On the lino: dairy-free ice cream, blood and tears, deck stain

Every once in a while you have those days, as a parent, in which you do, or don't do, something you regret. Today is one of those days.

My mother was taking care of my children today and though I was home most of the day, I did have to run out to a doctor's appointment. When I came home I went out to the back yard where my mother was pushing my son in the swing and my daughter was watching, eagerly awaiting her turn. When she heard my voice, she turned towards me and ran/toddled over. I saw red on her nose and her lip and at first assumed it was raspberry. As I got closer to her I realized it was a cut down her little nose and on to her upper lip. "What happened!?" I asked my mother. Apparently the framed art we had taken down in order to patch a hole in the wall, and then left leaning against the couch in the play area, had somehow hit my daughter in the nose. My mom didn't see it happen, so we don't know how it hit her, but thank God it hit her nose and not her eyes. It was a surface scratch, some blood, many tears, but it will heal.

Why was the painting there? I saw it leaning up against the couch and thought "I should move that." But I didn't. If it was worse, I would have felt extremely guilty for not moving it when I should have. Just another wake up reminder that we have a toddler in the house and we can't just leave things around like we have become used to.

This morning I stained the deck. I spent the last 2 days scrubbing the deck on hands and knees (burned, blistered knees), and got around to staining it at 7 am. I ran out of stain pretty quickly and went back to the store early to get more. I literally painted myself into a corner because the deck is 10 feet off the yard and the only place I had to go was back into the house. I had to walk on the wet (hot!) deck in order to finish the last boards. Damn. Now I have stained feet. And I have to walk into the kitchen. Not that I care about the linoleum, but I still didn't want deck stain on it. I did my best to wipe my feet on our terrible door mat, but still managed to track stain into the kitchen. Ugh. It wiped up pretty easily (so did the wall where I accidentally bumped into it with the stain-filled paint brush). If any is left, well, you can't tell, it all just sort of blends in with the other stains.

More ice cream!

I have been looking for a good vegan ice cream recipe and then realized…I don't have to make the ice cream vegan, I just have to make it dairy-free. My son eats eggs. I looked around for a recipe, but I couldn't find any I liked, so, I made up my own based on a regular milk recipe.

When I asked my son what flavour of ice cream he wanted, he said "green". Well, after going through all things green...spinach, broccoli, kiwi, grass…we finally settled on mint with green food colour.

Mint-chocolate chip dairy-free ice cream

5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
2 T dairy free margarine
1 1/2 cup coconut milk (separated into 1/2 cup and 1 cup)
1/2 tsp mint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 drop green food gel
as many chocolate chips as you want (dairy free)

Beat egg yolks and sugar. Place egg mixture over a double boiler and add almond and 1/2 cup coconut milk. Heat until thick (custardy). Remove from heat and stir in margarine. Cool to room temperature before adding the remaining 1 cup of coconut milk, the extracts and food colouring (if desired).

Churn according to your ice cream makers directions and add chocolate chips just before you are done churning. It will be soft serve consistency. Put into an airtight container in the freezer for a couple of hours before serving.

The consistency is really smooth, just like you would expect from ice cream. I don't think anyone will know it is dairy free. Plus, I don't like coconut and I liked this ice cream. The mint kills the coconut flavour. My son was over the moon! Finally, he gets to eat ice cream!

On the lino: ice cream, strawberries and a mop

Happy Canada Day!

Today we celebrated by going to Granville Island. We hit the water park and the kids loved it. Afterwards, we sought out some food and found a shawarma truck. I checked that the chicken shawarma was dairy free and then gave it to my son, who can't have dairy.

Two hours later my son was a crazy person. He was hyper, disobedient, contrary…all the signs that he had dairy. I think the chicken may have been marinated in yoghurt and maybe the person serving us didn't know, or forgot. It definitely makes eating out less fun when you have to check every ingredient and also place your son's well being in the hands of others.

Today is also my daughter's first birthday, so we celebrated at home with family and close friends. I envisioned a lovely garden tea party and dressed my little one in a new yellow dress from her grandmother. She had other plans. After about 3 minutes, the dress was off and she was in the kiddie pool. My hyper son (3), stripped naked and ran around the yard. We managed to get a bathing suit on him and he pooped in it (he's been potty trained since he was 2, why is he doing this!?). So much for relaxing garden party. I don't know how I have these expectations. It's like I forget I'm a mother of two little sticky people and no, life is not going to go as planned or hoped.

Fun was had anyway, and I served fresh fruit and homemade ice cream. I adapted Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla Ice Cream and it melted about as quickly as I could dish it out. It was good, but too sweet for me. Plus, I overdosed on the vanilla.

Here's my version of the recipe…

2 cups half and half
1 cup cream
pinch of salt
about a cup of sugar
1/2 a fresh peach, chopped
2 T of vanilla extract

Bring liquids and salt to 175 F in a medium pot. Put in the sugar, peach and vanilla and let cool. Put in fridge overnight. Use ice cream maker.

Two tablespoons of vanilla was too much. I would probably use 1 tablespoon next time. I fished out the peach before churning, but I guess you could leave it in. It adds pectin, not flavour. I don't know if reducing the sugar will affect the consistency. I'll try it and see.

I really wanted to use a recipe that had egg in it, but I kind of messed up by starting this recipe and then realizing it didn't have eggs, and then I couldn't go back from there.

Strawberries did make it taste better and, I don't know how, but in the 3 min. my daughter was wearing her dress, she managed to sit (?) on a strawberry. I think. I didn't see it happen, I just saw the aftermath. Thank goodness for Shout.

A mop actually did hit the floor today, pushed by my husband. He made bread and flour got everywhere and I couldn't handle the feel of it on my feet, plus I was tracking it into other rooms. And, I think the heat it getting to me here so I had a small freak out and the floor got mopped. But oh, the things that will be smeared on it tomorrow.

I'm going to deviate from theme here and comment on the Bachelorette, which I am almost embarrassed to say I watch, but I find it oddly fascinating. Who are these people who put themselves out there on national television in order to find a mate? Some are likely there for their 15 min. of fame, but it seems even they get sucked into the strangeness of it and think they are falling in love with someone after a combined total of 20 min. with that person. Anyway, it continues to fascinate me.

I'm not sure where this season is going though, and I'm not really impressed by anyone on the show. I was supporting Kaitlyn as she is a fellow Vancouverite (via Alberta), but the process seems to be getting to her. It's also getting to the guys, who seem to forget which show they are on. They are losing it because other guys are dating her, but um, this IS a show about multiple men dating one woman. Did they not watch at least one season before signing up? I don't think Kaitlyn has a good group of guys, as she keeps saying (I don't know if she even believes that), and I think she has some tough choices to make. She'd be better off just dating in Vancouver, off camera. Well, wait, no, there are no men in Vancouver apparently, according to single female friends. I just think she has slim pickings. If it were me, I would choose Jared, he seems like a nice, funny, honest guy. But, she'll probably choose Shawn because he seems flawed. I don't find him attractive or stable. Which means she'll choose him. And, in 6 months we'll hear about the break up.

Next, I'm going to try vegan ice cream, so my son can have something for dessert. He calmed down by bed time…a small blessing.