I have so many fond memories of my mom making delicious holiday foods (the nog being one of them). I can’t help but get a little nostalgic whenever I take a swig. I also need to point something out, you’ll be swigging this, definitely not sipping. So yum!

I’m a little annoyed with how this picture turned out, I haven’t put up curtains in our new place (for diffusing natural light) and I’m taking this on top of our plastic folding table. Next year’s resolution is to resolve our furniture. Get a new table, fix up the chairs (or get new ones) and stay organized.

• N O G •

makes about 9+ cups of nog

• 6 eggs
• 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 8 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a blender, beat eggs, cream and pudding until smooth. Add sugar and spices & blend until incorporated. Measure 8 cups milk in a milk jug & pour the pudding/egg mixture in with the milk. Shake generously & chill for 30 minutes before serving. Keep refrigerated for up to 2 days. Serve hot or cold.

I’m over on This Week For Dinner sharing A flourless chocolate cake recipe. Believe me, you don’t want to miss it. It’s called Chocolate idiot cake & it only has 5 ingredients. It’s definitely my kind of cake.

Back to Chris. I just want to say how happy I am that he’s here and in my life. He’s hilarious, smart, goofy, an awesome dad & is really, really strong. Here are a couple of things that I love about him:

• He’s a fast learner & his enthusiasm for learning is contagious
• He’s a fantastic guitar player, even only a year after starting (and teaching himself!)
• He writes the best songs that make me smile
• He’s a fantastic dad & doesn’t shy away at a chance to play/cuddle with the kiddos
• He can dead-lift like a million pounds
• He likes to have input in our home decor
• He’s a fantastic listener
• He speaks Portuguese

Head over to the Rhodes Blog for the full recipe.

Leave a comment over there for your chance to win a Rhodes Rolls recipe book.

Remember how I posted about this delicious flatbread technique over at Rhodes blog? Well I shared it over on Simply Modern Mom with a few adjustments. I make flatbread sandwiches using this technique at least twice a week. It’s soo good I can’t get enough. Check it out & go make yourself some Rhodes flatbread right now.

I make yarn pom poms for decorating our tree every year, but this year is going to be different. Check out Skip to My Lou for how to make killer jersey pom ornaments using old t-shirts. Heck, use this tutorial to accessorize your hair. I know I’m going to.

Last night was the best night out I’ve had in a long time. Jill, Libby and I drove to UVU to listen to JESSICA HISCHE (my design/lettering/illustration icon!). She was so inspiring, transparent & approachable. Honestly, I’m more thrilled about meeting her than I would be if I had the chance to meet Heidi Klum. She’s way awesomer. (No offense, Heidi, you’re still cool, it’s just Jessica is cooler). I hate my expression in this pic; it’s a little scary – but you see my excitement?!? It was a dream for Jill & me to actually meet her. So much talent right there. Seriously. That woman can letter circles around me. Also, I’m way jealous that she & her husband live in San Francisco. So jealous.

What are you up to this weekend? I’ll be teaching another calligraphy class – can’t wait!

Click here for the full recipe & step-by-step pictures.

Molasses Cookie Ice Cream!

I used molasses instead of maple syrup. Since the ice cream doesn’t call for much sugar at all, it’s not incredibly sweet. Which I like. But to add a little bit more sweetness & depth to the simple ice cream, I rolled each scoop in ginger, cinnamon & sugar. Oh, it’s good. It’s the perfect amount of sweet. This particular recipe (probably because of the 2 cups of cream it calls for) sets up really well in the ice cream maker.

• MOLASSES COOKIE ICE CREAM •

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream

Mix the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and molasses well. Add the milk and blend well. Stir the cream just until blended. Pour into ice cream maker! Once it’s just about set, put ice cream in the freezer to finish setting up– about 2-3 hours. Scoop balls of ice cream onto a cookie tray & put them back into the freezer for a couple minutes. Add cinnamon, sugar & ginger (to taste) into a bowl. Remove ice cream scoops from freezer & roll in sugar mixture. Serve. Makes about 18 scoops. (adapted from this recipe)

Now that it’s finally warming up, I’m going to be making ice cream & granitas quite often. Growing up, we made it a tradition to make ice cream often during the summer. My favorite was making blackberry sorbet out of the fresh berries from my mom’s incredible garden. Do you make home made ice cream?

