DIY: ice cream cake

My husband and I love ice cream in all of its forms, so it makes sense that for our birthdays, we have ice cream cake.

Beware: this cake does not actually contain any cake (but it could if you wanted it to).

This is the cake that I made for my husband’s birthday in March:


Ingredients/Supplies

• Ice Cream--approx 1.5 pints or whatever size the half-gallon comes in now; pick your favourite flavor


• something for the crust (ie: oreos, cookies of any kind, graham crackers, etc). I used almost an entire package of off brand mint oreo cookies.


• 9x9 pan or pyrex


• Optional: toppings (I used egg shaped Reeces candies since it was right before Easter), hot fudge, fruit (honestly all of it is optional...this is entirely a “throw in whatever sounds good at the moment” type of recipe)

Pull out the hot fudge and start to microwave it in 20 second increments until it is hot-ish.

If you can multitask, break the cookies on a cutting board with a rolling pin while you are microwaving. If you can’t multi-task, just warm the hot fudge after you’ve already crushed the cookies.

Put the cookies in a small bowl and coat with the hot fudge. It should be more cookie than fudge, but really, do what makes you feel good.

Take a spoon and press the cookie-fudge mixture into the bottom of the glass pan--don’t forget the corners. I think my “crust” was about an inch deep in the pan. Throw the entire pan in the freezer and then lick the spoon.

About 20-30 minutes before you plan to pull the pan out of the freezer, take the ice cream out and let it start to soften on the counter.

Pull out the pan and spoon the ice cream on top of the crust mixture. Fill until you’ve used up the ice cream or the pan is full--which ever comes first. Add your toppings to the top of the ice cream. Throw the entire thing back into the freezer and then be patient.

I was not patient, so I do not have many pictures of actual “steps”. Honestly, I’m happy I remembered to take any pictures at all. I was really jones-ing for some ice cream while I was making this.

In the past, I’ve done a graham cracker and melted butter crust that did not really turn out so well. I’ve also topped the cake in berries of all kind and it has been delish!

Summer Reads

Since I could not find a book club that meets when I’m not working, I decided to join the Seasonal Reading Challenge on Goodreads. Essentially, each season, there is a long list of “challenges” for participants to complete. The “challenges” vary in difficulty and number of points awarded for each. There is not much to win besides bragging rights and the ability to choose the next season’s challenges, but it is a lot of fun.

The summer tasks were just posted and here are a few of them:

• Sun, Sea and PIRATES! Read a book about pirates.


• The Long and the Short of It. Read a short book (100-200 pages) with a long title (5 or more words) or a long book (400 or more pages) with a short title (fewer than 5 words).


• What’s Next? Choose a 5-star book from your GR read shelf. Go to What Should I Read Next? and type in the title (DO NOT hit enter!). Choose the correct title from the list that appears below the box. If the title appears more than once, choose the one closest to the top. Choose a book from the generated list to read. Required: Include the title of the 5-star book you chose from your GR shelf when you post.


• In The Eurozone The Euro is used by 327 million Europeans, but not all European nations use this currency.

As you can see, the tasks can get pretty challenging to find books that fit the criteria.

Another one is:
Don't Stop Reading. Since school's out, it's a great time to read a good book. Read a book from The Ultimate Teen Reading List.

I perused the teen reading list and there seem to be a lot of good looking books on there and not all of them are for teens. After I looked over it, I felt that as a librarian and lover of books, I should write a post about the list so I can have it for future reference.

Here are a few of the books I am going to be reading for the Summer challenge:

• Pirates!


• The Art of Racing in the Rain


• The other Boleyn Girl


• Apple Pie


• The book Thief


• Soulless


• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World


• Wicked Lovely


• The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir


• My Little Red Book


• Am I Blue? Coming out from the Silence


• Jersey Tomatoes are the Best


• Room


• Library: An Unquiet History


• The Handmaid’s Tale


• The eyre Affair

Now that I type it out, it seems like a lot and that is not even half of the challenges! We’ll see how many I get through. I’m just thankful that I have the time and luxury to do all of this reading!

25. Long conversations with grandparents

I thought the 25th think I'm thankful for deserved it's own post...


I sat today looking at my cell phone debating whether I was going to call my grandmother. I had not talked to her in several months and I did not call her on mother’s day. I wanted to talk to her, but I also wanted to be able to give her my full attention. I thought that talking to her on my lunch might cause me to cut the conversation short and I would not be able to just relax and read my book.

Ann V. in One Thousand Gifts talks about being completely present in each moment and enjoying each moment. I started thinking that I would have to make my moments if I am going to have them. I cannot just sit and wait for life to happen to me, so I decided to call my grandmother and I was so glad that I did.

I hope it gave her as much of a blessing as it gave me to spend a half an hour talking to her. She talked about the different homes she’s lived in--both in Canada and here in Arizona. At the end, she apologized for “talking my head off” but I am so glad she did. The moments where my grandparents recount their history are few and far between and I’m learning to cherish them more and more.

