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Wine Wednesday: Satek Winery Tawny Port

January 8, 2014 by

Have I mentioned out temperatures this week have ranged from a -45 degree wind chill to a big warm up of 5 degrees today.  And there are 18 inches of snow on the ground in my cornfield.  The kids went out to play and I nearly lost my Lion Cub in all the snow. The cold temps and snow we’ve had in the Midwest has made me think of warm wines.  This post has nothing to do with the fact my kids have been on break for 2 1/2 weeks and I haven’t been in my office since December 20th.  Or that they have cabin fever and miss their friends.  And I have a ton of work to do. Nothing…at all…

I’m looking for a wine that warms you as you drink them. That made me pull out a very special port from a great Indiana winery.

Satek Winery started as a c149aommercial vineyard in 1992 in northeastern Indiana with the intent to eventually open a winery. The winery opened in 2001 and has seen tremendous growth in the years since then! Owned by Larry and Pam Satek, along with their son Jason and assistant winemaker Shane Crist, make exceptional wine and create an experience for their guests to remember.

 

 

While the temperatures dropped outside, I dug through  my wine cellar for a good sipping wine. I found a bottle of Satek Winery’s Kreimbaum Bay Decennial Tawny Port. This bottle of wine is in honor of their 10th anniversary and is a blend of all the ports they have made.

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When I first smelled and tasted this, I thought it tasted like the thick toasty caramel on the outside of a caramel apple.  This wine has been aged in oak, so you get a lot of smoky, oakiness as well.  This wine is 20% alcohol, so you should plan this as an after dinner drink, or an aperitif to be enjoyed in smaller quantities!

And at just under $40 for a 375ml bottle, you will want to enjoy lightly or buy a few bottles! It is the perfect wine for 18 inches or snow or to enjoy on a cold evening.

 

 

 

 

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The Hog Barn is Warmer Than My House!

January 6, 2014 by

I am struggling to stay warm. The entire Midwest is under a cold snap that has buried some parts in snow and caused temperatures to plummet.

In my state of Indiana, we seemed to have shut down for the day. This image has been circulating my Facebook feed. I can’t tell where it originated, but it seems appropriate as hundreds of schools are closed, counties are under travel warnings, businesses are closed and even my off-farm job shut down for the day!

Indiana

 

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My cornfield received over 17 inches of snow. Current temps are horrible and the wind chills are even worse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The storm started out a bit deceptive. On Sunday morning, we couldn’t get my car out to go to church, The Farmer had taken his truck to go plow the church parking lot and we were stuck at home. Since there was a nice, quiet snow falling, I bundled up the kids and sent them outside. The snow was the perfect snowman, fort, angel, snowball kind of snow. And it was eerily quiet. No traffic, no wind, no noise. I made doughnuts. The perfect treat after all their snow work.

 

 

 

2014-01-06 11.22.23 The first thing we did when the wind started to pick up was to bring the 4H bunnies in the house. While our 4H animal barn is sheltered from the wind and cold, I wasn’t going to take a chance of a heat issue or frozen water bottles. So they are living in my laundry room right now! 

 

 

 

 

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Then it was time to worry about bigger issues.  -45 degree wind chills surely meant our power would go out in the hog barns at some point overnight. I asked my social media friends to not only pray for the emergency workers, lineman, and others who had to brave the cold. But to pray for farmers who have to deal with livestock and can’t just hunker down in their houses to ride out the storm.

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When we woke up, this is what we saw.  17+ inches of snow and no possible way for our hired help to get to our farm to work. So The Farmer is doing it all today. These barns house gestation units. Sows that are going to have baby pigs and sows that just had pigs. So we have to watch the temperatures very closely to make sure the barn stay warm to keep those baby pigs warm.

 

 

 

 

 

2014-01-02 18.36.19The barns are roughly 73-80 degrees, depending on what size of pigs are in them. This control panel keeps track of the temperatures. If we would have a power outage or the temperatures would drop, an alarm is activated and we receive a phone call to alert us of the problem. Then The Farmer would have to plow his way to the barns to fix the problem!

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014-01-06 11.23.48The barn is warmer than my house right now.  The barn is at least 74 degrees.  My house, set at 74, keeps falling. When I took this picture we were at 67.  It has fallen to 66.  Can someone send balmy weather my way?  Or another pair of fuzzy socks?

 

 

 

 

2014-01-06 09.50.26If you look across our fields, you see what looks like ocean waves, but made of snow.