I just finished off the rest of them this afternoon when I made a fresh lemon strawberry granita. After trying out Smitten Kitchen’s lemon mint granita a few years ago,  smoothie-style granitas are one of my most favorite summer treats. So refreshing & so delicious. My take on the granita is more of a smoothie & less of a snow cone – mostly because I lack the patience to put the smoothied yumminess back in the freezer to let it set.

My version: Strawberry Lemon Granita

• 1/4 cup simple syrup*
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 pint fresh or frozen strawberries
• ice cubes (or water)

Make the simple syrup. Add syrup, lemon juice & strawberries into blender & blend. Add ice cubes or cold water (depending on consistency) to taste. I usually add a handful or two of ice cubes.

To make simple syrup: pour 1 part sugar, 1 part water into a saucepan & heat until it starts to boil. Make sure all sugar is incorporated. No need to cool the mixture before adding it into the granita. The ice & frozen strawberries cool it down just fine.

Thanks again, Padgett, for the delicious lemons!!

Today, I’m over at the Rhodes Rolls blog, sharing a little experiment of mine. Let me tell you- it’s one tasty experiment!

As always, it’s a pleasure to do these posts for Rhodes. It forces me to go outside my quiver of standard recipes & discover something new & delicious! Rhodes is offering two ISLY readers a Rhodes Rolls cookbook! I love mine & I know you will, too. It’s FULL of pictures (I’m such a visual person, so pics are a must) & great recipe ideas.

To enter, please:

• visit the Rhodes blog & check out the recipe
• come back here & leave a comment, telling me what sort of surprise you’d add inside this sweet roll
• comment on THIS POST before 11:59 MST Monday, June 6

TWO winners will be chosen & announced on this post, Tuesday June 7. Good luck!

THE WINNERS ARE:

I’ll be emailing you details. Congrats ladies!

Penelope was more than excited to see that I was making pancakes – it’s a big deal around our house if I make breakfast. Usually our morning fare consists of cold cereal.

This recipe was incredibly easy & tasty, but I made a few changes. Instead of using margarine, I used butter. I had butter on hand & it just so happen to make the cinnamon mixture less gooey. Although, if I were to do it again, I’d use a legitimate pastery bag for piping out the cinnamon mixture. The butter solidified & I burst the ziplock I was using & made a tasty mess on the skillet.

I’ve bookmarked a few of my favorite ‘to try’ recipes onto Pinterest & funny enough, they’re all desserts or sweet breakfast foods (thanks to Lyndsey for pointing that out). Maybe I need to get my sweet tooth under control.

I’m sounding like a fanatic; maybe it’s my recent low-carb menu talking, but this cookie truly is fantastic.

We had a cookie making contest & I won!! I won a gift card for a dozen cookies. I don’t want to eat the cookies all by myself, so who wants to come over to my house for a little cookie tasting party Saturday afternoon, May 21st? R.S.V.P. by commenting on this post by Friday & I’ll pick six of you at random. I think it’d be so fun to get to know you & munch on delicious cookies!

Attending the tasting party was a much-needed break. It was refreshing to hang out with fellow blog ladies, listen to a truly inspiring story about how Tami got started & how she’s overcome several bumps in the road with grace & success. I left feeling that much more excited to start pursuing my goals and hopefully I’ll maintain the energy to make those goals real.

I love that she names her cookies & that Penelope is the name for her peanut butter cookie!! I took the chocolate-dipped cookie home to Penelope & she loved it. So did Chris!

It’s rare that I ever remember to take my camera to events like these, so I’m just so excited to share this with you. Read more about the event here.

• T H E   M E N U •

The menu was simple, but coordinated with the party colors: orange, yellow & pink. I served cut fruit – pineapple, strawberries & oranges; fruit-garnished yogurt; dyed, hard-boiled eggs; lemon water & my own variation on Lemon Pull-Aparts. Since the theme was obviously dinosaurs, it was so fun to play into the theme with hard-boiled eggs. I used the same Dying method that I used last week & arranged the eggs in a “nest” of coordinating tissue paper.

