32 Weeks

At some point I'm going to post something other than pictures of my kid.  Although, with all the cuteness, it's a whole lot easier to do these than to go paint a wall or something.  Soooo.  Here's more pictures!

31 Weeks

Seven months old.  That's just silly.

And speaking of silly...

Thanks for the sweet blanket, Meredith!  We use it all the time.

30 Weeks

Sweet new trick, eh?  Also during his 29th week, he finally mastered rolling over from his back to his stomach.  Soooo, big week around the Johnson household.

 Have I mentioned these pictures are getting a little more difficult to take?  I started taping the fabric down this week, but that only lasted so long...  Love my little squirmer.

29 Weeks

This baby of our is just sooo...happy!  He's got his moments of teething, you-didn't-get-me-up-fast-enough-from-my-nap, and general annoyance at life, but for the most part, he is just full of joy.  He'll be  laying on the floor playing with nothing but his hands and will just squeeeeal with delight.  About...life, I guess.  It's certainly a lesson to me.  I'm grumpy far too often.

These pictures are getting progressively harder to take.  He's so wiggly!  My focus was kind of a happy accident in this one...love his little hands and feet.

28 Weeks

This is my darling's face whenever he tries broccoli.  Every time.  Makes me want to give it to him every day all day.

Chocolate-Covered Goodness

Prepare to hear life-changing news.

Ready?

No, really.  I need you to brace yourselves for this one.  At least hold on to your hat.

I made magic shell.  You know, like the syrup you pour on your ice cream and it hardens into a delightful chocolate coating?  Made it.

I should back up.

Sometimes when I find myself walking slowly down the dairy aisle at my Publix, it's really because I'm casting sidelong glances into the ice cream freezers to my left.  I will eat some ice cream.  If it enters this house it will be eaten.  And in a hurry.  Soooo...sometimes I like to trick myself into thinking I'm consuming ice cream while still staying a tiny bit healthy by buying those chocolate covered frozen bananas.  I'm not exactly sure what the brand is...but they're delicious.  And they're ridiculously expensive!  You get like, six banana halves for something like six bucks.  Crazytown.  So, while perusing Pinterest the other day, I saw this post about making chocolate-covered kiwi popsicles.  I thought, noooo...can't be that easy.  Then I tried it.  And my life was transformed.

And it's so easy.  So easy.

Take your bananas (preferably nice and ripe),

 and cut them in half.  Or I suppose you could do bite-sized chunks if you'd rather.

 Then stick a popsicle stick into each of them, and freeze them.  I ended up freezing them for a couple hours.

Take whatever kind of chocolate you have, and use a two to one ratio with coconut oil.  I used two cups of Ghirardelli chocolate chips (one semi-sweet and one milk) and one cup of coconut oil.  I ended up with TONS of the stuff...which is not a problem.  It keeps great!  You can just re-heat it and re-dip.

 Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips are seriously unbelievable.  I could eat have eaten an entire bag before.  I mean look at them!

 LOOK AT THEM!

 If you have a double boiler, throw the chocolate chips and coconut oil (again 2:1) in there, and set it over a pan of simmering water.  If you don't have a double boiler, use a glass bowl, or (and don't quote me on this) I think you might be able to just nuke it in small increments.

Whatever your method, melt the chips and oil until everything is nice and smooth.

 Now, for bananas, I thought it might be easier to pour the chocolate into a tall thin cup for dipping.  I was right.  But lets not get ahead of ourselves, this stuff has to cool to room temperature.  And it takes quite a while.  I did all the steps right in a row, and it actually turned out nicely...by the time my bananas were good and frozen, the chocolate was perfect.  Don't worry about it hardening, the oil will keep it liquid for quite a while.

 Finally, time for the good part.  This next shot is actually a result of a little trial and error.  This was when the banana had only frozen for about an hour and the chocolate was a little warm still.

 Kinda lacking.  And you'll notice by the chocolate smear that the chocolate didn't freeze immediately upon dipping.  Back into the freezer with you!


 Okay.  Another long hour passed, and I tried again.  This time?  Perfect.  Upon dipping, the chocolate freezes like pure magic.  It really is incredible.

 Eat these immediately, or throw them back in the freezer to enjoy later.  You'll be glad you did!

I'm sure you could think of any number of delicacies that should immediately be frozen and coated in a decadent, crunchy, chocolatey shell.  Let me know what you come up with!