I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend! My weekend extends through today, and the forecast dictates that I must be outside basking in the sun. But first, I’ll share the recipe that was indeed the hit of the weekend. My Mom suggested we make these Margarita Ice Cream Sandwiches, from Cooking Light. Wondering why the lime sherbet isn’t green? Because the local store didn’t sell any, so we went ahead and made our own. Cookies and ice cream from scratch on a holiday weekend!?! Oh yes we did…

First, we made the cookie dough very early in the morning. We formed the dough into two logs, wrapped them in plastic, and placed them in the refrigerator to chill. The dough was fairly crumbly at first, but firmed up nicely after a few hours. We sliced the logs into circles, garnished them with sugar, salt, and lime zest, and baked the cookies.

The cookies were really good just out of the oven, a sort of lime shortbread. We could have stopped right there and just had tea and cookies. But with our hearts set on ice cream sandwiches, we pulled out the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. It is really easy to make ice cream with the machine. I poured in half and half, lime juice, and more lime zest, and about 20 minutes later we had freshly made lime sherbet. Who needs green food coloring anyway?

Once the cookies were cool and the sherbet was frozen, we were ready to make the sandwiches. The assembly was really the trickiest part because you need to move fast before the ice cream and sherbet have a chance to melt. Then, you need to wrap each sandwich in plastic so that it holds it’s shape as it refreezes.

Finally, late that night, we sat down the enjoy the fruits of our labor. Some people like a margarita at the end of a long summer day, but we loved these margarita ice cream sandwiches. I am pretty sure your family will too!

• Desserts