The Best Ever Home Made French Vanilla Ice Cream

How to cool off on a hot summer day? Even a caveman knows that the best way is to eat some yummy ice cream.

I have had a few people request this recipe and this last time I decided it would be the easiest to just post it here, so I can just send them a link instead of writing it down. This is by far the best ice cream recipe I have come accross, not that I have made tons of them, but it is definitely one of those that makes me skip a paleo for a while. It is so worth it. And yes, it is not a diet food, so don't try this if you are trying to lose weight, cause it ain't happening.

The great thing about it is that you can add different fruits in it and keep changing it, thus never get tired of it. I have tried with fresh mango and dark sweet cherries, and it is to die for.

So here it goes:

French Vanilla Ice Cream

4 egg yolks

1/2 pint (2.5 dl or 1 cup) milk, preferably full milk

1/2 pint (2.5 dl or 1 cup) heavy cream

4 oz. (100g) sugar

1 vanilla pod

Pour milk to a medium pan and bring to a boil. Place lengthwise split vanilla pod into it for 20 minutes to simmer. In a mixing bowl, beat yolks and sugar until thick. Remove vanilla pod from the milk, and scrape the seeds out of it with the back of a knife or spoon. Add vanilla seeds back into the milk. Pour the milk mixture into the egg-sugar mixture while stirring, then return this mixture to the pan and heat gently while stiffing until it thickens (leaves a film on the back of a spoon). Remove from the heat and let cool down in a fridge. When cold stir in the heavy cream, I have never whipped it, but you could for extra fluffiness. Now it is ready to be churned for 25 minutes.

Add what ever your heart desires to it or eat just like it is, either way it is delicious. Can't go wrong with a slice of hot apple pie either. Enjoy!

RV Cooking So Easy Even Caveman Could Do It

Lee and I started this series of experiments on food and how to make things RV friendly. The biggest challenges are that we do not have counter space, at all! The table will have to work, no matter how small, as prepping area for our cooking. We also need to simplify our recipes. I like to every now and then try new things and sometimes the recipes are complicated. Well, complicated is not gonna cut it in the RV. I don't mind cooking complicated stuff, what gets me is the chopping and prepping. If I can't have a sous chef, I will have stuff that has been sous cheffed for me ahead of time. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a perfect solution: easy cooking and easy storing (does not mean it doesn't take any room, just no special requirements) and prepping all done for you. The solutions is freeze dried ingredients!!!

As I am typing this I just have my RV soup simmering and it was so easy to make. I was going to make just a traditional soup with veggies and meat in it, until I realized that we were out of potatoes, or had just couple that looked kinda suspicious. And the meat was still frozen. Since I needed to cook for my poor hard working hubby, I decided that I will go with what my conscious has always rebelled against, easy route. So I took all our freeze dried veggies, a can of diced tomatoes, freeze dried meat and tossed a bit of this and a bit of that into the pot with some water, those tomatoes, and some salt, pepper, paprika, all spice, chili sauce and oregano and let it simmer for an hour. Now we have healthy, delicious and most of all super easy soup. Nothing to clean except the bowls we eat from, the pot and spoons. I love this!

When you are snuggled up by a rock or a tree out in the boonies, with as small of a fridge as we do, and you don't have an option to go grocery shopping daily, this is the way to go. The simplicity makes it so effortless too, that even someone who has started to lean towards the take out pizza versus home cooking just for its easiness can not complain at all. All it took was couple of minutes to throw things into the pot and add some spices. Once it started to boil, I just put the lid on it and let it simmer for another hour and by the time all has stopped floating on the surface, was well re-hydrated and cooked. I just sprinkled a bit of cheese on my soup  bowl and gobbled it all up. How much easier can it get? And all the ingredients are high quality, dry stored and we don't even have to go to the grocery store to buy them, they can all be ordered online. Hah, I can see how people get extreme on all kinds of things, I am ready to see how far I can go. 

To our surprise this soup was yummy!

