National Ice Cream Day!

  I just found out that today is National Ice Cream Day!  So I have decided to take a break from chronicling my travels to post a couple of our favorite ice cream recipes, and to finally post a review on our AWESOME ice cream maker.
  Since the birth of our sweet little heifer, Eulalia, we have had lots of milk and cream to enjoy.  And what better treat to make with cream than ice cream?  Especially in this soupy weather we're having right now.  It's 91º outside, but with the humidity it feels like 105º!
  We bought our ice cream maker just before Easter, and absolutely LOVE it.  It is a Cuisinart ICE-30BC, and makes about 2 qts. of ice cream per batch.  We also bought an extra freeze bowl, so we can make more than one batch of ice cream at a time.

Chocolate Ice Cream
  The book that came with the ice cream maker has some really great recipes, including this super simple chocolate ice cream.  I have been looking for YEARS to find a chocolate ice cream recipe that didn't taste bland or burnt.  This is it.  

1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2/3 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
dash of salt
1 1/2 c. whole milk
3 1/4 c. heavy cream
1 T. vanilla

Mix cocoa powder, sugars, and salt until well combined (no cocoa lumps.)  Add milk, cream, and vanilla.  Freeze in ice cream maker 25-35 minutes.  Ripen 2 hours in freezer, if desired (keeps it from melting so fast.)


Surprise Sandwich Ice Cream
For those a little more adventurous, and who love peanut butter as much as I do, there is this recipe.  You can leave out the marshmallows and chocolate, and just have peanut butter ice cream, but what's the fun in that?  The name comes from the yummy "Surprise sandwiches" my mom used to make when I was little.  She would take and spread peanut butter on bread, sprinkle it with chocolate chips and marshmallows, and put the sandwich in the oven until the marshmallows toasted.  Yum!  I recommend letting this recipe freeze a couple of days to let the marshmallows soften.  Just make sure you take it out about 15 minutes before serving to make it easier to scoop!


Ice Cream:
2 c. heavy cream
2 c. milk
1 c. white sugar
1/2 T. vanilla
dash of salt
1 c. creamy peanut butter

Additional ingredients:
1 1/12 c. mini marshmallows
Chocolate Swirl (recipe below)

Mix cream, milk, and sugar until sugar dissolves.  In a separate bowl, mix vanilla, salt, and peanut butter.  Add cream mixture into peanut butter a little at a time, until well combined (or use an electric mixer.)  Freeze in ice cream maker for about 25 minutes, or until done. Add additional ingredients and allow ice cream maker to mix them for a couple of minutes to combine.

Chocolate swirl:
1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 regular size hershey's milk chocolate bar
1/4 c. cream
dash of salt

In a double boiler, melt the chocolates without stirring until they are shiny.  Stir and add cream and salt.  Drop by tablespoons full when ice cream is done, but while ice cream maker is still running.  Don't over mix!

P.S.
The Chocolate Swirl tastes very much like the chocolate in moose tracks ice cream :)

Unmasking Girl Scouts

    For most of us, the first thing we probably think when we hear “Girl Scouts” is “COOKIES!”  After all, who can resist those yummy thin mints?  Of course, over the years you have probably noticed how the cookies - and boxes - get smaller every year, even as the price goes up.  After all, it’s for the community, right?  Sure, the cookies aren’t as good as you remembered (or as big.) Sure you know they are full of non-nutritious yumminess. So we shell out, to feed our yearly craving, telling ourselves we are supporting our communities and the girls.  

    Because of the feminist agenda I know Girl Scouts supports, I don’t support their cause, but I admit to buying the cookies from friends and family when they come around every year.  But no more.  After reading through a site set up by two brave young women, I don’t think I will ever be able to stomach another girl scout cookie unless I have made it myself (more on that in a moment.)

    SpeakNowGirlScouts.com is a site set up by two Texas teens, both longtime scouts.  They quit the organization after discovering that what the Girl Scout organization supported, they could not.  They took a stand, and are now sharing what they have found with others.  

    I think it is important to note that the problem with Girl Scouts, as with many organizations, does not necessarily lie in the troupes, rather it is a problem with corporate.  Unfortunately, the negatives will undoubtably trickle down, and supporting one means supporting the other.  Which brings us back to the cookies.  

    If you hold the same views that I do, that it is better for women to be feminine than feminist, and that it is impossible for the world see find women equal to men when all they want to do is appear the same as men - in other words, a women’s role in the world is as important as a man’s, and that makes her equal, not her ability to fulfill his role - if you agree, you may realize that you can no longer stomach shelling out exorbitant amounts of money for an increasingly poor, yet nonetheless addicting box of cookies.  Never fear, there is a homemade and evermore delicious option available!!!  And you don’t have to wait for the next cookie season!  

