Making homemade ice cream!

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Remembering those summer days on Long Beach Island at the Jersey shore reminds me of cranking the old ice cream machine. Everyone took a turn at the crank, after all there were about 25 of us that converged at our Grandparents house every weekend and for vacations. As the men grilled the women and kids got the ice cream ingredients together, salt was added and the job began. I think we only made strawberry and peach flavors but they were so good we were always ready for more!

About ten years ago or so I saw a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker calling me while shopping at Costco! Since then I get into moods of making ice cream. Margarita Man and I like the Coffee flavor the best but I try sorbet and yogurts too.

When I first got the machine I ordered two books that give a large array of recipes, those books are:

Artisan gelato (from when we were planning the Italy trip), Torrance Kopper and The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. Both books are fantastic! I also cut out recipes and stick in the books for future use.

One day, not long ago, a friend on FaceBook, you know who you are but lets see if you read this! Mentioned her favorite ice cream from an Indiana shop named Jeni’s. it was called Bangkok Peanut Ice Cream. I thought it sounded appealing so I Googled it and found it to my surprise!

Then it was a done deal, I had to make it. The odd thing about it is that it has cayenne  powder in it. I have to say the curry gives it a bite and an interesting sensation! What I did  learn from this recipe is that coconut milk gives homemade ice cream a great flavor and takes away the cream taste.

Here’s the recipe taken from Three Many Cooks.

JENI’S BANGKOK PEANUT ICE CREAM

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Jeni’s Bangkok Peanut Ice Cream (For all of Jeni’s incredible ice cream recipes, buy her book, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home! Your friends and family already thank you.)
by: Jeni’s Bangkok
Serves: Makes about 1 quart
INGREDIENTS
  • 1 ¼ cups whole milk
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1 ½ ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
  • ¼ cup natural peanut butter
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
  • ¾ cup unsweetened coconut milk (not light)
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • ½ unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
  • ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Prep: Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.
  2. Using a spatula, mix the cream cheese, peanut butter, and salt in a medium metal bowl until smooth.
  3. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
  4. Cook: Combine the remaining milk, the cream, coconut milk, sugar, corn syrup, and honey in a 4-quart sauce pan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.
  5. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
  6. Chill: Gradually whish the hot milk mixture into the peanut butter mixture until smooth. Whisk in the toasted coconut and cayenne.
  7. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
  8. Freeze: Pour the ice cream base into your ice cream freezer and spin until thick and creamy.
  9. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.
 NOTES
We topped the ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and chopped peanuts.
GO OUT ON A LIMB, TRY IT SOMETIME!!!!!
Until we meet again, and again, and again!!!!!
Bonnie

 

Back in the Saddle

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photoIt’s been some time since I started this blog, I think it’s time to get it back on it’s feet. My world has changed since this past July 31st my job of 16.2 years was eliminated. I liked my job and I have learned a lot about how to keep students in college, how to help them finish their programs and how to make them happy. Well, my employer decided differently, they are on to new endeavors so I will be too!

I’ve been spending so many hours a day on the computer looking and searching for a job. It’s a job to find a job! So this weekend, Mike, my husband (who I will call “the Marguarita Man”) and I were in the pool and I said, “I need to find something to do that I’m good at”. Marguarita Man said do your blog, write every day! What a novel idea. So here I am on Monday, Day 1 writing.

For the past two months I’ve been feeding one of my favorite hobbies, cooking. Here’s a recipe for you to try that I cooked last week.

