<Giveaway details at the end of the post>

So clearly I like ice cream.  And while I love coming up with different types of ice cream cakes, pies, etc., sometimes it is nice to have someone else do the work for you.  Because on an ideal summer day, I’m not standing by a hot oven.  I’m going for a morning walk, grabbing an iced coffee, sitting by the pool or the beach with a good book and ending the day with a barbeque and ice cream or frozen yogurt.

And while in our area we haven’t had too many beach days yet, we have had a few warm sunny days here there that were perfect for long walks and dinner made on the grill.  Sometimes there is nothing better than a night full of friends, good (low maintenance) food and a big bottle of wine.

As soon as I found out I was being given an opportunity to host a dinner party to try out Nestle’s new Drumstick Pretzel Dipped Cones, we invited our friends Matt and Deena over.  My Matt loves to grill so he made the call on making steak and lobster tails (but really, who am I to object to that?) so that left me on call for some veggies and dessert.  I made a big salad, steamed some corn and called it a day.  The food prep took far less time than hiding all of my baking tools and ingredients.

We might have reached a minor hiccup in the plans when we temporarily locked ourselves out of the apartment with nothing but the proteins to grill, but minor details. 

Dinner was delicious!  Matt spent a few minutes seasoning the food ahead of time, but was at the grill for less than 20 minutes.  Good food with more time for friends and relaxing = win.

Dessert obviously revolved around the Nestle ice cream cones.  My friend, Matt, was very excited about this.

But I am a baker/food blogger after all so who am I to just serve pre-made ice cream cones for dessert? Instead I threw together a make-your-own ice cream bar with the cones as one of the options. In addition, we had brownies, hot fudge (recipe below), peanut butter sauce (recipe below), oreo crumbs and jimmies.  The ice cream sundaes were the perfect end to a perfect day, thank you Nestle for this opportunity!

Homemade Peanut Butter Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2/3 cup natural salted creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
In a small saucepan, whisk ingredients together over low heat; continue to whisk until smooth and creamy
Best served immediately
Adapted from the Joy the Baker Cookbook

Homemade Hot Fudge
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, whisk ingredients together over low heat; continue to whisk until smooth and creamy
Best served immediately
Adapted from Serendipity Sundaes

<Full disclosure:  Nestle has provided me with free products and other items in order to help with my review, but anything I receive from Nestle does not affect my thoughts on its company or their products.>

Do you want to to try out Nestle Drumstick Pretzel Dipped Cones or one of their other varieties?  I’m giving away coupons for two free boxes for you to enjoy.  Just leave a comment below saying anything by Thursday, May 24th at midnight est.