I am still immensely enjoying my Immersion Blender, and I added a few milkshakes to my Immersion Blender List this past weekend!
And, yes.
I really DO have an Immersion Blender List.
Key Lime Pie Milkshake
You will need the following:
4 honey graham crackers
3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup key lime juice
One can of Reddi-Wip, for garnish
1. Crush the graham crackers in a small shallow dish.
2. Add the sweetened condensed milk to a second shallow dish.
3. Dip the rims of two glasses in the sweetened condensed milk to coat, and then dip in the crushed graham crackers until evenly coated.
4. Place the glasses in the freezer while you make the shake.
5. Combine the remaining sweetened condensed milk from the plate with the ice cream, whole milk and key lime juice in a blender (preferably high-power) and process until well blended, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
NOTE FROM ENCHANTING BELINDA - There is a difference between lime juice and key lime juice. Do not think they are the same!
Also, the next time I make this particular shake, I will be sprinkling the whipped cream with crushed graham crackers, AND maybe a tiny bit of lime zest.
RANDOMNESS #1 - Alphabet Adventures - The Alphabet Adventure idea came from Family Fun Magazine almost 22 years ago.
A friend and I spent a little over a year planning simple, yet fun, Alphabet Adventures for our then almost-four year-old sons to do together.
It was a big hit then, and I think it is going to be a big hit now. (So far, we are just to the letter "C," but Judith seems to like it a lot!)
APPLE JELLY on her toast, and APPLE JUICE to start the day.
A giant APPLE for snack time.
Snuggling with stuffed ANIMALS on the couch while watching ALADDIN.
Shopping for an ARIEL shirt at Target a little later in the day.
We also did ARTWORK, practiced writing the letter "A" on pink paper and painted a picture of ARIEL, too.
The pictures, papers, artwork, etc. go in a big binder, and I will show you how I set that up in a week or two when we have gone on a couple more adventures.
We had our "B" Adventure this past week.
We BAKED Raspberry Almond Cookies for Pop.
We snuggled under a BLANKET on the couch.
We sat on Nana's unmade BED with BED HAIR while wearing a BEAUTY and the BEAST nightshirt.
We also went to the library to check out BOOKS, and she had a very BLUE BUBBLE BATH.
You can do as much or as little as you want. No rules.
Judith was looking at her Daddy's Alphabet Adventure Book, and I showed her his "C" Adventure. We decided to copy it, so we'll be going to The Galleria, riding the CAROUSEL, eating COTTON CANDY while sitting on the mall COUCH.
And perhaps, we'll purchase a new CAP while we are there.
Who knows!
RANDOMNESS #2 - Cleaning RT - Little man likes bath time, and he'll play with cars or balls or bubbles or all three together.
He leads a pretty uncomplicated, but happy life...
And I am pretty envious.
RANDOMNESS #3 - Dedicating Carly Beth - That's right. Sawyer's little sister was dedicated this past Sunday, and she handled the service and the picture taking after church with a great deal of poise and grace.
Sweet, sweet family.
RANDOMNESS #4 - Expecting Eden - Eden is going to be here before we know it, so Courtney had some pre-Eden pics taken this past Sunday.
Judith is quick to point out with a heavy sigh, "She is taking FOREVER!"
And I am quick to agree with her!
RANDOMNESS #2 - Camping Story #2 - The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (a/k/a The Night Mom Tried to Pass Out in Georgia) - We had been to Stone Mountain many times, but never on a camping trip. We planned a trip with two other families and headed for the park which is only two and half hours away. When we arrived, we were very pleased with what we saw. Beautiful campsites, places for the kids to ride their bikes, the lake within viewing and walking distance.
And the best...
A brand new bathhouse.
We pitched our tent as close as possible to the brand new bathhouse.
Everything was going well. The kids were playing great. We had a good dinner. We sat around the fire and told stories and ate s'mores. Josh, age five, ate too many s'mores... way too many s'mores.
It was time for bed, so we brushed our teeth and climbed into our nice, warm sleeping bags on our nice, soft air mattresses smelling of campfire smoke and other outdoorsy smells. Everyone dozed off.
We were awakened by the unmistakable sound of a child being sick in the middle of the night. It's probably mean to say, but when you're in a tent, you can hear everyone and everything within ten campsites of your own tent... so in your heart of hearts you're kind of hoping it's a kid in someone else's tent. No such luck! "Which one is it? Which one is it?" Mike and I were already climbing out of sleeping bags to assess the damage.
It was Josh. "Please tell me he didn't get sick in our shoes?" I asked Mike feebly since he was already up trying to find the lanterns.
"Nope. Just him, his sleeping bag and one coat." Minimal damage in camping terms.
Mike stripped Josh down, tossed him over to me for a change of PJs and illness assessment, and headed out the door with the bag, coat and Josh's clothes. (We decided to toss the PJs.) Mike spent an hour in the new bathhouse cleaning the nylon sleeping bag and the coat, and came back for the verdict.