I switched up the Lemon Pull-Aparts by baking them in cupcake cups & adding strawberries to the glaze. I consider them a breakfast version of cupcakes. YUM!

I believe I spent about $25 on the food. Again, I kept the menu super simple.

• T H E   D E C O R •

I didn’t have to do too much for the decor. I already had the orange table cloth & the garlands (from decorating Penelope’s old room), so that was simple & easy! I had found the yellow display thing at a thrift store ages ago and took this party as an opportunity to give it new life. I just spray painted it a bright yellow.

My mother-in-law gave me the yellow cupcake stand a while ago for my birthday & I just recently picked up the large cake plate from Target for $14. I thought that was a great deal for a white ceramic cake plate.

I made the napkins from the same fabric I used to make Penelope’s chevron pillow & just cut it with pinking shears as I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time ironing & sewing (especially since my sewing machine is on the fritz). I made little brachiosaurus decals using my Silhouette & flocked iron-on material & used that to decorate the corners of the napkins. The napkins cost little to nothing to do (besides the cost of buying pinking shears, but I’ve needed a pair for ages).

The yellow dinosaurs were a $1 Walmart find & I spray panted those bright yellow to match the decor. I found the rad sparkle ribbon at Michael’s for $2. This was a great decoration idea, as it’s a toy for Penelope afterward! I was considering hollowing them out & planting wheat grass in them (like these dinos via here), but there was no time & I’m sure Penelope would’ve made a big mess out of them anyway.

The Lemon Water dispenser was one of the big ticket items at $20 (great deal, though!). I found it at Target. There was a yellow one available, which would’ve been perfect for this party, but I feel like white is a little more versatile in the long run.

While I was at Michael’s picking up frames & various party supplies I came across this T-Rex hat for $4. It doesn’t match any part of the decor, but I couldn’t help get it for Penelope because it’s so adorable. She has a similar tiger hat that she wears all the time.

I bought the yellow bucket from Target for $2.50. It’s a pretty rad vase, except that it leaks. Luckily, I can fit a mason jar in there no sweat. The white flowers (chrysanthemums?) cost $5 & the daffodils & tulips were from a neighbor’s front yard (thanks, Judy!).

• T H E   G I F T •

The biggest ticket item was Penelope’s gift. It’s pretty much the whole reason why I had a dino-themed brunch in the first place. I can’t remember whose blog I found it on (Ardor? Say Yes to Hoboken?), but someone posted about these rad Noah’s ark toys ($$!) and while browsing through the rest of the shop to see if there was something more along my price range, I came across this dinosaur story box! It took some consideration, since I don’t normally spend $70 on toys. However, considering the coolness & handmade factors, it was worth it. I bought it back in March & believe me it was SO HARD to wait until Penelope’s birthday to give it to her. She loves her new toy. I’m so glad I got it for her!

• P E N ‘ S   S H I R T •

I purchased this pink shirt at Walmart for $3 &  added the dino decal. Penelope LOVES it. It took about 5 minutes to make since I already designed the dino graphic for the invitations & favors.

• T H E   F A V O R S •

The favors were pretty simple. As I’ve already mentioned before, I designed & printed everything in house, so my costs for the actual bags were nil. I just spent $5 on the jelly beans & chocolate eggs.

We had a great time hanging out & giving Penelope some much-needed attention. I was so happy that everything went as planned (actually better!). Even though I perhaps went a little overboard, it was a lot less stressful than last year’s party. I kept things fairly simple & reused where I could. Overall I was pretty cheap. Including everything, I spent less than $170 (and that includes everything – even my splurge on P’s toy). Besides the food, everything I purchased can be used again for future entertaining, thus reducing the cost by quite a bit. I have a feeling I’ll be entertaining quite a bit in the future between all of our birthdays, so I may as well invest in some good party supplies.

I’ll be posting her invitations tomorrow & the printable version of the favor pouches soon. Stay tuned.

• C L I C K   H E R E   T O   S E E   T H E   I N V I T A T I O N S   •

• C L I C K   H E R E   T O   S E E   T H E   F A V O R S   •

I ate half the pan of rolls, I kid you not. They’re so delicious and worlds better than orange rolls, in my opinion. Click here to see the recipe with step by step photos & instructions. Thanks, Rhodes for having me on your blog today!