No refrigerator needed

No tears

No peeling and chopping

                                

Pecans And Baking

Well, we have lived for over 4 years in this house and this Monday our lawn crew came and they asked if they would be allowed to pick a little bit pecans under our huge tree after the mowing. Of course, why not, we never did. I guess we assumed that we got nothing this year since last year the shells were empty due to severe drought. And the year must have been tough for squirrels too, we have much less of them than we used to. We happened to talk with our neighbor about the pecans and he just said that the pecans are beautiful this year, so I decided to go see if there was any left under the tree and I was in luck. I collected about two to three gallons of shells and very few actually were either empty or damaged, they might have been from last year for what we know.

Suddenly I wanted to bake a pecan pie and I had never baked one before. I asked my friends in Facebook for a good recipe and Catie Doman graciously shared her blue ribbon winning recipe. Keep your eyes peeled, I will share it with you with her permission. I went back to get some more pecans and kept jumping up to reach the ones up on the lowest branches too. I just wanted to make sure that I had enough for a pie in case they end up being bad ones. I was in luck again. I think I could bake thirty pies out of them. Better safe than sorry is what I'm thinking.

So I had most of the ingredients at home but wanted to make my baking as RV'ish as possible and I think I would use ready made crust to save time while RV'ing. And since I am trying to learn to take shortcuts, I decided it was good time to start using the half ready products. I am originally from Finland and we make everything from scratch and I need to learn to simplify my cooking a lot in order to enjoy it better. So here is the recipe for the filling, I used Pillsbury pie crust and I still have half of it left, since it has two crusts in it. I can make another one as soon as this one runs out, which is probably later on tonight.

Fresh from the oven, hot and still puffy!

Catie's Blue Ribbon Winning Pecan Pie:

1/2 cup of sugar

1 cup of Karo dark syrup
1 cup of pecans

3 eggs

4 tbs butter (which I forgot, still came out good)

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

Pillsbury pie crust or home made crust.

Mix the ingredients and pour onto the crust. Bake 10 mins in 400F and then 35 mins in 300F. You can probably make it prettier with nice edge and not forgetting the stuff out of it. But at least I do have a reason to make another pie. It is pretty yummy, make two at the same time so you don't have to be baking all the time.

Just imagine the stick of butter in the picture, I am sure it will be even
 tastier  with it.

YUM!

Pumpkin Season Is Here!

Today we got greeted with a nice cool weather. It had been raining at night, which we are excited about. The watering of the lawn and plants had started to feel like a second job. The rain has cooled down the temperatures that had been soaring at around 100F all summer. It feels wonderful to go out without having to wear shoes around the pool just to prevent your feet from burning up on the hot concrete. Now we can keep the doors open and let the breeze to get in. Aah, how I love the first cool days after the toasty summer. My plans were to finish up some yard work as soon as the weather like this arrived, but instead  I decided to just lounge on the couch and be useless. Man, it was tough, but I think I achieved my goal.

 After few sweet recipes, I thought it was time to straighten up our diets and stir away from the sweets and try to eat a bit healthier, and suddenly after today's lunch in Vietnamese restaurant the curry chicken pho made me crave for more curry, and suddenly I remembered that it is almost time to dust of your holiday recipes, and I happen to have one that I just one day pulled out of my sleeve, and it made into a hit at a Thanksgiving party, even kids loved it.

So get ready for fall, the pumpkin season is here. And even though I will try to stick to the healthier stuff I think I will occasionally slip in few recipes that will also satisfy the sweet tooth. But for now I am going to share my recipe for curried pumpkin soup. And since I like the easy cooking, this is once again one of those recipes where most of the ingredients come straight out of the can. And it is really good too!!!

Pumpkin Soup with a little side kick!