"No fever. No stomachache. My professional opinion is too many s'mores."
"How many did he have?" Mike asked.
"I would have to say from the damage report... more than one or two." And then we slept. The next morning, Josh woke up happy, still feverless and hungry. We decided to count our blessings we did not have a stomach bug. We also gave him a s'mores limit he was to abide by for the rest of his life -- 1 or 2 per sitting. NO MORE!
We spent the day hiking, exploring and playing with the other families. It was a good day.
We were grilling hot dogs and hamburgers for our dinner, and I was setting the picnic table when I looked over at our friend's three year-old. His flushed cheeks and droopy eyes could have been the result of playing hard all day, but there was something else... something I had seen before. "Hey, Babe. Are you feeling... ," I started to ask, but I never got to finish. He got sick all over the picnic table. I knew for a fact no s'mores had been eaten yet, so I feared this might be something more serious.
His mom came over to check him out and in our professional opinions, he had a stomach bug.
It was at this moment I had to wonder if Josh's episode 12 ours prior WASN'T due to the consumption of too many s'mores.
Perhaps...
And it pains me to say this...
He was a feverless, one-time-only-barfer AND carrier of a stomach bug.
If so, it meant Mike and I had made a really bad call earlier in the day, and anyone and everyone could be the next to succumb.
As the dads cleaned the table, discussions were held as to what we should do. The three year-old's family decided to pack up and head to Alabama as quickly as possible so they could be home in the event other family members came down with the illness. One problem. It is not a five minute job to take down a tent and pack everything up, so it was decided Mike, the mom and dad and all the boys available would help pack up... and I would hold and comfort the sick little guy.
I sat in a chair away from the commotion and held the feverish little boy for a little over an hour knowing the possibility of my catching his illness was going to be huge. Because of cuddling and several top-of-the-head kisses, I was pretty sure in just a few hours I, too, would be in the brand new bathhouse at Stone Mountain, Georgia throwing up. I just decided to "go with it."
We said good-bye to our friends about 10:30 that night, and once again headed to bed. No s'mores had been eaten. Everyone seemed to be feeling okay. I was feeling okay. Maybe, just maybe, we had dodged a bullet. We all dozed off.
We were awakened by the unmistakable sound of a child being sick in the middle of the night. I'm sorry to say, I again hoped it was some other kid in some other tent down the way. And unfortunately it was not. "Which one is it? Which one is it?" Mike and I were climbing out of our sleeping bags trying to assess damage. This time it was Austin. "Please tell me he didn't get sick in our shoes?" I asked.
"Nope. Sleeping bag, two coats and PJs." Mike was already gathering everything to head to the bathhouse (Mike is a GREAT dad and husband), and I held a shaking, feverish little boy in my arms. This wasn't a case of too many s'mores. This was most definitely the dreaded stomach bug.
Mike and I decided to nickname our tent the "Death Tent," because...
Well, to be honest, it had lost that woodsy smell two nights earlier and things were not getting any better. We stayed up with Austin most of the night, and the next day he and I stayed in the brand new bathhouse while Josh and Mikie took our campsite down.
There really isn't a moral to this story. It was a weekend of just trying to survive... trying to have a good time in a really bad situation... being a family looking for the blessings in a series of very unfortunate events and living to tell the tale. If it had been our first camping experience, no doubt about it, it would have been our last. But we had several great camping trips under our belt, and we considered this one a little bump in the road. I guess if we sat down and tried to think of the good things that weekend we could come up with a few.
Good Thing #1 - No one ever got sick in our shoes. That was a biggie for me.
Good Thing #2 - No one else in our family (or the other families) got the stomach bug, which was pretty much a miracle considering our close quarters.
Good Thing #3 - I'm sorry. I think I'm going to have to stop at #2. I can't seem to think of Good Thing #3. (It's taken me ten years to think of Good Things #1 and #2.)
If you're wondering about the title of this story (The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia), we found Georgia to be incredibly dark in the middle of the night in a campground when you're wandering around trying to clean sleeping bags and such. And Part Two of the title (The Night Mom Tried to Black Out in Georgia) refers to my inability to pass out until all the bad stuff stops happening. I'm just one of those people who is going to be painfully aware (and fully awake) of any situation I'm in -- good or bad. Not a very good trait as far as I'm concerned.
In a few days, I'll be sharing Camping Story #3 - Where Have All the Campers Gone?
This particular trip took place in Tennessee, and while I thought it was dark in Georgia...
Well, let's just say I was mistaken!
Have a good week, and I'll be back soon.
Sincerely,
The Enchanting Belinda
"I'm not sure how many candy bars equals happiness, but so far it's not 27."
"Both of us can't look good at the same time. It's either me or the house."
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete