Dogwood Valley Homesteading | |
Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream
We made chocolate ice cream this week and it was delicious!! I promised to post the recipe so here it is! This is a variation of my Strawberry Ice Cream recipe (recipe link at the bottom of this post). As I try out new flavors I will post them here.. Chocolate Ice Cream
6 eggs In a big mixer (like a Kitchen Aid or Bosch) mix together (with the wire whip) the eggs and cane juice crystals until light and lemony colored. Add cocoa powder and vanilla mix again. Add cream and arrowroot powder (if using). When all of this has mixed together completely pour it into your 1 gallon ice cream maker container. Add whole milk until you reach the “fill line” on your ice cream maker container. Follow the instructions that came with your ice cream maker or you can read here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/strawberryicecream.htm for basic instructions (the directions are for strawberry ice cream, but the basic “how tos” will work for any flavor). Garden Update #2I know that I have not posted in quite a while, but truly, circumstances have prevented me!My first born got married this past Saturday!! I will post some pictures when I get them from the photographer. Needless to say, we are just thrilled with our new daughter-in-love. She is beautiful inside and out. We have had some disappointments in the garden. First, a rabbit kept getting in at night and eating my yellow and zucchini squash! I used to love the Tale of Peter Rabbit. Now, though, I believe I identify with Farmer McGreggor more than Peter!  Recipe Tip: With the squash that we have gotten so far, I used a nifty little gadget called a Spiralizer to cut them in thin ringlets. (Actually, sweetie pie, Lydia, cut them and then proceeded to eat them! Yes, Miss Picky!) By marinading them in olive oil and soy sauce, they could be eaten raw, but tasted as though they had been sauteed. Mmmmmm! The green beans have just about played out and I am going to replant them this weekend. I got about 12 pounds of beans from these plants. I don't know if that is remarkable or just average, but they were delicious. I don't know the price of organic fresh green beans, but the local grocery store had them priced at $2.99 yesterday so those yummy beans would have cost me around $35! We had some seed from last year, but my husband wanted to try a different variety this year so I did buy the seed, but that cost is minimal.  Recipe Tip: Take a jelly roll pan and brush it lightly with coconut oil. Spread out about a pound of green beans with ends snapped. Thinly slice an onion and top the beans. Add about 10 (yes, I said 10) cloves of garlic and place over the top. Once roasted the garlic will be deliciously mild. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 400 until beans are to your liking! I love them as they are, but my husband and sons like to sprinkle them with balsamic vinegar! I have had about a dozen tomatoes to ripen so far, but about 75-80 have not ripened yet. I'm sure, with my luck, that they will all ripen on the same day! :) Sun-dried tomatoes will definitely be on the menu.  Our fruit trees have totally shocked me! We just planted them along with our Spring garden and lo and behold, all the fig trees are bearing fruit along with several pears. I believe a delicious pear crisp is in order! I thought that you could not expect to have fruit for at least three years from when you planted.   Did you know that pears actually need to be picked before they are ripe? Bill was reading about them in one of our organic gardening books and that was the advice given.  I have already harvested and made pesto with my basil and am going to havest and make more today. Companion gardeners say to plant basil alongside tomatoes. I tried that this year and I seem to be having a "bumper" crop! I will also dry some of the basil for use this winter, but I really prefer it fresh.  My only regret so far with this years garden is that we did not plant even more! Hmmmm... I think I said the same thing last year! Homemade Tomato Sauce
Posted by Mommaofmany
Homemade Tomato Sauce12:33, Thursday, June 25, 2009 .. Posted in Homemade Mixes and Sauces .. 0 comments .. Link 1 onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, chopped 1 small red bell pepper, chopped (optional) 3 Tbsp EVOO 1 ½ pounds tomatoes, skinned and chopped Salt and pepper to taste 2 Tbsp fresh herbs: basil, parsley and marjoram Gently fry onion, garlic and red pepper for 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer 15-20 minutes. Stir in herbs and season with salt and pepper. May be doubled/tripled/ frozen/canned. Extreme Veggie ScramblersI am eating this for breakfast right now!Extreme Veggie Scramblers ½ cup butter or bacon drippings ¼-½ c chopped veggies: onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, celery, zucchini, garlic 12-18 eggs ½ cup milk ½ cup chopped tomatoes ½ cup fresh shredded cheese Saute veggies. Combine eggs and milk. Add veggies, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir in tomatoes when the eggs are nearly done. Stir in cheese. Serve hot. You may add cooked breakfast meat, as well. Saturday on the Homestead Today has been a fairly quiet day. The weather turned cool and wet so I have had a break from watering and weeding the garden. I am sure the next dry day I can get in the garden I am going to find that the weeds have grown twice as fast as the veggies! LOL.. I also need to get the unplanted area rototilled this next week. I was able to check several things off my to-do list today. I packed orders, paid a bill online, started a batch of beef stock, caught up on my Quicken, made dinner and packed hubby’s lunch and got him out the door to work, did some laundry, and did a little writing.
Tomorrow is Father’s Day and we are making chocolate ice cream and some oatmeal cookies for dad.. he will like that Now it is time to look to my week ahead and see what needs to be done. The kids have their year end homeschool testing (CAT testing, officially). Sierra is the only one left with school work to finish up but she should be done soon. Jacob is glad to be done with his school work because he has several summer jobs lined up with the neighbors. They appreciate a young man who knows how to work to help them with chores around their homesteads and he appreciates being able to make some money Tobin will be finishing up with Well that is all from my homestead. Hope you having a great weekend on your homesteads.. The Cost of Making Ice Cream
I had a comment on my last blog post on making ice cream and how expensive it is. Perhaps some of it has to do with the ingredients you choose to use and the type of ice cream you make. I think it is also important to note that the recipe makes a whole gallon of ice cream and that would be like buying 2 typical containers from the grocery store. Ice cream is one of those foods that are so full of garbage ingredients and chemicals it is not funny. It is hard to find really good quality ice cream. I was even looking the other day at the ice cream my food co-op sells and was disappointed to see that it contained natural flavors (another name for MSG) and gums to help make it smooth. And the cost was ridiculous. So this morning I roughly calculated the cost in making a gallon of homemade strawberry ice cream with better quality ingredients. I personally think that even if you used less than excellent ingredients (like sugar instead of cane juice crystals) you could cut the cost that I came to AND still have a much better quality product than what is typically in the grocery store. In any case.. here is my breakdown of costs .. Eggs: $1.37 – right now I don’t have my own chicken eggs. I buy free range, organic eggs from my food co-op for $2.75 a dozen. Milk: .50 cents - I buy whole milk (rbst free) from Costco (about $4 for 2 gallons) normally (when I don’t have enough goat milk or it is not milk season.) Since you pour the milk into the ice cream maker when you have added everything else I don’t have an exact measurement.. I am guessing maybe 2 to 4 cups of milk. So I rounded the price up for 4 cups. Cane Juice Cream: $1.25 (I buy cream in 2qt containers from Costco – it is rbst free and not organic, organic would bring the price up) Strawberries: $2.50 (I bought 4lbs for $4.99 from Costco and used about half of them. I rounded up for this cost analysis) My estimated cost using the above ingredients for one gallon of ice cream is: $7.06 I think this is not a bad price to pay for the quality of ingredients put into it. The best ice cream (ingredient wise) I can find in the grocery store is Haagen Daz. They are over $4.00 per pint making the cost of a gallon $32.00.. haa.. haaa.. Breyers is another ice cream with pretty good ingredients and they don’t even sell half gallon containers any more.. they have been downsized. I think I paid about $2.80 awhile back for 1 1/2 quarts (but I have seen the price over $3 per 1 1/2 quarts). At the price I paid that would make it about $7.50 for a gallon (if my math is off it is because I have only had one cup of coffee this morning and my brain is still foggy! LOL).. The cost for a 1/2 gallon of organic ice cream from my food co-op comes to a whopping $11.63!! making it over $23 for a gallon. Another thought I had on the price is that this price includes strawberries. If you were to make vanilla or chocolate ice cream the cost of vanilla extract and/or cocoa powder would be less than the cost for strawberries. So the type of ice cream you choose to make can also influence the price. In the big scheme of it all I had not really considered that homemade ice cream was a huge expense, especially for the quality of food my family gets for the money. I do know that it is also not the most frugal of all desserts either, but still sits somewhere around reasonable in my thoughts and sure makes for a great family treat once in awhile. cornmeal-fried onion ringsI made these on Memorial Day, and oh my gosh, they were SOOOO good! There weren't any leftovers. The recipe came from Barefoot Contessa at home by Ina Garten. Cornmeal-Fried onion Rings 2 large Spanish onions (or 3 yellow onions) 2 cups buttermilk Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup (medium) yellow cornmeal 1 quart vegetable oil Peel the onions, slice them 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick, and separate them into rings. Combine the buttermilk, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Add the onion rings, toss well, and allow to marinate for at least 15 minutes. (The onion rings can sit in the buttermilk for a few hours.) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside. When you're ready to fry the onion rings, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Heat the oil to 350 degrees in a large pot or Dutch oven. (A candy thermometer attached to the side of the pot will help you maintain the proper temperature.) Working in batches, lift some onions out of the buttermilk and dredge them in the flour mixture. Drop into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes, until golden brown, turning them once with tongs. Don't crowd them! Place the finished onions on the baking sheet, sprinkle liberally with salt, and keep them warm in the oven while you fry the next batches. Continue frying the onion rings and placing them in the warm oven until all the onions are fried. They will remain crisp in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Serve hot. banana-sour cream loafI got this recipe from a Gooseberry patch cookbook called Made From Scratch. It turned out pretty good... Banana-Sour Cream Loaf 2/3 c. butter 1 1/3 c. sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 c. bananas, mashed 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour 1 t. baking powder 1 t. baking soda 1/2 t. salt 1/2 c. sour cream 1 c. chopped nuts Cream butter and sugar together; add eggs and bananas, beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Add dry mixture alternately with sour cream to banana mixt, blend well. Fold in nuts and pour into a gread 9"x5" loaf pan; bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes. Makes 8 servings. Strawberry Ice Cream
Strawberry season is in full swing here in the PNW. I have been buying them every week now and the kids eat them as fast as I buy them!
If you would like my recipe and detailed instructions on making ice cream you can find that here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/strawberryicecream.htm I have a pretty basic 4qt ice cream maker made by Rival. I have had it now for several years and made a whole lot of ice cream with it. This basically is the ice cream maker I have (my bucket is round, an older model I guess!
Rival 8804-BL 4-Quart Oval Ice Cream Bucket, Blue They are not very expensive and will give a family a lot of gallons of delicious ice cream and a lot of fun making it as well!! Now onto chocolate ice cream this weekend.. I will keep you posted on that one too… Apple Pie Crumb Cake MuffinsThis is from www.happyfoody.com. Don't they sound good?Apple Pie Crumb Cake Muffins For Muffins: For topping: Prepare the topping by mixing all the dry topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Drizzle the oil while mixing with your fingertips until crumbs form. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a 12 – muffin tin. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the dry muffin ingredients. Create a well in the center and add the apple cider, oil, and vanilla. Mix, then fold in the grated and chopped apple. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full. Sprinkle the crumb topping over each muffin. Bake for 22 minutes. { Last Page } { Page 2 of 5 } { Next Page } |
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