Elijah had been asking if we could make chocolate chip cookies. I finally took him up on his request. This is also a great chance to put my KitchenAid to good use





Done





I had to make some cookies that would be a quick eat. I planned the pan cookies for our Journey Home picnic that was coming up.



I couldn't hold them back any longer




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Easy Eclair

Thank you to Judy Johnson for this terrific dessert. I still remember when I was a kid and I stayed the night at Jer's house (Judy is Jer's step-mom). Judy would sometimes make this dessert for us. She also has a neat method for making cinnamon rolls, but that is for another blog post.

Coconut-Caramel Candy Bars

I bought yeast from King Arthur Flour and then they sent me a million magazines. Okay, not really a million, but one every quarter. The company is pretty neat and they sell some very nice tools. Les saw the picture for this dessert and we bought the ingredients right away. It only took me about six months to finally make this dessert.

If you tackle this application, you can find the recipe here. Oh, here are my tips

• 30 minutes baking didn't seem like enough. The cookie had a nice hard shell and I should have brought it out, but instead I kept baking it. This made the cookie very hard.
• Let the crust cool a bit and then try to take it out of the pan. If you don't, then it will be a bear to cut it out later at the party. It is good to get attention that you made a great dessert, but it isn't a good to get that attention because you used a chain saw to cut the thing.
• The chocolate was very soft and never really set up. This is only a warning. It was very yummy, just a bit messy.
• The caramel was too tough. I had never melted caramel candies before and nuking them candied them a little too much, so be careful.
• These tips aren't that bad. It was a great dessert.
• I got a lot of great feedback on the coconut. It was a great touch.

Enjoy.






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Alton Brown did a neat Good Eats show on ice cream. It is called Churn, Baby, Churn II. I highly recommend it. Here is my attempt at following the instructor.

One bummer about this whole thing is that I started making the mix on Friday night which is when I normally play America's Army with my brother and friends. I missed a lot of game time, but I hope it is worth it.

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While the creams are scalding, I whipped the eggs so they can hold the sugar that is going to be added next.

The next morning

It is time to bring the chilled ice cream mixture out of the frig and churn it in the machines

Both of my ice cream machines are from my grandma on Les's side. I have a Cuisinart and a VillaWare machine. I do not recommend the VillaWare.


Mint Chocolate Chip


Chocolate


Do you like my little helper? (or thief?)


Rebekah was the 'lucky' one to be present at clean up

Time to eat

We had the Meldrums over for dessert. Chris gave me a weird compliment -- "It takes like Dryers"



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