Featuring my thick and nuggy Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookies, these ice cream sandwiches are the stuff that summer dreams are made of. If you've ever had the Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich at Disneyland , you are going to LOVE these! These big and bold chocolate chip cookies are based on a recipe from my culinary school studies at Auguste Escoffier, but with a few modifications to give them that Jennuine touch. They make the perfectas book for a fat slice of real vanilla bean ice cream. And those mini chips? You just gotta have that extra cronch! Thank goodness this recipe only makes 8 sandwiches, otherwise I would be eating them for breakfast lunch and dinner. This way, my big family can help save me from my inner child diet-saboteur. Print With Image Without Image Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches Yield: 8 Author: Jenn Erickson Loaded with chocolate chips and buttery, brown-sugary vanilla flavor, these mall-sized cookies form a perfect partnership with a
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HALLOWEEN SCAVENGER HUNT ~ Free PDF!
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Last year for my daughter's 7th birthday she requested that her party include a scavenger hunt. My husband and I had a lot of fun just putting the list of items together. We combed the internet, drove around town seeking inspiration, and went into a few local stores and public buildings making arrangements with the people who worked there. What resulted was an outrageously fun time for about twenty of my daughter's friends, plus their parents, siblings, and even some grandparents.
What I loved about this party was that it got everyone outdoors in the fresh air, moving around, seeing our hometown from a new perspective. It required teamwork and strategy, creative thinking and a good sense of humor. We live in the small Victorian town of Pacific Grove, California. Folks that know ol' "PG" will know right away that I likely reside in a "cottage", "bungalow", or "Victorian Charmer", all euphamisms for teeny-tiny-house-on-a-postage-stamp-lot. So, it's especially nice that with this type of party, you don't have to worry about paring down your guest list since most of the activities take place around town. Everyone convened back at our place after about an hour; lists were reviewed; prizes handed out; and then we enjoyed some of my husband's I-think-I-might-have-died-and-gone-to-hick'ry-pit-heaven BBQ.
If you're not off daydreaming about good BBQ, you're probably wondering what this has to do with Halloween. Okay, here's the deal: The birthday party Scavenger Hunt was such a success (based on feedback from all participants) that we decided to do it again for Halloween. The Halloween Scavenger Hunt turned out to be such a blast, that we decided to make it an annual event.
With candy corn & costume time just around the corner, I figured I'd post a free PDF of our Halloween Scavenger Hunt list for anyone out there who might be interested in rounding up a few friends, getting a little extra mileage out of those Halloween costumes, and starting a tradition of their own.
Here are some tips/guidelines:
1) Teams: you can either create teams based on your RSVP list or let your guests form their own teams.
2) Ask each team to bring a digital camera.
3) You can give bonus points to teams that come in costume.
4) We give each team an identical bag of "tricks" which includes their scavenger lists, pens & pencils, and some props. One of our favorite props is a roll of toilet paper. One of the scavenger hunt items involves wrapping a team member in the entire roll like a mummy, standing in front of a local museum.
5) Take a walking or driving tour around your town to get ideas to add some local flavor to your hunt.
6) Depending on your neighborhood, you may want to give your teams the option of using their car.
7) Send all the teams out at the same time and give them a return time. We typically give the teams an hour.
We'd love to hear your original ideas for Halloween Scavenger Hunt items in the "Comment" section below.
Thanks for sharing!
*photos appear courtesy of Holly at 504 Main, who participated in last year's hunt
Our valley is simply bursting with wildflowers and foliage at this time of year. I've been making point of getting outside a little bit every day for for a nature walk around our property, identifying various flora and finding ways to use them to add beauty, whimsy and flavor to the foods my family enjoys. Enter: The Blue Fiesta Flower, a member of the Borage (Baraginaceae) family. These are larger than the Borage blossoms typically used for garnish, but they have a similar lemony-cucumber flavor with a touch of sweetness. They bloom March through May in Central through Southern California and as far South as Nevada and Western Arizona. They can be found on mountain slopes, streambanks, woodland, coastal bluff and desert scrubland. Contrary to their name, they are purple. To enjoy the Blue Fiesta Flower, gently wash in cold water before use. Remove the bit of bristly green just behind the petals (sepal & receptacle). Keep refrigerated if not using immedia
Who doesn't love a pie that you can eat with one hand while vacuuming, updating a resume, getting a child down for a nap, helping another child with a history report, and folding laundry with the other? Clearly, only people who don't like pie, and this isn't for them. This is for us: Pie People. For me, the pocket pie obsession started in childhood with the iconic, mouth scalding MacDonalds apple pies. If you were around in the 1970s, you'll remember: crisp & flaky, buttery & slightly salty, with blistered crusts that concealed a molten center of perfect apple pie filling. If you possessed the willpower to wait for the lava interior to cool, you were rewarded with the greatest American invention since the fast food burger AND the apple pie together, which in a weird sort of way, they were; after all, they were fried in beef fat. Those things were pure magic (or at least that's what my 6-year old self thought). These days, I'
I recall, as a child, going to The Chart House restaurant and looking forward to the basket of freshly baked breads. My favorite was always the dark brown, slightly sweet bread that the servers called "Squaw Bread". I've heard that a similar bread is served at The Cheesecake Factory. The name has gone out of fashion, since "squaw" is a derogatory term for a Native American woman. The history of this bread can in fact trace its roots to Native American origins when German pioneers combined their traditional German Brown Bread recipe with ingredients available to them through trades with the native people during their westward travels. No matter how you slice it, this New World German Brown Bread is easy to bake and so wonderfully delicious to eat. Print With Image Without Image New World German Brown Bread Yield: 1 large loaf Author: Jenn Erickson Prep time: 1 H & 50 M Cook time: 45 M Total time: 1 H &am
