Friday Fun Night!

Last night we had good friends over for dinner. I say good friends, because of course they are, but really, I am just getting to know both of them. Evan was a groomsman in our wedding, so I know he was especially important to Daniel. I am looking forward to getting to know Leslie-- we already found a common interest-- Jane Austen! Our husbands groaned when we started talking Austen, and made mocking voices of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Men. :P

I had such a fun time getting ready for them to come. I even bought flowers for the table.

We wanted to have a laid-back evening, since it was Friday. So I made homemade pizza (I do promise, it's not all we eat!)-- cheese and pepperoni for Daniel, and BBQ Ranch Chicken for myself. For dessert we had chocolate dipped ice cream cones. The cones are easy to make, and O, so delicious.

 This is what you need: 1 cup chocolate chips, 4 sugar or waffle cones, about 1/2 cup crushed M&Ms, and a half gallon of ice cream (you'll have some left over).

Line individual cups with parchment paper, or use a cookie tray and cover with parchment paper-- remember, you'll need undisturbed freezer space for about 4 hours.

Let the icecream soften for a couple of minutes to that it's easily mold-able, but not melting all over the place. Gently fill the bottom of the cone, then make a large rounded scoop to place on top.

Place in dessert cup or on cookie tray and freeze for about an hour, or until ice cream has hardened again.

Crush M&Ms :-D

Once the ice cream is hard again, melt the chocolate. To get a thinner chocolate consistency I add 3 tablespoons of oil to the cup of chocolate chips, and stir it in really well.

Make sure the chocolate is in a wide-open bowl. Tip the bowl so that the chocolate makes a large pool, and then carefully and quickly dip the cone into the chocolate. Swirl the cone in a circle to cover all of it (or however much you want). Make sure to get the cone!

Immediately swirl the cone through the M&Ms and gently place back into the dessert cup. Freeze again, this time for several hours. (sorry about the picture quality. It became much more difficult to work quickly, and try to maneuver a melting cone and camera.)

They were delicious! 

What is so great about this "recipe" is that you can make it all your own. The first time I tried these I used mint chocolate chip ice cream, and crushed almonds on the outside. Daniel preferred those, in fact.

Some topping ideas I have are: mini chocolate chips, crushed oreo, grahman cracker, and peanuts.

Of course, you could always do white chocolate, or even pretty strings of white chocolate over the dark chocolate

Have fun! I did. :)