Gingersnaps and Ice Cream

Yummmm. Almost as good as s’mores! Well, maybe not, but ice cream is my downfall so you’ll just have to go along with me. Not quite as easy to make as s’mores, but you can cheat a tad and just buy some butter pecan ice cream rather than make your own. But if you have a super recipe and love making ice cream, these would taste much, much better if you made your own. Who am I to push for more work when there are so many other things to do in the summer? So I’ll fess up: because I wanted something fairly speedy I bought some Häagen-Dazs butter pecan.

Can’t remember where I got this recipe, but I have used it a lot. It may have come from a magazine, but I forget which one. I make a bunch and freeze them- usually doubling the recipe because it doesn’t make nearly enough for the appetites around here. God I hate having these in the freezer. So tempting. Never once has an adult OR a child thought these were anything less than ambrosial. If you like to get your kids involved in the kitchen, they would have fun sandwiching the cookies with the ice cream…although how much ice cream would eventually make it between the cookies is a bit problematic….like all things kids make in the kitchen.

Anyway, I love pulling these out of the freezer for a surprise dessert. Uncomplicated and delicious. Perfect for summer. Can you imagine the cookie and ice cream combinations that would be fun to try? I seem to remember seeing something on Tartelette where she had wrapped an ice cream sandwich up in a darling package- you could make them elegant by doing the same thing.

Gingersnap and Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 pint butter pecan ice cream
extra sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter, sugar and molasses until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and beat to combine. Whisk flour, soda, salt, ginger and allspice together and then fold into the butter mixture.
Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Press with sugared fingers to make a 3 inch disk.
Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 11- 13 minutes.
Transfer to a rack to cool.
Soften ice cream and scoop onto a cookie. Top with another cookie and freeze. Should make about 5 sandwiches. Let stand 10 minutes before eating. (Although I never did!)

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince praised by Vatican

The Vatican's official newspaper lauded Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for its "clear" depiction of the eternal battle between good & evil represented by the struggle between Harry and his nemesis, the evil sorcerer Lord Voldemort.

L'Osservatore Romano said the movie was the best adaptation yet of the JK Rowling books, describing it as "a mixture of supernatural suspense and romance which reaches the right balance".

"There is a clear line of demarcation between good and evil and [the film] makes clear that good is right. One understands as well that sometimes this requires hard work and sacrifice," the newspaper judged.

The broadsheet paper also praised the film's clear message that "the search for immortality epitomised by Lord Voldemort" was wrong. It even approved of the film's treatment of adolescent romance amid the halls and corridors of Hogwart's, saying that it achieved the "correct balance" and made the teenage stars more credible.

The favourable review is an apparent cahnge of heart from the Vatican's previous assessment of the best-selling series.

Last year an article in L'Osservatore Romano condemned the books for encouraging an interest in the occult among children.

The newspaper wrote: "Despite the values that we come across in the narration, at the base of this story, witchcraft is proposed as a positive ideal.

"The characterisation of common men who do not know magic as 'Muggles' who know nothing other than bad and wicked things is a truly diabolical attitude."

The newspaper called the teenage boy wizard "the wrong kind of hero", comparing the books unfavourably with two other British children's classics, the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

The Vatican's attitude to the books has taken a harder line under the papacy of Benedict XVI in comparison with that of his predecessor John Paul II.

Two years before he was elected Pope, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, as he then was, wrote a letter to a German critic of the books calling the series "a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly".

Earlier this year an ultraconservative Austrian priest, the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner, accused the Harry Potter novels of encouraging Satanism.

Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/5826251/Harry-Potter-and-the-Half-Blood-Prince-praised-by-Vatican.html

Ode to the River

Today...just a simple love letter to the river, penned and performed by Natalie Merchant, off of her album "Tigerlily," with photos and video generated by a creative, thoughtful soul.

Natalie Merchant, Where I Go


Climbing under
a barbed wire fence
by the railroad ties

climbing over
the old stone wall
I am bound for the riverside

well I go to the river
to soothe my mind
ponder over
the crazy days of my life
just sit and watch the river flow

find a place
on the riverbank
where the green rushes grow
see the wind
in the willow tree
in branches hanging low

well I go to the river
to soothe my mind
to ponder over
the crazy days of my life
watch the river flow
ease my mind and my soul
where I go

well I will go to the river
from time to time
wander over
these crazy days in my mind
watch the river flow
where the willow branches grow
by the cool rolling waters
moving gracefully and slow

child it's lovely
let the river take it all away
the mad pace, the hurry
the troubles, the worries
just the river take them all away
flow away

Daily Agenda

Some people have asked me how I manage to juggle mom’s duties with the mompreneur role. My answer is that it’s definitely difficult but way worth it.

It is a joy having Lukas and my dog Samba around when I’m working on my websites, or having lunch. They make great co-workers! And the flexibility of working from home is absolutely priceless. But don’t take me wrong, there are several annoying things happening during my day as well.

Everything in my day is precisely organized timewise. Sometimes I have to use a crystal ball to schedule conference calls. Any unexpected item in the agenda and the often grouchy juggler comes to play. Unfortunately there is only so much I can predict…

Dedicating some breaks to play with the little one is also a very important part in my daily agenda. Not having Lukas in a daycare has its downside, and I need to make sure his social and cognitive development is compensated accordingly. Luckily, he is always smiling and hardly ever cries.

