Ice Cream Bread vs Ice Cream Cake

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. He recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by over 90 percent of the nation's population. In the proclamation, President Reagan called for all people of the United States to observe these events with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."
The International Ice Cream Association (IICA) encourages retailers and consumers to celebrate July as National Ice Cream Month. In 2015, National Ice Cream Day will be Sunday, July 19. (source)

Back in July, while it was still National Ice Cream month, and while we had company to help us eat up our experiments, we decided to try out a couple of ice cream themed recipes floating around online.

The first - a two ingredient, ice cream bread recipe, we found on Myrecipes.com (though it's been posted and reposted often enough, I'm not sure where it originated) turned out to be not too bad.

All it calls for is a pint of the ice cream flavor of your choice, softened...

...mixed together with 1 and 1/2 cups of self-rising flour (cheating just a little to meet that "two ingredient" claim).

We chose butter pecan ice cream for our bread, which we baked according to the recipe for 45 minutes at 350°F in a sprayed 8x4'' loaf pan.  However, I happened to see someone else using a pineapple coconut ice cream, that also sounded very yummy.

 Our bread didn't rise much...

...but served with warm, with cinnamon honey butter (softened butter with cinnamon and honey stirred in to taste)...

...it was, as I think I've already said, not too bad.  We will keep this recipe to try again.  If nothing else it's quick and easy, and makes a passable quick bread, which will be nice on snowy winter afternoons, with a cup of hot chocolate.

As for the second recipe we came across - ice cream cake - which calls for a cake mix, three eggs, and a softened pint of ice cream (we opted for chocolate cake, and cherry cordial ice cream)...

...we missed the moistening effect of the oil called for on the cake box.  The cake was dry, and quite frankly, a little blaw.  Maybe it was our flavor choices, but we all agreed, the ice cream would have added more flavor, and better texture, served along with, rather than in the cake.  After a few sample pieces, we tossed the left-overs (which says a lot in a house with three resident, and two visiting, teenagers).  Still the mind-boggling number of ice cream and cake mix combinations out there, might yet tempt us to try this one again.

VBS-ersice!

If you're a regular reader here you might have wondered if we fell off the map this summer.  The answer is no, but we did take a "Journey Off the Map"...

...helping with our church's Vacation Bible School, followed by a fabulous week of company (old friends from home), some barbecues (new friends from here), and time to get to know our new neighbors (lots of children for the younger girls to meet).

All in all, it's been a very active, if non-bloggy, sort of summer.  And, as a bonus, I now have a great play-list of songs to use for this winter's phys-ed. Don't knock it till you try it...



...two years ago, I lost five pounds practicing the VBS songs with the children (true story) - they are quite a work-out. I didn't loose any this summer, but I didn't gain any either, and considering it was National Ice Cream month, and we had company - I'm still counting it a success.

Plus, the children loved VBS, whether as students (the younger three) or helpers (the teens), so they can't help but jump up and move as soon as the first beats of that theme music begins to play.  We'll be sad to say good-bye to summer, but we're looking forward to taking a little of it with us through the winter.

Chalk Games on The Patio - Dots and Boxes

One of the fun things about summer is taking normal, everyday, indoor games and activities - outside.


So, for instance, after we realized our chalk lines would not stop ants on our dilapidated, back patio, we set up a game of dots and boxes, instead.


I've posted about the game before (a super-sized indoor version), but just in case you're unfamiliar with the rules, they are simple.


Just draw out a quick grid of dots with as many rows or columns as you like (the larger the grid, the longer the game).

Then take turns drawing lines.  Each player draws one line (vertical or horizontal)  between two of the adjoining dots.

If you happen to draw a line that closes in a box, you mark the box with your initial, and take another turn.  The winner is the player with the most boxes marked with their initial when all the squares are closed.

Dots and boxes is usually played as a boredom buster on scraps of paper inside (in a waiting room, or when the sermon runs a little long)...

...but moves outside into the fresh air with ease.

Summer Science - Will Ants Cross a Line of Chalk?

I was on Pinterest the other day, searching out some fabulous thing or other, when I happened across a photo of ants running a chalk maze.  Clicking through to the original article from the Examiner (you might notice one eyebrow raising if you could see me, and if I could actually raise just one eyebrow), I was informed that ants will not, or don't care to cross lines of chalk, and so if a chalk maze is drawn around them, they will move through the maze rather than crossing the lines of chalk.

C (age 10) informed me that wouldn't work.  Apparently, back in her younger days, she used to draw circles around ants with her chalk, to try to trap them (they were playing a lot of Zoo Empire back then).  According to C, her ants would act trapped and confused for a few minutes, but then they would cross the chalk, out of the circle, and continue on their way.

We proceeded outside to find the first ant we could (it happened to be on our very dilapidated back patio - which isn't really good for chalk, but good enough for our purposes).  Just as C thought, when confronted with a line of chalk, the ant did at first act upset and confused - it even started out walking our quickly drawn maze.

 But, after a few seconds it tired of the game, grew used to the chalk, and walked right across the lines.

So, it would appear, that while ants might be momentarily disturbed by a line of chalk (or just about anything) placed in their path, and it might slow them down - in the end, it won't stop them.  Ants will, most certainly, cross a line of chalk.

