Campfire Cones

Looking for an easy, delicious summer treat?  Well I certainly was when we decided to hunker down and watch some third of July fireworks  (yeah, I don't know why they do it on the third...) from our new master balcony last night. 

Enter these super-easy, crazy-delicious "campfire cones."  

Now is probably the time where I should say that mama don't camp.  You can tell me how great it is to sleep under the stars until the cows come home.  (And by then, I will have checked into the nearest Hilton.)   

But campfire cones?  Now those I can solidly get behind.  

I found the inspiration on Pinterest.  (Shocking, I know.)  The original source can be found here.  You should go and check out her link as mine is more of the Reader's Digest version.  She definitely used more ingredients than we did.  

So here's what you do...

Grab an ice cream cone.  I probably should have gotten ones that are even all the way around the rim but, oh well, live and learn.  (Plus these came wrapped in those cute paper cones and you can be darn sure I'm hoarding um, I mean, saving those bad boys for some future project.)

Then you start filling the cone with ingredients.  In this one we started with chocolate chips...

Then we added mini-marshmallows...

Followed by a dollop of peanut butter.  (We actually tried a couple of different methods and as it turned out, it's better to put the marshmallows on top.  They form an insulation of sorts that helps hold in the melted peanut butter.)

Wrap up your cone in foil...

...and pop on the grill.  (We were up on the balcony so we used this tiny tabletop grill that I bought last year at Cost Plus World Market.)  You don't need to keep them on very long, just a few minutes, and I recommend giving them a little turn with a pair of tongs so you don't end up with a burnt cone.  

Here is my daughter's finished cone in all of its ooey-gooey deliciousness.  As you can see, hers had the marshmallows on top.  The one with the peanut butter on top was far less photogenic.  

The great thing about these is that you can customize them.  We did ours on the fly but next time I'm definitely going to have some alternate fillings, including fruit (like peaches and bananas).  

But even on the fly these bad boys were delicious!  

Happy Fourth!

I Interrupt This Tour of the Living Room for a Tour of the Balcony

I'm bored of the living room.

So today I'm going to digress and take you on a little tour of our most recent remodeling project: the master balcony.

(I can do that.)

(Because it's my blog.)

(And apparently I'm drunk with power.)

Where was I?  Oh yes, the balcony.   Last spring my husband and I decided to paint the exterior of the house.  One day, as we took a walk around trying to figure out colors, etc., we found ourselves standing on the master balcony.  As the name implies, this is/was a small wooden balcony accessible from our master bedroom.  It had probably been more than a year since we'd ventured out there which is is a shame considering that it has a beautiful canyon view.  Unfortunately, the balcony itself was narrow with an ugly metal banister and even uglier plastic lawn furniture.

Uglier yet was the giant mushroom we found growing out of a rotten floor-board.  My husband joked that he could probably put his foot through said board and, after convincing him that was a bad idea, we decided to rethink the whole painting-the-house thing.  Instead we discussed expanding the balcony.  It was a project I had envisioned when we bought the house, not so much because I wanted a bigger balcony but because I wanted the shade it would provide below.  The fungus-among-us was just the kick in the pants we needed tackle that project so painting went on the back burner and construction began.  Here is what the back of the house looked like before the demo.

At the time I had no idea I'd be doing a blog post so the pictures won't tell the whole story but you can see that the balcony was narrow and unattractive.  (Unfortunately, I didn't think to photograph the giant 'shroom growing out of the floor boards ;)

So as much as I love a good remodel, I'm not such a fan of demolition.  For that reason, our contractor (who is also a family friend) kindly did the demo while the family was on vacation.  When we came home, the old balcony was gone and the new one was framed out...

The next step was cementing over the wood.

Then the guys ran electricity for the can lights and the fan:

In the pictures below, the cement has been stuccoed over, the lights & fan are in, the tongue & groove ceiling is complete, and stone has been added at the base of the columns.  

In the next picture you see the final product.  A Trex handrail has been added above (no mushrooms will grow in those babies!) and outdoor blinds hang below:

And then the fun began: furnishing!  For the balcony itself, we went with this set from Target.  I wanted something that was almost bed-like (since it's an extension of the master bedroom).  I looked at many other sets (from Pottery Barn to Walmart and everywhere in between) and couldn't be more thrilled with what we bought.    The poufs were from The Company Store.  They were on sale when we bought them and match the Target cushions perfectly.  (#winning!)  The green umbrella also matched and was repurposed from down below (where we no longer needed temporary shade).  

Did you note my pineapple sconce above?  Love that thing!  Got the idea while staying at this hotel in Ft. Lauderdale.  After spying a similar sconce in their entry, I Googled "pineapple sconce" from my ipad in the room and bought one just like that.  (Because I'm sassy that way.)  

Furnishing the covered patio was equally fun.  I fell in love with this set and managed to buy it on sale as well.  I'm pleased to say that we've been able to enjoy it all winter including Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I can't wait to see what the summer will hold.

Now about that painting...