Scream!

I love the texture of homemade ice cream. Love it! So I was very excited to try out my $3 ice cream maker (from www.shopgoodwill.com ). It came with a recipe booklet and I decided to try making just plain, old vanilla first.


The egg and sugar all whipped up


Milk, cream and vanilla extract added and whipped until frothy!


My steal of a deal


Churn, churn, churn! It actually didn't take that much churning, only about twelve rotations, total. And I found out (online) that you can make it with a couple of Ziploc bags!


Ta-da!

So, final verdict? DELISH! I love this ice cream! It looks a bit runny in the picture but some time in the freezer firmed it right up (I wish some time in the freezer would firm my tummy right up!). I love my new machine and can't wait to try out some different flavors!

Okie Dokie Artichokie

I've wanted to try to cook an artichoke for a while. I kept looking recipes up online and finally decided to just do it!

I decided to steam it and use the leaves this time and try to cook the heart another time. So I washed it up, trimmed it up and steamed it up!

Here it is all trimmed. Some recipes said to trim the tips off of all the leaves but mine didn't have sharp points so I just left them. I pulled off the smaller leaves around the stem and then chopped the stem off. I steamed it in salted water for about thirty minutes.

It doesn't really look much different, just a little darker.
And the final verdict? Eh. I dipped the leaves in melted butter and scraped away. Now, maybe I was doing it wrong, but it didn't do much for me. There's not much "meat" on each leaf, more on the outside ones, and I think it's kind of an acquired taste. Franklyn really liked them but me, not so much.
I think it could have maybe steamed a bit longer but I don't think that would have made much difference. Next time, the heart!

"Outback" Bread

So, a few months ago I decided that, since Franklyn loves it so, I would try to find a recipe for Outback restaurant's bread (aka "Bushman's Bread"). I found one online claiming to be the REAL recipe, from a friend of a former Outback chef.


Yeast Activating

Now, admittedly I used the wrong kind of yeast (I used quick acting and it called for regular) but this was NOT Outback bread. It wasn't sweet enough, had too much rye flour and was just not quite right. So I'm going to tweak the recipe and try again.


Finished Product


If anyone is interested in the recipe, let me know and I'll post it.

Starting from scratch...

I've decided on an actual direction for this crazy thing called "blog". I'm re-naming my failed attempt, "First Attempt". I'll be writing about my first attempts at things (hence the name). It'll probably be mostly baking, cooking and crafty stuff but I am open to suggestions! So, here goes!