Monday Matters

1. My husband and I own a condo in Providence, RI over near Brown University.  We just recently (like at the beginning of August) started renting it out.  We had to go over there Sunday Morning because "the dishwasher wouldn't work" and "the light and fan in the bedroom stopped working".  Somehow the tenants broke the dishwasher so I have Sears coming to fix it today (thank goodness it's still under warranty).  There was nothing wrong with the light and fan except that they pulled the chain enough times so that they shut the fan off and the bulbs blew out.  I'm already not a fan of being a landlord...


2. Friday night, my mom and I made the most amazing dinner.  I mean, seriously.  Amazing.  She bought ground beef to make burgers but we ended up making meatloaf burgers (it was a compromise since we couldn't decide if we wanted burgers or meatloaf).  And we ate them on bagels.  I forgot to take a picture of them - so that must mean that I will have to make them again so I can blog about them and have a picture to show for it.


3. My mom is a teacher and she is going back to teaching art (she taught art for 14 years, then did elementary ed for 6 years, and now she's back to art).  While she was going through her samples Sunday night, she found projects that my sister and I did back in 1st or 2nd grade.  It was a list of facts with a self portrait and at the bottom it said, "Who Am I?"  The most amusing part of mine was the part that said, "I want to be a Bus Driver."  


4. After being at my mom's for 3 weeks, Scott and I finally put our clothes into drawers Sunday.  We can actually walk around the room!!  Woot!!


5. I'm starting to get the itch to bake.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy.  I'm thinking either brownies or cookies.  Either way, I'll take pictures.  And blog.  And probably give most of them to my dad so that I don't eat them.


6. I'm trying to gather up ideas for quick breakfasts on the go and quick, easy to fix dinners.  I've so far decided on making lots of waffles and freezing them so that I can have my own form of Eggo Waffles. For dinners, I've been getting a lot of ideas from being at mom's house.


7. The past few years, we've attempted to go apple picking and we've always gone too late in the season.  I'm determined to go early this year so that I can pick yummy apples and make yummy apple things.  Like Apple Pie.  And Apple Crisp.  I have an AMAZING recipe for Apple Crisp.


8. The cafeteria at work states that it's open until 2:30 every day.  But every day they start packing up the food at 1:30 (and it seems to be getting earlier than that!) and they get snippy when you ask them to make a simple sandwich.  Work, you fail.  The only good part of this is that I'm forced to bring a lunch (and therefore don't spend as much money).


9. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE ice cream?  And it doesn't even have to be good ice cream.  I don't discriminate...I love it all.  My favorite?  Soft Serve Vanilla with Rainbow Jimmies (yes, they're jimmies, not sprinkles, so don't even try arguing with me about it).  My current favorite place to get it?  Riverside Creamery.  There may be better places out there with fancier kinds of ice cream, but I like the simple stuff.  Delicious.


10. Laundry really isn't so bad when you don't have to go down 3 flights of stairs to do it.  I actually don't even mind it.  But don't tell my husband that ;-)


11. Just got back from the gym - another Tae Bo / Core class.  38 minutes and burned 408 calories.  Not bad!!  Only downside - everyone can plainly see that I went to the gym....My face is like a tomato!

Everyone will know that I worked hard at the gym today....For at least the next hour!  Look at the color in my face!  Can you say TOMATO???  PS - the angle of the picture makes me look like a bobble head!  

Fudge Brownie Ice Cream Cake

I love dessert.  I especially love ice cream.  In found an amazing recipe on Pinterest for "Fudge Brownie Ice Cream Cake" posted originally by Peppermint Plum.  It is basically the most delicious looking cake ever - It looks like it was originally made with mint chocolate chip ice cream - I decided on my first try to go with Vanilla since I'm not a huge mint fan.  I will walk you through the particulars and how I did it....


What you need


1 half gallon of ice cream (I think they're actually 1.5 quarts)
1 package Oreo cookies
1 family sized brownie mix
1 jar hot fudge (the think delicious kind, Smuckers is great)


The Method


In a spring-form pan, bake the brownies for about 20 minutes.  I used an 8" pan, and would recommend 25 minutes instead (NOTE:  I put a piece of foil over the base of the pan so that when I take the form off, I can pull the foil off of the base and not cut on the base).

Cool completely and once done, line the Oreos around the edge of the pan, pressing them into the brownie a bit.  This will help them stay vertical.

Spread half of the softened ice cream into the brownie, making sure that it keeps the brownies in place.

Crush up all of the remaining Oreos and put half of them over the ice cream.  Top that with the hot fudge sauce.  Spread out the fudge as best as you can.  I bought Smuckers fudge that comes in a squeeze bottle, but would recommend buying the kind that comes in the jar - it's much easier to scoop out rather than squeezing it out of the bottle.

Put the rest of the ice cream on top of the cookies and fudge, and add the rest of the crushed cookies onto the top.  Here's where using a spring-form pan bigger than 8" will come in handy - the 8" was almost just too small...It was practically overflowing.

Put back into the freezer and freeze for at least 4-6 hours, or overnight.  Be gentle removing the spring form!

Cut and ENJOY!!!