School is almost out and summer is on the way.  I’m so looking forward to slowing down our family’s pace a little bit.  The kids are growing up so fast, and I just want to savor this time in my life, a hard thing to do when the every day hustle and bustle overwhelms me at times.

Every afternoon Vivian takes her long nap, so the big kids and I are stuck at home trying oh-so-hard to be quiet.  We almost always prepare something in the kitchen to pass the time.  Now that summer is here, homemade popsicles make sense.  Homemade popsicles are inexpensive and fun to make, and we can make a big batch at once to last us several desserts.  But, the best part is that they don’t have any weird ingredients. Popular brands of store-bought popsicles contain high fructose corn syrup, red 40, yellow 5 and plenty of sugar.  The homemade popsicles I make with the kids have just a few easy-to-pronounce ingredients that we can all feel good about.

Brown Sugar and Vanilla Ice Pops

3 cups whole milk

3 tablespoons vanilla extract (plus seeds scraped from one vanilla bean, if it’s available)

2/3 cup brown sugar (use a little more if you want it extra sweet)

dash salt

3 egg yolks

a few chocolate chips, optional

Bring milk to a simmer over medium heat.  Add vanilla, salt and brown sugar, and stir until sugar dissolves.  Pour a little hot milk into the egg yolks and whisk.  Pour eggs into milk and whisk well. Remove from heat and let milk cool to room temperature.

Pour into popsicle molds (we use a Zoku Ice Pop Maker).  Drop in a few chocolate chips.  Freeze and serve.