Custard-based recipe

There are two basic recipes to make an ice cream base. If you don’t mind cooking the base ingredients before freezing, you may want to try this custard-based recipe:

4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
Pinch of salt

Begin by beating the first three ingredients until they are pale and yellow, then set them aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients, minus 1/2 cup milk, in a medium saucepan. Cook this over medium until it begins to simmer, about 5 minutes. Let the mixture almost boil but do not let it boil. Remove it from the heat and set it aside.

Put two handfuls of ice into a large bowl and fill it with water to cover. Gradually pour the warm milk into the eggs, whisking constantly and then pour it back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat and stir constantly until it has thickened, about 5-10 minutes. Remove it from the heat and then pour in the remaining milk.

Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and put it in the ice bath. Continue stirring until the mixture is chilled. For the best results, let the mixture chill for 4 hours, or you can pour the chilled mixture into the ice cream maker and let the machine do the rest of the work.

No-cook version

For people who prefer not to wait the amount of time it takes for the custard-base, you may want to try the no-cook version:

2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 cup whole milk, well chilled
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour it all into an ice cream maker and follow the instructions given by the manufacturer. Before long you’ll have ice cream the whole family can enjoy. The ice cream will be soft-set, but you can firm it up by putting it in the freezer for two hours before eating.

Add-ins

Starting with either of these base recipes you can create nearly any ice cream you might want. Here are five ideas your family may enjoy:

* 1 cup finely diced overripe strawberries or peaches
* 1 cup crushed peppermint candy
* Chocolate chips
* Chopped peppermint patties
* Chunks of cookie dough

You’ll want to add fruit ingredients during the last 5 to 10 minutes of the freezing process. The chips, peppermint patties, and cookie dough would be added after the freezing process so they can be evenly dispersed.

Decorate the ice cream with additional fresh fruit, chocolate syrup, or slivered almonds. You can also place some of the ice cream between two cookies to make your own version of an ice cream cookie. The options are endless and every one is sure to be a taste sensation!

Summer is the perfect time to make your own ice cream. Summer fun, in fact, wouldn’t be the same without ice cream. Use one of the recipes, put in some add-ins, and then enjoy a taste of summer.

(Serves 4)

1 can (16oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 red delicious apples, cored and chopped
¼ cup green onions, finely chopped
¼ cup celery stalks, finely chopped
¼ cup mild green chillies, finely chopped
1 ½ tbsp white wine vinegar
1 ½ tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp salt
Dash of hot sauce (if you like it hot!)

In a big bowl, mix together the chopped apples, green onion, celery, chillies and beans.

In a separate small bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients to make a dressing and pour over the bean and apple mixture.

Cover and chill for about an hour before serving as a light lunch or as a side dish to BBQ chicken.

Bacon & Broccoli Salad with a Twist

1.5 to 2 heads of broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces, leaving a bit of stem
½ cup red onion, chopped
¼ cup black pitted olives
8 slices bacon
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Handful of sesame seeds

Dressing:
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup natural yogurt
¼ cup white wine vinegar
¼ cup sugar

In a small skillet, fry the bacon until crisp, then remove on paper towels to drain the grease.

Place the broccoli pieces in a large serving bowl, add the shredded cheese, onion and dressing and chill covered for 2 -3 hours.

When chilled, crumbled the crispy bacon into bits and add to the broccoli, then add the sesame seeds and olives.

Toss and enjoy!

BBQ Thai Meatball Skewers

(Serves 4)

11 oz beef mince
3 shallots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch piece fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp green peppercorns, crushed
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
Lime wedges
Wooden skewers

Soak the wooden skewers in water to prevent them burning.

Chop the beef mince with a large knife to make sure the mince is very fine. Add the ginger, garlic, shallots, peppercorns, fish sauce and brown sugar and combine with your hands. Form the mixture into balls using about 2 tsp of mixture at a time. Put three balls on each skewer.

