Wildlife friends

We've had bird feeders in our front yard for a few years, but it seems the birds are just now getting comfortable enough to visit & enjoy the constant stream of food.  With summer finally here, we've really noticed an abundance of birds visiting, including a few beautifully colorful cuties (sorry, probably not the preferred nomenclature):

This blue fella appears to be a Lazuli Bunting, although the blurry picture & lack of a rear view make it difficult  to be certain.  My dear ornithologist brother, what's your educated guess?

This fiery bird appears to be a Western Tanager.  I adore the fabulously bright red & yellow.

[Please excuse the poor zoom - they were, after all, taken from a living room window with small zoom camera]

We've also been privy to a visit from this fantastically lemon-yellow bird, but they're too quick for us to grab a pic.

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes, you read that correctly.  Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting?  I made one such concoction recently.  Nom nom nom.

Chocolate cake recipe found here.  It was moist, flavorful, & easy-to-make (which is always a plus in my book).  I was hesitant to add coffee, but I highly recommend it - no coffee flavor was detected, but it gave a depth to the chocolate I think would have been missed without.  Peanut butter cream cheese frosting found here.  I had to add a bit of milk to make the frosting more spreadable for a cake.  The frosting had an amazing balance of sweet & salty.  I'm still partial to regular cream cheese frosting, but the addition of peanut butter was oh-so-delicious.

Put it all together & you have a combination made in heaven.  I took one bite & angels sang down from high.
Moist, rich, decadent, unique, sweet, salty.  Did I mention it was really tasty?

(Please note the thin slice.  This is not a diet-friendly cake.  All in moderation.)

Found the camera

A lack of posting with pictures is due to the fact we couldn't find our camera after travelling back from Piedmont a few weekends ago.  That's because we safely put the camera in the glove box in my car, only to forget where we safely stored it.  We're getting old.

As I uploaded recent pictures, I stumbled upon the pics below, taken while in Piedmont.

 Gidget refuses to miss any action going on around her, so she usually falls asleep sitting up.

 Oh, this table leg is so comfy to sleep on!

 Steve sets the trends for running attire in his Hawaiian swim trunks, knee-high compression socks, & neon yellow running shoes.  Gidget is digging it.  It's so amazing, he was bathed in bright light from behind.
(Or Steve forgot running shorts when we visited Piedmont & my dad lent him a pair.  Except Steve is quite a bit taller than Papa Ramirez - and these shorts were the only pair long enough & wouldn't have gotten the cops called on Steve for indecent exposure.)

Heaven in a bottle

*Drool*  One of my absolute favorite beers of all time.  *Drool*  It's summer in a bottle.  No, it's heaven in a bottle.  It's summery heaven.  Heavenly summer.  You catch my drift.

When Leinie's Summer Shandy hits the liquor store shelves, I'm like this guy (gal).  Total destruction to anyone standing in my way.  (Minus the 3 heads)


Steve was recently in Laramie & found Summer Shandy in a can.  Bottles always seem more official than cans, but Summer Shandy in a can was priceless.  I fainted from happiness.

Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my computer.  Good thing it didn't short out.

I'scream! You'scream! We all scream for ice cream!

If the world were ending & I was only allowed one thing to eat for my last day(s), it would be ice cream.  And cake.  And cookies.  And custard.

Can I just have "dessert" for my last day?

Now that we have an ice cream maker...and four hens that make eggs...what better to use up eggs than make ice cream?  The good kind.  The custard kind.  Early in my ice cream making days, I read the creamiest ice creams have a higher fat content because of all things physics and science that I don't understand.  Something to do with ice crystals & their inability to form in fat.  Is that why my layer of blubber keeps me warm in the winter?  Because ice crystals can't form?  Why didn't someone tell me I had to be a Rocket Surgeon to understand the delicate inner-workings of ice cream??

Last night, I made the most amazing ice cream I have ever tried.  It's a simple vanilla bean ice cream that can easily be used as a base for other flavors.

See recipe here.

It's still creamy, even after being in the freezer overnight.  I know because after lunch, I had a small scoop.  Or two.  Or five.

Who's counting?

I did make a small minor adjustment.  I didn't have 3 cups of heavy cream, so I used what I had - which is the one-pint container (equivalent of two cups, for those of you that reject the Metric system).  I adjusted my half-and-half to 2 cups & used 7 eggs.  Ahhhhhhmazing.