Cartoons and Caricatures

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. 

Today it is once again time for Rain's Art and Dinner Date. This week she is asking for cartoons and caricatures.  

My photos aren't great, but my drawings in my daily journal are definitely cartoon-like. I don't spend a lot of time drawing them. That is my daily journal "rule", basically so I can keep up with daily journaling   I color them with some water based Faber-Castell markers.

And you can see why I'm not happy using a  Moleskin journal this year as you can see ghosts from the other side of the page. GRRR.

And for food this week, let me share this homemade coffee ice cream shake or what we here In New Hampshire call a frappe (pronounced frap). 

I love ice cream when it's hot, but one of the problems going out to buy a cone or dish is that you usually get more than you really need. Now don't get me wrong, I still love going out for an ice cream Sunday lunch, which is what my husband and I do weekly during ice cream weather. But sometimes during the week, I would just love a few bites to take the edge off my sweet tooth.

I have an ice cream maker I can use with my mixer, but it does entail freezing the bowl and beater, which means making room in the freezer. Then I need to make and chill the base, turn the base into ice cream in the frozen bowl and then freeze the newly made ice cream. When I noticed that there was a new Ninja Creami ice cream maker on the market, I was curious and looked into it.

This ice cream maker was a little more than I wanted to spend, but then Amazon Prime Days came along and they had it for $70 off, plus I had an Amazon gift card, so I decided I could get the price down to where I wanted. Now I can make pints  of ice cream without quite so much fuss. To use the Creami, you make your mix and then pour it in to fill the pint container to the fill line. Then freeze for 24 hours. After a few minutes in the machine, you have a pint of ice cream.

Yes, I could go out and buy a pint of ice cream, and I don't really  need another appliance on my kitchen counter, but at least now my husband and I can customize what we want. Plus it is fun to make your own ice cream. As I explained to my husband when I bought it and he was looking at me with one of those you're wasting your money looks, I can make all kinds of flavors of lighter ice cream and fruit sorbets, which aren't always easy to find at the store.

Now the hubby is into his own private pints of chocolate chip and cookie  ice cream, and I haven't seen that you're wasting your money look again. Smile!

I made a batch of coffee ice cream with 1 tbsp cream cheese, 3/4 of sugar (or sugar substitute), 3/4 c. of heavy cream, 1 c. of coffee flavored whole milk, and 1 tsp. of instant coffee granules. I put them all in a bowl together, heated them for just over 1 minute in my microwave and then used a whisk to mix them completely. Once mixed, I pour them into my Creami pint container and put it in the freezer for 24 hours. The next day I made my pint of coffee ice cream.

The creami has a milkshake button (a big selling point for me-grin), and I put 3 small scoops of ice cream and a 1/2 c. of skim milk into a clean pint container, ran it through the Creami and ended up in a few minutes with this very yummy coffee frappe. 

And I might add, a frappe that is not as big as one bought at the ice cream counter would be.

And no, I am not advertising or getting any money for writing this. I'm just excited to be making little ice cream treats for myself.  And I hope my waistline doesn't mind all little treats either-smile again.

Maybe  in the long run my new appliance will be collecting dust on my counter, but then again, maybe not. Only time will answer that question.

Thanks for visiting!

T Stands for the Past Week

Hi everyone. September is winding down quickly,isn't it? Last night I woke up and heard some rain coming down. I'd forgotten what that sounded like. Before last night we'd only had 1/10 of an inch (2.54 mm) all month. I was so happy to hear  the rain I laid in bed awake listening for awhile. 

 In the last couple of days some of the leaves around my home have really started to become quite colorful. 

Here's some photos from my last couple of morning walks.

Sunday we had some morning fog which made the colors pop a bit more. And also add some atmosphere to the photos too.

My backyard is starting to look pretty also. You can see my grass is disappearing because of our draught. The good news is that we are supposed to have 100% chance of rain later this week.

It is so dry there is no grass left near the back deck. The dogs haven't helped as they've kicked up the grass. I got sick of wiping down their muddy footprints on my floors  (mud from the morning dew), so I went out and purchased this piece of fake grass carpet. It might sound strange, but it is able to be outdoors and is just grass like enough that when the dogs walk over it, it brushes away the mud off their paws.

So far it is working perfect!

And actually gives a bit of geen to the lawn-ha-ha!

Last week was busy. I made some sourdough English muffins and a honey cake. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos. And I also went for a walk on the rail trail again.

