Ice Cream Appreciation Month

July is Ice Cream Appreciation month so I thought I would share my favorite homemade ice cream recipe. I know July is almost over, but I figured it is never to late to share something so delicious!

This is a recipe from my Grandma Annabelle and it is so easy to make using the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. I hope you enjoy!

Three Fruit Ice Cream

  Servings: 16

Ingredients
3 cups sugar
3 cups milk (I used whole milk)
3 cups half and half
3 oranges, juiced
3 lemons, juiced
3 bananas
salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
-Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor.
(My blender is small so I combined the milk, orange juice, lemon juice, and bananas in the blender then poured it into a bowl and mixed in the rest of the ingredients)
-Chill in the refrigerator.
-Pour into ice cream maker, most likely in 2 batches.
(Follow the instructions for your particular ice cream maker)
-Store in a tightly sealed container in your freezer for 2 hours if you want a firmer texture, otherwise enjoy immediately. :)

I hope you enjoy this perfectly refreshing summer recipe as much as Nic and I do

I Have the Best Husband in the World!

Just want to take a moment to brag about how amazing my husband is! I am so proud of how hard he works. Not only does he have a full time job (working 40 hours a week, M-F 7:30-4:30), but he also has two part-time jobs! He coaches basketball approx. 10 hours a week (M, T, Th, and F) and he has kept his city job working around 16 hours a week (Usually whatever night he has off basketball until 9pm and Saturdays and Sundays. If you have been doing the math you might realize he is spending a huge portion of his life working! He literally gets about 1 day off a month. On top of that he still finds time to help around the house with small tasks like painting our guest bedroom, buying furniture, hanging up curtains, unclogging shower drains, and mowing the lawn!! He even makes dinner on occassion, makes me coffee every morning, and does the dishes! He amazes me every day and makes me so proud!

Another Fun Saturday

Well, the day didn't start out that fun....Nic had to work and I had to run a bunch of errands. Then we spent the afternoon trying to unclog our shower drain, yuck! What a nightmare. We fixed 3 out 4 sinks (most have been messed up since we moved in), but so far no such luck with the shower. Nic is going to buy a snake so hopefully that does the trick.

In an attempt to make it feel like an actual weekend we had a great dinner of Swiss Bacon Burgers and Corn on the Cob. The meal was exactly the type of meal you expect to eat inthe middle of July in Cali. It was perfect! Sabrina came over and we had lemonade while Nic drank a few beers. We watched 500 Days of Summer and ended the night with a few Rock Band gigs. ;)

Home Cookin'

While reading my Better Homes and Gardens magazine during my break yesterday I was inspired to do some cooking. Nic and I eat most of our meals at home and we mainly prepare Dream Dinners, so the idea of making a dinner from scratch sounded really fun. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and did most of my shopping in the fresh produce section! If you know me at all this is probably the most impressive part of this entire entry! ;)

For our 1st course I made salad with romaine lettuce, buffalo chicken, blue cheese crumbles, and blue cheese dressing. It was so easy and delicious. For our second course I made a vegetable frittata with Italian squash, mushrooms, and corn. It was really enjoyable to come home and prepare a full meal from scratch. I planned on making home made ice cream and topping it with blueberries for dessert, but my bowl didn't freeze enough so we had cookies instead. ;) I like to think of it as a reward for all the fresh and healthy food we had eaten.

To end the night we went out to our backyard to sample our grapes. They are delicious. They are still small, but only slightly tart. I took a bag of them to work today and plan to take a bigger bag tomorrow so I can share them with everyone. Eating something from your own yard is really cool and it makes me want to experiment with growing other foods.

