we made some old fashioned banana pudding homemade ice cream on the 4th of july. somehow we found the time while also watching grey crawl for the first time!

we set up our wooden bucket ice cream maker on the front porch and used a recipe from nutmeg nanny, which turned out amazing! how can you go wrong with nilla wafers and fresh bananas in your ice cream?

you should definitely try this frozen summer treat at home!

– ryan & gub

old fashioned banana pudding homemade ice cream

recipe from nutmeg nanny.

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 milk
3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tbsp instant banana pudding mix
2 small bananas, sliced
1 cup nilla wafers, coarsely chopped

directions:
in the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the whipping cream, milk and eggs. slowly add the sugar, lemon juice and salt. finally, add the instant banana pudding mix and blend well.

using a wooden spoon, add the small banana slices and stir to incorporate.

pour into the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker. turn on and freeze according to the manufactures directions. during the final 10 minutes of freezing, add the coarsely chopped nilla wafers.

remove frozen ice cream. serve immediately or place in a freezer proof ice cream container and serve when ready.

we recently went to fort mountain state park for some outdoor family fun.  it was our first camping trip with the two little ones, so we definitely overpacked and were totally nervous.  in the end we encountered a bear, a (potentially) poisonous snake and a torrential rain storm and still somehow walked away wanting to go camping again as soon as possible!

clementine loved the whole outdoor experience. all she can talk about is going camping again.

‘i go camping outside!’ – clem

fort mountain had plenty of nice trails/hiking and a huge 17-acre lake for swimming in addition to camping. it was also a good 10-15 degrees cooler in the canopied mountains than the city. we weren’t expecting it to get so cold at night, we actually had to zip up our sleeping bags to stay warm!

for an outdoor getaway only two hours from atlanta, we totally recommend fort mountain state park.

– ryan & gub

fort mountain state park

181 fort mountain state park road
chatsworth, ga 30705
706-422-1932

happy mother’s day! grey and clementine have enjoyed lounging in the hammock together this mother’s day! its adorable.

– ryan, clementine & grey

GARDEN UPDATE: our bell peppers are finally coming along! it looks like we should have some full size peppers right around the corner.

– ryan & gub

GARDEN UPDATE: our cucumber plants have a ton of flowers on them! hopefully that means we will have lots of cucumbers on the horizon. we’ve only had a handful so far, and they’ve had pretty funky shapes.

– ryan & gub

GARDEN UPDATE: our tomato plants have been producing a ton of fruit this summer! they seem to love the heat and their new placement in our mailbox planters. our two mailbox plants have produced more tomatoes than we’ve had in years! we often pull them a little early and let them ripen in the windowsill.

– ryan & gub

i celebrated a nice birthday on saturday! i had a relaxing afternoon off followed by dinner at d.b.a., our new favorite bbq restaurant. besides having great ribs, their deep fried bacon is pretty ridiculous!

gub also got me these amazing vintage snow globes! they will look great in our collection!

– ryan

d.b.a. barbecue

1190 north highland avenue, suite b
atlanta, ga 30306
404-249-5000

a big staple of our holden beach trips is eating lots of seafood, especially local shrimp! we generally have a low country boil on at least one occasion and often have seafood for other meals as well.

we were very excited to discover capt’n pete’s seafood on our recent trip! it’s on the island, so you don’t have to go far, and it has a restaurant and a dockside seafood market, both of which are outstanding. it quickly became one of our new favorite places!

our meal at capt’n pete’s seafood restaurant was very nice! gub had the best shrimp & grits she’s ever had, and my fried north carolina seafood platter (shrimp, oysters & flounder) with homemade fries was superb. here is the menu!

we also bought fresh north carolina shrimp from capt’n pete’s seafood market on numerous occasions! they had all sorts of wild caught seafood available, from flounder, snapper & grouper, to pre-made goodies like crab cakes and hush puppies for baking at home. you could order entire fish or just filets and everything was very affordable. they also had various seafood spices and accessories available and a great selection of bottled sodas, including ibc root beer and mexican coke.

we will definitely be heading back on future trips! you should do the same if ever visiting holden beach.

– ryan & gub

captain pete’s seafood

103 south shore drive
holden beach, nc 28462
910-846-9988 – restaurant
910-842-6675 – market

there was an amazing handmade sign on our way into holden beach for a pro-wrestling event at the civietown fire department. we can only imagine the awesomeness we missed out on!

pro-wrestling
civietown fire depart.
sat. july 14 7pm
tickets $8
children 10 under free

– ryan & gub

although clementine was a little fearful of the ocean and sand at holden beach, she was definitely a huge fan of eating watermelon in her kiddie pool!

go figure!

– ryan & gub