I made a chocolate and vanilla ice cream bombe (bombe glacée) for Big E’s 11th birthday last month.  This is a simple and delicious dessert that requires no special pan.

You will need:

2 cartons of ice cream (I used chocolate and vanilla)
1 package of Oreos
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
A large bowl
Plastic wrap

Take out the first carton of ice cream to soften.  This will be the top layer of your finished bombe.  I used chocolate.

Line your bowl with plastic wrap, both ways (top-to-bottom and side-to-side).  This is your mold.  Leave enough wrap hanging over to wrap the finished bombe.

Put your ice cream into your stand mixer and mix it with the paddle attachment to give it a smooth, spreadable consistency.  This step is optional, but it does make the spreading easier.

Spread the ice cream into the mold, creating a bowl shape.  Leave a space at the top.

Place one row of Oreos into a food processor and pulse into crumbs.  Spread crumbs over the entire chocolate ice cream layer.

Put your bowl into the freezer to set the layer.  It does not need to be totally hard, just hard enough to withstand putting on the second layer.

Prior to talking the bombe out of the freezer, take out the vanilla ice cream (or other second flavor) and let it soften.  Then put it in the mixer, as you did with the chocolate.

Spread the vanilla ice cream so it is flat in the mold, leaving room for the final layer of crumbs.

Process another row of Oreos and press the crumbs into the top of the bombe.  Cover with the over-hanging plastic wrap and put in the freezer until fully hardened.

Before removing the bombe from the freezer, make the whipped cream icing by whipping the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until a stiff, spreadable consistency.

Dip the bottom of the bowl in hot water to loosen the bombe and invert it onto a plate or pizza pan lined with a parchment circle.  (Put the plate upside down onto the bowl, then flip the whole thing.)

Frost the entire bombe with the whipped cream icing.  Freeze again to set the frosting.  If you don’t plan to eat it right away, you can cover it with wrap after the icing is frozen.

Your bombe is now ready to eat!

Yum!

Quick personal update.

My hands are doing much better.  It turns out that I have joint hypermobility, with is a fancy way of saying that I am double-jointed.  I tend to hold my hands (and knees) in funky, unnatural positions and at my old age of 33, my tendons are very angry about it and fighting back.  I have to wear wrist braces and re-learn how to position my hands.  My tendons are much happier now, though I do get flare-ups now and then.

I stopped doing Weight Watchers, so there will be no Weight Watchers Wednesday.  (I know!  That was short.)  I am using a holistic - whole body/mind/spirit - approach to overall wellness.  I feel wonderful and have lost 7 pounds.  After I have been doing it for a while, I will tell you all about it.

I am sorry that I stopped blogging (again).  At first it was my hand, but now it is the summer!  We have been out so much.  Blogging will be sparing for the next month or two.  Gotta grab those Vermont summers while they last.  They are quite short!

I am no longer going to be doing my political blog, though, so I will have more time for ATHT and for connecting with you all.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!

I have not been online much lately because I am having a lot of joint pain in my hand and wrist.  I see a rheumatologist Friday to find out what is going on.  It hurts if I type too much, though, which is a bummer, since I like to blog.

We decided not to move, as we were planning.  I talked to the landlord and, since she hasn’t rented our apartment yet, we can renew our lease.  We decided to wait a year and save money.  Bob was having trouble finding a new job in the city we wanted to move to.  We are going to save up to have enough to move next year.  We will not be renewing our lease again!  I really want to move, but I can wait a year.  We have a list of things we want to do while we are still here, so it’s not all bad.  We are in a good spot to save money, too, since our rent here is pretty low.  And the economy is supposed to be rebounded by first or second quarter of next year, which is when Bob will need to find a new job, so it’s perfect timing.

Speaking of things we want to do, I am doing Weight Watchers again.  I have not lost any weight in quite a while.  In fact, I put on a little.  I need to lose some serious weight and WW is the easiest way to track my food intake.  I have a love-hate relationship with WW for some reason.  But, I am beginning to think I just hate the work it takes.  My biggest problem is that I am rather comfortable being fat, so it is hard to get motivated.  And, in case you can’t tell by this blog, I love good food.  (Good tasting, that is.)  I am not trying to look better - although that would be nice.  I think I look fine.  I just am getting to an age where I could start to develop health problems if I don’t get my weight under control.  I think being happy with the way I look makes it harder to change it.

I think summer is a great time to start a diet.  For one thing, there are so many yummy, healthy foods in season, like berries and melons.  Also, the hot weather makes heavy foods seem unappetizing.  Plus, I hate baking in the summer, and if you look at some of the posts on this page, you will see that baking is bad for my waistline.  Finally, it is easy to get out and get moving when the weather is so fine.  Vermont winters are not conducive to outdoor activity - too cold!

So, I will probably start back up with the Weight Watchers Wednesday posts, where I post my loss (or gain) from the previous week and a recipe, tip, or other info I want to share.

That’s all for now.  Enjoy your day!

Another cookie recipe from Everyday Food, this time the April 2009 issue.

You may have noticed that I make a lot of Martha Stewart recipes.  That’s because (1) the two magazines I subscribe to are MS Living and Everyday Food and (2) I have never made a Martha Stewart recipe that was not awesome.  She is great.  Her people are great.  The recipes they come up with are great.

I admit, though, there is a whole world of recipes out there I should be exploring.

On to the good stuff.

I made the Chocolate ‘n’ Cream Sandwich Cookies.  They were great.  The filling was spot on for an Oreo knock-off, except that it is made with real butter, which is double good.

The cookies were not as crunchy as they should have been, but I think that was because they needed to be cooked a bit longer.  When I cooked the scraps, they were crunchier and a good Oreo clone, but better.