I’m trying not to feel guilty for not calling her as often as I should. I’m trying to think positive thoughts about the things I do do for my family and not about the things I should do, but don’t. My husband says I’m too hard on myself, but I hold myself to a very high expectation and I get very disappointed when I fall short. I am not a fan of the saying “shoot for the moon and if you miss at least you land among the stars.”

We’ll see...I’m getting there. One moment at a time.

Eucharisteo

I was only going to post this once a week, but I realized I need to do it when the inspiration strikes. I'm still reading One Thousand Gifts and it is really hitting home for me.

14. doing something I’ve never done before (sewing machine related)
15. having a hard conversation
16. floating in the pool with a friend (yes, it is bathing suit weather here)
17. finding a comment on my blog
18. an understanding boss
19. humbling myself and asking for forgivness
20. sewing love into a quilt for my sister in law
21. sewing straight lines
22. the kind lady at the quilt store willing to stop and help me
23. having a running vehicle
24. my dad taking time to give me advice even though he was busy at work

One through 13: here

8 weeks to a better me

Well, why not jump on the bandwagon for some positive posts? Sometimes Sweet is doing a weekly series about creating small, attainable goals so that you can see some positive outcomes quickly.

I'm going to combine weeks one and two into one post since I'm a week behind!

Week One:

Blogging...

1. Finish my 30 Day Detox posts
2. Comment on the blogs that I read regularly
3. Post the posts I've had drafted for a while

Week Two:

Fitness/Workout...

This is something that is really hard for me to commit to. I want to be in better shape, but I don't want to do the work associated with it.

1. Get in 20 mins of moderate (or higher) level intensity workouts three times a week
2. Start riding my bike
3. Take the dogs on walks

1000 Thanks

The start of my 1000 Thankful Things list:

1. Waking up to a fridge full of yummy healthy foods--thanks to my husband
2. Having a job that I enjoy that is in my field of study
3. My husband having work to do at his job
4. Having a beautiful house to live in
   

   From Drop Box

   
   (ignore the weeds)
5. Going outside to see my rose bushes in bloom
   

   From Drop Box

   From Drop Box

6. Getting my pictures to upload from my phone to Picasa!
7. Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime Seasoning (this stuff is amazing on everything: salad, eggs, cottage cheese, chicken...the list goes on)
8. Being done with my class
9. My boss letting me leave early next week to go to a quilting meetup
10. My best friend pointing out to me that I could use Meetup to find a book group
11. Finding a book group meet up on my side of town
12. Having a boss and colleague nice enough to notice that I was upset today (even though I tried not to focus on the negative)
13. My book from Amazon coming less than 24 hours after I ordered it!

Coming up with 33 each day is going to be hard. I thought I'd stop now before I started stretching for something cheesy.

30 Day Detox Mind + Body

I've been really really negative lately. Even to the point where I told my husband that I hated my life and really hurt his feelings. I want any excuse to blame my bad attitude on, but ultimately, it comes from me being unhappy with decisions I've made and then rather than try to make better decisions, I look for an excuse.

The book One Thousand Gifts has been making an appearance in all of the blogs I've been reading and I have it on hold at the library, but I decided to buy it on Amazon to have it sooner.

Then, I read this post on Neathering our Fest and I decided that I've had enough messages from God and the universe and saying that I need to make a change. This was the motivation I needed. I am making the decision to abstain from negative thoughts for 30 days. I am joining in on the 30 Day Detox Mind + Body from over at Little Chief Honeybee.

The idea behind the detox is that if one little irritant can ruin the rest of the day (you know the guy who cuts you off and then proceeds to go 5 miles under the speed limit when you are running late for work), why can't one positive thing make the rest of your day better?

I've found this to be true when I worked retail. Someone would just really tick me off and on a good day, I'd look for reasons to go out of my way to be nice to people (employees and customers) for the rest of the day. Before I knew it, I forgot about the person who made me mad and, hopefully, I made someone else's day a little bit brighter. Sadly the "good days" were outnumbered by bad days when I let that person get to me and make me miserable.

My goal here is to keep the negativity out of my life both in person and on the web. I am also going to read 1000 Gifts and try to post 1000 things I'm thankful for during the 30 days. Now that is 33 things I'm thankful for each day and I don't want them to get cheesy, so it might go on longer than the 30 days. I hope that this short change will make a lasting change in my happiness, health and relationships. I am very tired of being tired and un-happy and I'm ready to change it!

The other component of the challenge is our bodies. I know if I take on too much at once, I won't be willing to do any of it. For this portion of the detox, I am going to make an effort to drink 75 oz of water each day (take your weight in pounds and divide it in half and that is the number in oz that you should have in water each day) and get in my 6 servings of fruits and veggies.

You can click on the button on the right hand side to join over at Little Chief Honeybee to find out more about it.

Pamela

Moved to blogger

Hello All!

I moved over to blogger from my Wordpress blog. I decided that I could not spend the money to personalize wordpress, but it was too ugly to even consider posting there and I did not feel up to messing with it.

I have lots of blog ideas, but did not every feel motivated to post at the ugly blog. I have customized this blog using Yummy Lolly's template and Totally Severe's background.

I am going to work on moving my old posts (what few of them there are) from wordpress over here, but it might take a little while.

Hope you enjoy!

Pamela