March 13

Today I decided to make some strawberry ice cream. Zach had asked for it, and I like giving them treats that are more natural, and how best to confirm that they ARE natural than to make it yourself? He actually used to have an aversion to strawberries, he hated the feeling of the seeds in his mouth, but it seems he's past that now.

So, I bought some strawberries and started prepping them.












After the strawberries had soaked in their sugar and lemon juice cocktail, and the milk/cream/sugar/vanilla had time for an extra chill in the fridge, I poured the cream mixture into the churn. It should take about 20 min of churning to start really freezing, at which point the strawberry mixture is added. I turned it on and went to put Owen down for a nap.












Oh no! Owen didn't really WANT to nap! He took a long time to get to sleep. And while I was trying my hardest to convince him that yes, he really DID want to sleep, the ice cream started freezing and expanding, coming up over the sides of the frozen churn bucket. And I still had to add in the strawberries! Yes, there was an overflow after this photo was taken.












But it was all worth it, b/c I was going to get a great shot of Owen with his first ice cream cone, outside, shirt off, smearing the goodness all over his face, dripping on his hands, having a blast and loving the sweet creamy berry-filled wonder that is ice cream.

Where is that photo? Well, he took that cone and threw it onto the ground, refusing to even taste it. I was NOT going to let all my hard work go to waste, so I swooped it up out of the grass and ate it myself. He is not my child. A sugar cone? Come on, kid, do you have any idea how RARE this is?

So here's a photo of Zach holding a finished cone. Only the pink isn't showing up very well :( It was pretty darn tasty, though.

















*Disclaimer: I did not make the cones. We had good old-fashioned store bought processed chemical laden, HCFS filled crunchy delights. Actually, I may be wrong. I'm pretty sure these were even MORE old fashioned b/c they had actual sugar instead of the HFCS. Publix brand! Yeehaw.