Heat up your BBQ grill and oil lightly. Cook the meat for about 7 to 8 minutes or until the meet is cooked through.

Serve with the lime wedges.

5 Easy Ways to Keep Your Kitchen Clutter Free
By Lelah Baker-Rabe

The kitchen is the heart of many homes, and since it must be functional as well as a pleasant place to spend a lot of time, it is imperative that the clutter and chaos is kept to a minimum. Here are five sure-fire ways to keep the kitchen organized and under control:

1. Don’t overbuy. Only buy food and paper products that you know you are going to consume, and don’t impulse buy trendy sale items such as cheap plastic cups that are on the end of the aisle at the grocery store. Don’t buy in bulk unless you have a large family and a place to store extra large cans, jars and boxes.
2. Label leftovers. If you date and name leftovers with a permanent marker on their container you are much more likely to use them up before they become unidentifiable and inedible. This is especially important when freezing food items that may become covered in ice and will help you determine what is still safe to eat.
3. Don’t get overrun by dirty dishes. To manage the dishes, dispose of extra dishes and glasses that you don’t need. You’ll do the dishes more frequently, but they won’t be able to stack up in get out of control. Create a habit of emptying and filling the dishwasher at the same time every day. If you wash dishes by hand and have a double sink, get an in-sink dish drying rack to free up counter space and install a built in soap dispenser for liquid detergent so you can banish messy dish soap bottles permanently.
4. Clear the refrigerator door. Take everything-paper, magnets, photos-off the refrigerator door and keep it clear. Your kitchen will look automatically larger, neater and it will be easier to keep the fridge clean.
5. Contain the paper. If your kitchen is also a catch all space for kids’ homework, the family calendar, phone messages, take out menus, etc., create a dedicated inbox for paper material, or consider a folder system for each family member. Don’t let paper pile up on every surface, give it a single place to accumulate, and go through the stack frequently, tossing whatever is trash and taking action on everything else. Reference materials, such as menus or recipes, should be filed in a family binder or in a magazine holder with your cookbooks.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a professional organizer and writer. Visit http://www.lelahwithanh.com/ and http://lelahwithanh.blogspot.com/ for organizing tips, product and book reviews, and inspiration. Using skills honed working both from home and in corporate settings, Lelah is an expert in transforming conventional and cluttered home offices into usable and dynamic creative workspaces.

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Canning the Treasures From Your Victory Garden
By Kip Piper

This weekend I stood in my pantry and did a quick survey of my dwindling inventory of canned vegetables and fruit and dried herbs from the last few years. With my spending pattern being more discriminating, I already have planned my garden for this year – with better use of space, seasons, and what I enjoy the most.

Victory gardens became popular during the first and second World Wars in the backyards of homes in the US, Canada, England and Germany. Because of rationing, victory gardens enabled families to stretch their spending power and have more to eat. This became the foundation for the home gardening boom that has continued over the decades.

With our current economy, gardening seed sales have already increased by 20% over last year. And you can preserve more than just the fruits, herbs and vegetables from your garden. Most towns and cities have access to local family or commercial farms that offer pick-your-own or already harvested produce. Remember the roadside stands from our youth? You can bet you will see more of those this year. They are a perfect place to pick up those fruits, vegetables, and herbs that you don’t grow yourself.

So, now that you are growing and harvesting, what do you do with your bounty? Canning, freezing, and drying are the most popular methods for long-term storage. Using these methods, you will enjoy the “fruits” of your labor for months and years to come. There is an almost endless selection of websites that give you preserving instructions, recipes, and sell the equipment and accessories for the process.

One of my favorite things is to personalize my jars and containers with specialty labels and cloth tops. Not only does this add fun to the preserving process, but makes your jars and containers just about gift-ready for any occasion – just add a bow!

Now, I’m creative but not when it comes to designing labels. So I went on a search for the perfect (and perfectly priced) canning labels. I searched far and wide in my area stores, only to find a very limited selection of designs and outrageous prices. After all, why would I want to spend a lot of money, only to have my jars and containers look just like my neighbors?

