produce some tomatoes.

In addition, I have 4 plants at my in-laws house…2 of each variety. Big J is mowing their lawn this summer so I took them up on the offer of using some of their garden space.

Our CSA farm share has been pretty meager so far. The weather here in MN has been less than ideal. So many fields are under water. What we’ve gotten from the farm share has been good quality…just not much in the quantity.

Another busy Tuesday for me…I’ll be around to visit as soon as I can…

What are you doing today?

T Tuesday: shrub edition

Good morning…welcome to T stands for Tuesday.

Today I’d like to share my new refreshing summer drink with you….in my favorite glass, of course. I love this glass so much. Recently I had a nightmare that I broke the top off it in a wickedly jagged form…I was very happy to wake and realize it was just a bad dream.

So what’s in the glass?? It’s a shrub or drinking vinegar. Ok…not as gross as it sounds. In fact, quite tasty. The first I ever heard of a shrub was from Kim over at art in red wagons. Recently, I’ve started out the morning drinking a tablespoon or so of raw apple cider vinegar in a glass of water usually with a touch of honey or molasses. I know…a little wacky but I like tart flavors and the health benefits are great.

This brought me back to thinking about a shrub…then we got our first CSA box this past Wednesday. Not a whole lot in it since our growing season has been less than ideal so far. The was rhubarb though. I’m the only one in the family that likes it. I started searching recipes on Pinterest and a shrub recipe appeared. Making a shrub is not an exact science. Here’s what I did.

I chopped approx 2 cups rhubarb and a half dozen or so organic strawberries into a glass bowl. Then sprinkled 1 cup of sugar over top and shook it around to coat. This mixture went in the refrigerator overnight to macerate.

I poured everything into a clean dry canning jar..it was approx 2/3 full at this point. I then filled the jar to the neck with raw apple cider vinegar. I labeled it and let it sit on the counter, giving it a shake everyday. The recipes I found said to let it sit for a week before draining off the liquid and storing it in the fridge but I was very anxious to try it.

Making the shrub is very simple. I poured approx 1/4 glass of shrub syrup over ice then filled the glass with club soda. It was slightly tart, slightly sweet and bubbly. Very refreshing.

What do you think? Would you try this? Does it sound appealing at all?

Blog | Kitchen

T Tuesday: cursed journal edition

Hello, hello! I’m feel a little thrown off this morning from the Memorial Day holiday yesterday. Today seems like Monday. Waking up late didn’t help matters any.

But today is Tuesday… so that means it’s time to join Elizabeth and Bleubeard for T stands for Tuesday.I brought my coffee outside with me to check on the gardens. I won’t bore you with a bunch of pictures of mostly dirt. I have 10 tomatoes planted…4 yellow pear plants and 6 Thessaloniki(Greek heirloom)plants. My beans are sprouting. The cucumbers are planted. Hopefully the leaf lettuce seeds I planted will sprout soon form the galvanized bucket in the deck box garden.

It’s misty raining so I’d like to show you my before and after on my cursed journal. After completing the journal I assumed I would leave the outside unadorned. The cover graphics and color was what made me choose this book in the first place. But the spine left something to be desired. It kept bugging me as it sat on the bookshelf. Since my art space is currently out of commission…there wasn’t a whole lot I could do. Then my tea dyed curtain scrap came to mind. I could have the best of both worlds…pretty graphics and the ugly spine covered.I decided to add the little bits of chain and charms at the last minute. They add a little movement and bling. Now I’m very happy with the journal that caused me so much grief in the beginning.

Blog | Outdoors

cursed journal, gardening, T Tuesday, tea dye

11 Comments

halleday

201405/20

T Tuesday: gardening edition

Hello…I’m back for T stands for Tuesday. Did you miss me?I took last week off to attend Little J’s all-district track meet. She did awesome! First place in her school for girls 100m run and her relay team finished a good 3 seconds before anyone else in their heat. She was the anchor, so this photo appears that she is running unopposed. What a great way to finish off her elementary school years! The meet brings together all 7 elementary schools in the district at one of the high schools…too bad it wasn’t the one she’ll be attending since that would be cool at that age. 20140513_4812 If you look at the way the adults at the finish line are dressed, you’ll get an idea of the temperature that day. Real feel of 39°F.

Anyway…I named this post gardening edition…so where the heck is the gardening?!?Here we have my tiny seedlings waiting to be strong enough to live outside. Notice the plastic barrier I had to erect around them…I’m sure you can guess who that is for.

Mr. G and I worked outside most of Sunday prepping the garden.He built a gate for me this year so I no longer have to climb over the fencing. The beans are planted…tomato cages are ready and the flags are blowing in the breeze both for decoration and deer deterrent. My deck box garden is also ready for planting…my cherry tomato plants and cucumbers will live here.

And where was Miss Gracie… 20140518_4877 Running from door to door begging to come out. Nope. Not going to happen. Not since she chased that squirrel up a tree. Too strong of hunting instincts for that one.

Lots of things on the list today ending with an evening choir concert, so I better get at it!

What are you doing today?

Blog | Outdoors

day in the life, gardening, Gracie, T Tuesday

14 Comments

halleday

201404/30

Amazing life hack

This is going to change my life…seriously. I didn’t believe it until I tried it myself.Did you know the best way to clean that nasty caked on grease from the top of your fridge or other surfaces in your kitchen is with oil!! I don’t have a before picture since it would have been seriously embarrassing.

Here’s a small example of what the top was like…except think 10x thicker….ewwwwww!

I dipped a paper towel in a bit regular vegetable oil and wiped across the icky grease.Ok, now your thinking well yeah it looks great because there is a film of oil on top.

But check this out…Totally clean…smooth…shiny…awesome.Amazing…right!?!

After cleaning all of the items on top of my fridge in the same way I now have the prettiest fridge top in town. I did end up using a Pampered Chef scraper in a few spots with the oil where it was really stuck on. Again….ewwww. But now that I know this trick I plan to wipe it down on a much more regular basis so it doesn’t get to that stage again.