Lucky Besties

Recipe Courtesy of Food Network Kitchen
Milk shakes, like other simple concoctions, are only as good as their ingredients, so use high-quality ice cream and vanilla extract. Combining peppermint extract and vanilla ice cream gives the drink an extra-refreshing, minty flavor you wouldn't get from using regular mint chip ice cream.

Level: Easy
Total: 5 min
Prep: 5 min
Yield: 1 or 2 servings

Ingredients
1 pint vanilla ice cream (2 cups)
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 or 4 drops green liquid food coloring
Whipped cream and green sanding sugar, for garnish

Directions
Blend the ice cream, milk, peppermint extract, vanilla and food coloring in a blender until smooth. Pour into one or two serving glasses and garnish with whipped cream and sanding sugar.

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My wonderful friend Dyanne wrote about life after cancer, and how its challenges and heartbreaks are hard to cope with, something she says is the last thing people want to hear. They assume the battle ended once she beat cancer, which is why she enters conversations gauging how much truth people can handle before honestly answering how she's doing. People believe she should be grateful to be alive, and she is, but she’s not the same whole person she used to be. She went on to say that most people would rather have light conversations or get juicy gossip instead of hearing about endless battles with many medications or side-effects that leave her unable to lead a normal life. It was sad to hear that my friend's struggles include people's distaste for vulnerability. The same day of Dyanne’s post, author Brené Brownposted this: “The root of the word courage is cor – the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage had a very different definition than i…