Tag / Food

by Greg

Making Ice Cream This Month?

If you’re planning to make ice cream this month (National Ice Cream Month, don’t ya know!) then perhaps a visit to this site would be helpful. Found it linked off of the Turkey Hill Ice Cream blog. Seems like tons and tons of great, helpful ice cream-making information.

Making ice cream is definitely an art. As I have learned from many unsuccessful attempts at doing so. I’m good with food in general… so it’s fun when I discover something that is a challenge! Hope to keep improving my ice cream making skills this summer, and I think some stuff on the Ice Cream Recipes.com site might help. 🙂

Enjoy your ice cream!

by Greg

July 4th Adventure Week

When we were on the last leg of our return trip home last night, Jen & I were recalling the several consecutive late nights (and/or full days) we had strung together for our children. We counted three… then four… then… a WEEK. I think it goes back to our big FOOD FEST on July 1st. So far, this July has been packed full of goodness.

You know of the Food Fest, as well as the National Ice Cream Month celebrations. Perhaps you also know of how we celebrated July 4th on July 3rd with Jen’s family down by Canandaigua Lake? And perhaps you also know that we drove nearly FIFTY MILES to see fireworks on the real July 4th down in Lima, NY? Good times.

How about how we drove to Springfield, OH – the place of my birth! – on Thursday July 5th, and met up with my Grandma, my Grandma & Grandpa, my Mom & Dad, their friend Paul, my Uncle Jim & Aunt Becky, and my Uncle Jim & Aunt Sara for dinner at Cici’s Pizza? And then we went out to see a restoration project my second Uncle Jim (from above) is working on for the Clark County parks… did I mention that? AND THEN we headed down to Grammy & Grandpa’s for baths and night time routines… completely exhausted. Once again, good times. 🙂

Oh! I know I mentioned the Creation Museum on Friday July 6th… it’s created quite a firestorm in the comment section (at least as far as commenting generally goes at GregsHead.net. And, you also know that we went to one of the Esther Price chocolate stores that day, along with Graeter’s Ice Cream. But, did I mention that was following some fantastic BBQ ribs, pulled pork, and other such goodies? How about that after that long day, and following baths and bedtime routine (which took longer than it should’ve thanks to Julia) that Jen & I went out on the town at about 11:15pm or so??? Went to Applebee’s for half-price appetizers. 🙂 Again… good times.

On Seven Seven oh-Seven we once again started out first thing in the morning, just doing a little drive around the countryside. We’ve heard that Indiana has some fantastic home school regulations (like… they have NONE!) so we have always considered moving down there to be near my family, and free from the more “looking over your shoulder” type of regulations that NY currently has. So, we just wanted to see what those little towns were like. We had a nice lunch at a little diner in a small town of about 5000 people. It was a nice lunch, but not a place we’d want to live. Plus, it was hot. 🙂 (Big black mark against in my book…) 🙂 We drove around a bit more, just taking in the scenery, and then headed over to Springfield area for the evening’s fun.

We met up with my cousin Jimmie and his wife (didn’t get to see their daughter though! she was sleeping!!) 🙁 We spent 15-20 minutes with them and then headed over to meet our friends at Young’s Jersey Dairy. They’re headed to Ecuador on Wednesday I believe, so we were glad to get to see them before they head overseas. Spent more time than we expected to with them, after they locked their keys in their car. 🙁 Not what you want to do on a hot day… but we had a good time, and of course, had some great ice cream!!! Got to feed goats, too.

As July has gone… 07/07/07 was also… good times.

Sunday began early as Julia decided to mostly NOT sleep the night before, and since we were planning to leave early Sunday morning anyway (early for us…) I got up at about 7:30 or so and started getting stuff ready. Thankfully, the kids really were exhausted and I think the younger three took at least two naps each on the trip home! That was really nice. For everyone. We also stopped along the way for Skyline Chili (At 11am! That was funny!) and Dairy Queen! Also found a nice McDonald’s playplace up in NY for dinner. It was a nice trip. Even got to stop by Willowbrook and drop off some goodies for our friend Leah. Good times.