2 tbs butter

small onion

2 cans of pureed pumpkin

2 cans of chicken broth

1 can of coconut milk

bunch of cilantro

salt

turmeric

coriander

cumin

nutmeg

curry

Melt butter on a large sauce pan, add finely chopped onion and spices to taste, I usually start with about 1/2 tsp each except nutmeg 1/4 tsp and add later on to taste I like mine more flavorful, so I usually add another round of the spices. Stir for a minute or so and add broth and pumpkin. Let mixture warm up to a boiling before adding the coconut milk. Let boil for a while (10-15minutes) and add spices to your taste if needed. Just when done cooking, add fairly generously chopped cilantro, stir in. Garnish with some more cilantro and a dollop of sour cream. Tadaa!

Yours to try, let me know how you liked it.

                                  

Chick Pea Salad by Moi

Another recipe by me. This one came around just from the attempt to imitate something I had eaten. Well, what I ate before was more like marinated chick peas, and I had no idea how to make a marinade for them, so I decided just to throw in some stuff and see what came out of it. This recipe has been requested by so many, that I think it is best to be shared here, no more writing down it for me. This is easy to modify to include or exclude what ever your likes are. I love cilantro, so I use it a lot. Not everyone likes it, and you can easily replace it with parsley, and you don't have to use it as much either. You could add a bit more olive oil, and put everything into the food processor to ground it up into a dip for pita chips or what not. Chick peas are so good, and you can make almost anything with them, even patties to fry. I guess I just made myself hungry for some falafels. But here goes the recipe:

Chick Pea Salad

4 cans of chick peas, rinsed and drained

1 bunch of cilantro

1/4 c of red onion minced

1/2 c of chopped sun dried tomatoes

1/2 c of parmesan cheese

5 tbs olive oil

pinch of salt

Use a large mixing bowl, toss everything in there, season and mix. Tadaa, that was difficult. Yours to try now, let me know what you did and how you liked it. 

Nutty Banana Bread Day Is Here

The day finally came that my bananas got ready for being baked into a bread. I was supposed to clean all day, and do laundry, then some baking, and finish up the yard work, that is still waiting on us to make a move. Well, after last attempt to wreck my back, I wasn't too keen starting on that  show. But I did plan on cleaning and baking, and making some laundry.

I so love my friends, they do come to the rescue always when you need it, and my dear friend delighted my evening by stopping by. Us two sitting down and enjoying of nothing (but beer) was long over due. So I junked the plans of laundry and cleaning, but I did manage to get the banana bread out of the oven before she showed up with pizza. So that's what was for dinner, beer, pizza and banana bread.

My friend gave the thumbs up, so did Lee and I feel pretty confident that it is ok to share the recipe with y'all! This banana bread is good.

Banana bread

1 c shortening

2 c sugar

6 ripe bananas

4 eggs

2 1/4 c (2.25 c) whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda (I used only 1 tsp)

1tsp vanilla (I used vanilla sugar, Scandinavian thang)

1 c chopped pecans (optional)

Cream shortening and sugar together. Mash bananas and add to the creamed mixture. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together and add to banana mixture (if you use vanilla sugar, add it with the dry ingredients) Add vanilla and pecans. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9x5x2 inch loaf pans and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until the toothpick inserted to the center of the loaf comes out clean. (took 1h for me) Tadaa!!!! 

Make it and let me know how you liked it!

Sabotage! I'm Sayin' It Is Sabotage!

I was prepared to try today a recipe for a banana bread I got from my coworker. The recipe is in her church cookbook, and I can tell you, the banana bread is amazing. And I do not like banana bread. I have been proven wrong once again.

 I bought some bananas last weekend, and was hoping they would be ripe enough for this delicious bread before I started my work week. Seems like this is the only occasion known in history when the fruits are not rotting fast enough. Well, yesterday before leaving to work I peeked at them and noticed that they are getting there, almost week later than I expected, but they should be ready by the next morning for my plans.

Stealth kitty did not find bananas in the bag

Lee had been working all evening and it was time for a short lunch, that's when I saw him devouring my rotten bananas. No, this can't be true! How am I gonna blog about my awesome banana bread now? I bought some more bananas on my way home from work, but was planning on using those for banana pudding that I would take to work for our Southern potluck, plus they weren't anywhere ripe enough for a banana bread. Disappointment! But I guess it is my fault, since the peaches I bought were not ripe enough to be eaten, and the bananas were just about to go bad... that's what Lee thought. Oh well, I guess the banana bread will be my post next weekend, and instead I got to whine today.

