Surviving At Home

“Dreams are like stars…you may never touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny.”

I don’t know who said this quote but it touches me because I consider myself a dreamer. I come up with some great ideas (well, to ME they’re great ideas!) but I never seem to follow through with any of them. Maybe it’s a self-esteem issue, maybe I just lack the confidence to follow through, maybe I’m too busy pleasing others that I don’t make plans for myself. Whatever the reason, any quotes that are about following your dreams or believing in yourself catch my eye.

For a couple of years now I’ve joked with my husband that I’m going through a mini-midlife crisis. You just get to a point where you start to think, “Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life? What’s my destiny?” Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m an Oprah fan and some of her shows are rather philosophical and she often mentions knowing her own calling on this earth, so maybe it’s all her fault that I’m on this mission of self-discovery.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
–Harriet Tubman

At the moment, my purpose in life is raising my two girls so they become independent adults. In the end, that is the most important purpose of my life, making sure that they succeed in becoming contributing members of society and that they are happy with their own lives. But does that count as “changing the world”? Hmmm…more to ponder…

Kids just love to do things themselves. Well, mine don’t like to clean their rooms or do chores generally, but they love to make things without parental guidance or help. That’s tough for me because it means giving up control and my perfectionistic ideas of how things should look but it makes my girls feel like they’re growing up.

A great party idea for the summertime is Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundaes. Combine your favorite ice creams with your favorite toppings and voila — easy entertainment and delicious dessert all rolled into one.

Of course, if you’re “giving up control”, be prepared for spills and messes. I always like to put my girls under the sprinkler for a quick rinse when they’re done creating!

Have you ever tried making your own ice cream sandwiches? Williams Sonoma.com has a great recipe for Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches as well as fun molds to make your sandwiches into different shapes.

How’s this for a “cool” gift idea — Ice Cream Source.com ships your favorite ice cream flavors directly to you! They have a variety of survival kit gift packages as well as Ice Cream of the Month clubs. Very original!

I made this Banana Split Pie 10 years ago for my daughter’s birthday and it was a hit! It’s from Woman’s Day magazine and a tip I heard about softening ice cream so that it’s not melty: when softened, put into a stand mixer and whip for just a minute. Makes it easier to spread in the pie crust. Enjoy!

Banana Split Pie

3 T sugar
4 large ripe bananas
5 c (2 1/2 pints) vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
1 6-oz ready to fill chocolate pie crust
1/2 c cocktail peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 c strawberry preserves
Garnish: whipped cream topping
bottled chocolate sauce

Sprinkle sugar in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. As sugar starts to melt, peel bananas and quickly slice into skillet. As slices sizzle and brown lightly, stir gently to turn and coat. When browned and slightly mushy, pour bananas onto a metal pie plate or pixxa pan and refigerate so they cool quickly, about 10 minutes.

Spoon about 3/4 c of the ice cream into crust, pressing down lightly. Top with about half the bananans and sprinkle with 1/4 c of peanuts. continue layering: 3/4 c ice cream, all the strawberry preserves, another 3/4 c ice cream, remaining bananas and remaining ice cream. Sprinkle with remaining peanuts. Cover and freeze at least 6 hours.

30 minutes before serving, transfer pie to refigerator.

To serve, pipe whipped topping around edge of pan. Cut in wedges and drizzle each wedge with chocolate sauce.

For a low-fat version, use fat-free ice cream or frozen yogurt, light strawberry preserves and reduce calorie chocoalte sauce. Omit peanuts in the pie and just scatter 1 T peanuts on top.

For the general population, we parents take for granted hailing down the ice cream man when we hear his high-pitched chimes coming down our street. We hand over some dollar bills for our creamsicles or Dora ice pops and proceed to enjoy our melty ice cream in the summer sun.

Parents of children with allergies, however, must read every last word on their food labels and must keep a running list memorized of possible allergic ingredients in order to keep their children safe. A trip to the ice cream man is not so easy for them.