 

 

 

 

 

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There is plenty of talk from animal rights groups that hogs should be raised outside and not in barns. I would challenge every one of those people to stand outside in our weather for any length of time. They don’t want to live in this, why should I raise hogs outside when it’s colder than sin outside??

My hogs are in climate-controlled buildings.  It’s warm. Warmer than my own house right now. They have access to feed and fresh water.  Their water lines aren’t frozen, like many of my friends lines whose own water pipes are frozen solid. Our hogs have My Farmer to make sure they are warm and fed and who is putting their best interests over his own as he braves these cold temps and plows his own way to our barns, both here and many miles away, to check on their well-being.  So people say farmers don’t care about their livestock? Come walk a mile in our shoes today. You’ll change your mind.

Jeanette2brownsmall

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Christmas Revisited

January 2, 2014 by

I really don’t like to take down my Christmas decorations. I can put everything up in just a few short hours but it takes me all day to take down my decorations! I think my pokiness can  be attributed to my sentimental attachments to my ornaments. I have a story for so many of them.

My tree is not fancy.  The Farmer and I did a real tree for a few years, but my lack of watering it caused the trees to die and leave needles behind, usually found in May or June. Nearly always found in the bottom of my foot or rear end. So we switched to a fake tree.  And it’s not even a good fake tree.  It sheds terribly.  But it gets so full of ornaments that you wouldn’t know it’s not a perfect tree.

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So all good things must come to an end. It took nearly all day to pack up the  decorations. And Christmas is back in the attic for another year.

But this year I decided to take a few pictures and tell you about my favorite  ornaments. The ones that are sentimental. Old. Treasured.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is my angel. It’s made from a clothespin, part of a coffee filter, a cotton ball and a pipe cleaner. I made it when I was 6 years old. I wrap this angel up in tissue paper every year, like she is an invaluable treasure. When the tree goes up, she is at the top, pretty close to the angel that sits at the top of the tree. This angel was made in Sunday School. I do love her!

 

 

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This ornament was made when I was no more than 10 years old. Laura, Brad and Brent were friends of mine from church and are still people I hang out with today! It’s a shrinky dink. One that makes me smile every year and be thankful for longstanding friendships.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This ornament is one of my grade school pictures. There isn’t a date, but I think it’s 1st grade. Just a simple styrofoam circle with my picture pinned in.

 

 

 

 

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This simple triangle Santa isn’t much to look at.  But it has held up over a lot of years!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014-01-02 10.27.19This plaster snowman is actually The Farmer’s. He can’t remember when he made it, but he carved his name in the back!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014-01-02 10.50.48 This Santa face hangs from my archway. Another Christmas decoration that is at least 30 years old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014-01-02 10.27.09This ornament is much more recent. I have at least 7 of this type of ornament. My nearly 89-year-young Grandma makes them on her embroidery machine for all of her 5 kids and 16 grandkids for Christmas! They are beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014-01-02 11.17.26 And my final Christmas sentimental decoration is my manger scene. My Grandpa made the manger. He and Grandma gave me the manger and figurines when I was maybe 13 or 14 years old. I’ve put it out every year since and even with 3 kids in the house, no one has ever messed with it!

Christmas is so much more than gifts. To me and my family, Christmas is about the birth of Christ. About hope. A promise. An eternity. It’s about family and friends. Gratitude.  And memories. So while it may be late, Merry Christmas to you and yours.

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Hot Caramel Apple Cider in the Crockpot

November 8, 2013 by

It’s cold outside.  And I don’t like it.  I enjoy fall temperatures, but not freezing, bone-chilling, make your nose drip and eyes sting kind of cold. And it’s starting to feel like that in the early morning darkness.

Whenever it gets cold, I look for warm drinks.  Hot tea is always one of my first choices.  My warm apple cider is also something I truly love to drink!

A few years ago, I posted this recipe for Hot Caramel Apple Cider.  The recipe is compliments of the 101 Homestyle Favorite Recipes (101 Cookbook Collection) from Gooseberry Patch.  This recipe will warm you to your toes!

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While the recipe calls for 1/2 gallon of apple cider, I use almost the whole gallon.  You can double the whole recipe if you wish.  I don’t.  I think 1/2 cup of brown sugar is plenty of sweeten the gallon of cider.
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Pour the cider into your slow cooker.
Add the vanilla, cinnamon sticks, cloves and cider vinegar.  Stir.  then slice up your orange and put it in the slow cooker as well.  You’ll let this warm on low for 4-6 hours.  Your house will smell amazing!
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Then pour the cider into your favorite mug, add the orang and enjoy!
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Do pay attention to your kids while you are making this cider.  I let the crew work on laundry while I was making this and found my Lion Cub in a bit of a predicament.
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5 from 1 reviews
Print
Hot Caramel Apple Cider in the Crockpot
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • ½ gallon of apple cider
  • ½ c. brown sugar
  • 1½ tsp cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 inch cinnamon stick
  • 6 whole cloves
  • 1 sliced orange
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Strain, discard spices and enjoy!
 This recipe is linked to Watcha Crockin.
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Jeanette2brownsmall
6 Comments Filed Under: recipes  

Thanksgiving Pumpkin

November 6, 2013 by

I’ve always wondered what we should do with our pumpkins once Halloween is over.  We don’t usually carve them.  The kids haven’t been old enough to have free rein with sharp objects yet.  And I never process them to make pumpkin because The Farmer doesn’t like pumpkin and won’t eat desserts made from it.

So normally they just get thrown in the field.  Until this year.

Facebook is abuzz with people writing something they are thankful for everyday during November.  I’m not.  I’m afraid by the end of the month I’ll be posting that I’m grateful for toilet paper and flyswatters.  And that seems embarrassing.  Instead, I’ve enlisted the family to help me fill up a Thanksgiving Pumpkin.

 

pumpkin

What are we thankful for?  Plenty.  Every night The Farmer, the kids and I write something on the pumpkin.  We will continue to do so until we reach the end of the month.  If the pumpkin fills up, I still have a few more we can write on.  And I will promise you won’t read that I’m thankful for toilet paper on my pumpkin!

 

 

 

 

 

Jeanette2brownsmall

 

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14 Meals to a Hungry Field Crew

October 10, 2013 by

Every Saturday afternoons during harvest you can find me frantically trying to take care of three kids while getting 14 suppers put together to take to the field for our harvest crew.  Because I’m feeding a bunch of farmers, there isn’t any sandwiches or fast food for these guys.  They get fed well!

This pictures shows a meal I took a few weeks ago.  They always consist of a main dish, salad, veggie and usually bread.  This is Pizza Casserole, sweet corn that I froze from our fields this summer, salad and garlic bread!

supperfield

 I also make dessert for the guys.  My Farmer complains he actually gains weight during harvest season do to all the good food they eat.  My Mom, Aunt and I share the cooking responsibilities during harvest.  While my Farmer could live on sandwiches for a while, my Dad and Uncle prefer hot meals.  The farm crew like them as well.

When I was a kid, the only way I got to see my after school during harvest was to ride in the combine.  My Mom would drop me off after school and I’d ride until she brought supper.  Or we’d take supper and I’d ride until Dad quit and we went home.  My kids are now the same way.  If they want to see their Dad or Pappaw, they go to the field. On a recent night, I caught everyone stopping to eat!

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Print
Peanut Butter Sheet Cake
 
Ingredients
  • 2 c. flour
  • 2 c. sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 c. water
  • ¾ c. butter
  • ½ c. peanut butter
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ½ c. buttermilk
  • Glaze:
  • ¾ c. butter
  • 6 TBSP buttermilk
  • ½ c. peanut butter
  • 3½ cups powdered sugar
  • 1 TBSP vanilla
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, soda and salt. Set aside. In a saucepan bring water and butter to a boil. Sit in peanur butter and oil until blended. Pour over dry ingrediants. Mix until blended. Add eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Lightly grease a jelly roll pan. Pour mix into pan and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.
  2. For glaze, combine sugar, buttermilk and peanut butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour over powedered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add a splash of milk until it is smooth.
  3. Spread over cake.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together.  Set aside.

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In a saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil. Stir in peanut butter and oil.

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 Mix peanut butter mixture into dry ingredients.  Add eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.  Mix well.

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 Pour into a greased jelly roll pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Take a toothpick and enter into cake.  If it comes out with no wet cake on it, the cake is done!

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While the cake is baking, find your favorite 7-year-old who likes to lick the beaters when making icing!  Have her boil the butter, buttermilk and peanut butter over low heat.  Stir it constantly.

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 Once it is combined, pour that mixture over the powdered sugar and vanilla.  Beat until blended.  If it is too thick, add a splash of milk until you get it to a spreadable consistency.

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When the 7-year-old is done, have her find her 3-year-old brother and let them lick the beaters!

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Spread the icing on the cake and enjoy!!

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Enjoy!!

pbsheetcake

Jeanette2brownsmall

Indiana's Family of Farmers

 

I am participating in Indiana’s Family of Farmers Table Talk Series and received a gift in exchange for my participation.  Because what girl doesn’t love gifts?!

1 Comment Filed Under: family, farm, farmwives, FenceRow Crew, fitness, recipes  

Spaghetti Pie

September 20, 2013 by

Every winter my family butchers a pig.  We actually butcher a few for my parents, grandparents and The Farmer and I.  It’s something I have done for many years! I can recall standing on a chair next to my Mom and Grandma helping to wrap meat after my Dad and Grandpa had cut the carcass of the pig and divided up the different cuts of pork.

This picture shows how we hang the hogs to get them cool after we have skinned them and removed the head.  The carcasses have to hang and get extra cold before we can work up the meat. And I have to say this meat is never resold.  It is for our consumption only.

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This walk down memory lane is to tell you about a recipe using some of the sausage we just processed this past winter.  As a hog farmer, pork has always been part of my diet.  This Spaghetti Pie recipe is one that my Mom made often, many times substituting sausage instead of hamburger.  I make it both ways, but my family prefers the recipes with sausage!

 

Spaghetti Pie

Print
Spaghetti Pie
 
Ingredients
  • 1-2 pounds sausage
  • 16 ounces spaghetti, cooked and drained
  • jar of spaghetti sauce
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese
  • 1 large egg or 2 medium eggs
Instructions
  1. Brown sausage. Drain grease from pan and mix in the jar of spaghetti sauce. Cook spaghetti and drain. Grease a 9x13 pan. Beat the egg(s) and add to bottom of dish. Put spaghetti as bottom layer and mix just enough to cover spaghetti with egg. Add sausage mixture. Cover with 2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

 

Start with 1-2 pounds of sausage

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Brown until it’s no longer pink.  Drain the grease from the pan.  To the pan, add one jar of spaghetti sauce and stir.

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In a greased 9×13 dish, break either 1 large egg or 2 medium eggs.  Stir until you’ve broken the yolks and covered the pan.

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Add cooked spaghetti, stirring to cover the bottom layer of noodles with the egg.  This helps form the crust of the spaghetti pie.

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Spread the sausage mixture on top of the spaghetti.

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Add 2 cups of mozzarella cheese to the top.

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Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Spaghetti Pie

That’s it!!  Doesn’t that seem so easy? This dish freezes well too!  Just prepare in a freezer container and don’t cook it until you are ready to eat it.

Enjoy!

Jeanette2brownsmall

 

Indiana's Family of Farmers

 

I am participating in Indiana’s Family of Farmers Table Talk Series and received a gift in exchange for my participation.  Because what girl doesn’t love gifts?!

2 Comments Filed Under: farm, farmwives, recipes  

Mexican 3-Bean Soup

September 11, 2013 by

Welcome to my mess!  My blog has been undergoing an overhaul and it is taking longer than I ever anticipated.  If you are visiting for the first time, please be patient as the blog will look great in a month!

 

Last week was a bit of a rough week. Tragedy hit some people around me.  I spent the good part of a week sitting in a meeting, which wasn’t rough.  Just tiring!! Friday had me running in a few directions trying to educate people about agriculture, both young and old. Overall, just a tiring week! So while I could have slept on Saturday, I decided to recharge my batteries and meet up with my bloggy (and real life) friends from The Real Farmwives of America to do some freezer cooking!

 

Freezer cooking involves cooking in large quantities and sharing those meals.  I’ve done this type of cooking on numerous occasions and really appreciate the meals during the busy crop harvest days ahead!

 

Our friends at Gooseberry Patch offered me their new cookbook, Freezer Friendly Recipes, for some cooking ideas.  I chose Mexican 3-Bean Soup as my item to make.  The recipe is truly a dump, stir and heat type of meal. Perfect for my crazy week and inability to grocery shop, plan or really do much ahead of time.

 

Start by browning your hamburger.  My dear friend, Heather at 3 Kids and Lots of Pigs saved me with her fancy Pampered Chef steamer.  Stick a pound of frozen hamburger in this thing, microwave for 8 minutes, and it’s brown!  I was having a horrible time getting my meat defrosted and was so grateful for this little device!  Although I did have 11 pounds of hamburger to defrost.  It took awhile!

 

In a soup pot, stir together the hamburger, a chopped up onion, kidney beans, pinto beans, navy beans, corn, stewed tomatoes, tomatoes with chilies, a package of taco seasoning, and a package of ranch salad dressing mix.  Simmer and serve.  That’s it!!  How much easier can it be?

 

Mexican 3-Bean Soup

1 lb ground beef

1 diced onion

2 – 15 1/2 oz cans kidney beans

2 – 16 oz cans pinto beans

2 – 15 1/2 oz cans navy beans

15-oz can corn

14 1/2 oz can stewed tomatoes

14 1/2 oz can tomatoes with chilies

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 package ranch salad dressing mix

 

Brown beef and onion over medium heat.  Drain.  And undrained beans, corn, tomatoes and seasoning mixes. Simmer and serve!

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This picture only shows half of what I made!  This made 11 gallon size freezer bags of soup.  I had just enough left over totake some home for our Sunday after church lunch.  I served it with sour cream and cheddar cheese.  It was a big hit in my house!

And just how much did we cook?  This picture should tell the story! There were a lot of meals to take home! I can’t wait to dig in to them and share them with my family.

I encourage you to grab a group of friends and try some mass cooking.  It is such a great time! I got to catch up with my favorite people and take home food as well. And I’ve stirred up interest with another group of friends who want to try this as well! So I may be making this recipe for a whole new group of people later this fall.

4 Comments Filed Under: farmwives, recipes   Tagged With: ,

Procastination, Craziness, Tears and Overwhelming Pride

June 24, 2013 by

I have never felt as busy as I have in the past few weeks.  I’m finally sitting down to write this blog on the even of the opening of our county 4H fair.  We have a small county fair that is focused on 4H and youth.  Our midway isn’t much to talk about and I’m fine with that.  Our focus in on the hard work these kids to get ready for the fair.

And hard work it is.  I’ve figured out this year what my Mom and Dad must have felt like in those last moments of fair preparation.  I imagine they wanted to smack me a few times thanks to my procrastination in getting projects done!

When this week is over, I’ll sit down and write how all of the projects have done.  But for now we know this much.  Panda took 15 projects.  Yep.  15.  Yes, I know it’s crazy, I’m a nutty Mom, blah, blah.  I’ve heard it all.  I like to think I challenged her to get those projects completed as best as she could.  And she has.

But there were some tears, just once.  While we were sewing her skirt.  It took about 30 minutes before she was mad and crying.  But I quickly adjusted my attitude and she did hers.  And that was it.  The rest of this experience has been fantastic.  It has allowed her and I to spend some great time together.

So far she has had 10 projects judged in prefair judging.  She has received Champion ribbons (the best project in her division) in Foods, Bake with a Mix, Sewing Non-wearable (the picture below is of her making her pillow for that project) and Genealogy.  Everything but Bake with a Mix will go to State Fair!

She has a Reserve Champion in Sewing Wearable.  She has also received blue stars (considered for champion) on Food Preservation, Collections and Gift Wrapping.  And a blue on Cake Decorating.  We won’t know Champion on Collections until Monday.  Food Preservation only picks a Grand Champion and I highly doubt she’ll get that. Consumer Clothing has been judged but we won’t know those results until Tuesday night.  She still has to turn in corn, soybeans, wheat, rabbits and show her hogs.  The crops projects worry me since everyone had such a late planting date and our fair is so early.  I’m hoping the judge keeps that in mind when he sees the really small soybean plants she has!

Photo: 4H Fair judging starts in 2 days! Taking the day off to get the last minute touches on a few projects. Today, it is finished her sewing non-wearable. A Purdue pillow!

Can I brag for just a minute?  4 Champions and 1 Reserve Champion so far?  In her first year of 4H!!  I am so proud of her I could burst.  All of this accomplished while playing baseball too.  This upcoming week is baseball championships. It’s a lot of running and craziness, but has been worth every second.

And not to forget my Monkey.  This is her 1st year of Mini 4H  That is when you take a maximum of three projects as a sort of practice for “real” 4H.  The projects don’t get judged.  Everyone gets a ribbon and they get in the habit of doing the projects.  And hopefully they get excited for 4H!

Monkey has taken three projects.  Sewing, in which she made a bear head from felt; mini livestock, where she’ll show a little pig this weekend in the Mini 4H livestock show; and Foods, where she had to make a popcorn snack.

She made my Great-Grandma’s Caramel Corn.  This stuff is fantastic.  Honestly, you won’t find a better caramel corn in stores or in a bag.  This beats it all hands down.  And it is a family recipe that I won’t share.  I don’t have many of those, but this is one.  She had a blast making it!

Photo: The mini 4H caramel corn has been declared "Best caramel corn ever" by the 4H baker. The recipe came from her great-great grandma. Nothing from a store or bag tastes better than this!!

Would I recommend 4H to anyone? You bet.  The Farmer and I were 10 year 4Hers and think this is hands down the best learning experience for kids during the summer.  You don’t have to live on a farm to be in 4H.  That seems to be a common misperception.  There are plenty of projects that don’t require farm animals or shoveling manure.  My Panda has plans for more projects next year.  And I think it might be easier next year, now that we got our feet wet this first year.  But I can’t promise she’ll have another year like this one with the purple ribbons!

Whatever happens with the rest of the projects, this year has been a blast.  And the fair hasn’t even officially started!!  Thank goodness for 4H.  Friendships, life skills and speaking skills tossed with a bit of procrastination will probably round out this first experience!

3 Comments Filed Under: family  

I Scream, You Scream

June 14, 2013 by
My love of ice cream comes from my Grandpa and my Dad.  My Grandpa used to do parts runs for the farm.  Something would break on a tractor and Grandpa would volunteer to go fetch the part.  Grandma would joke it took him an hour to do a 20 minute task.  Grandpa normally came back with ice cream evidence on his bib overalls or a dirty container in his truck.  He would visit ice cream places wherever they travelled.  And I think every small town ice cream palace within an hour drive of the farm knew his name!
My Dad used to take my sister and I for ice cream.  When we were doing chores as kids, we’d ride in the truck with him from farm to farm.  Sometimes we got to take a detour for an ice cream cone.  And on Sunday nights, my Mom didn’t cook supper.  So we often had ice cream for supper.  And I still think that is a perfectly fine meal!
I now take my kids out for ice cream alot.  They have metabolisms like hummingbirds and hollow legs. I do use it as a treat, and not a meal replacement. My Panda has found my love of ice cream and would eat it for breakfast if I let her!
I have two favorite ice cream spots.  East End in Peru, Indiana is one of those spots that is only open during the summer.  In addition to their ice cream  they also make pizzas.  Their pizza is also my favorite.  Thin crust with lots of fresh toppings and just the right amount of red sauce make this something I long for in the middle of winter when they are closed.
But back to the ice cream. I have two favorites.  Lemon and Moose Tracks.  Citrus tends to be one of my favorite flavors and their lemon ice cream is outstanding.  It’s the perfect treat on a super hot Indiana day.  Moose Tracks has lots of yummy flavors and tastes great on a cone! 
My other favorite ice cream place is open year round.  Ivanhoe’s is in Upland, Indiana near Taylor University.
Ivanhoe’s was a place I started visiting in High School.  My church youth group used to make random Sunday night trips to this well loved establishment.  And now anytime I am in the area, I will stop in.  Ivanhoe’s is known for their 100 Club.  They have a menu featuring 100 shakes and 100 sundae flavors.  If you try all 100, you get your name on their wall and a t-shirt.  Since it’s in a college town, I’m guessing that is interesting to some of their guests. 
Two of my favorite on their menu fall in the shake category.  Almond Joy and Coffee.  Their coffee ice cream makes me hungry thinking about it.  And the Almond Joy shake has just the right amount of coconut and almonds to make it a real treat.
Have I made you hungry yet? I’m wishing for some ice cream now.  Or a road trip to discover a new ice cream spot. Indiana is also home to some major ice cream manufactures.  So don’t be afraid to enjoy ice cream.  Indiana is home to many dairy farms and ranks 2nd in the nation in ice cream production.  
June is Dairy Month in Indiana and July is Ice Cream Month!! I intend to celebrate both months with a nice ice cream treat.  Maybe the kids and I need a road trip soon to find another favorite ice cream spot.
Indiana’s Family of Farmers is compensating me for this post about June Dairy Month.  Although my love of ice cream is my own.  I mean, really, who doesn’t love ice cream?!


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