 On another note, there is plenty of stuff I need to do around the house today, but I am sworn to silence for now, since Lee is sleeping through the day, trying to prepare for his next graveyard shift. And this would be the perfect day to cut the hedges and trim the tree on the court yard, after few over 100F days, it is supposed to stay in mid 80's. The weather felt so nice in the morning, almost could have worn longer pants, but I wanted to soak in the coolness in the air. Be blessed Ms. Autumn, we have been waiting for you!

The part where we actually get closer to being full time RV'ers, is getting closer. But we didn't make any progress, after all, the days we work are very long, 13 to 14 hours, so it is almost impossible to do anything else.

Practicing the RV Living in the Kitchen

I am so confident that we need an RV with an oven. Lee is not quite convinced that I would actually use it, since we have now 2 ovens, and they don't get used as often as I thought when we bought the house. But if we lived in an RV, I think we need to actually cook more, and eat less out. Especially while boon docking, there really isn't always any place to go to eat, and if you plan on saving money on your journey, then you might as well live according to it. Now it isn't that I can't cook, I sure can, but I learned to cook everything from scratch, so it takes an eternity to do anything. My mission is to learn to take short cuts, so I have time to enjoy the life too.

Met these guys at the Canton swap meet. Bet they know about
Southern foods

Today I am going to make sopapilla cheesecake, something that I have done before, but decided to make it  again, since it is very tasty and so easy to make. I also decided that I have to learn to cook some of the Southern foods, main dishes and desserts, and I am hoping that the bananas that I bought the day before yesterday will be ripe enough before I have to go back to work next week, so I can make banana bread or banana pudding.

Bluebell ice cream was not on sale, so no vanilla
 ice cream for us! Just sopapilla cheesecake.

Sopapilla cheesecake is ready now... and smells good. I am also hooked up on Pinterest, that is where I got this recipe from, and I think it would be perfect for RV baking, fast and doesn't take much to throw it together.

Sopapilla cheesecake:

Ingredients:

2 cans of butter Crescent rolls

2 packages (8 oz. each) of cream cheese

1 cup of sugar

1tsp of vanilla sugar (if you are a Viking) or vanilla extract

2 to 3 tbs butter

some sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on the top

Just line the bottom of a 9x13 pan with one can of rolls. Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla and spread the mixture on top of the dough. Add another can of rolls on top (if you have the ones with seams, pinch them shut). Melt butter and brush it on the top of the cake and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. The original recipe calls for 1/2 of butter, and 1/4 cup of sugar cinnamon mixture, but that is just diabetes waiting to happen, and tastes just as good without the ton of sweetness and grease. Now just shove it into the oven for 350F for about 20 to 30 minutes and enjoy warm or room temperature once done. And it really doesn't even need the ice cream, even though it would look better that way. Hah!

One thing that kind of worries me about the toy haulers kitchen is, that it does not have much room to store anything, but I am thinking that since we have the garage, I could store some items there. The only problem is that I seem to think that about everything, clothes, kitchen items, art supplies and of course the toys that the hauler is meant for. I would be happy with just some fishing gear and canoe, and maybe mountain bikes, but I have a feeling that it is too much stuff to be shoved into one toy hauler.

We

We are looking for a diesel rig for now, but we are worried that our budget is not big enough to afford one that we like. Often the diesel versions of these toy haulers are more difficult to find and they are pricier. The advantages of a diesel seem to be that they are longer lasting motors, and if taken care of, can last forever. They also are capable of carrying a heavier load, which would mean, that we could take more of our things with us. So much for pairing down. But to be honest, just moving from a 3000 square foot house into a 36 foot RV does require more slimming down than I know how to do. I guess I will find out how to...