Black Swallowtail Caterpillars, Sunset, Moonrise & Ice Cream

I’ve always wanted to have black swallowtail caterpillars in my flower beds. They’re so bright and pretty and make beautiful butterflies.
My blogging buddy Patti has a flower bed and posts pretty photos of the black swallowtail caterpillars. I asked her about them. She told me to plant fennel for them.
The only fennel I could find is a bronze fennel. I bought 4 peat pots of them. I planted 2 in my herb bed and 2 in one of my small flower beds. The 2 in the herb bed are flourishing, but the 2 fennel plants in my flower bed are slow growing.

The fennel in my herb bed is where the caterpillars are. There’s oodles of the lovely critters munching in the fennel.
“Thank you so very much Patti! I’m glad I listened to you.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t plan the ones in the herb bed very well because I bet the birds who come to bath in our bird baths will eat up all the caterpillars. But the birds haven’t eaten them all so far, so maybe a few of the caterpillars will mature into butterflies.However, Maybe the fennel in my small flower bed by the porch will take a growth spurt and the butterflies will lay some eggs on them. The birds never are in that flower bed because my rain chain and dangly chain keeps them scared off.

Oh yes and also, I planted a small dill plant in the herb bed and was surprised to see that it has 2 black swallowtail caterpillars on it. I didn’t know the caterpillars would hatch and grow on dill. Cool!~*~
June 1 2017 had a glorious fiery sunset.
It was a beautiful sight to see.

~*~
June 2, 2017 was clear and the moon in it’s first quarter stood out clearly in the early-evening blue sky.~*~
Oh one more thing, we won the lottery! That’s right folks our ticket brought in a whopping $2.00.
We were selfish and blew the whole winnings on a couple of vanilla ice cream cones.
The ice cream was a rare fun treat and a tasty way to enjoy our lottery winnings.

Wishing you all joy and fun
and oodles of good fortune.

.

Chocolate Ice Cream Bread

chocolatebread1Well, here it is ‘Chocolate Ice Cream Bread’.
It tastes like a cross between a brownie and a chocolate cake.
chocolatebread2I’m happy that I’ve tried all 3 flavors in the Neapolitan ice cream.
It’s an easy recipe and bakes up beautifully.

Wishing you all fun with creative cooking.

 

*I used a small batter made like my basic ‘Boiled Custard Bread’ recipe.
Use melted ice cream instead of boiled custard.
Add flour a little at a time to the melted ice cream until the batter is a creamy consistency.
If you get the batter too thick, thin it with a little bit of water.

.

Strawberry Ice Cream Bread

P1050425Well, it was bound to happen, that’s right, I made ‘Strawberry Ice Cream Bread’. One can only bake around with vanilla ice cream or custard for so long before the other flavors become too tempting not to try too.

I had been playing with the idea to use strawberry or chocolate ice cream to make some ice cream bread. I mentioned it to my supportive & wonderful husband and he went out and brought home a gallon of neopolitan ice cream.

P1050416I made a small loaf of strawberry ice cream bread. I’m so amazed how this bread can rise so lovely and come out of the pan without sticking. The strawberry bread has great texture and wonderful taste. I love the pretty color too.

This was such fun to try. Now next up is chocolate. I hope it does as well. I’ll let you know.

Happy creating!

 

*I used a small batter made like my basic ‘Boiled Custard Bread’ recipe.
Use melted ice cream instead of boiled custard.
Add flour a little at a time to the melted ice cream until the batter is a creamy consistency.
If you get the batter too thick, thin it with a little bit of water.

.

2016 WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Fun

2016 WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge
~Fun~

1-iccrm-breadI think, Making ‘Ice Cream Bread’ is fun.
It has only 2 ingredients: self rising flour & melted ice cream.

It’s simple to do and it taste good. 🙂2-iccrm-bread

 Wishing you all fun with the WP photo challenge!

*’Ice Cream Bread’ can be made by my ‘Boiled Custard Bread’ recipe.
Use melted ice cream instead of boiled custard.
Add flour a little at a time to the melted ice cream until the batter is a creamy consistency.
If you get the batter too thick, thin it with a little bit of water.

.

Boiled Custard Bread

IMG_8003During this past holiday, I decided to try drinking some boiled custard. I hadn’t had any since I was a child and I forgot what it taste like. The custard was quite nice and had the taste of melted ice cream.

picgifs-cooking-166988I thought about the boiled custard. Since it tasted like melted ice cream, I figured it might be good to cook something with. The only melted ice cream recipe I recalled was for bread.
I looked up ice cream bread recipes and then adjusted the ingredients to fit my needs. I used just 2 ingredients: boiled custard and self rising flour.

The bread turned out beautifully. The texture of this bread is firm and it has a light cakey taste to it. I’m tickled how just 2 ingredients made such a nice loaf of bread.

My hubby says the bread doesn’t have much taste, but it does have a nice texture. He thought it might be good with sugar added to the mix.
I think he’s right, it’d make a dandy strawberry shortcake. but I haven’t tried making it with sugar yet.

Here’s my recipe if you want to try it.

Boiled Custard Bread
1 1/2 cup Boiled custard
2 cups self rising flour
Mix together.
Pour into prepared 8″ loaf pan. (I use olive oil baking spray to prepare the pan)
Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 45 minutes or until done.
~*~

~*~
Let me know if you try my recipe and any changes you make to it.
Have you made anything using boiled custard?
Do you make your own boiled custard?

Wishing you all a sweet rest of the week!
chef
spgrnbgln