After such a fun night with the main focus being food I was all excited and inspired today so I figured why not keep it going. So tonight I came home and prepared another meal from scratch. I loosely followed a pasta recipe and came up with a delicious dinner. If you know me well, not following every specific direction is also a very big deal for me! I used fresh onion, garlic, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest, lemon juice, and white wine. I served it with feta cheese and fresh oregano from the garden as a garnish. (Again, I'm loving this whole walking out my back door and grabbing ingredients for my meal thing!). It was so good. Nic said it tasted like something you would get at a restaurant. It was a perfectly light summer pasta dish. For dessert we had my homemade vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce. What a sweet couple of evenings we have had. :)

Norcal Trip

I am embarassed to say this, especially since I have done a fair bit of traveling, but this was my first time to Northern California. (I still haven't been to San Francisco! Nic and I are trying to change that by the end of the year). Anyways, I am in love with this beautiful state we live in and the little taste I got makes me want to explore more!

The day after the Kickert wedding Nic and I hopped in the car and drove to Santa Cruz. We had the best time at the Boardwalk. I honestly had no idea something like this still existed. You could buy tickets and each ride cost between 3-5 tickets to ride. $1=1 ticket. Not to mention it is seaside. One second you could be on a ride and the next you could be swimming in the ocean. I could have stayed all day!! I really thought this was such a cool place and if you are a Cali local who has never been....GO!! Nic and I definitely can't wait to take our kids there one day. :)

Next we went to Monterey and walked along Cannery Row. It reminded us of the French Riviera in some parts and Lahaina in others. We saw seals and a dog riding a surfboard.

From there we drove along 17 mile drive to Pebble Beach. The weather was gorgeous to the north and south, but the entire drive through the park was overcast and cold. It was still gorgeous though. It was exactly how you would picture the Northern California coast. We saw so many seals, sea lions, and even sea otters. We saw bird rock and the lone cypress. (You should have seen how hard it was to get a picture of Nic, me and the tree! It amazes me how bad some people are at taking pictures). The highlight of the trip for Nic was stopping at the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links.

We ended our day trip with a fish and chips dinner in Carmel at AW Shucks.

This weekend getaway reminded me that sometimes all you need is a car and a day to explore something new. Nic and I can't wait to take a few more road trips this summer and explore the Golden Coast!

Alfresco Dining

We love our backyard so much! Everytime I go out there I feel so relaxed. I guess it only makes sense that we eat out there as much as possible.

While Nic's parents were here we ate most of our dinners outside. We even had a yummy peach french toast brunch one Sunday with Nic's parents, my mom, and Sabrina.

We have also had our neighbors, Lindsay and Celena and their kids, over for dinner. (We are hoping to make this a monthly thing).

Last night my parents, sister, and her friend came over for dinner. It was really fun as always.

There is just something special about our backyard and we have really been enjoying it. Thank goodness we bought that patio furniture. Now we just have to get the BBQ working!

Something Borrowed, Something Blue!

If you want a great book or two to read this summer.....these two are my recommendations. They are fantastic!!!! In the first book, Something Borrowed, the maid of honor sleeps with her best friend's fiance! The second book, Something Blue, continues the story from the brides' point of view. I finished them in a couple of days and so did everyone else that borrowed them. Even Sabrina, who hates reading, loved them and couldn't put them down! If you really want to make it a fun summer read, get some girlfriends together and create a mini-summer book club. The books have book club questions at the end so you can discuss.

Enjoy!!! Let me know what you think. They really are fantastic!

http://www.emilygiffin.com/

Weddings, Weddings and more Weddings!

We had three weekends in a row of weddings!!!

Wedding #1~ My friend from Canyon Highschool cheer, Amy Varon, got married on June 26th. Her reception was at her dad's house in Pacific Palisades. She had a candy bar, a delicious buffet, and a signature drink and shot. It was fun to catch up with some friends that I hadn't seen since my sophomore year of HS. In fact 7 out of the 10 girls on my squad attended the wedding. :)

Wedding #2~We went to a wedding on the 4th of July for Nic's friend, Adam Parada, who he played basketball with at UCI. The wedding was in Claremont at the Padua Hills Theatre. The highlights were the mariachi band and amazing sun dried tomato pizzas as a passed hors d'ouvres. I was a bit sad to be missing out on all the 4th festivities, but since the venue was up on a hill we could see quite a few fireworks off in the distance and Nic enjoying catching up with a bunch of his team-mates from college made it worht it.