Overall, this was a yummy cookie, the kids loved them, and they don’t contain any of the junk you find in store-bought cookies.

And now, the pictures.

Cutting the dough.

Cooling the cookies.

Making the filling.

Sandwich cookies!

This post is about poop, so if you don’t have little kids, you might not appreciate it.  Seriously, skip it.  It gets kind of gross.

Little E (age 5) woke up early Saturday morning to diarrhea in his pants.  That trend continued all day long.  No, I mean ALL day long.  That poor guy was on the toilet for at least 10 bouts of diarrhea that day.

Oh, and he had to hold a bowl, too, because at least a few of those times, he was simultaneously vomiting.

He’s still sick, but he had a solid poop yesterday - for the first time - and has not thrown up in a couple of days.  He’s still really, really tired and I do not have him on a regular diet yet.

He had no food Saturday.  (He couldn’t even keep down water.)  Sunday, we went back to regular food, until he threw it all back up.  (Yes, that was stupid, but I paid for my stupidity by having to clean up puke at midnight and then waking up to diarrhea in MY bed at 6 AM.)  Monday, he was on an all liquid diet, per doctor’s instructions.  Tuesday, still mostly liquid, but some rice and bread, and an Edy’s Whole Fruit pureed strawberry pop.  Today, bread, dry cereal, fruit, and he even had some boiled pot stickers for dinner.  So far so good.  I am still keeping him away from dairy, fat, and meat, although the pot stickers had chicken in them.

What saved my sanity during his all day poop-a-thon was overnight pull-up diapers.  I bought them once, ages ago, when he peed the bed twice in a row, but he never had to wear them because it was a fluke.  After he soiled himself 3 or 4 times, I realized that it was going to be a long day of washing diarrhea out of his pants if I didn’t do something.

The pull-ups (not the “pull-ups” brand, store brand) worked great.  I even figured out a great way to remove them - sit him on the toilet before ripping the sides off.  That way, the mess is contained.  (And have a bag on hand to put it in.)

I hate to share this gross story, but if your child ever gets this sick and can’t hold it in, you’ll thank me for the tip.

Lately, I have been seeing a lot of inchies on the crafting blogs I frequent.  I had never heard of them before.

What are inchies?  They are 1″ X 1″ squares of fabric, paper, or whatever medium you use, embellished with, well, whatever!

I found a great PDF article from quiltingarts.com with pictures of some beautiful inchies, a tutorial of how to make your own fabric inchies, and some suggestions of what to do with them.

I want to make some of these.  Maybe that will be my fall craft this year.

My mom loves lemon, so when I saw the Glazed Lemon Cookies in this month’s Everyday Food, I knew I had to make them for her for Mother’s Day.

If you love lemon, you have to try these.  The glaze is super lemony - almost too lemony for me - but the cookies are exquisite.  If you do make the glaze, you really only need to make a half recipe and you will have plenty for the cookies.

I packaged them in a tin that I found at Michaels craft store.  I lined it with parchment, cut to fit using decorative edge scissors, and decorated the tin with ribbon, also from Michaels.  They have some really nice ribbons for $1 that are great to have around for this sort of thing.

My mother is coming to town tomorrow to spend the afternoon with me and my sister.  It will be so nice to see them both at the same time, and without the kids to interrupt us while we catch up!

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day, too!  Be sure and tell us what you did.

Anne-Marie Faiola, owner of Bramble Berry soap making supplies, has started a video series called, Soap Queen TV.  New episodes will be posted on her Soap Queen blog every Friday.  She has 15 episodes outlining melt and pour techniques from the very basic to the more complex.  Episodes 16, 17, and 18 cover bath fizzies and lip balm.  You can view the schedule here.

Here is the first episode.  If you ever wanted to try melt and pour soaping, you have to check out these videos.  The first one starts with the basics of creating a simple bar.

Soap Queen TV Episode 1: Fragrance and Essential oils from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

I finally got my soap shop up and running.  I only have 6 soaps listed to start, but - hey - that’s a start!

ctdesigns.artfire.com

Hop on over and take a look. I wanted to offer All Things Hold Together readers 10% off any order, but I am not sure how to process that. There is not a coupon option on Art Fire. If I am not able to adjust the sale amount, I will refund your 10% via paypal, if you let me know that you came from here.

(I know, I am such an amateur.)

Update: Okay, I figured it out. If you want 10% off any purchase at my Art Fire shop, here’s how to do it:
-Choose your products and put them in your cart.
-Checkout.
-When you come to the screen with payment options, send a “note to seller” telling me that you want the “ATHT 10% off.”
-Be sure you click send.
-When you choose your payment option, you will be brought to the paypal screen. Do not pay yet. Just exit. I will receive your order and contact you with my paypal address and the adjusted payment amount, so you can pay me and I will manually mark the order paid in Art Fire.

I know it’s more complicated than just entering a coupon code, but, hey, it’s 10% off!

I guess not.

I didn’t post the deodorant tutorial video this weekend.  But, you probably knew that.

I decided to wait.  While the deodorant itself works amazingly, the product is too soft and this heat wave we just had made it even more so.  I am going to tweak the recipe with some of the goodies in my stash (probably beeswax, among other things) and re-film it.

Plus, this will give me a chance to make this recipe my own, instead of someone elses.  I will still credit the original sourse, of course.

I hope to get that done soon, but I am not going to make any promises as to what day I will post it.

In other news, I am trying to get my online store up and running by the end of this month.  Yes, that is Thursday!  I gave myself that deadline.  The thing that is holding me up at this point is the shipping policies and pricing.  I am trying to work that out, so I can have a professional looking shop from day one.

Does anyone want to be a test case and receive a free bar of soap in the mail?  All you have to do is tell me how it looked when it got there, and give me any other feedback you can think of.