Tag Archives: ice cream

Photo A Day Challenge: Ice Cream…

Frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3 in New York City.

… and, ‘Eyes’ cream (couldn’t resist)   🙂

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https://citysonnet.wordpress.com/2019/06/01/june-photo-a-day-challenge-2/

Flirting and Dancing At The Tivoli…

The Tivoli building… Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard (circa 1920)

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The two story, full block Tivoli Dance Hall stood from 1901 until 1964. The bottom floor housed shops and an ice cream parlor. My godmother worked in the ice cream parlor and I always enjoyed visiting her there… one time in particular jumps to mind.

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I was 3 years old and had newly mastered winking and was anxious to put it to use.  Sitting at a table behind my mother and facing me was a sailor.  Being that I was wearing a sailor dress I figured we had something in common and so I began winking at him… it did not take long for my mother to notice.  She turned around and as she did the young sailor headed for our table.  He smiled and said he was alone on the Vineyard for the day and wanted to tell my mother how charming he thought I was (blushing here).  Not only did my mother invite him to join us at the table but she invited him home for dinner (this was mid 1940’s). I was amazed at how powerful this winking thing was.  I’ve never forgotten him… I do however keep the winking thing to a minimum.

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The entire second floor of the Tivoli Dance Hall was just that, the dance hall. It was huge, at least in the eyes of a 4 year old being dragged there against her will for a dance lesson. I did like all the windows and how far you could see out of them, I liked the clicking sound my shoes made on the floor, I loved the brand new sundress I had on …

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   …but, I did NOT like the group dancing part.  I remember reluctantly getting in line with the other victims children, but my feet did not move, they planted themselves firmly in one spot and stayed there.  Everyone danced around me but I did not care to join in, not only didn’t I dance I wouldn’t talk to anyone either.

 

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My mother was not happy with me… we did not stop for promised ice cream at the Frosty Cottage on Circuit Ave for ice cream and we didn’t come home with a sailor for dinner either.

 

 

Photo A Day Challenge (or week)…

I’ve decided to do my ‘photo a day’ weekly instead of daily. Here’s the challenge for the week of June 8 – 14.

8- Red fruit  9- Ice Cream 10- Water 11- Summer fun  12- Start with S  13- Flowers in vase  14 – Reflections

 

 

https://citysonnet.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/june-photo-a-day-challenge/

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sweet…

The prompt: What does sweet look like to you?

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It looks like this to me…

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My favorite dessert.  Frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3 in New York City.

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/sweet/

Weekly Challenge: Treat …

The prompt is: This week, share with us a photo of something that you consider a marvelous treat.

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Cliche though it may be, a treat for me was when my daughter took me into NYC and we went to Dylan’s candy store… and also stopped at Serendipity II for their famous frozen hot chocolate which I adore…and do not share :)

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/treat/


Luncheon …

Sandwich…

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Dessert… frozen hot chocolate (to die for)….

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all gone and worth every calorie…

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(Serendipity 3 in New York City)


I am Beat or Acknowledging How Much Time You Put in To Your Craft Business

I am swamped at my day job. I am the kind of busy where I am days behind on all of my projects, I accomplishing my daily tasks at an almost feverish pace, and my office is a mess because cleaning stuff up as I go takes too long. (I realize I will likely have to spend two hours cleaning it at the end of the month, but it will be two hours well-spent, let me tell you.) Then I grab the kiddo from school and try to give him my full attention til dinnertime, and then it’s back to work on Tiny Dino Studios.

While I am sure I have mentioned it before, I am trying to spend as much time on my yarn business as I do on my day job. It’s a lot easier to quantify the day job as 30 hours a week, because I am scheduled to be there. This yarn thing is another story. When a so-called hobby overlaps so closely with work, it can sometimes be difficult to draw the line between work and play. I think about it this way: if I am knitting a sock for myself out of yarn I dyed, that is not work. If I am photographing pictures of said sock and yarn for the blog, that is work. If I am designing a sock, any time I touch it anything to do with it, it’s work. I have never quite reached 30 hours a week yet, I am averaging closer to 20. Since I never seem to make it 30, I always feel like I am not doing enough. I could always be doing more, and I feel guilty for taking some time off.

