In which I make my first successful batch of homemade ice cream...

-pictures to come later-

I'm mostly writing down the recipe here for a few friends and for myself, because this is from a library book:
101 Gourmet Ice Cream Creations for Every Craving by Wendy Paul.

I am a disaster at making homemade ice cream... until last night. Previously, I used those small-batch machines where you freeze the tub in your home made freezer, throw in the cream mix, then pop the tub in the machine. Disaster. Every. Time.

While in the process of dejunking my house, I found our bigger electric rock-salt-and-ice ice cream maker. I decided to give it another try.

Here's the recipe I used, adapted from 101 Gourmet Ice Cream Creations for Every Craving by Wendy Paul.

Chocolate Raspberry Trifle
(I used the Rich and Creamy Vanilla base mix)

Base mix:
2 egg yolks
3/4 c. sugar
2 c. heavy cream
1 c. 2% milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

The rest of the ingredients:
1 (4 oz.) package chocolate pudding mix
1 recipe Fudge Brownies (I used a box mix, made according to the directions, cooled, chunked, and chilled)
2 c. fresh or frozen raspberries (I used fresh, and put them in the freezer so they would stay mostly whole)

Whisk together the egg yolks and 1/4 c. sugar until eggs are light yellow and fluffy. This only takes about 2 minutes. Whisk in the rest of the sugar.

Add cream, milk, and vanilla extract to the egg mix, whisk until completely combined.

Whisk in the chocolate pudding.

Place the ice cream mixture in your machine and follow the manufacturer's directions in freezing.

During the last 5 minutes, add your brownie chunks and raspberries.

Eat!

Seriously. Share if you want to, but it's not required. : )

... is this thing on? Hello?

Busy days = no blogs. You know how it goes.

Anyway, spring is slowly approaching... like a decomposing zombie. The nice thing is there won't be any shotguns, machetes or braiiiiiins involved. (Aside: my weapon of choice during the Zombie Apocalypse would be a large gauge shotgun... just sayin'.)

Soccer and spring coughs and sneezes are underway. I'm running out of picnic ideas for those evening practices, though. Honestly, I love watching Thing 1 play. He's really improved this year, and he doesn't freak out every time the ball is kicked at his head. Mamma's so proud.

I'm going to be an Auntie again in a couple of weeks. This excites me no end. I love my nevvies, but we're expecting a girlie girl this time. My girls are so excited, Thing 3 especially. I've designed like 3 baby quilts so far, but have nothing to show for it. The first one is really complicated: paper foundation piecing, sweet sherbet colors. The second one was a little too... meh. I may back-burner that design until I can figure out what I can do to juice that one up. The third one is just right: simple enough HST variation, with a little applique sumpin'-sumpin'. I just need to get on the stick and get the couple of yards of fabric so I can knock it out and give it to her before her college graduation.

That's me right now. All talk and no show. I'm trying to remedy that in the near future.

In other news, I have a new boyfriend. My husband doesn't care, much. Except on the couple of nights a week when we have uninterrupted "hang-out-and-make-fun-of-the-television" time.
Here's a picture.

Internet, meet Fang.

He's a terrier x rescue, and he's the sweetest, most co-dependent animal I've ever seen. And I'm his favorite!
Seriously, he's like my shadow. It's kind of sweet, until I've tripped over him for the tenth time when I'm making dinner. He's snoring at my feet right now. It's pretty cute.

Ah well. Another day, another soccer game. Go Titans!

so behind schedule...

2 days until Thanksgiving and I'm nowhere near where I should be. Bright side: the turkey is defrosting nicely, the dining room table is lovely, I scored some great Thanksgiving decorations from Walmart at a great discount, I got a good start on a couple of Christmas presents... now I need to get my kitchen clean. Yrgh. Not my favorite thing to do. The floor, especially. Don't get me wrong, I love my kitchen floor, I do, but I think, in hindsight, I should have done a white floor with some black tiles, not a black floor with some white tiles. The black shows every little speck of flour that I drop, every little crumb. I can hear my husband's voice in my head... "I told you so...". Shhh, babe. I know. It looks awesome, as long as no one goes in there.
So, instead of doing my chores for today (cleaning the kitchen, making the cranberry chutney, cleaning the bathroom -don't get me started), I have been running around town like the proverbial chicken post-beheading, and now the kidmonkeys are visiting my lovely mother-in-law and what am I doing? Yep, blogging, checking email, paying bills (?!?), anything to keep me from doing what I need to be doing. Procrastination: It's What I Do.

And on that note, I'd better crank up the old iPod with my newest audiobook: Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher. A great book of a pretty good series, by the way. Epic fantasy lovers should check it out. Apparently it was written on a dare. Someone told Jim Butcher that he couldn't write a good story from two crappy ideas. The two crappy ideas were the lost Roman legion and Pokemon. I like his other series, the Dresden Files, but I think that this series may become my favorite.
Seriously, one last thought before I get to work without sounding like more of a commercial than I already do, I am thankful that my darling husband is a technerd and buys me techie things that I never thought I'd need, but end up using every day. Case in point, my iPod. I accomplish so much more when I can take my brain away from whatever home-work I'm doing and listen to a story or podcast. Never thought I'd be one of those people... ah well.

Back to work!
Happy Turkey Day! Eat lots and take long, comfy naps!

Turkey dinner, turkey dinner, gather 'round!

I mentioned that I was going to post my Thanksgiving menu here, so I am!
This is the first year I get to have Thanksgiving dinner at my own house: my menu, my decorations, my couches to nap on. I'm really excited!

Here's what's on the menu, and any recipes that may be related:

Appetizers: roasted veggies and dip, cracker and cheese trays, smoked oysters and triscuits (my personal favorite)

Soup: Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple soup, courtesy Ina Garten.

Salad: Autumn greens with sauteed mushrooms and roasted acorn squash rings.

Main Event: Herbed roasted turkey

Sides: Home-made rolls
          cranberry chutney, recipe courtesy Martha Stewart Living
         my lovely Mother-in-Law's famous garlic mashed potatoes
         twice-baked sweet potatoes
         my grandpa's famous corn pudding
         oven-roasted green beans

Dessert: pumpkin bars, recipe courtesy About.com
         black bottom pie dessert shooters (my own invention: I'll post a recipe if they work out.)

Drinks: homemade ginger beer, recipe courtesy Martha Stewart Living
         raspberry fizz (simply raspberry juice and club soda)

I know that looks like a lot, but really, about half of it can be made days ahead. I even got all uber-dorky and made a timeline. I know. It's an illness. I'll talk more later about decorations and table settings. Yippie!

An Introduction:

Ok, internet. Here I am.

Who am I, you say? Well, I'm a self-proclaimed professional mess maker.

What's that? Well, that may take a while to explain. I like to make things. Quilts, stories, socks, pies, what have you. I'd say that I never met a craft that I didn't like, except that I am decidedly not a fan of counted cross-stitch. That particular craft makes me invent swear words that are better left to the imagination.
I like to think of myself as a Creative Person. The inherent problem in my style of creating is the mess that follows, hence the "Professional Mess Maker" part of my title.

What am I working on right now? Well, that's part of the fun of living inside my head. I'm working on a number of gifts for Christmas, my First Thanksgiving at Home, my first LDS Ward Christmas Party, but more about those later.

So? What do you think? Want to join in on the adventure?

Enjoy the ride!

What I'm reading: Furies of Calderon from the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher.