Ice and Fire

Man, this night totally got away from me!

Today was a great day – and my lunchtime treat/dessert helped ;)

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Nick and I had a few errands to run during lunch today, and we finally remember to stop by Gardner’s Frozen Treats. We’ve never been, but we were finally in the area today – I had my first taste of their Italian Ice.

 

Check out their flavors of just their Italian Ice!

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I’m definitely going back for coconut cream soon.

They also have Hershey’s ice cream and a ton of soft-serve flavors:

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I had heard good things about their Mint Chocolate Chip Italian Ice and knew I had to try that first.

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This is my definitely my new favorite place! I had no clue that Italian Ice could taste like regular ice cream, but it can.

This was the perfect snack today – it was so warm outside and I needed something cold and refreshing. Hit the spot!

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I actually had a meeting this afternoon (which went great!) and then ran errands before coming home. I had to go buy us some more coffee from our local coffee shop, Mill Mountain, and anytime you buy a pound of coffee you get a free cup of coffee. Only – it was 90 degrees when I was buying the coffee and I couldn’t think of drinking hot coffee, so I asked for iced tea. This was their Passion Fruit flavor for the day, and I was nice enough to split it with Nick on the way home :)

And ever since we got home, we’ve been moving nonstop!!!

I tried a new recipe for some oven-baked onion rings that turned out pretty well.

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I think it needs a little tweaking, so I’ll put the recipe up once I try it again.

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They were definitely crunchy enough. I think I just need to double-dip them in the batter.

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And yes, I like a lot of ketchup with my onion rings.

We had some chicken sausage and veggies with our faux-fried rings tonight.

Since we made dinner and ate as soon as we got home, we went out for a walk with Maggie as soon as we finished eating.

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Our tulips are blooming!

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We ended up walking for an hour tonight. It was perfect outside at 7:30 tonight – it had cooled down a little, the sun was just setting, and we had a slight breeze.

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I love our family walks.

And all was good until we got back home around 8:30 tonight. Turns out, the local fire department is doing a controlled burn RIGHT NOW on the hill right behind our house.

So…the entire hill outside our windows is on fire as I type. Exciting? :\ 

I’m actually kinda freaked out! I feel like I need to stay up all night and keep an eye on it.

Too bad I’m already in my pajamas.

Hope those firemen do their jobs and keep us safe!

 

19 comments

  1. Yes, definitely post the onion ring recipe when you tweak it!

    And we neeeed to meet up :D

  2. Italian ice is one of my favorite things about summer! I can’t wait for the places around here to open :)

  3. Wow the mint chip Italian ice looks just like ice cream. I can’t even imagine what the texture must be like without any of the cream. It looks delicious though. I wonder if I can find some around here…

    • yeah, it was so weird! Tasted just like ice cream, but just ICY instead of super rich and creamy.

  4. mmmm… healthy-inspired onion rings??? Yes please!

  5. I love italian ice because I grew up with Rita’s in the Philly area. I’m a die hard lemon girl though.

    I would be freaked out by a controlled burn anywhere near my home. Praying you get some sleep.

  6. gah, stay safe tonight! I haven’t had Italian Ice in forever, I used to love the stuff, especially Rita’s.
    I would love your onion ring recipe once you perfect it! I haven’t made any good ones at home yet.

  7. Controlled burn or not that would freak me out too!

    The Italian Ice looks great though. I’ve never heard of mint choc chip ice. Yum yum!

  8. Mill Mountain :) I wish Roanoke had a good frozen yogurt or italian ice place. All these blogs make me want frozen yogurt all the time.

  9. Um, hello? I need to return to hicky Blacksburg for that Italian ice! I want the honeydew melon ones!

  10. two things: that frozen treat looks amazing and i am digging those healthified onion rings!! have a great thursday, sweets!

  11. I am not an Italian Ice fan, but I haven’t tried the cream ice yet. If it tastes like ice cream, I think I may like it! :)

    Glad you had a wonderful day. I love our family walks too! :) Especially this time of year.

    Have a great day hun!

  12. That italian ice looks good, but I just haaaaaaate mint. I’d totally try the other flavors! :P
    Pretty flowers! :)

  13. Love that last picture – family walks are my fav!!

  14. Italian Ice is amazing, but I never knew they had all of those flavor choices–yummy!

  15. I’ve never had Italian Ice but it looks yummy. Your onion rings are killer!

  16. that italian ice looks so good – like what they call “water ice” in philly. i wish they had it on the west coast!

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