Within the last week, we have been enjoying some wonderful simple pleasures at home. Some favorite moments include...
*walks in nature
*murder mystery game with the family-ok...so I have alluded to this one in previous posts and videos. I bought this one off of Amazon because it was suitable for the whole family and didn't require scripts, dinner party, etc. It proved to be full of codes, puzzle solving skills, and a fun story to unearth. It was challenging, but it made us work together as a team and solve the mystery! I loved it for Friday night fun. We passed it on to another family member to play after we finished.
*reading good books currently reading The 19th Wife (a combo murder mystery/historical fiction about Sister Wives, fundamentalist Mormonism, and Brigham Young's 19th wife). I cannot put this one down! I am also really enjoying the Kathie Lee Gifford Bible study The Rock, The Road, and The Rabbi about exploring the origins of Jesus in Israel with Rabbi Jason Strobel. It is SO enlightening and fascinating. I am using the cultural backgrounds study Bible with the guidebook and videos online. Very compelling stuff. Also, seeing the videos filmed on location in Israel makes me feel like I am on a trip abroad! (Much needed right now).
*yummy snacks (peppers and ranch dip currently a fav of the whole fam). We love these mini peppers from Aldi. I have also discovered that taking an extra whole five minutes and prepping ACTUAL dip with sour cream and a packet of ranch dressing mix makes the best dip ever and it's so much tastier than store bought.
*brownie sundaes-in fact, I am considering starting a new tradition, "Sundaes on Sunday" because it was a fun Sunday night activity. For the next few Sunday's we are going to work on recreating some favorite Disney parks ice cream sundaes at home!
And drum roll...highlight of last week for all of us was having a family steakhouse night on Saturday! We love going to steakhouses and supper clubs on a regular basis...so why not bring the fun to our own kitchen? We are a dairy farm family, we so have a freezer full of beef on the regular (HUGE blessing).
We enjoyed a dinner with steaks (Tbones with blue cheese on top), baked potatoes and fixins, salads, and garlic bread. We used the cloth napkins and everything! Alas, I was being very in the moment and forgot to take pics of the yummy meal. But, the best part of the whole meal was dessert.
For those readers not from Wisconsin, I want to explain the supper club--a Wisconsin tradition... And I quote from Wikipedia haha "A Wisconsin supper club is an independently owned, fine-dining destination restaurant, typically in a picturesque locale on the edge of town." They are usually retro, cozy, rustic, and serve delicious food like fish fry, prime rib, relish trays, cocktails and ICE CREAM DRINKS. These are amazing!!!! I have wanted to try to make the grasshopper at home for years. If you want to learn more about supper clubs, check out this Wisconsin supper club book..we have it on our coffee table, and it has basically become my supper club bucket list.
HOMEMADE GRASSHOPPERS!
The grasshopper is a mint chocolate ice cream drink. We made a kiddie and an adult version.
For the kiddie version:
We mixed vanilla ice cream about (3 Cups) with peppermint extract, green food coloring, chocolate syrup, and some Oreos. Put it all in the blender and voila! I garnished with whip cream, mini chocolate chips, and Oreos.
For the adult version:
Exact same procedure as above, but we added 1/4 cup of creme de menthe liqueur and 1/4 cup creme de cacao liqueur. SO GOOD!
We truly felt like we had been out to eat and we will definitely make this treat again!