That brings us to this morning. Have you noticed that sometimes when kids are tired, they don’t actually sleep as much as when life is more “normal”? EVERYONE was up early this morning, which is not the best way to start a morning (for me, I guess) but, that’s how it started. I walked to the post office to get a check that I needed to deposit in the bank. Man, it was steaming hot even before 9am today! Then I got home and noticed we didn’t have milk yet… so, off to our grocery store I went. 🙂 I was a nice dad and brought home donuts for the kids for breakfast, too. 🙂

So, it has been an adventure everyday since the start of July. I’m hoping that 07/09/07 will be a bit back to normal. I think it just might be.

by Greg

Pilgrimage to a Chocolate Mecca

Esther Price ChocolateI would not be doing the day justice if I somehow failed to mention our visit to Esther Price Chocolates in Centreville, OH! Talk about a chocolate lover’s paradise 🙂 There were FREE SAMPLES of this fantastic chocolate! And boxes and BOXES of it EVERYWHERE. I said to Jen at one point, “I have no will power in this place.” 🙂 (And I was not exaggerating!!!)

It was WAY too fun! I loved it!

I’ll post some photos from the event a bit later. For now… it’s time to sleep!

by Greg

Ice Cream Update

As you know from previous entries, July is national ice cream month, and we’ve been doing our part to celebrate that! Here’s a quick run-down on the month so far.

  • July 1 – We made home made ice cream with friends (Philadelphia-style Vanilla, and Strawberry Sherbet)
  • 7/2 – Made some more home made ice cream, and ate some of the previous day’s ice cream!
  • 7/3 – Finished the home made ice cream off! Mmmmmm!!!
  • 7/4 – Went out with friends for some home made ice cream at Sharks Custard & Candy in Bloomfield, NY! (Then I had a tad more Breyer’s when I got home…) 🙂
  • 7/5 – Travel day… had a Frosty at Wendy’s (Does that count?) and then stopped at my Dad’s favorite ice cream spot, The Frosty Eagle in Bellbrook, OH!
  • 7/6 – Got some more home made ice cream at Graeter’s Ice Cream in Centreville, OH! Great “inclusions”! (Big chunks of chocolate!) AND… we even got to eat some Astronaut Ice Cream at the Creation Museum today!
  • 7/7 – Meeting some friends at Young’s Jersey Dairy for some great home made ice cream! And Young’s is not just an ice cream place, it’s an experience! You can feed/pet the animals, play on the farm toys, even play a round of mini-golf if you want! It’s a childhood, nostalgic stop during National Ice Cream month, in Springfield, OH (really, Yellow Springs, OH.)

More to come…

by Greg

Chill & Grill x2

Our friend Chi reminded me that I never shared the story of another “food fest” day (with food (mostly) provided by Chill & Grill) just a couple weeks ago. June 16th, I believe. It was certainly akin to FOOD FEST I, detailed below.

The Chis arrived in time for lunch, so they got their pugs out, we got our kids in the stroller, and off we went on the 1-mile trek to Chill & Grill!

We went all out. Chi & I got Monster Burgers. There were lots of fries. Some chicken. Probably some other greasy stuff…. it was fantastic! AND THEN, the Chis treated us to ice cream afterward. Chi ordered a Large. Only the second person I’ve seen even ORDER a large. And he finished it. AND this was after a 1-lb Monster Burger. Nice job, Chi!

BUT there was more!

We went back home and just hung out for the afternoon… even got to play a round of the Hulk board game! I won! HULK SMASH!!!!

As it was getting toward dinner time… we decided to make a nice waffle dinner! It was awesome! Waffles fresh off the grill. It was rather surprising we had room, after our big Chill & Grill excursion.

We hung out in the yard a bit more… but even more surprising… we decided we hadn’t had ENOUGH ice cream… so the Chis treated us to ANOTHER ROUND of Chill & Grill!!!! Ha! And yes, Chi ordered ANOTHER LARGE. And finished it. He is an eating machine!

