Berry hike

Today Aidan and I went out to Beaver Lake Nature Center for a berry hike. What a gorgeous day to be outside - sunny, light breeze and temps in the mid-70s.

First we collected the blackberries:


I am not sure that any of those berries in Aidan's cup ever made into the ice cream! But the rest of us picked plenty, then the nice people at Beaver Lake smooshed up the berries and added them to the cream mixture they already had ready in the ice cream churn. Each child took a turn or two at the handle of the churn and in no time, we had cold and delicious blackberry ice cream. Aidan did not waste any time tasting his ice cream:


Yum!

Homemade croutons

Am I the only person on earth who had no idea that making croutons is so easy?


Two weeks ago, we had about three inches left on a loaf of excellent Italian bread (from the excellent Wegmans bakery) and the bread was dry. Rather than put it in the freezer to later feed to the ducks and geese, I decided to make croutons. I did a quick Google search and nearly fell out of my chair when I realized how easy it was.

There are, of course, many variations and methods, but here is how I made them: I cut up the bread into inch-sized (approximately) cubes; tossed the cubes with olive oil, salt, pepper and granulated garlic powder; spread on a baking pan and baked at 275 degrees until they were golden brown. Tada!

At dinner that night, we ate the croutons on our salads and, hands down, we all agreed that my homemade croutons were far tastier than any croutons we had ever had. Guess who is now making croutons more often?