Crochet Glow in the Dark Frisbee and Wristbands

I came across some glow in the dark yarn (non-affiliate link) when I searching out something fun to send in a surprise package to the girls at camp.  The yarn wasn't what I was looking for for a camp care package, but I thought it might be fun to have on hand for when the girls return with their buddy K in tow for a summer visit.

Like most specialty yarns, it's sort of expensive for the small amount, 120 yards or about 50 grams, of thin, cotton-type yarn that you get, but I figure we can unravel and reuse it in various projects, as needed.

For a first test project, I tried out a quick crochet frisbee pattern I found on Craftster.org (I love free patterns).  The pattern suggested crocheting with two strands of yarn.  Even so, I wasn't sure the yarn would be sturdy enough for a frisbee.

It worked out great though, and after several test throws (throwing and snapping pictures at the same time)...

...I was satisfied the frisbee would fly...

...sort of like a floppy pancake...

...but still well enough to make it across a room.

Then, I moved on to wristbands - first with a crochet pattern from, here, and then switching over to a garter stitch (knitting every row, all knits and no pearls) on a pair of #2 knitting needles.  The garter stitch is stretchier, and easier to get on and off than the crochet.

Of course, the purpose of the wristbands is so we can see where we're throwing our glowing frisbee to, when the lights go out.

I have a few more wristbands to make, but the boys and I gave our night frisbee a test run in the basement, before bed last night - and it was a blast.

More Beetles (and their larvae) In the Backyard

European Ground Beetle - Wikipedia

No, the freaky bug at the top of this post is not an escapee from Ceti Alpha V...

...but just the larva (think caterpillar) of a harmless, and helpful, European immigrant - Carabus nemoralis or the common, European Ground Beetle.

Like other beetles from the the Carabidae (or ground beetle) family, they don't fly.  But, they do eat insects from your yard. 

This guy is from our backyard.

We've spotted several larvae around the house, too (the latest was in our utility room).  I don't have any pictures to show you though (thus the Wikipedia shot at the top). I was too busy smashing them (before I knew what they were) to stop and take any pictures, because I have seen Wrath of Khan, after all.

Now that we know what they are though, we'll be implementing a capture and release program for any others we find in the house.  With more than 40,000 ground beetles worldwide, 2,000 residing in the US (and even more in Europe), you're bound to run into one or two, this summer, too.

If you're interested in knowing more about them, you might want to check out:

BioKIDs Critter Catalogue,
the Ground Beetle page from Bumblebee.org (a lot of very good information, here),
or watch the short videos from the ground beetle page of BBC Nature Wildlife site.

McMinion Math

Update:  Below is the contents of the email I received back from McDonald's.  At this point I'm assuming the puzzle is a misprint.  Even so, if you happen to see 96 triangles, I'd love to know the solution.
  
Thank you for contacting McDonald's and sharing your comments with us. We greatly appreciate this opportunity to address your concerns.

I'm sorry you were disappointed recently with the puzzle on our Minion themed Happy Meal box . At every McDonald's we strive to deliver 100-percent Total Customer Satisfaction. However, it appears as though we've failed to deliver these standards to you. I apologize that I do not have a solution to the puzzle to share with you.

Because you are a valued customer, I have shared your comments with our Quality Assurance team. They work closely with our suppliers to ensure that all of our products meet our quality standards. Your complete satisfaction is one of our top priorities.

Again, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We hope to have the opportunity of serving you again.


Well, I have to admit to being  Mc-stumped.  I ordered the tweens, McDonald's Happy Meals for lunch - sort of as a joke, since they outgrew Happy Meals some time ago.  (Okay, maybe it was because I wanted to hear what the Minion toys actually had to say).


Original Post:
Anyway, the puzzle at the top of this page was printed on the side of the box.  The kids took a couple of seconds counting triangles, and then turned back to their burgers and fries, content to trust the Minion (Phil? or Tom?) that the "pyramid" was made up of 96 triangles.

I wanted proof.  So, I copied the triangle, made up of 16 small triangles, 96 times to make a worksheet...

...to color in, so it would be easy to see that we weren't getting any duplicate triangles in our count.  I figured I'd work on it alone, find the solution, and then challenge the tweens to take an real stab at it.  The only problem was that I didn't find 96 triangles, I only found 27.

Of course, the Minion said there were 96 triangles in the "pyramid" not the "big triangle".  So, I tried again working with the shape as a four sided pyramid (or tetrahedron)...

...which would flatten out as in the picture below.  However, 27 triangles on each side, times 4 sides, equals 108 - not 96.

And, I briefly considered a five sided, square bottomed, pyramid, but that would take figuring the area of the square bottom divided by the area of the smallest triangles, and not only did that come out uneven, and greater than 96 (something like 101 triangles), it seemed a little convoluted for the target age of children normally ordering Happy Meals.

My children are content to believe it is probably supposed to be more of a "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop" sort of question - one meant to be enjoyed, and fudged, rather than solved.  Just to be sure, I emailed McDonald's and ask for a solution.

While I'm waiting, what do you think?  Is the pyramid made of 96 triangles, or not?