Pintrest project: banana ice cream

Banana ice cream.   I wanted ice cream and we didn't have any that was gluten free in the house.  I remember seeing a "guilt free"  gluten free "ice cream" on pinterest and decided to try it out.   This recipe calls for 3 ingredients.   Cocoa, peanut butter, and bananas.  I added more cocoa than the recipe suggests and made enough for two servings.  I also did not freeze the dessert after making it, thus the not so pretty pudding look.

 The recipe calls for chopped, frozen, bananas, I did not pre chop them prior to freezing nad it turned out fine. My freezing technique is to toss whole bananas in the freezer, once they start to turn brown, often forgetting they're there.   It is alays nice to have a supply on hand for days when you want banana bread or this ice cream.

Pinterest project: camping

We went camping for a weekend in New Hampshire. First time camping in 2 years.  Last time we went camping we forgot the diapers.  This time, they were the first thing packed.   We also had an issue with heat last time, it was somewhat cooler at night this time, which helped enjoying the camp fire.   We went and shared a site with three families, a total of 5 kiddos ages 10 months to 4 years old!! Great, dirty, fun.... Lots of opportunity for Pinterest projects.

One of the first projects was an ice cream cone stuffed with stawberries chocolate and marshmallows. Wrap all that in aluminum foil and put on the fire. In 5 minutes a very near s'more. Little man throughly enjoyed it once he got over the disappointment of no ice cream. { Sigh}
   I felt the idea was great the taste overall, was great. Not sure I appreciate gluten free ice cream cones.  And, once again, using normal sized marshmallows in lieu of minis was probably not the best plan... it would have been gooeier with the minis, thus better.
    However, the next night I stuffed two freshly roasted marshmallows into the cone along with some trader joes 72% dark chocolate. Yum. There is something about the smokey flavor of a well roasted marshmallow that cannot be beat.

Pintrest project : chocolate strawberry pancakes

Love pancakes.  Love chocolate.  Love gluten free.   

These pancakes were fabulous.   They had all the great features of a good pancake (light, fluffy, tasty) with the added bonus of chocolate.   Little man has continued to ask for these on a weekly basis.   And, I suppose that they are "good" for you.   They have unsweetened cocoa powder and strawberries.  Two sure-fire additions to my plate.     As evident by the pictures the pancake batter was a lot more liquid-y than other batters that I've made.

Pinterest project: summer wreath

I've enjoyed making wreaths to adorn my front door. I saw this wreath on Pinterest and after some encouragement from friends for a festive American wreath I went for it. Supplies: I bought two boxes of 150 toothpick flags for $6. I then found packages of 100 toothpick flags for less than $1. I think I bought 4 or 5. One styrofoam flat wreath form.

Problems started immediately. I couldn't figure out how to put the flags in to hide the whiteness of the styrofoam. The website said to add about 400 flags until there was no more white. My question was how far in do you push said flags? How close should they be ? Do you need to fluff them? I've used over 400 and there are still white spaces visible everywhere.{ Sigh}

After nearly destroying my cuticles pushing and prodding flag toothpicks into place, I finished. I hung it on the door, thrilled that it wouldn't melt,(no hot glue) and my husband decided it was time for a new storm door with a screen! Well, storm doors are tricky to put up and the door had to go wreath- less for a week.  The flag wreath went back up....Then started the kitchen remodel. The wreath was thrown to the floor (due to the amount of people walking and out....), random little flags would fall out...and now it is hung in the house. I look at the wreath frequently and say " you are not my favorite".  I do not suggest making this wreath even though it is cute.

Pintrest project: zucchini bread

Zucchini bread is such a yummy summery delight.   I love zucchini bread, especially while camping.  Knowing that our kitchen was about to be demolished and camping was still a few weeks away, I decided to make two batches.   We ate one and froze the other.

A couple of years ago, while camping, we learned, from friends, that the best way to eat home made bread is to slather it with butter, (everything tastes better with butter {bacon & booze but just butter for this post}) and put it on the fry pan.   Let it get a nice crust/toast drizzle with maple syrup (real of course) and enjoy.

Update: 07/17/2012
We went camping with good friends, we defrosted the bread, put it on the fire to warm up a bit and enjoyed it for breakfast.   I felt it was a bit dry, but everyone else seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

YUM.

Pinterest project: zucchini chips

Way better than kale chips. Need to be in oven longer than what the recipe says.   These definitely taste best when they are fresh from the oven.  Letting them sit out for a couple of hours lends to a slightly rubbery texture.  

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Pinterest project: Lego heads

Pinterest fail. This project looked great. It looked easy. It looked totally doable. It was not. Well let me back up, the heads were easy to make (out of marshmallows).  The chocolate candy coating was tough to melt (in microwave) I added crisco which helped.

   The biggest most frustrating fail part of this post.... Drawing the faces! The markers I bought were down right awful. The online reviews were Awful. However,  I didnt read the reviews until after I bought the markers from my local crafting supply store (being the only markers there...there wasn't much in the way of options). They are made by Wilton. Don't .buy. them.ever.   They stopped working after 1 eyeball. They said they work on fondant. They don't.   The box said the markers work on candy. They don't. I finally used icing,   which worked well.   I did learn that the faces should have been left flat until dry. Thus I had lots of drips. Little man liked the drips telling me that they had their tongues were hanging out. The Lego heads were a hit at the party. So it wasny a party foul. Just a personal pintrest fail.