    Sorry, I don’t have my own recipe for any girl scout cookies, but I have tested the Homemade and All-natural Thin Mint Recipe from 101 Cookbooks.  Everyone who tried them, loved them. They were sweet, crispy, chocolatey, minty, deliciousness.  I did coat them with chocolate chips - generally not considered good quality semi-sweet chocolate, but will work in a pinch. I think better chocolate would have added a lot, possibly something just a little sweeter.  I made these for Christmas, and the hidden tin in the fridge stayed fresh nicely.  Another note- they break easily, so do not try to cut them with a fun note-shaped cookie cutter!  

I plan on testing some other “girl scout” cookie recipes soon, and will be sure to share the results!  One site in particular that looks good is Baking Bites blog.  There is even a recipe for tagalongs!  Can’t wait to get baking!  The thin mint recipe are slice and bake, so I will definitely have to try those as well.  If you have your own recipe, or if you try one of these, let me know!  I'd love to compare notes  :)  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello!  I hope everyone has a nice long list of things to be thankful for this year!
I was asked to email this recipe to my sister this morning, so I thought that since I had it on the computer, I would share it with the rest of the world.  I cannot take credit for this recipe, although I slightly modified the amounts to fit into a larger pan.  It is a Taste of Home Recipe, originally titled "Mom's Sweet Potato Bake." I don't know what year it came out, but it has been a favorite at our house since we first made it.  It is good hot, cold, and in between.  It is an excellent side dish, and also a good desert.  I think I've had the leftovers for breakfast a few times, too.  Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Bake

Ingredients

• 4 cups cold mashed sweet potatoes (40 oz. can or cooked prepared without milk or butter)
• 1 ⅓ cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 
  TOPPING:
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 8 teaspoons cold butter (2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat the sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, salt and vanilla until smooth. Transfer to a greased 9”x13” baking dish.
2. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, pecans and flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over potato mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-45 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160º or a knife comes out clean;.

The original recipe can be found here: Mom's Sweet Potato Bake Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes

August Ramblings

Hello!  I am done with the summer semester, and now have three weeks off to catch up with the rest of my life!  Things got a little busier than I originally planned, largely due the the 6 week, 4 credit college algebra class I ended up taking.  The class I wanted to take, Intro to Small Business, was canceled, so I got to do algebra instead.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, but I did pass.  Which means that I have fulfilled all of my math requirements and any further study can be strictly for pleasure and application! 

I also got the required computer class out of the way, and it did teach me something very important- I prefer Mac to Microsoft.  So now I have a new Mac computer.  Well, it’s a little more (or a lot more) complicated than that, but the fact remains that I am having a blast learning the ins and outs of my new computer and its really cool features.  Like the one that lets me have a conversation with my computer.  True, it primarily consists of knock-knock jokes, but hey, it’s still lots of fun.  

I was also reminded this past week of one of the reasons I decided to dive into this blog in the first place (or tiptoe in, as the case may be.)  I’ve been flipping through the back issues of “Taste of Home Magazine.”  It’s unbelievable how far they have gone-- in the wrong direction.  In addition to adding advertising, it seems like they shortened-- or completely cut out-- some of the best features in the magazine. 

For instance, they used to have column with some of the funny things kids would say about food.  I remember wanting to send it in when my little brothers would call sardines “sour-beans.”  And when one brother was 6 or 7 and he was cracking nuts under our walnut tree in the yard.  I asked him what he was doing and he said “I’m cracking walnuts, and inside are pecans!”  

I think the best thing about TOH was the fact that it was so much like an old fashioned community.  It gave the feeling of sitting in the kitchen with aunts, sisters, and grandmas all telling stories and cooking together.  True, you rarely knew the women (and occasionally men) who were writing and cooking, but you knew people like them, or at least wanted to.  And you knew that the recipes were recipes that weren’t just liked by the more sophisticated palates, but by families.  The new magazine seems to have lost that feel.  Maybe it’s just because it has lost it’s nostalgic feeling, with fancy new layouts.  Maybe it’s the adds every other page trying to get you to try a recipe because it has some brand or other in it instead of because someone’s family thinks it’s the best ever.  Who knows.  I just know I miss the old Taste of Home.  Someday I hope someone can recreate it.  Maybe the magazine itself will-- when they do, I’ll subscribe and buy a few gift subscriptions.  Or maybe I’ll just have to do it myself.  In the mean time, I do plan on putting some of my family’s favorite recipes up here.  Right after I paint my bathroom...