Nice work, Chi. But next time you need to eat two Monster Burgers, too! Whoohoo!

by Greg

Food Fest I

FOOD FEST I - July 01, 2007
Yes, I know yesterday was Canada Day (I believe it is “observed” today), but I believe that July 1st may now become the official day of FOOD FEST.

Some have called it Eat Fest, and yesterday I first thought it could be called GlutFest (as in “gluttonous”) but I think I have settled on FOOD FEST.

And, just like the Superbowl, I think we’ll keep track of this (hopefully) annual event with a roman numeral. Thus, yesterday’s soirée was FOOD FEST I.

I can’t believe I am actually eating anything today… 🙂

Our first guests arrived around 11:30 or so, and we planned to eat lunch at 1ish (once the other guests arrived). So… as my mom was always good at doing, I had some goodies ready to snack on sitting on the table when they got there – and snack we did. There was fresh watermelon, cantaloupe and strawberries. We had sweet tea, unsweetened tea. We had celery and blue cheese, and added some baby carrots. And all this was just to munch on before lunch!

I fired up the grill at about five till one, and cooked up about 20 hamburgers for 6 adults and 9 children. (Two of those being one-year-olds). Add to that the potato salad, some fantastic apple salad with a hint of lime, a variety of chips, and of course the selection of about a dozen things you could put on your burger… including bacon! Whoohoo!

But… as if that were not enough…

We moved the propane tank from the grill to the fryer once the burgers were done, and I started heating up the oil for CHICKEN WINGS. Now, I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I used to think that I made the best wing sauce in Buffalo… and I’m still pretty good at cookin’ up a batch of wings. In fact, our friend Scott said they were the best I’ve ever made and I think he’s eaten at least 500 of my wings. (Plus, he makes some great wings himself!) 🙂

So, we cooked up about 6 pounds of those (leaving 2 more pounds for fresh wings later) and had those after a couple hamburgers each (and all the other goodies!) … it was a food fest alright!

BUT WE WEREN’T DONE.

Chicken wings were the “specialty” of the day… until we found out it was National ICe Cream Month! So, we decided to make some home made ice cream! Having recently attended a class on making ice cream… I put my newly acquired skills to good use and made the most AMAZING homemade ice cream I have ever made! Maybe the best I’ve ever tasted! It turned out perfect! So we sampled a bit, then threw it in the freezer to “ripen”. (That’s the step where the ice cream hardens.)

We did go for a swim with the kids (at least, me and Dave did…) so we stopped eating for just about an hour, but then it was back to the house for the ice cream, more wings, and general nibbling of all the food that was STILL left.

We ate from around noon till 7:30 or so… with almost no break. Non stop FOOD FEST. Awesome. 🙂

There was quite a bit of food left over. We had some for lunch today. And will for dinner. And might tomorrow. 🙂 But we certainly had our share of food at the innaugural FOOD FEST I.

Check back in a year for the report from FOOD FEST II! 🙂

by Greg

National Ice Cream Month!

July is National Ice Cream MonthJuly is national Ice Cream month, and I got an e-mail today from Turkey Hill dairy (yes, I subscribe to an ice cream newsletter… that might tell you something about how I feel about ice cream….) announcing a give away in July of FREE ICE CREAM. (One winner gets a year’s supply, four more get a month’s supply.) Just stop by their blog every day in July, leave a comment, and you’ll have a chance to win.

Here are the links:

How much ice cream can you eat in 31 days? I guess we’ll find out…

by Greg

Skyline Party (with an NFL QB???)

Skyline Chili!One of our favorite foods is Skyline Chili. It’s a regional delicacy for Southwestern Ohio. Specifically from Cincinnati. There are many brands of “Cincinnati-style chili” but we like to think Skyline is the best. (Of course, Chi might tell you it’s Empress Chili… but I’m sticking with Skyline.) Over the years I have taken a recipe for Skyline chili that I received from (I think?) my mother-in-law, through my sister-in-law (Jen’s entire family are Skyline afficionados…) and added, subtracted, monkeyed with, and attempted to match the real deal as best I can.

