Vanilla Ice Cream

My husband has been craving home-made ice cream all summer. When I heard that our good friends we've known since college were planning to stop in on their way to AZ, I thought it was the perfect occasion to break out the ice cream maker & enjoy a lil' homemade goodness.

Just before our wedding, we found our ice cream maker @ a garage sale, and paid the grand sum of $1.00 for an old-fashioned hand-cranck one. No puny, wimpy people around here! If we're gonna enjoy the calories, we might as well burn a few in the process. I've tried several different recipes since then, but this one is my favorite. The leftovers usually turn rock-hard in the freezer & you're left scraping frozen milk instead of creamy ice cream. But I was pleased to see this was just as delicious & creamy the day after.

Vanilla Ice Cream (Lisa Miller)

4 eggs, beaten

3 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. vanilla

1 box instant vanilla pudding

1/2 tsp. salt

3 c. heavy whipping cream

6 c. milk

Beat all ingredients together & pour into a 6-quart ice cream freezer. Fill with milk until freezer can is 2/3 full. Freeze.

Easy Chocolate Sauce

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 bag milk chocolate chips

Pour sweetened condensed milk & about 1/2 the bag of chocolate chips (or more) into a glass bowl & heat in the microwave for a minute at a time until chips are melted & it is easy to stir. Do not over heat. The more chips you add, the stiffer the sauce. It will firm up (kind of like hard-shell) when you pour it over the ice cream.

Waffles & White Sauce

I have enjoyed waffles for many years, but it wasn't until I married my husband that I found out what I had been missing. Though this recipe comes from his family, it has become the only way to enjoy waffles at our home.

We were excited to find blueberries on sale @ ALDI's for $0.99 a pint, which made it even better. My m-i-l would have added a carrot to make for a healthier meal, but I opted for sausage patties instead. :) Another "tradition" passed down from his family is to make the waffles at the table. It means some patience & breaks in between, but enjoying a crisp quarter straight from the waffle maker makes it worth the wait!

Waffles

1 3/4 c. flour (I made them with 1/2 wheat flour)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 egg yolks

1 3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. cooking oil

2 egg whites

Combine flour, baking powder, & salt. In a separate bowl beat egg yolks slightly. Beat in milk & oil. Add to dry ingredients; stir until just combined, but still slightly lumpy. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into batter, leaving a few fluffs of egg white. Do not overmix. Pour batter onto wafer maker. Makes about 6 waffles.

Shortcut: Do not separate eggs, but mix the dry ingredients, add wet & do not overmix. This doesn't make as light of a batter, but the waffles still turn out great & take less work to prepare. But if you ask my mother, she will tell you that beating the eggs whites is a must in making waffles. We've agreed to disagree & love each other despite our difference of opinions.

White Sauce

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. flour

1 - 1 1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter. Add flour & stir until smooth. Add milk (less for a thicker sauce) & whisk continually while heating on medium heat until thickened. Take off heat & add sugar & vanilla. Stir well & serve warm with waffles.

Tip: If you find a great deal on blueberries (or other berries)...buy up! You can lay them out on baking pans & freeze them, then store them in freezer bags or containers for up to 6 months in your freezer. They will not be as firm as fresh, but are great for recipes & often cheaper than you can find in your freezer section.

"Fantastic" Lemon Butter Fillet

I tried a new recipe tonight that I found on Allrecipes, since I still have fish in the freezer from a successful fishing trip. I pan fried the last batch for Phil's birthday & decided to bake it this time. I love looking for recipes there because the reviews are often helpful, I can see which ones have been tried & tested, and I have yet to make a recipe I didn't like. This one was no exception. Though I chuckled at the name. Anything that claims to be "Fantastic" is usually just setting me up for disappointment. But thankfully, that wasn't the case this time around.

I "tweeked" this one a bit, but you can always link back to the original recipe.

Fantastic Lemon Butter Fillet

1/3 c. butter
1 small lemon, juiced (or about 2 Tbsp.)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
3 cloves of garlic, minced (or about 1 Tbsp.)
1 1/2 lbs. fish fillets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in lemon juice, salt, pepper, parsley, & garlic. Bring to a boil. Cook & stir about 8-10 minutes, until thickened. Arrange fish fillets in baking pan. Pour butter over the top & cover with foil. Bake for 15-20 min.