Banana Ice Cream

We have a new one of these:




I will be telling you all about mine soon, but if you are in the market for an ice cream maker check out your Costco. My Costco has this one with two freezer bowls for $40! A steal!! I wish I would have bought mine there! I almost couldn't stop myself from buying a second one.

Anywho...

Last night the family wanted ice cream and I hadn't really made any ahead of time. I did a little searching online to see if I could find a recipe that didn't require cooking and didn't have eggs as an ingredient.

I stumbled on a banana recipe that looked good. No eggs, but I didn't have half of the ingredients it called for, so I decided to improvise.

What I did have was frozen bananas (always in the freezer for smoothies). I threw together a batch and it turned out SO GOOD. The best part is I used honey instead lf sugar. And did I mention it was REALLY GOOD!!

What you need:

6 frozen (vety ripe) bananas
1 Tbls. lemon juice
3/4 cup honey
2 Tbls. Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

What you do:

Slice the frozen banana into 2 inch pieces and put the pieces in a food processor along with the lemon juice and honey.

Pulse for 15 - 20 seconds.

Them slowly add the cream and vanilla while the processor is running and blend until smooth.

The mixture should be cold enough to put right in the ice cream maker.

It only took 20 minutes in my ice cream machine, but follow the recommendations for your machine.

The kids had theirs with chocolate sauce, I had chopped pecans, and my hubby had his with Vanilla Wafers. They were all good, but I highly recommend the wafers!

Only down side is we ate it all before I rook a picture, but it looked like ice cream:



But we didn't eat it on a cone. If you do want a cone ready ice cream, dish it out of the maker and into an air tight container. Toss it in your freezer for a couple of hours (3-6) and it should be solid enough to scoop.

Happy Memorial Day

I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends and remembering the wonderful men and women who lost their lives in service to our country.

I would love to know how you are celebrating today!!

Delightful Doiles

Doilies are popping up everywhere.  I already posted about them pillows and onsies and coasters and table runners.  But there just keeps being more and more cute doily ideas! Like...

A clock:

A garland:

A vase:

A cute little accent on a blue dress:

Even an entire Wedding Dress:

And that isn't even half of them!  I am sure there will be more doily posts in my future!

Scrap Quilt Placemats

I have a placement issue.  Mostly I don't like to use them!  But we have a new dining room table and three kids that like to make messes, so I have bought a few plain boring ones.  I need something much more fun, and love these that  I found on Craft Gossip:

(Again, I am pretending that I know how to sew, but the good thing about these is that as long as I cut the final piece down to a square I think it will be okay!)

Craft Gossip found the tutorial on Noodlehead, but you can see the full tutorial at Pink Penguin.

Crime Scene Cake

I found this one at Aunt Charlie's Cabin:

It was part of a murder mystery party from Charlotte at Confectionary Concepts.  There are lots of cute party ideas, but the cake was my favorite!!

Memorial Day with Jellio

This is a flag that is made out of painted little green army men.  You can get a closer look at Jellio.

Jellio

See this cool, colorful chandelier:

Guess what it is made of?  Gummy Bears:

A whole LOT of gummy bears.  But not real ones.  Acrylic ones.  I found it at Maddycakes Muse.  It is from Jellio and is called a candelier.  Not a candle chandelier, but a candy chandelier!  Love it!

And then I started looking around the Jellio site.  And I fell in love with a lot of things.  Let me just say you could have the COOLEST playroom ever with some of their stuff!

Like this table:

 This bench:

These stools:

Oh, and a giant viewfinder on the wall:

Way too much fun!

Father's Day Tie Napkin

I found a cute an fun idea for Father's Day on Miss Crafty Pants:

Our Daily Obsessions was guest posting for her and you can see the tutorial for this VERY cute tie napkin for Father's Day dinner HERE.

Memorial Day Cakes from Martha

Martha has a TON of cute red, white, and blue desserts for Memorial Day!

Tarts:

Trifles:

Cupcakes:

Cheesecakes:

And Cookies:

Flag Cake

17 And Baking made this SUPER cute flag cake!

It reminds me of all the cute hidden treasure cakes that Amanda makes.  I love hidden treat cakes! I found this one on Edible Crafts.

Stained Concrete Tile

Traci, from Beneath My Heart, transformed her back patio from this regular slab of concrete:

to this:

For $60!  You can see how she tutorial on how to stain your concrete to look like tile HERE.

Memorial Day Party Ideas

Kim from Frost Me has a bunch of fun Memorial Day Party ideas on her blog.  I am not sure which one is my favorite...the Pop Rock Cookies from Cakespy:

Or these strawberris from Cupcakes Kisses 'n Crumbs:

Guess we will have to make BOTH!

Gigantic Crouquet

My mother in law loves croquet.  I think she has some fun childhood memories playing the game.  We have played it as a family and had fun, but I think if I could pull of creating one of these it would make some great family memories for EVERYONE:

Any suggestions?  The ball is easy (from other pictures that you can check out HERE it is just an inflated ball).  And I even think the pegs would be doable.  But the mallet and the peg....hmmmmm.

Anyone?  Anyone?

Croquembouche Cupcakes

Remember these cupcakes:

Well I went to the Facebook page of the people that catered the wedding and asked about them.  They were mini Croquembouches (read that as perfect little piles of French cream puffs!)

And today I found a tutorial on how to make them:

You can check it out at Bakers Royale.

Mini Oven Mitt Magnets

Obsessively Stitching made these obscenely cute mini oven mitt magnets:

And I want them all.  We don't even use magnets on our fridge.  But I love magnets.  My husband does not.  Magnet hater!  Which by the way isn't something he confessed to until we had been married 11 years, moved to a new state an bought a pretty new fridge.  He doesn't like stuff ON the fridge.

