Best Ice Cream EVER.

Easily the best ice cream ever: David Lebovitz’s Salted Butter Caramel.

The recipe is found here (along with gorgeous pictures and witty commentary, of course). 

It was definitely a bit challenging, since I’ve never made caramel before, but the results were absolutely worth it.

It was so delicious, that we didn’t even get any finished product pictures! 

lots of milk and cream...

stir quickly and carefully!

add butter...

and cream

crunchy caramel candy for stirring into ice cream

chilling in an ice bath

The Frame Project

Another one of my summer projects has been to get some photos from our wedding framed and put up in the house. We bought our house furnished and that included a lot of random wall art…Mostly, we love the furnishings, but there were certain things that we just felt sort of ‘meh’ about. When we first moved in, we were about to get married and I was starting graduate school, so, needless to say, we didn’t have a lot of time for interior design!

As soon as summer began, photo arrangements became my new obsession. I have to admit, it took me a LONG time to decide on a design. I used a lot of online tools and photos for inspiration…like these:   

Once I narrowed down which pictures I wanted to hang, I had them printed in various sizes (to determine which I liked best). Then I bought a lot of frames (A LOT OF FRAMES). Mostly they came from Target and Aaron Brothers, but a few were random selection…

Next, I took over our living room, dining room, guest room, and my office. I laid out the frames at least one bajillion times before I decided on designs.

I read a great tip to buy some butcher paper and outline the frames on the butcher paper, then tape the paper to the wall, so you know exactly where to nail. I attempted that, but ultimately decided to mostly wing it, with a hammer, nails, a yardstick and a level.

Here’s the finished result,

 I also did this in my office, with more whimsical frames and photos from our travels.

Office frames:

 

I’m pretty happy with the results, overall. I do have to admit that I nearly had a panic attack the first time I nailed a nail into the wall. All those holes! In MY house! But, my dad convinced me it would be okay…and I’m glad he did! Slowly, but surely, our house is becoming more OURS! 


Here's some quirky dog behavior witnessed last night at the dinner table. Frank often jumps up and sits behind one of us (in between ass and chair back) and tries to weasel his way into a bite of our dinner. Last night I caught a picture:

See that little head with bulging eyeball trying to squeeze through Jeremy's armpit? Yep. 

Hello and would you like some ice cream?

Hello! I’m Rachel. I’m newlywed, crafty, domestic, and usually hungry. My husband, Jeremy, and I recently bought our first house and adopted a dachshund/mutt, whom we named Frank.  Frank is the quirkiest dog I’ve ever known. Jeremy and I are pretty quirky, too, so we make a nice family.

Jeremy and I both dive into projects wholeheartedly. Jeremy’s “projects” usually are TV shows, movies, sports, or music. Jeremy’s most recent obsession is anything on HBO-GO. Currently we’re watching Game of Thrones. My projects are usually crafty and/or domestic. My most recent obsession has been making ice cream.

In the last week or so, we’ve watched 6 episodes of Game of Thrones and I’ve made 4 different types of ice cream.

I have these two books:

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream by Jeni Britton Bauer

The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

and enjoy them both. Visually, Jeni’s book is really stunning. Her flavors tend to be more unique, and while I find them delicious, my Midwesterner husband tends to lean towards more run-of-the-mill ice cream flavors.

So far I’ve made:

Spicy Aztec Hot Chocolate (from The Perfect Scoop)

Savannah Buttermint (from Jeni’s)

Watermelon Lemonade Sorbet (from Jeni’s)

Malted Milk (from The Perfect Scoop)

Jeremy’s favorites are Malted Milk and Watermelon Lemonade. I think mine might be the Buttermint. Next up I’d like to try some Basil Lemon ice cream…and use fresh herbs from the herb garden I just planted!

What are your summer projects?