Toasted challah and Nutella swirl ice cream

We declared this to be the "summer of ice cream". So we found the absolute easiest basic ice cream recipe available (only two ingredients and no ice cream maker needed!) and made it our own with a play on the flavors of a crunchy slice of toast spread with creamy hazelnut Nutella.

We were so pleased with how easy this was to make, but even better, it was super delicious! We can't wait to try all sorts of flavor variations. The brainstorming has already begun.

Here is the recipe:

Toasted Challah and Nutella Swirl Ice Cream

Basic ice cream:

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

Whip cream with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. With mixer on low, slowly pour in condensed milk until it's fully incorporated.

(At this point you could pop the mixture in the freezer for 6-8 hours and it would come out a perfect ice cream consistency. However, it's more fun to add some flavors now and then freeze it.)

5 slices challah bread
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup Nutella (softened in the microwave or on the stovetop)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Cut the bread into 1/4 inch cubes. Spread in a single layer on a baking pan and put in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until toasted and golden brown. Remove from oven and drizzle with the melted butter until coated evenly. Fold the toast cubes into the ice cream base.

Pour 1/3 of the ice cream mixture in a pan. (We froze our ice cream in a standard bread loaf pan because the quantity fit perfectly in it.) Drizzle 1/2 of the Nutella on top. Add 1/2 of the remaining ice cream mixture on top of the Nutella and drizzle the remainder of the Nutella on top. Finish with the remainder of the ice cream mixture. Then gently run a butter knife through the mixture to swirl the Nutella throughout. (Don't overmix!)

Freeze the ice cream for 6-8 hours or overnight, if you can wait that long before eating it!

Wheat field

Here's a quick post from a photo shoot two days ago. Karen and Jesse wanted some family photos done in film, so we drove out to a wheat field and snapped a few. Laramie took a couple shots with his new GoPro, which are the pictures you see here.

Be sure to head over to their photography blog to see what else they've been up to!

--Kelly

E's Room

Hi there! We've been enjoying a fantastic, hectic summer... and it's only the tenth of June! I love how we wait all year for the warm weather to arrive and then we cram it full of activity because we want to take advantage of every second.  I've probably said it before, but it's true... summer in Montana is amazing!

Not so long ago, when it was cold and I was very pregnant (!), I took some time to prepare a sweet nursery for our sweet baby, Eden (though at the time we didn't know we were having a girl!) We're excited that Eden's nursery is being featured today over on Apartment Therapy.  Here are a few sneak peaks, but go visit Apartment Therapy to see all the pictures!

Tulle circle skirt

Well, the last time we blogged, Eden was still in her mama's belly, and we had no idea even that she was a girl. And now look at her! A chubby 3+ month old. She is ever fashionable in red skinny jeans, while her mama shows off her tulle circle skirt. Here are a few pictures of the project:

^^Cutting out one layer of lining and four layers of tulle, using a circle skirt pattern from a skirt I made last fall. Here's a good reference for making your own pattern.

^^Arranging and pinning all the layers to prepare for sewing on an elastic waistband. The waist was just the right size that Karen could slip the skirt on over her head and we didn't need to add any buttons or other fasteners.

^^The seamstress hard at work!

^^The finished product (along with cute chubby baby feet).

^^Just because you can't have too many pictures of baby E :)

--Kelly

Kelamie on film

Remember this pretty evening? Well, Jesse and I took some photos of Kelly and Laramie (celebrity couple name - Kelamie) also, but since they were taken with film, we didn't get to actually see them until this past week. Film is a tricky and difficult medium... sometimes the pictures are so beautiful they make you giddy, other times it's all disappointment when you finally get those film scans back.  These ones were somewhere in between. Kelly and Laramie themselves were lovely of course, and the night couldn't have been more beautiful.

Jesse and I both love film photography, but it's definitely a skill to be cultivated. It's nice to have sweet family who are patient with us when we want to practice on them:)

Lemon curd

Yes, the word "curd" doesn't sound like something super appetizing to eat, but hear us out. We made lemon curd, also sometimes called lemon butter, and it was delicious. Here's the recipe:

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces

In a saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and the whole eggs until combined. Add the lemon juice, zest, and a pinch of salt and mix until just combined. Add the sugar and whisk until combined, then set over medium heat. Add the butter pieces and stir the mixture constantly until all of the butter melts and the mixture thickens and reaches about 170 degrees.

Remove the curd from the heat and pour into a fine mesh sieve set over a clean glass bowl. Use a spoon to help push the mixture through the sieve. Allow to cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Recipe adapted from here.

In my opinion, the best way to eat it is a spoonful at a time, right out of the jar. ^^

Autumn in Bozeman

A while ago (and by 'a while ago', I really mean 'two months ago') Kelly and I and our sister-in-law Meg went out for an afternoon with cameras in tow, determined to find some pretty fall leaves to photograph.  

We had one of those falls here in Bozeman where the cold snap hits early, causing a lot of the leaves to just kind of turn brown and fall off before they ever get a chance to change into pretty colors.  It was a wee bit disappointing, but we managed to hunt down a few trees that were ever so beautiful and take some pictures.  Even in a not-so-perfect autumn, we live in an incredibly beautiful place!

Blurry baby belly! ^^

And yeah, we finished with the best chai ever from Rockford Coffee. It just tastes like fall:)