This is stupid, and I am trying to stop.

I have a pretty full schedule most of the time. Yesterday, for instance was day job from 8-3, doing yarny work on my lunch break, picking Athrun up from school, Athrun time for two hours, Athrun off to his dad’s so I can go write at the coffee shop for an hour and a half and then I spent two hours teaching a knitting class. Then home for a glass of wine and bed.

It’s no wonder I’m tired today. In 13 hours, I had a two hour break with my kiddo–and while writing and knitting classes are all totally and completely fun for me to do, they are still work.

Today, I feel like sitting on the sofa and doing nothing–but I have put in 6 hours of day job and 3 1/2 hours of knitting job so far, and I feel like I should keep going. To admit that I just don’t have it in me is a battle I don’t usually win. Normally when I feel like this, I tell myself I am going to relax and do something not work related after dinner, I get through an hour before I start to feel lazy and pick up something work related to do.

The thing is, I have no reason to feel guilty or lazy.

So tonight, I am going to revel in my non-working, and congratulate myself on everything I have accomplished over the last couple of days. (And eat some damn ice cream.)

Strawberry fields forever

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Daniel had a hankering for some homemade strawberry ice cream and while I was at it I made some strawberry popsicles too. I used this recipe for the ice cream except that I used a vanilla bean in my custard (sliced in half and scraped into the pot) instead of lemon zest. It was outrageously good! The popsicles turned out very nicely too. Daniel thought they would benefit by starting out in the ice cream maker to begin the freezing process and prevent some of the crystallization. He would like them to be sweeter, I like them as they are. I suspect they’ll be even better with fresh picked berries in June.

Fresh Strawberry popsicles

12 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered

4 tablespoons honey

juice of two lemons

Place all ingredients into a blender and puree. Pour into molds, add popsicle sticks and freeze at least 4 hours.

What’s Your Superpower?



Blistering.  Today, summer finally started to show its teeth with temperatures around 102, and threatening to get worse in the next few days.  But the Barnies, gathered in the LRB, fought back with our secret weapon - four flavors of ice cream.  Oh yeah... much better.

Shielded from the heat, we spent some time mulling over an idea I had originally posted on Facebook, about the bartering/time bank concept.  A friend of mine in Los Angeles is active in a Time Bank program there, and I've been very intrigued with his reports.  This idea dovetails nicely into the thought I've had for a long time, that the JRF community could do something very similar.

In a community like ours, and many others, the members each possess lots of amazing skills, interests and passions.  They also have certain weakness or needs.  The beauty of community is that these strengths and weaknesses can fit together like puzzle pieces to form some wholeness.  Sort of like the Avengers, we can band together and take advantage of all the amazing things each one of us can do.  I help you, you help our friend, our friend helps me.  It all comes back around.  We keep the resources local, cut down on the need for cash (or debt), and we live Awesome.  Sound interesting?

We have a lot more mulling and research to do, but I think we've started a very good conversation.  To help us along, I sent a sign-up sheet around the room today, having any interested Barnies sign their name, list their skills (or Superpowers, as I like to call them) no matter how unusual, and their contact information.  We'll build from this list.  If you'd like to be included, please drop me an e-mail - the more the Awesomer.  If you have any ideas about how you think this might work, please let me know.  I'll be stewing on it too.

In the meantime, we packed the LRB with an almost-record-breaking group of friends - some old-timers and some first-timers, and shared our common thread (get it?) by knitting, crocheting, and spinning together.


Denise DOMINATED our Show and Tell time with all her State Fair entries!  Wow, has this girl been busy!


Hanane's tri-loom piece, whipped out in very short order...


Annie takes a break from her stitching while Gin continues work on her very gorgeous embroidery piece.


Lisa takes notes and Hilary spins alpaca.


Suggie knits and enjoys her first time back to the LRB in some time.


Grandma Tutu, also absent too long, joins us again with a beautiful lace piece - with the right amount of stitches on the needles!


Rita dug deeeeeep into the stash to find this bright yellow roving.