At the end of the day, it feels like I’ve just finished a marathon. The sense of accomplishment is what usually drives my evening mood. Only a few things are worse to me than an unproductive day.

A Visit to the Rolling Pin Cafe

On a perfectly pleasant July day, I lunched at the Rolling Pin Café in Westwood, NJ.

Inside, their dining room is charming, yet very small. This is a popular spot, so it gets quite noisy, and I prefer to dine here when I can get one of their two outdoor tables.

What's more refreshing than raspberry lemonade, $2, on a hot summer day?


A cup of gazpacho soup, and half of a roasted zucchini, yellow squash and tomato sandwich with onion chutney, hold the cheese and mayo, with a small side of sweet potato salad, $8.25.


There are no vegan dessert options, but soy milk is available for coffee and espresso drinks.

Visit the Rolling Pin Café, 341 Broadway, Westwood. Open 8-4, Monday-Saturday.

Westwood has been offering free concerts Wednesdays in July. Up next: Tramps Like Us on July 23rd playing Bruce Springsteen music. No, it's not "the boss" himself, but close enough if you can't get (or want to spend the money for) tickets to his shows. Learn more. Visit your town's web site, check out your local newspapers, and stop by your library to see if free events like movies, concerts and other events are going on in your town. Many libraries screen movies, including Ridgewood, which shows a different foreign film each month.

Macrovision - New Sony EPG edges closer with Rovi Liquid Debut

The company formerly known as Macrovision has said that it'll be changing its name and launching a new Media Guide that promises to revolutionise the way we choose what to watch on television in the future.

The 1st discussed back in March, the company has formally outlined planned of the once called Neon interface, chaning the name to Liquid along with the company name to Rovi.

Rovi plans to roll out its "Liquid" electronic programme guide to manufactures like Sony in the future allowing consumers the chance to connect to content found on the internet as well as digital content stored at home.

"The new media guide solution is comprised of 3 distinct, but integrated solutions: a Television Content Guide, a Broadband Content Guide and a Personal Content Guide," a spokesman for the company told Pocket-lint.

In what must be a big day for the company, it has also announced a deal with Blockbuster to integrate access to BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand content, a deal that could be tied with Samsung's announcement of a similar deal with Blockbuster earlier in the week, although that has not been confirmed by either company.

Rovi has said that it is also working with Roxio CinemaNow, Slacker radio and YouTube XL, a website that is optimized for watching YouTube videos on large displays.

The company plans to use metadata stored in every programme to store favourites and make recommendations for undiscovered content. The guide also stores user profiles, so each member of the household can retrieve a personalized guide each time he or she turns on the TV.

The Liquid guide is designed to be able to connect to social network applications, such as Flixster using data to pull in recommendations from friends and the cloud.

The Liquid guide is planned to be available for CE manufacturers in early 2010 according to Rovi, however earlier comments from the company to Pocket-lint in March suggest that Sony might be the 1st company to launch a TV set with the new interface.

Earlier in the year Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist (yes, that is his real job title) at Macrovision, told Pocket-lint that the company was working with Sony on implementing a new EPG system.

source:http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/25622/gallery/sony-epg-closer-rovi-liquid-1.html

Lemon Thyme Cookies

It seems to me I’ve hosted tons of meetings in my home over the years. And always trying to be a gracious hostess, whether the meeting is in the morning or afternoon, I always think it’s nice to serve the coffee or tea with a little something to munch on. Very light, because everyone is always on a diet. (Or say they are.) My favorite is Apricot Nut Cookies ( a previous post) because they are light and not too sweet. The Lemon Thyme Cookies are a recent discovery and could really be called a bar; they are buttery, thin, delicate and unusual. And while I suppose you could have coffee with your Lemon Thyme Cookies- they just seem to go with tea for some reason. Up to you of course...I'm not a good judge as I am not a coffee lover.

Honestly, Giada De Laurentis comes up with some marvelous cookie ideas on her show. Some are ridiculously sweet while others, like the Apricot Nut Cookies previously mentioned, are less sweet and actually have healthy ingredients. In fact, every time she makes a cookie on her show, I sit up and take notice because I have garnered some nifty cookie recipes from her.

What’s different about this recipe is I think it demanded some outside opinions. The flavor is herbal and lemony. So, when I made the cookies, I tasted one, loved it and took the rest to the hair salon where I happened to have an appointment that day. And I got lots of opinions. Four loved them, one did not- women. One loved them, two didn’t- men. (I was surprised men even wanted to try them because they really aren’t a standard looking cookie.)

I think these are to die for- and so good with tea- iced or otherwise. They are not the sort of cookie you sit down with a glass of milk (like chocolate chip cookies) and pig out. This is the kind you savor, wonder at the flavors and nibble away. Tart and refreshing.

Lemon Thyme Cookies
(Adapted from Giada De Laurentis)


Ingredients:
1 stick butter ( 4 ounces), at room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract


Glaze:
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ cup powdered sugar

Method:
Put your oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325°. Butter and flour an 8 by 8 glass baking dish.
In a small bowl combine flour, thyme and salt. Set aside. Using a paddle attachment beat together the butter and powdered sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Beat in lemon juice and and vanilla. Mix the flour and thyme leaves. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture. Using damp fingers, press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes until golden. Cool for 30 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cooled crust. Allow the glaze to harden at room temperature for at least an hour.

Using a metal spatula, remove the crust from the pan and cut into 1 ½ inch squares. Arrange on a platter or store airtight in a plastic container at room temperature.