I’m close… but still not quite there.

Still… it is a fantastic thing that I can make GALLONS of Skyline-like Chili in my own house!!!

Well, this weekend, we’re headed to Clarence for a little family party (celebrating the graduation of one of our neices, among other things). It was requested that I make and bring the main course – Skyline Chili!!!

There are many things being celebrated this weekend. There’s Megan’s graduation. 🙂 And a church that my in-laws have lent their musical and preaching talents to on numerous occasions is celebrating 100 years of existence. So we’re celebrating that with them. My in-laws will be leaving soon for their summer travels, so it will be a good-bye party of sorts… and since they’ll be gone for my father-in-law’s birthday and their anniversary (same day), I’m sure we’ll be celebrating that too…..

But that just wasn’t enough.

My mother-in-law is very gifted. She can play the piano like nobody’s business. She has probably sewn (or do you just make?) THOUSANDS of quilts in her lifetime. She can sew anything. AND, she can cook. Add to that the fact that she loves to do all of those things for people, and she keeps herself pretty busy! 🙂 Well, she had been trying to have the Holcomb family over for dinner, where our family could join them – and we’d get to meet a (former) Buffalo Bills, NFL QB!

The problem is that little “former” word back there…

Kelly was traded to Philadelphia a while ago. His family still lives here in Buffalo area, and they attend the various functions at the Clarence Church of Christ (where Jen’s family attends, and Dad was the preacher for 31 years!). Jen’s Mom has been trying for awhile to get together with them again, and found out that they are headed to Philly very soon. SO…

They’re coming to our party! 🙂

So now we’re celebrating everything above … AND it’s a “going away party” for the Holcombs! 🙂

This morning as I was adding all the right seasonings to the giant vat of Skyline, I was thinking, “Kelly Holcomb – #10 for the Buffalo Bills – will get to eat my Skyline… CRAZY!” 🙂 It’s certainly a fun addition to an already fun weekend… and as you can guess, the boys are quite excited to have a meal with KELLY HOLCOMB. 🙂

I wonder if we’ll get to play a little football??? 🙂

So, that’s part of what we’re looking forward to this weekend. I’m sure I’ll have some kind of a report here by Monday.

Hope your weekend is full of Skyline, family celebrations and milestones, and meals with NFL QBs also!!

by Greg

Campbells of the Woods

Well, not really the woods so much, but we sure did spend a LOT of time outdoors this weekend!!!

I had really two goals this weekend. I wanted to clean out our van, which was just disgusting after a whole winter of not being cleaned. Then, I hoped we could get all the sticks and other random junk out of our yard. We have about a quarter acre, so it’s not a huge task, but it did take some effort.

Add to those tasks the goal of having burgers on the grill for Saturday and Sunday’s evening meal (hopefully with friends!) and we had a full weekend!

  • The Van
    Saturday morning began relatively early for a Saturday. I was outside around 9am getting to work on the van. I had to take out all the seats and worked for about 30 minutes just pulling out all the stuff so that I could get in there with the ShopVac. It was really nasty. I think I finished around 12:30pm with all the cleaning… so a good three and a half hours to clean just the inside of our van. Whew!
  • The Back Yard
    Meanwhile, Jen and the kids picked up sticks and raked up the rest of the junk in our back yard. Jen really does not like any sort of yard work, so it was a struggle for her, but she helped a LOT. We stopped for lunch around 1pm or so (a nice Sub from Breen’s, with carrots and potato chips… very summer-y) and took a break till around 3pm when Grandma arrived and the boys and I ended up back outside to finish the back yard job. I must say, they did a great job sticking to it, and we finished in pretty good time! The yard looked great, and my boys helped make it that!
  • Cookout #1
    I mentioned Grandma came over… she took the kids to the park for a while and then we all shared a fun summer meal from the grill. We had some fantastic burgers, including a Greek Burger (tomatoes, onions, greek dressing and feta cheese) among others. We even had a few stragglers join us… 🙂 Our neighbor and his dad were hanging out outside as I was coming in and out from the grill, and so I offered them a burger 🙂 (One of my favorite things to do is provide food for people…)
  • The Front & Side Yard
    Sunday morning we got a bit of a later start (had waffles for breakfast!) but that was OK, cause the front and side yards are a lot smaller job. We all went out and picked up the piles like the day before, and Mom & Ian worked under the porch, clearing out a bunch of junk that has collected under there over the past four years. We finished up pretty quickly and then headed inside to get lunch ready…
  • Picnic In The Park
    As we were working outside, I thought it was such a nice day that we should go up to the park and have a picnic in the park! Everyone agreed, so we started packing up our sandwiches for the trip. When I got all the sandwiches made, and the other food collected I said, “Where’s our picnic basket??” I forgot we didn’t have one anymore… So a few seconds later, Kirstie comes around the corner holding a little basket she had emptied of its contents saying, “Here’s a basket, Dad!” 🙂 Very cute!