So I went to the Internet – and learned a lot! There are only a few canning label sites with a variety of prices and quality. The question is: What to look for in a canning label supplier?

First, Quality of Design. Are the designs sophisticated or something your cat would have drawn? Because you will be sharing your harvest with friends and family, you want the quality of the label match the delightful edible treasure inside.

Second, Design Choices: How many different designs are offered? Are they truly distinctive, or do they look just like the designs on the other guy’s site? Are they truly different or just variations on one design? You should have so many to choose from that you can have a different label for different items, or one distinctive label that is YOU.

Third, Custom Design: Does the website offer custom design labels? Sometimes, no matter how many designs are offered, none of them really get you excited. You have an idea in mind, but like me, can’t get it onto a label. When a website offers custom design, then you can have a label designed that reflects your unique style.

Fourth, Cloth Tops: Are cloth tops (or Fancy Tops, as they are sometimes called) offered? Do ribbons and instructions come with the cloth tops? Cloth tops can add that extra special touch that turns a simple jar into a precious gift.

Fifth, Hidden Charges: When you add it all up – labels, shipping, etc. – what are you actually paying for? Watch out for those hidden charges of expensive shipping and minimum quantities.

Last, but definitely not least, Sixth: 100% Guarantee: Does the site offer a 100% money-back guarantee? If not, don’t walk but RUN away! Your lovingly preserved produce – and nowadays your budget – are too important to take chances on labels that look awful when they arrive. Let’s face it – many times what you think you see on a website is not what you get. So only deal with a website that offers a 100% money-back guarantee.

Now you are ready to plant, nurture, preserve – and label – your garden treasures. And nothing is more personalized than a gift basket filled with bounty from your garden. Sharing your harvest is giving a little love to those who receive your gift basket.

Kip Piper is a web/graphic designer, marketing basics trainer, and crafter. She has authored several business and home books.

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Class it Up With Elegant Shower Curtains
By Derek Farley

Though perhaps not the most practical item in the bathroom, the shower curtain may certainly be the focal point of this necessary household space. If you don’t happen to enjoy the convenience of a sliding glass shower door, you will find the need for a shower curtain to cover that tub. Traditionally, home-owners will first install a plastic curtain to keep the water in and then layer that with something more eye-appealing. However, even in the attempt to find something more decorative to cover the bland white curtain, often people will settle for something equally as bland on the outside.

Elegant curtains obviously do not fit every situation. A child’s bathroom may call for a solid colored one or something that has fish or rubber duckies. However, the master bath or a bath off a guest suite may be the perfect place to enlist an elegant shower curtain which will be both stunning and eye-appealing while serving a practical need.

The wide variety of elegant and beautiful shower curtains may surprise those who are accustomed to sticking with the usual department store options. (These being drab colors, strange flower or splatter paint type designs, and other things that don’t make a stand-out pop in the bathroom.) However, with a diligent search, customers will find that there seem to be as many options for stunning shower curtains as there are for traditional household draperies! You can be quite beautiful in decorating this often-neglected room.

The shower curtain, as mentioned before, is probably the greatest focal point in the bathroom if only for the reason that it is the largest piece. It can tie everything together, creating the color scheme and the entire mood of the room. With the possibilities for elegant shower curtains, it is possible to create something akin to a spa or luxury hotel right in your own home!

Consider a bathroom that holds a dark, luxurious brown curtain, tied back with an elegant rope on the edge of your bathtub. Or perhaps you may prefer the more solid black and white look, enlisting a soft, white fabric curtain detailed with black embroidery. Would these not be bathroom spaces that would be most definitely practical but also beautiful and relaxing? Go on to include valances, lace backdrops, and beautiful tiebacks, and you may find that dressing your bathtub will be as much fun as dressing the windows in your living room!

You can learn more about shower curtain rings, and get much more information, articles and resources about bathroom shower curtains by visiting bathroom shower curtain.

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