I climbed up on the lifeguard seat to get a better view, and my friend snapped this photo of me.

I did venture out to lunch after my walk. The only restaurant in my town has a huge land area. They have the ice cream window (you've seen  my take out treats from that window  lately), indoor dining, and a giant tent they put out for outdoor dining. They have enough land that we've seen helicopters land there several times, even with the tent up.

My friend Deb and I chose the outdoor tent for lunch after our rail

trail walk.

It was taco Wednesday. I had some fish tacos. For my side I got butternut squash, a favorite of mine. And you can see my T day drink too. I had some ice water with lemon. And I was pleased to see they used paper straws too.

Don't forget to stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog   and see what the T gang has been up to. And of course you are welcome to join us if you haven't yet.

And look what I came across last week for Iris. A stone Henry!

And I can't forget my Sunday lunch ice cream. This week I had mocha/peanut butter ice cream.

Only 2 more weeks until the take out window shuts down. (Of course you can always go in and order ice cream to go. Which might have to be done-ha-ha.)

I had a good week. Hope you did also. And I hope you end the month with good things too.

Thanks for visiting.

T Stands for Another Sure Sign of Spring

Hello everyone. T Day has arrived again and this week I am sharing one of the best things that happen in April with all you lovely ladies (and gentlemen who occasionally stop by also).

I'll be sharing  over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog where the T Gang  gets together.

As those of you who stop by regularly know, winter takes its dear old sweet time to leave here in New Hampshire. Here it is April 8 and this is what I came home too.

It is just a dusting but...
(And I will admit, this year has been really long since snow started early in November for a switch). And I am sure many of you are sick of hearing me moan about that too.

But come this time of year, the boards come off the windows of some of the local businesses that have been closed since September or October. Signs go up for summer employment opportunities and better yet, you seen signs like this one above  popping up.

Late Saturday afternoon the hubby and I went out to run an errand at the local farm supply store.  It had been a nice day outside, and on our way, I suggested we see if our local ice cream/take out window was open. 

We hadn't had an ice cream since September, and I thought since we had both done a lot of hard work cleaning during the day we deserved a little treat. 

I had toasted coconut, which is vanilla ice cream with coconut and chocolate chips. And this is their baby size. I don't know who could ever eat the large.

And if this photo  looks empty of other people, it is because it was now after 6 PM which is dinner time in this part of the world.

When we had driven to the farm supply store about an hour and half earlier, there had been a long line, which was why we waited to stop until we were on the way home.

Ice cream makes a good supper too. (Smile)

But then I realized I left out a drink photo for T. Since it was later and the evening chill had returned, we were eating our ice cream in my husband's truck cab.

Pardon his mess.

I had been nursing a Diet Coke for awhile that afternoon and I had brought it with me in the truck. I don't know why the hubby had a Diet pepsi since Coke Zero is his usual choice.

By the way the dogs were in the back seat of the cab (yes Jo he has a double cab pick up), and they each had a cup to lick out after we were done. 

While at the farm supply store I saw this great use for old wooden pallets. Maybe you have seen this before, but it was new to me.

Put 2 together, attach to a wall, and slide your long handled gardening tools into it. We need to make one of these with a couple of old pallets as our long handled gardening tools are rather in a messy stack. It is a great recycling idea of Elizabeth's month of recycling ideas.

And while I have your attention (hopefully), don't forget about the latest challenge at Try It On Tuesday which is Use a Stencil or Two. Here is a page from my Western Journal. 

I am using a Dina Wakely journal for this and some of the pages are canvas.  I used this cool western blanket stencil with red paint onto the canvas.

Once dry, I used  bit of Black Sharpie to outline a few things and stitched on some fake leather trim which I had a picked up in a bag of trim scraps several years ago. Then I added a square of printed tissue paper and this Native American image which I believe is a raven. My two Native American images are from different parts of the West.

You still have almost a week to join in this challenge.

OK, enough for me.

Thanks so much for visiting and

Happy T Day!

Ice Cream Season is Here!

One of local ice creams haunts has this sign posted. I think it is a hoot.

And of course all true.

Here in New England we are ice cream addicts as a general rule.

Which to pick?

How hungry am I?

The hubby discovered selfies on his phone.  This is one. The color is horrible-he looks like death, but other than that, makes me laugh to look at it.

A little glare but that still works.

I am ready. My diet may not be, but thank goodness we moved the elliptical from the basement into the living room so I can work it off.

Have a super Wednesday. I hope where you are it is an ice cream kind of day.