    So we rounded up everything and walked just around the corner to our Village Park. It was just us! They hadn’t set up the picnic tables yet (!!) so we ate on the steps of the pavillion at the center of the park. The kids were kinda distracted by eating outside, but I thought it was fun still anyway 🙂 We stayed and played in the park for at least an hour afterwards. Swings, slides, that spinny thing. Ian fell off of that once. Not good. But Ian also made some fantastic catches of football passes from Dad! It was definitely a highlight of my day! 🙂

  • Relaxing Afternoon
    When we got back, the girls took their nap, and the boys and Dad watched the rest of Around The World In 80 Days that we had started a week or two ago. It’s THREE HOURS! But we did finish, and we liked it. After that we watched the third period of the NJ Devils vs Tampa Bay Lightning series. Well, I napped for a good bit of that… but I was in the room. 🙂 The Devils won, so the Sabres will now play the Rangers in round two. That’s cool…
  • Cookout #2
    To finish off the weekend, our friends the Stupins came to join us for cookout #2. This was a bit more adventurous for some reason. When I put the burgers on the grill, on low flame… the fire just erupted! The flames were shooting out of everywhere on the grill at least 2 feet in the air!!! Somehow, the burgers were still edible, but man that was crazy!!!

    We had fun just playing in our yard (they have three young girls, our kids’ age) after dinner for a while. We were also joined bu our neighbors. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

  • Ice Cream!!!
    But we weren’t done! Everyone else had to go home around 8pm (bedtime??? crazy!) but we decided to head up to Chill & Grill to top off the weekend with some ice cream!!!! Well, as we were just leaving our house, we saw our babysitter heading home on her bike, and invited her to join us for some ice cream! She agreed, and we had a nice walk up there. (She rode slowly on her bike…) BUT THEN… as we got closer, we noticed there was no line out the door at Chill & Grill… and the OPEN sign was not lit!!!! It wasn’t closing time yet… so what’s the deal????

    We went up to the door and the sign said they were “out of inventory”!!!! NO!!!!!!! We just walked about a mile for their ice cream and they were all out!!!!!! 🙁

    So, Kristin went home (the babysitter) and we ended up getting some ice cream bars from Breen’s (which is just across the street) and eating them at the employee’s picnic table behind their store. 🙂 Not quite the same, but still kinda fun.

  • Late Night Hockey
    We were pretty exhausted when we got home, but we watched the end of the first period of the Detroit / Calgary game and then put most of the kids in bed. Ian got a special treat of some late night hockey watching with Mom & Dad. But at the end of the second period, Mom couldn’t even make it anymore so… just Dad remained.

    I had to take care of the financial things (paying bills, balancing check books etc) so I did that as I watched… and watched. 🙂 The game went into a second overtime period before they could decide it. Unfortunately, Detroit won and ended the series. I was at least hoping for a game seven. Calgary pretty much gave all they could though. Detroit is just better. Will be interesting if Buffalo faces them in the final.

And that was our crazy weekend. We definitely enjoyed every last moment of it. I have the tiredness and the SUNBURN to prove it!

I think I’ll have some more iced tea now. 🙂