Some of the most common allergies in children are eggs, peanuts, lactose intolerance, and gluten intolerance (celiac disease). Let’s not forget that some children are diabetic and need to restrict their sugar intake. In order to keep these kids safe, dissecting recipes for possible allergic ingredients is very important.

I was shocked to find many homemade ice cream recipes, especially for vanilla, included eggs. It’s also easy to avoid putting peanuts in your homemade ice cream but you still have to read the labels to see if any of your “natural” products were produced in factories that also produce peanut items. That info should be marked in bold lettering on the food label.

Diabetic children need to have sugar-free ice cream or ice cream made with sugar sweeteners. And if you’ve never heard of celiac disease, that’s an intolerance to gluten found in breads, cookies, and regular pasta. While those items are not necessarily found in ice creams, beware of “cookies and cream” flavors as well as the words “malt” and “modified food starch”.

News of food allergies seem to dominate the news lately so please take care to inquire with the parents of your children’s playmates so as to avoid an emergency situation. Many parents of allergic children are very vigilant and will inquire about foods being served at parties or playdates and will often send their children with a safe substitute but diligence on the host’s part will be much appreciated.

If you have a child with food allergies, you can find support and helpful information at Kids With Food Allergies.org They are a non-profit organization and they offer two types of memberships. The free membership gives you limited access to the site and the paid membership ($25/year) gives you access to the full supply of allergy-free recipes and the forums.

To help your search, here are some recipes that all claim to be “allergy-free”.

Please use your best judgement and ask lots of questions of parents when preparing these recipes if any of your guests have food allergies.

Diabetic Fresh Strawberry Sherbert 

Egg-Free Vanilla Ice Cream

Gluten-Free Peach & Lime Sorbet

Dairy-Free Banana-Apple Ice Cream

Enjoy your ice cream this summer!!

Yes, that was my mantra as a child! Ice cream is still my favorite summer treat and with the temps climbing into the 90s this week what better way to stay cool than to talk ice cream.

A few years ago we received a Cuisinart ice cream maker for our anniversary and we’ve discovered that it’s a super way to get our girls into the kitchen to help. Anything having to do with dessert and our girls want to be front and center so as not to miss a thing! They can each take turns pouring the ingredients and the recipes that came with the machine are super easy with minimal ingredients. The only downfall is that we ALL love ice cream so one batch is very quickly devoured by the four of us.

Here’s our favorite, kid-friendly recipe from Cuisinart:

Chocolate Fudgsicle Ice Cream
Makes 8 1/2-cup servings

7 cups whole milk & 1 4-oz package chocolate instant pudding

Place ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine until well-blended. Pour into freezer bowl, turn machine on, and mix until mixture thickens, about 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately or transfer to an air-tight container and store in freezer.

And you’re certainly not limited to making the recipes in the maker’s instruction manual. Do a quick google search and you’ll discover over 2 million websites with ice cream recipes!

If you own a maker but have lost your instruction booklet, check out MakeIceCream.com  They have downloadable instructions for a variety of ice cream makers.

I also just discovered that you don’t need a maker in order to make all-natural, homemade ice cream. Check out Cooks.com  for complete instructions. 

If all of this is overwhelming and requires too many ingredients or steps, simply pull out your favorite juice drink, an ice cube tray, and some toothpicks. Fill the tray with juice, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for about 5 minutes. Your toddler will love poking the toothpicks through the plastic into the little juice pops. Once the tray is completely frozen pull out a mini pop and enjoy. This trick involves a lot less time and a lot less mess for your toddler.

Another reason why I have ice cream on the brain is because a local bakery which also makes ice cream is holding a make-your-own-flavor contest and the deadline is Saturday. The winning recipe gets a pint of ice cream every week for a YEAR!! There’s nothing better than FREE homemade ice cream!!

So far I’ve concocted a Pina Colada flavor, Banana Split, and something called The Kitchen Sink. That one has every single favorite topping mixed into it but the number of ingredients is getting a little out of control.  A contest like this is a great way to get the family involved in developing a recipe together (can you say Team Work?) as well as milking the kids’ creative and competitive spirit to develop their own individual recipes.

Have fun being creative in the kitchen with your kids!