I know I always say this. But it’s true: this is hubby’s fav.
I’ve made so many ice creams– green tea, earl grey, strawberry sour cream, dark chocolate, mocha, salted caramel, coffee, vanilla bean, vanilla bean with roasted berries and streusel (brilliant, Lauren!), vietnamese coffee, honey lavender, blueberry creme fraiche, and… the list goes on. Sometimes, I will spend a whole evening creating a mess in the kitchen and proudly present my creamy creation to my husband: “TRY THIS.”
He obliges.
The house will smell of burnt sugar (when I missed the three millisecond window of perfection on my first batch of caramel for salted caramel ice cream) and the sink will be overflowing with more dishes than two pints should account for, and I will eagerly await his reaction… (DOYOULOVEIT?!?)
Hubby: Mm… it’s not bad.
Me: …
Hubby: I like your mint chip better.
Me: (Deflated.)
But only for a moment, as I consider how this is probably a good thing.
Do I really want my husband to love the ice cream that takes 20 dishes and 2 hours to make, or the one that takes one bowl and three minutes to stir together?
This looked like one of those ideas that would sound good in my head but maybe not actually taste that great in real life:
Yeah… nope. It was good.
I saw it here, but… is it just me, or is there no recipe there?
I mean, the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but I know I used to be heavily recipe-dependent, so if you’d like a recipe to follow along with, I’ve approximated what I did to make mine! It’s pretty finger-lickin’ delicious.
This would be a great side for a bbq this summer– if you’re gonna get your hands dirty anyway, might as well! It makes for a fun presentation if you’re having friends over, and who can resist some savory garlic bread? Yum!
Several years ago, I was asked to give a talk to Sunday School teachers at church on how to discipline children. My first thought was that I didn’t want to talk about disciplining children. Disciplining children implies that they’re misbehaving, but misbehaviors can be caused by a lot of things, not the least of which is the teacher’s inability to teach well. (I’m pretty sure I could talk for hours on that topic alone, but I’ll save it for another time.) Sure, every child has their weak moments, but there is a whole lot that a teacher can do to help students compose themselves respectfully and responsibly.
I find that the smoothest path involves anticipating and preventing misbehavior in the first place. If that ship has sailed, though, this is the next one you want to get on. Sometimes children come in with certain habits and behaviors and you need to proactively help them to work them out. Maybe it’s a girl who throws a tantrum every time something doesn’t go her way, or a child who has a habit of talking back. Perhaps it’s a small but persistent matter, such as getting a boy to tuck in his chair or keep his desk area tidy.
As a teacher, it can mean training your entire class to execute various procedures well, such as walking to and from the carpet area quickly, quietly, and ready to focus as soon as the transition is complete. I’ve worked with children on all of these and more, and have found that our success generally depended on my consistent execution of a few key skills. Yes, my execution. It’s not completely up to the child to improve himself. You can’t just tell a kid to “be better” or “stop doing that” and always expect her to know how to do it. You need to actively work with them to shape their behavior and help them grow as individuals.
In a series of posts, I have shared some of my experiences in shaping children’s behavior. Big or small, whole class or individual, there were a few key patterns that began to emerge in my behavior-shaping process. I constantly fine-tuned it over the years, and grew increasingly confident of my ability to effect positive change in children.
True, I have not actually shaped the behavior of my own children yet, but I really think that all these years as a teacher have given me a leg up to that end. Actually, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to be a teacher was to garner experience and wisdom from my career in order to enhance my effectiveness as a parent. So here’s a glimpse of what I have learned, for all you parents out there who didn’t get to spend eight years working with hundreds of kids before having your own. I hope to share some of the highlights of what I’ve learned over the years with you so that it may benefit you as you parent and teach children.
A friend recently posted this in a mommy facebook group that I’m a part of, and I knew I needed to follow this conversation: 
We’ve been blessed by an amazing community of friends and family that showered us with tons of love and food when we first had our baby, so I can tell you from experience that it is a REALLY APPRECIATED act of service for families with new babies! Even so, I still have trouble coming up with meal ideas when it’s my turn to sign up for someone else’s meal registry. I’m guessing you will find yourself in a similar situation soon, if not already. Whether it’s a family going through a difficult time due to illness or unexpected circumstances or new parents who could use a helping hand, a nice meal can really show your care and love in a special way.
These bars are fantastic. They’re as good as they look. I love them.
They are the perfect summer treat, with some limey tang, smooth sink-your-teeth-into-it cool creaminess, and just the right balance of sweetness. If you like tart stuff, this is the recipe for you! The original recipe says animal crackers > graham crackers for the crust, but I’ve only ever made it with graham cracker crumbs and I liked it that way. I would probably like animal crackers, too, but I just haven’t tried it. Graham crackers just felt right. Plus, you can buy a box of graham cracker crumbs nowadays, where you actually get more graham cracker per ounce than you do when buying them whole (at Target)!