Split Pea & Ham Soup

Ingredients

    • 1 tablespoon olive oil
    • 2 cups yellow onions, chopped
    • salt
    • freshly ground black pepper
    • crushed red pepper flakes
    • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 1.5 lb dried split peas, picked over and rinsed
    • 8 cups chicken broth
    • 1 ham bone
    • bacon ends if available
    • 2 carrots, sliced
    • 1 ham steak, cut into 1 inch pieces
  1. In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, heat the oil.
  2. Add the onions.
  3. Season with salt, pepper, crushed red pepper.
  4. Saute for 2 minutes.
  5. Add the garlic, bay leaf, and split peas and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
  6. Add the ham bone, bacon ends, carrots, broth and ham.
  7. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour or more, until the peas are tender.
  8. Remove from the heat.
  9. Remove the bay leaf, ham bone and bacon ends and discard. Use an immersion blender to blend to desired smoothness. I like it to be finished slightly chunky.
  10. Serve with garlic bread.

Enjoy!

Clovis, New Mexico

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Clovis New Mexico

I flew into Albuquerque from Phoenix on Southwest Airlines. Have you ever studied people as they get on an airplane? Wow, there are some strange people out there. I try not to make eye contact so that no one sits next to me. On most flights every seat is taken, no room to stretch out. Last week a young woman asked to sit in the window seat in the row I was sitting in. As I got up to let her in I noticed her outfit, black tee shirt with Roller Derby Babes on it, black leggings, silver short shorts that bearly covered her butt with stars on them. From the side the shorts were almost hidden. To round out the outfit she had a Derby Babe’s fanny back on. Overhearing her, she was returning from a Las Vegas Roller Derby Conference. I didn’t know they had such a thing!
Oh, let me finish about Clovis.  http://www.cityofclovis.org/On the way here, I stopped at Allsup’s in Denby, NM on Route 60. I needed to use the restroom. I found it in the back and a young guy waiting to use the one and only restroom. When a women with a nasty look on her face appears from the restroom, the young guy says, sorry about that. I didn’t know what went on before I got there but after going in the restroom I figured it out. This was a unisex one person restroom without a lock on the door. Nice, huh? I stopped here before but not again to use the restroom.
I get to the Hampton Inn in Clovis and check-in. The front desk person welcomes me as a Hilton diamond member. She then says, I placed you as far away from the train as possible. I say, there’s a train? She screws up her face and said yes. I naively, ask when does the train come through? She says there’s no schedule but it comes through often. So there I am in my room for an hour and its come by two times already. This will make a challenging two night stay.
I ate at a very nice restaurant tonight, Dakota’s Steakhouse at 816 Lexington in Clovis. The steaks are delicious, I had a baked sweet potato that was huge. The bread was delicious and tasted homemade. The ice tea is free! The steaks are priced from $15 for the Sirloin and $28 for the 14 ounce Rib eye. This is on the list as a return restaurant. http://www.dakotasonline.com/dead.php
I started the day in Albuquerque and I had to eat lunch at one of my favorite places, Kelly’s Brewery, 3222 Central SE. They have the absolute best tortilla soup anywhere. I constantly try tortilla soup across the country and there are few that match up to this soup. I also had half of an Albuquerque Turkey with green chile and avocado sandwich. Delish!!
I bet you didn’t know this about Clovis: Within the city itself areas of attraction include the Norman Petty Studios on 7th Street, renown world wide as the place where Buddy Holly recorded his hit “Peggy Sue” and many other hits. Roy Orbison also recorded along with Clovis’ own Fireballs whose smash hit “Sugar Shack”, reached number one in 1963. (Retrieved from http://www.cityofclovis.org/on August 6, 2012

  1. I’m still in Clovis and I swear this must be the Chicken Fried Steak capital! Everywhere, even drive in restaurants have it. I hate it so it’s super gross to me. Even KFC has chicken fried steak here! Today for lunch I went to Twin Cronnie Drive-in http://www.yelp.com/biz/twin-cronnie-drive-in-clovis Not the best cheeseburger I ever had even though the review raved about it. I added green chile on it. Well, when you don’t have much to choose from I guess it tastes good?
    Tonight ate at Cotton Patch Cafe, again mediocre. I had the tortilla soup (not like Kelly’s) and the buffalo chicken salad. Just okay. http://www.cottonpatch.com/main/index.htm
    It has started to storm here, thunder no rain yet.