TGIF: Summer Heat Wave!

Mint is a delicious addition to chocolate ice cream

It's the end of the work week, and here once again is TGIF: 5 Things To Be Thankful For This Friday!


1. Chocolate mint ice cream

I made an ice cream pie this week with some delicious homemade ice cream. I couldn't find the perfect recipe for what I wanted so I just made a basic chocolate ice cream base and then added peppermint flavoring until it tasted the way I wanted. The result was a creamy, minty ice cream with a rich, chocolate undertone. For anyone who wants to make their own ice cream this weekend, here's a wonderful recipe.

Wet and wild

2. Water friendly dog toys

My dogs love to play in the water! The only thing that's better than just splashing around in the shallows and "rough-housing" the way dogs like to do is adding in a fun toy to the wet play. Unfortunately, most dog toys aren't very water-friendly. I've had to spend days drying out soggy, water-logged toys which weren't ever meant to be submerged in a pond for several hours. There are a few toys which my dogs adore, though, which also can be taken in and out of the water fairly easily. The favorite is a canvas frisbee which is shaped kind of like a doughnut with a hole cut out of the middle. The dogs will tug on that in the water for hours, jumping out to chase each other around the beach before leaping back in the pond with an enormous splash.

Aaahhh...A breeze!

3. Electric fans

For the first time this year temperatures soared into the nineties here during the week. The weather was uncomfortably hot and even the animals, especially the chickens, looked over-heated. Luckily I have several electric fans which I can fire up during the rare heat wave that hits northern Michigan. The dogs really enjoy crashing in front of a fan after they've been out for a walk, they'll just flop on the floor with their tongues lolling until they've cooled down enough to move. I even deployed a fan in my chicken coop for a few hours each night to keep the air moving and cool down the poultry.

Slow cookers mean I don't have to roast in the kitchen!

4. Slow cookers

Another life-saver during the occasional week of extreme heat is one of my favorite kitchen appliances, my slow-cooker. On days when it's just too hot to feel like running the oven or stove it's nice to be able to cook food some other way. On Wednesday I just put together a batch of scalloped potatoes in the morning and popped it in the slow-cooker to cook all day. It came out deliciously and I didn't have to cool the kitchen back down after running the oven!

Short and sweet

5. Cut-off shorts

My favorite shorts are a pair of cut-offs which I made last year from a comfortable set of jeans. I rolled up the cuffs so there aren't any frayed edges showing and embellished the newly created shorts with lace and heart shaped patches. The shorts look classy and cute and are more comfy than anything I could buy at the store!