I should really make these bars more often. I made them last year for July 4, and they were a hit. I’m a little sad I’ve waited almost another year to make them again. Why the wait? I don’t know. I was too busy having a baby and making chocolate things or something. But I definitely regret it now.
If you’re here for the parenting and education stuff, don’t worry! I am still working on those posts. They just take me a really long time to think through, write up, and revise, so I like to scatter the easier food posts in between :).
I had a request to post more “dinner recipes” from a friend who has been following my food posts very closely. I am flattered to know she purchased several pieces of cookware on my recommendation, specifically to make the recipes listed on my blog! Since I know I will be making a ton of desserts in the next few weeks (baby and bridal showers galore!), I figured I’d squeeze in some savory recipes before shower season hits and y’all are inundated with pictures of cupcakes and bars and puddings.
Today’s recipe is Pork and Mushroom Wonton! Wonton always seemed so novel to me that it never really occurred to me to make it myself. It’s actually really easy! I was inspired to try making them when a friend told me how grinding your own pork is way better than using store-bought pork. She said that dumplings tasted so much better with freshly-ground pork, so of course I had to try it out with my new food processor. Never mind the toasty weather. Like I said before, warm weather is no deterrent for me when it comes to good eats!
Oh happy day, my new food processor arrived this weekend! I was SUPER eager to test out the blades, and I couldn’t think of a better way to do that than to slice and dice a few bell peppers, onions, and zucchini for my husband’s favorite chili!
Yes, yes, it’s summer… and at 85ºF, it’s not exactly chili weather. It’s allllll good. A little sunshine never stopped us from enjoying foods we like, no matter how warm or unconventional! I love this recipe because it’s like a whole meal in one dish– meat, veggies, dairy, and carbs (errr do tortilla chips count as carbs? =P). I appreciate that this chili is packed full of healthy veggies but tastes so comfortingly delicious! Be sure to use the taco seasoning with the turkey. You won’t even miss the beef.
This post is part of my series on How to Shape Children’s Behavior.
Over the course of the last eight years, I’ve learned a lot about teaching. One thing I know for sure is that if you don’t have students’ behavior in check, you cannot teach as effectively. Children thrive in an environment where they know where the boundaries are and are able to respect them. Some kids need more help developing this ability than others. That’s where we come in.
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read some of my other posts on setting clear expectations and laying out a graduated system of consequences. Now it’s time to follow through with these new behavioral structures. The beginning is probably the most formative time as your child feels out just how serious you are about holding them to your stated expectations and following through with the stated consequences.
It’s likely that you will soon experience the first few pokes and pushes as they subconsciously explore the new system(s) you’ve set up. This beginning period is definitely one of the most important times to consistently reinforce the boundaries with the consequences you have set forth. However, all your work will be for naught if you don’t continually show that the boundaries are still where you said they were—day after day, week after week, month after month. I know this all too well, because I watched all of my behavioral structures collapse again and again when I first started teaching.
The list of foods to avoid for a pregnant lady seems to keep growing. It’s hard enough keeping track of what you can and cannot eat as it is. Add “pregnancy brain” to that, and it becomes even harder! When I was pregnant, I was constantly looking up which cheeses were okay, which fishes were more mercury-laden, and how many mg of caffeine were in the average cup of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee/latte or black/green tea, depending on what I was eyeing at the moment.
That got old, fast.
I didn’t have a smart phone during my first pregnancy, so that made it extra annoying when I was new to this foods-to-avoid business. I created this handy “cheat sheet” that was sized to print double-sided, fold up, and fit into my wallet. Anytime I needed to quickly check if something was acceptable, I pulled it out for reference. I think any first-time expecting mom would appreciate something like this!
Lately, I’ve been toting this guy around everywhere:
It contains three of my new favorite things:
an excellent water bottle, super refreshing iced tea, and chia seeds.
The bottle
First, the water bottle. I have gone through a lot of water bottles in my time, from the free squeezable sport bottles from basketball camp to the once-trendy Nalgene bottles to the hipster stainless steel bottles to cups (and bottles) with straws. They all had their pros and cons. The Nalgenes had a nice, wide mouth opening so I could gulp down water quickly… but this was also the bottle’s downfall. I know I’m not the only student who tried to sneak in a gulp while trekking across campus only to spill water all over my shirt.
I loved the look of the stainless steel bottles, but those got banged up very quickly when I threw my backpack around. Any “cool” factor they had disappeared when my bottle lolled about like an indecisive top, having been dropped multiple times. Plus, the stainless steel bottles were kind of annoying to clean. You can’t really fit a sponge in those small mouth openings, and I dunno about you, but vinegar is not part of my usual dishwashing routine, so it was annoying to have to bust that out to clean this one item. Then again, I didn’t use a dishwasher back then, so maybe I’d feel differently about this now. But still, the dents.
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