Win-the-Day Ice Cream Sandwiches
One evening not too long ago my adult daughter was home for a weekend visit. We were watching TV when she suddenly exclaimed (with great enthusiasm I might add): “I forgot! At this house you get dessert every night!” While that may not be exactly true (what? Dessert at my house? Nah) … I’ll admit that it’s a rare day when there’s no ice cream in my freezer. I inherited my love of ice cream from my dad. Growing up, the regular for our family of seven was rectangular cartons of store-brand ice cream. In later years, my dad stocked his freezer with a minimum of four half-gallon cartons of Dreyer’s or Umpqua, or whatever was on sale, ice cream in the latest crazy mixtures. I’m more of a purist when it comes to my ice cream. I don’t want more than two things going on inside that tub. My top three: Haagen Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond, Haagen Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Tillamook Coffee Almond Fudge. I’m also always up for visiting (even standing in the rain) the local ice cream shop. In college it was Prince Puckler's. When in Portland it’s Salt and Straw and here in Seattle it’s Molly Moon’s. After 30-plus years of living with me, my husband has perfected being my ice cream partner-in-crime. This year his birthday fell on college football Saturday. (Did I mention that the Oregon Ducks won the day beating Ohio State for the first time in history?) Extra points for my homemade ice cream sandwiches. Think super rich and scoopable dark chocolate ice cream (inspired by Molly Moon Melted Chocolate) layered with old fashioned vanilla ice cream sandwiched inside made-from-scratch chocolate cookies with just the right texture.
Spaghetti and Tiramisu Birthday Cake
Another trip around the sun and we are still in pandemic mode. At times it feels like we’ve lost a year (going on two). But in reality—a lot has happened since this all started. Life goes on and we’ve all had to find creative ways to celebrate special events in our lives. My daughter turned 30 earlier this month, which made me reflect on all the birthdays we’ve celebrated. I was the mom who started months in advance with planning a themed birthday party for my kids. My daughter was more into it than my son (go figure). Fast forward to my daughter’s 30th. We were traveling over her birthday, so once we were back to our respective homes, I wanted to properly celebrate with a birthday dinner and cake. She lives three hours away, so the transportation of said cake needed to be considered. I decided to make spaghetti-sauce-to-go and a tiramisu cake that could travel without too much trouble.
80th birthday picnic: pulled pork, potato salad & cakes
Recipes for Amy’s Barbecue Sauce and Shirley’s Potato Salad
We recently celebrated my mom’s 80th birthday with a family picnic at Wayne Morris Ranch in Eugene. The picnic shelter includes limited kitchen facilities (sink, stovetop and outlets) but no barbecue grills. So, we decided on a menu of pulled pork sandwiches, an assortment of salads, baked beans and birthday cake! My sisters and I made all the food between us. For the pulled pork, we used the recipe for barbecue sauce from my friend (and work-twin) who self-named her recipe: Amy’s Famous Barbecue Sauce for Pulled Pork Sandwiches. We had a variety of salads including coleslaw, fruit salad, tomato-basil pasta salad and my mom’s potato salad recipe — Shirley’s Potato Salad. Our dessert table included German chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting, lemon cake and funfetti cupcakes. Anyone who knows our family, knows one dessert option is not enough!