Wedding #3~We drove up to Northern California for our third wedding on July 10th. Nic's friend, Dan Kickert, who he played with at the Australian Institute of Sport was tying the knot to a California girl. They met at St. Mary's college (and got engaged there) so it was very appropriate that they married in the church at their school. The reception was held at a nearby country club. It was such a fun night! When Australians and Americans get together it always makes for a GREAT party! ;) First of all, the wedding color was purple and reminded me a lot of our wedding. They had a candy buffet, crazy drunk Australians dancing in the center of a circle, and a sparklers exit. It was a great way to end our wedding extravaganza!!

Lakers Baby!

Nic and I were lucky enough to go to Game 2, Game 6, and Game 7 of the Finals!!

Now, the last time the Lakers played Boston in the Finals I was right on the court cheering and praying with all my might that we would win the 2008 Championship. As you can imagine attending these games brought back so many memories and was far more emotional than it must have been for the average fan watching. There was a huge part of me that thought back to the year I was a Laker Girl and I smiled at all the wonderful memories I had. I'm especially thankful for all the amazing girls I met. My next thought as I watched some of my friends dancing was that I should be down there with them. I really felt like I became part of a team that year and I think that team comradre is what I miss the most (that and the excitement of dancing on the court of Staples Center!). My next thought... Man I hate Boston!! I know a lot of LA fans hate Boston, but not many missed out on a championship ring or a parade because of Boston!! Boy did I want to see Boston go down!

Of course I also experienced the more confusing emotions...jealousy that I might miss out on a second championship and on a second parade......sadness that I wasn't down on the court with my girls screaming as loud as possible for my team.

And then it happened....in the blink of an eye Game 7 was over and we were the Champions once again!!!! It was so thrilling!!! Redemption!!! I was more than thrilled to have beat BOSTON, Boston! Wow, beating them felt amazing. Then I looked over at the LG's and I couldn't even imagine what they must be feeling watching their team win at home. Being right on the court in the heart and sweat of it all experiencing the magic first hand. I was filled with joy for them. I know how difficult being a Laker Girl is and these women deserved this special moment. I definitely didn't expect to cry over the Lakers winning, how silly of me, but that game was intense, exciting, and quite frankly very emotional.

Eventhough I didn't win a Championship as a Laker Girl, as an official member of the organization, I have won 5 as a fan and I think that is still pretty cool!! And the Lakers will always be my team!! Go Lakers!!!!!!

Lake Mead!

The next weekend we went to Lake Mead. It was the only time on this trip that my whole family got to spend time with Nic's parents. We had a blast. We took a boat ride, did some water skiing, wake boarding, sea dooing, lots of eating and even more laughing. It was so nice to see how well my parent's and Nic's parents get along. We sure are lucky!

Road Trip with the In-Laws!

We took a roadtrip while Nic's parents were here up to Santa Barbara and Solvang. We stopped in Solvang first, which was really fun. We grabbed sandwiches from Panino (which I highly recommend) and drove up to Gainey Vineyard to sit at a picnic bench and eat our lunch. Gainey is actually where my best friend Rachelle got married and we were there on her Anniversary weekend. Being there brought back so many wonderful memories. :) It was a gorgeous wedding and I'm glad we got to share such a special place with Nic's parents.

After lunch we did a wine tasting in the barrel room. Then we drove down to Santa Barbara. We went to the mission, which was very interesting and then drove down to the pier. It was such a hot sunny day until we got to the pier. It was so overcast along the beach and Susan and I froze! We watched some people fish for sardines and saw a few seals.

It was getting late and we were pretty cold so we stopped at the Habit for a quick bite and drove home. We finished the night off by introducing Nic's parents to Rock Band! hehe. It was a really fun day.