Paradise: For Sale

I was going to write about this, but Holly's comment on my previous post made me want to do it even more. Yes, indeed my mom has put her house on Lake Huron up for sale. For as long as I can remember it was my parents' dream to live on the lake. A few years after my dad died, my mom decided that it was time. She bought this house on the lake, cut the roof off, and added on the second level. Even before we moved in the house, I had bonfires on the beach. Since we moved in it has been a solace and oasis for our family. We have entertained many friends and family on the beach and around the fire pit. Amanda and I were married in the backyard. Tricia and Alex danced together on the deck at a party we had there after they were married. We have celebrated Thanksgivings, Christmases, and birthdays there.

Mom has been splitting her time between Florida and Alpena for the past two years. She feels like it is now time to make the permanent transition to Florida. Joe, Carrie, Drew and their soon-to-be-born baby are there and it is a good place for her. While we will miss her home, Alpena, and people that we love there, we know that it is a good move for Mom.

If you're interested in a piece of heaven in Northeastern Michigan that would be a bargain at twice the price, check out the link at the top of the page.

Monday on vacation

I'm on vacation! What are all of you people doing who have to work today? Yesterday I went and picked up Tricia, Davy and Jacob. Alex and they met me half way and I brought them back. We have been hanging out on the beach, the yard and taking naps. One thing I have been enjoying is taking photos. You can see today's photos here. Also, check out the video of Matthew below. We have been wanting to get this routine on video for some time. He is an absolute hilarity with this stuff!

Alpena Trip

We are enjoying the beauty of Northern Michigan. We spent this morning on the beach. The sky was overcast but it was a beautiful morning. After naps today we are back out to the beach. I am hoping for more of this. You can check out all of this morning's photos here.

Welcome back!

Welcome back the Falders to the blogosphere. Approximately a year ago Tricia was keeping a very interesting and regular blog. Then due to personal reasons (That's the reason celebrities give for quitting something. I think she just got to busy.) she quit posting and shut down the blog. This morning I received an e-mail that said they are BACK IN BUSINESS! The Falders have now gotten top billing on my friends list (on the right) and on my Netvibes page (my RSS reader). Check out their blog here.

Mocha Chip

This weeks ice cream is Mocha Chip. A few things went wrong with this one, but it still turned out pretty good. First the recipe called for a coffee concentrate that you make with a coffee toddy. I didn't have a coffee toddy so I just made a batch of REALLY strong espresso roast coffee. I added that to a basic sweet cream base. I wanted a little bit richer taste, so I melted some semisweet chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup) and added that tot he mix. Into the the machine it went.

Towards the end I thought I would add some chocolate chips. I wanted them to be smaller though, so I chopped them up in the blender. I made smaller chunks than what I really wanted. After the allotted 30 minutes in the machine what I really had was an ice cream soup. The ice cream is never "ready to eat" right out of the machine. It always needs a couple more hours in the freezer to firm up like I like it. But this was soupy. I consulted my Ben & Jerry's book and they said that whenever you add a liquid (like coffee) to the sweet cream base, it is going to affect your consistency and freezing time. I had a small cup (above) at lunch today and it is pretty good. It takes like a very rich chocolate with chips. With all the extra chocolate I added, I lost some of the coffee flavor. Amanda suggested that I leave out the extra chocolate next time. I think she's right.

Higher Call Quartet

I have been listening this morning to the CD from the quartet that Amanda's mom Shirley plays with. The name of the group is Higher Call. We went to the Minnesota State Fair to hear them sing last year and really enjoyed it. Shirley really enjoys playing for the group. You can check out more about Higher Call at their website. Also, watch the video below. Unfortunately this was before Shirley began playing with them.

Blueberries and Cream Ice Cream

Welcome to my first blog post exploring my exploits in homemade ice cream. I am hoping to make this a recurring part of the blog. First, a little background. I received my ice cream maker, the Cuisinart Automatic Frozen Yogurt/Ice Cream/Sorbet Maker for Christmas from my mom. I have made many different ice creams so far. My favorite is Chocolate & Peanut Butter, but I have enjoyed them all. Also for Christmas I got the book Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book from Brad and Sarah. This was an essential piece in the great ice cream puzzle. The ice cream maker came with a small recipe book, but it left out what I found to be an essential ingredient: eggs. Ben & Jerry's recommends a least one or two eggs in each batch. The eggs seemed to really affect the consistency of the final product. I hope you enjoy this ongoing subject.

This past week we got a huge box of blueberries from Costco. I thought ice cream would be a good way to use some. I used approximately two cups of blue berries in my blueberries and cream ice cream. In my Cuisinart recipe book there is a recipe for strawberry ice cream that say to combine 1/3 cup of sugar, some lemon juice and berries and let stand for two hours. I only let the berries and sugar mixture stand for a little more than a half hour. This gave me more of a blue berries and cream taste than a blue berry flavored ice cream. It was very good though and I am finishing of the remainder of it this week.

Last night I made some "mocha chip" ice cream that I will write about next.