pomegranate ice cream

This was by far one of the easiest things I've ever made - and it's absolutely delicious! The original recipe called for freshly squeezed pomegranate juice but I couldn't find a pomegranate, so I bought a bottle of 100% pomegranate/blueberry juice when we went shopping last night. That worked out perfectly! I will definitely be making this again.

Also, Teresa is giving away a cupcake scented gift set by Embrace Bath & Body, over at her personal blog. The contest is for USA and Canada only. (I had to add that to the blog entry - what better for a cupcake themed blog than the chance to win cupcake-scented bath things?)

I'm sure it's a fine product...

This falls in to the "I'm sure it's a fine product, but ..." it sure made us all giggle.

We were at the grocery store tonight when I realized I forgot to grab a lime for the ice cream I planned to make (and did make, I'll let you know tomorrow how it turned out) from the produce section and we were already halfway done. I gave Dave the cart and told him the next thing on the list to get and told him I'd be right back. I got my lime and headed back through the store and found the three of them standing there in the middle of an aisle laughing so hard. The Connor started to hand me (what I'm assuming is) a candy bar and then quickly took it back and told me I couldn't have it.

I want to know what would happen if I did eat the candy bar! *LOL*

Another product name that made us giggle, well, mostly it made ME giggle is this:

Again, I'm sure it's a fine product, it's just the name that strikes me funny!

Here's a sneak peek of the ice cream I made tonight (it's a no-churn recipe, it's a good thing because I don't have an ice cream maker!).

just venting, nothing important

This isn't going to be much of a post but I just need to vent a little.

WHY does it seem like every time something good happens with me, 198 other bad things have to happen at once to cancel out that one good thing? Seriously, wtf?

My oven has been on the fritz for a while now, only wanting to work when it feels like it. I was finally able to call and schedule someone to come out and fix it today but now I have to cancel because we had to (somewhat unexpectedly) get two tires put on the one car we have (that was a big mess all in itself) and now I don't have enough cash to get the oven fixed. Kinda funny because that oven is how I am trying to supplement my income this summer (that's been slow going though) since I'm not back to work until the end of next month. Not funny "ha, ha" though, because I'm certainly not laughing this morning. (Don't worry Tammy - I will get you your s'mores cupcakes come hell or high water!)

I never thought I'd rush summer vacation, but is it the end of August yet?

I'm sorry for the whining but I just had to vent somewhere.

blueberry crumb cake

Inspired by bojosmom's post about the blueberries she picked, I went and got some when we went grocery shopping today and made a crumb cake.

I'm sending a thank you to my sister, also, because my oven died right in the middle of baking this and she allowed me to use her oven to finish baking it.

grasshoppers and girls

TGIF!

Well, it's Friday anyway, even if all my days seem to run together with me having the summer off.

We headed to Giant Eagle when Dave got home from work because the fridge was looking kind of sad and empty. We stopped for gas there too when I found out we had a hitchhiker. This little bugger really didn't want to get off of the car at all!

After the grasshopper excitement (we're easily amused, lol) we headed towards home when we saw a couple of girls around my boys' ages running a car wash in their driveway. Mason started to say something and I thought he was going to ask if we could get our car washed but instead he piped up with "Can we take one home?" Dave gave him a high five and laughed. I just laughed but thought that I'm not ready for them to be interested in girls yet!

Mason also asked if I was going to go home and blog about it. I think we have a future blogger in the making there!

last day of vacation

Well, it's the last day of Dave's vacation anyway. I still have until the kids go back to school until the end of MY vacation. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

We spent the week just doing things around town. Monday was miniature golf at Family First Sports Park and lunch at Ponderosa (the Connor's choice for his birthday meal). That was also the day that I got my wicked sunburn.

Tuesday we went to see Wall-E (absolutely adorable movie) and Panera Bread for lunch. I also had a 4-H meeting that night, so I zipped down to Shade's Beach to catch the sunset after that before I headed home

Wednesday was our "free day" (except for lunch). We went to the Erie Art Museum and the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. We went to Backyard Burgers for lunch and I had a fantastic Chicken Caesar sandwich. We'll be going back there for sure, as the service was absolutely wonderful too.

Nothing fancy on Thursday, just a little shopping and lunch at Quaker Steak and Lube. Friday we just bummed around the house.

I apologize for the photo-heavy entry, but I hope you enjoyed our vacation!

birthday party pictures

I'll just give ya the small versions (you can follow any of them to my Flickr account).

That last photo reminds me that I really need to spend more time in the sun!

first attempt at fondant

So, the Connor turns 9 tomorrow. He requested that his birthday cake look like a wrestling ring. Here are our final results (it's a chocolate layer cake with a strawberry buttercream filling).

Sweet little piggies

I saw the sweetest thing today.

Let me go back and say that we have 5 (yes, 5) adorable guinea pigs. We have three siblings (one male, two females), their father, and George Clooney. We did have their mother, but she recently passed on.

Our father piggy is going on 5 years old. Their normal life expectancy is 4-7 years, so he's pretty old for guinea. I had walked in Mason's room where the boys' cage is and found Inky (the son) - who very quickly outgrew his father - laying in front of the food dish with Flippy (the father) standing on top of him. He was helping his dad reach the dish. I stood there and watched them for the longest time and even got a little tear in my eye because I thought it was so sweet. Those two are really two peas in a pod.

Here they are out in the yard (Flippy is in the front of the photo, Inky in the background).

I'm a winner!

Just a quick entry as I'm being requested "on stage" - a.k.a. my living room (we got Rock Band last week). I logged into my email to something that excited me very much yesterday. It was a message telling me that I had a comment on a recipe site I joined. I went to go view said comment and this is what I saw:

One of my food photographs won me $100 Amazon gift certificate!! I'm still bouncing off the walls here! It's the second photograph in the french toast cupcake entry.

Now, what do I buy? LOL

mmm strawberries

I can't resist a good juicy strawberry, and what better way to use one than in my latest obsession - cupcakes!

I got out my KitchenAid mixer and all my ingredients last night and had the kids hovering over me the entire time (they like strawberries almost as much as I do). Here is the end result - a white cupcake with little bits of strawberry goodness mixed in with a strawberry buttercream frosting. Yes, they taste as good as they look!