Sweet Brenda was back after an extended absence.  Life has a way of pulling us away from our true loves sometimes, but just for seasons.  


Smokey navigated all the whirling spinning wheels without getting her tail caught.  We were in awe.


Greta's soft yarn.


CJ's funny stories.


Solving sock issues.


Tutu's ride comes to fetch her.  Hiya Phil!

We are an awesome band of Avengers.  I hope you'll suit up with us to find out how we can all contribute to the shallow places in each others' lives, filling them up, rounding them out, and being filled in return.



Mid Summer Pursuits

Did I mention I started a new job? A real permanent job? I honestly can’t remember. It’s a great job with an unambiguous title: Retail Coordinator. And I get to work for Kansas–not the government, which is all around pretty good in my book–but folks it’s a lot to learn and take over all at once. I can’t sleep at night my mind is so busy processing it all. I don’t feel rushed or panicked or unhappy–quite the opposite really–I am just behind–through no fault of my own. But the catching up is taking most of my brain power, and I forget to start writing a blog post until 5 minutes before it’s time to leave for work, and we’ve all seen how well that has been working out.

The rest of my energies have gone into the following pursuits:


These peaches became ice cream. I have been experimenting with ice cream making this week, which I have never ever made before. See, I used to be baker, but then I gave up wheat (and sugar, but am less strict about this)* and baking was no longer an option unless I wanted to spend a fortune on nut flours. Ladies and gentlemen, these last few months have seen me pretty much the definition of broke. Broker than I have ever been. Nothing was purchased that was not a necessity, and fancy flour-substitutes are the definition of luxury. Given dietary restrictions, I made my ice cream with cream, evaporated milk and peaches soaked in a couple teaspoons of honey. It was good, and now it was gone. Alas, no photographs were taken of the final product, but I will be continuing to experiment.

Tonight I attempted to make Mocha Gelato, but I am pretty sure I didn’t let the mixture cool enough before churning it. The upside is that with very few ingredients, milk, honey, cocoa, instant espresso, vanilla, I created a really great tasting chocolate / coffee soup that I am freezing never-the-less hoping it doesn’t turn into ice. Less sugary substance is better. Next, I really want to attempt making ice cream from coconut milk and get rid of the dairy all together. I don’t have trouble with dairy, but I know folks who do, and I think it would be fun. Plus, I. Love. Coconut.

While it is summer and ice cream making is the appropriate thing to do, I have been doing all sorts of inappropriate things with wool.


Like knitting sweaters in 100+ degree heat.

I finished the body of the surfer tee, and only have (cap) sleeves to knit and the neckline to clean up. I knit a size I thought I might shrink down to by October and it fits perfectly now. It will still look good on me in October if I continue losing weight at this rate. After that, I will probably rip it out and knit a different sweater, because knitting sweaters is fun and I have been impressing msyself with my new ultra-economic ways.

At the same time, I have been working on my sister’s belated birthday gift.

It’s a laptop cozy for her new computer that she is taking to CHINA. With fang buttons. She will love this. Even if knitting in garter stitch for that long was a horrible idea.

Then I started a completely insane project for July.

A thick, worsted weight cabled sweater. It’s already warm in my lap, but the squishiness of the cables and the roundness of the yarn and the fact that I will have the perfect sweater finished by the time I actually need it this year when the weather turns keeps my needles going. The sweater was in the most recent WEBS catalog I received, and when I saw it, I knew it was what my Cormo Rusticus (100% cormo) yarn would become. The sweater is Pearl Street Pullover, and the yarn was a one off, but I bet they might have something fun a Juniper Moon Farm.

Thursday I try my hand a teaching my first sock knitting class. Wish me luck.

* I keep meaning to write a short post about how, after half a decade of struggling with my weight, I am finally losing it again. The easiest way to say it is that I gave up grains (yes grains, not just wheat) and sugar. I don’t think that blog post is ever going to happen in a way that I will be satisfied with. I don’t think food should be religion, and every time I try I sound like gluten-free evangelist. If you want to know how I modified my lifestyle and am losing weight, check out Mark’s Daily Apple. The lifestyle that website describes is pretty close to what I am doing, and full of great information.