 So no magnets for me.  But maybe I will get a magnet board (like the one I have but is too big for my kitchen) and use these cute mini mitts to  hold recipe cards while I cook.

I would have to make the magnets first though.

Popsicle Hair Clip

I am sad I didn't see these before my popsicle post on Tuesday, but better late than never!  I found these cut little popsicles from Sew Hip Mama on One Pretty Thing:

And these cute little popsicles make the perfect summer clippie:

But if you make a bunch of them and string them together they would make a cute garland too!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter S'mores

Hello! Where have you been all my life? And could you go back there so I don't gain 10 lbs this summer:

Chocolate and Peanut Butter S'mores from Sunset

What you need:

• 1  tablespoon  peanut butter (preferably at room temperature, for easy spreading)
• 2  thin, crisp chocolate wafers (such as Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers)
• 1  skewer-toasted marshmallow

What you do:

Spread peanut butter onto one of the wafers. Slide marshmallow off skewer onto peanut butter. Top with remaining wafer and squish down gently. Eat, licking fingers.

More s'mores for grown-ups

Thin peanut-butter cookies with Nutella, sliced banana, and marshmallow.

Thin peanut-butter cookies with bittersweet chocolate, caramel sauce, and marshmallow.

Graham crackers with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (or Nutella), sliced banana, and marshmallow.

Gingersnaps with a caramel-filled chocolate square and marshmallow.

Graham crackers with plain dark chocolate, marshmallow, and strawberry slices.

Facebook Engagement Cookies

This might be the funnest way to announce that you are getting married!  Facebook Cookies:

Amanda from I Am Baker made these for a bachelorette party!  So fun!  She also made these cute ones too:

To see more of her cute baked goods, go visit her HERE.

Chalkboard Thought Bubbles

What a fun idea I found on Poppytalk!  Thought bubble chalkboards:

image from Red Velvet Art

Pizzookie

This is one of those DUH moments for me.  Have you ever had a Pazzookie.  The first one I had (and I think the only place that actually calls it a Pizzookie, but I could be wrong) was at Oreganos.  (YUMMY PIZZA!!!)

It is a pizza cookie.  Or a giant cookie baked in a pizza pan.  All ooeey gooeey and warm on the inside and served with ice cream.  Of course they are way too much for anyone to eat alone.  Even I have never eaten one by myself.  But they are actually harder to make at home than you would think because a regular oven likes to over cook the outside before getting the middle just right.  So why I never thought to make them single serving size I do not know:

Thankfully A Little Lovely did!

Twine Display

If I had a craft room than I think I would order a bunch of divine twine (that is so cute and can be used from everything to wrapping presents to making a banner) and display it like this:

If you have the twine and the space, I highly recommend it! You can get the tutorial at Just Something I Made.

Rainbow Mismatched Chairs

More mismatched chairs from BHG:

I don't think it is normal how happy this picture makes me.  I seriously just need to give up trying to be reasonable and paint some chairs bright happy colors.

Rose Cupcakes

I never get tired of seeing all of the great ideas Amanda from I Am Baker comes up with for her treats.  Because she never disappoints.  This time it is a cute little garden of roses:

You can see how she made these royal icing flowers HERE.   And if you look really closely you can see that they are personalized inside the leaf.  Very cool.

Bobbin Storage

So since I have been pretending that I know how to sew, I have been reading up on lots of sewing tips.  I found this one from Sew 4 Home, that I had to share.  A pretty clever way to store your bobbins:

The foam toe separators (used for pedicures) will keep them together and keep them from unwinding.

It also might remind you that you need a pedicure.

Zebra Cake

Baking Banter has a tutorial to make this fun Zebra striped cake:

Which would be fun for a wildlife themed party, but it is pretty cool looking for ANY party.  Can you imagine it in shades of pink for a baby shower!  Maybe blush and bashful?  (If you get that you are my new best friend!)

See how pretty it is even before it is baked:

And even pretty unfrosted:

You can check out the tutorial HERE:

Air Plant Chandelier

Craftaholics Anonymous has a tutorial from one of their readers for this Air Plant Chandelier:

Inside or outside I have to say that it is pretty amazing!  You can check out the full tutorial HERE.

Felt Circle Garland

Anna Maria Horner has a tutorial on her blog for this felt circle garland:

I love garlands in general, and reusable garlands are even better.  I love that this can be done in a color theme for a holiday (think how cute this would be on a Christmas tree in red and green) or in fun, bright colors for a birthday garland.

And even better, I think it would be cute hanging on my daughters footboard.  That is, if she HAD a footboard. A cute way to add some color (and polka dots) to her room!

Denim Jean Purse

I miss a TON of things about Arizona, but one of the things I don't miss is the dress code at my kids old school.  They had to wear pants year round.  And they couldn't have holes in the knees.

Every year we would reach May.  The jeans that I had bought after Christmas break were always wearing thin and who wants to buy jeans when it is 100 degrees outside.  By the time school was out we always had a dozen pairs of jeans with holes in the knees and nothing to do with them.   You can only have so many pairs of cut offs.  

I once decided I was going to save them all and make a denim quilt.  HA!  I always seem to forget that I don't really sew.

But this project I think I could pull off!  The Happy Housewife has a cute tutorial on her blog to make this cute purse out of old jeans:

So if you have a girl with some cute jeans that aren't going to make it another season, this is a cute purse for her to carry.  I think it would make a cute gift bag too!