The Search for the Ideal Ice Cream Maker

I like to eat healthy food and I like to eat ice cream. This is only a problem if you don't make your own. However, I have been looking for the ice cream maker of my dreams for a few years now.

You may remember my early blog post about making ice cream in plastic bags. If not, you can read it here. This works. You can make single servings of ice cream, and it's fun... Of course, it is true that sometimes a plastic bag breaks... It still is the way to go for camping, or for a fun thing to do at parties where everyone can make their own and choose their own flavor...

But I did want an ice cream maker.

I tried a bowl-in-the-freezer kind, but it made too much for one person to eat, and homemade ice cream doesn't really keep as well as if it had all the nasty conditioners and stuff in it. It's best eaten fresh.

I found a smaller bowl-in-the-freezer one, with a hand crank. That was good. But still too big for one.

I gave those away and then got the kind you put ice and salt around the ice cream tub. It's not the traditional round tub - this one's more trash can shaped. Smaller. Fits nicely in the motorhome. But I made a half-tub of ice cream and fed 2 people and still put away a quart in the freezer. I'll keep it, but it's not for regular personal use.

This week, I solved the problem.

I was in Target for something else and happened to notice an ice cream machine in a box that was way too small for any ice cream machine I've ever seen.




Hamilton Beach Half Pint. It comes with 2 pretty blue freezer bowls and a motor with paddle.



These bowls are small enough for even my RV freezer and hold about a cup of ice cream to be. Pop the motor on top, plug it in, turn it on, wait 10-15 minutes, and it's ready to eat as soft serve or you can ripen it which makes it harder. That's about as convenient as it gets. You can eat it in the bowl.



You can make a cup, or a half-cup, as you wish.

Stevia-sweetened ice cream, fruit-sweetened ice cream, sherbet...

Today is Non-GMO Day

Today is Non-GMO day. Please spread awareness about frankenfoods vs Real Food. Rather than write anything myself, I will suggest you go to Non-GMO Project and read and download their guide and....

I am impressed.

This has nothing to do with eating healthy. But when something works really really well, I want to tell about it. I have a copper coffee pot in my 18th century camp, which has seen many fires and had years of soot baked on.

After trying lots of things, none of which made even a dent in the black crud, I found SOKOFF. This stuff really works.



Read the full post in my other blog,

My other favorite kitchen item

I've told you about my Soda-Stream. My other cool thing in my tiny RV kitchen is my Bullet-To-Go. This is what I mix my breakfast shake in, or scramble eggs, or... so you know I use it daily. (and no, this is not an affiliate link.)
You've seen the Magic Bullet on TV, certainly - and you can get them in retail stores - but the existence of the Bullet-To-Go is not so widely known.
The truth is I'm not overly fond of their website. It's kind of As Seen On TV hype-ish, and I prefer to just be given straight-forward information and ordering... but the product itself makes up for it. The blender parts and cups and lids are the same as the regular plug-in version, but it comes with a battery base and charger. It holds its charge quite a long while and is easy to use. And it's LOTS more versatile than the smoothie blender I used to use.

Soda Stream

A reader asked which model Soda Stream I have. Although I answered in the comments, I thought I'd also answer up here so it won't be missed. I have the Fountain Jet.
And yes, well over a year after I first bought it, I'm still loving my Soda Stream. And it's contagious. Quite a few people have seen mine and are now loving theirs.

Yogurt

I remember when Yogurt was first getting attention as a healthy food - when it first turned up in supermarkets... Now it has a whole section of its own. But most of the yogurt on the shelves is sweetened with sugar or NutraSweet... Whatever happened to healthy yogurt?

Personally, as I am quite capable of adding my own fruit, I have always bought the large tubs of plain yogurt. Store brand... Dannon... oooh, Stonyfield organic....

And then I picked up a tub of Greek Gods yogurt.
And now I make regular trips to the Kroger that carries it, buying 3 or 4 tubs at a time so I don't run out and have to buy some other brand.

Just sayin'.

Truth in Advertising -

Alternative HFCS ad from the folks over at Pay Now Live Later

On my way from Santee to Jackson Springs I stopped at a farmer's market and bought a GALLON of seedless blackberries. Ripe, juicy, huge, delicious blackberries. A gallon is pretty many for one person to eat before they get old, but I think I'll manage. *wink*
I decided to try a blackberry soda. Delicious. I put some blackberries in my Magic Bullet with a little water, which pretty much liquified them. Added soda from my SodaStream, and there it was. Try finding Blackberry Soda in the grocery store. With real blackberries? NOT.
I drink mine as is. Some people might like to use a straw or strain it as there is a little pulp.

Pitting Cherries made Easy

Cherries are in season. Cherries are delicious. So - I'm eating cherries.
Problem: cherries have pits. One or two of them always seemed to make it down my throat before I could catch them, so I went looking for a cherry stoner on the internet (a local market search having been fruitless, so to speak). I found lots of expensive items suitable for someone with a whole orchard of cherries, but nothing for a single woman who lives in a motorhome with a tiny little kitchen. So I made one, and it works very very well.

I took the smallest wire wisk they make and bent back 2 of the 3 loops toward the handle. I squeezed the remaining loop so it was only about half an inch wide at the most. That's it. New kitchen gadget!

How to use it:
Pull stem off cherry.
Insert loop into cherry where the stem was.
Hook it under the stone and pull it out.

That simple. A little practice and it gets amazingly easy.

Then you take some unsweetened yogurt, add the cherries, and - YUM!

Blog Award

Annalisa of Indulging My A.D.D. just made my day by nominating me for a blog award!! Cool!

Before passing on this award, you must follow the RULES:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.
2. Pass the award to other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now, I have the pleasure of passing it on. After much thought, I am passing it on to Jared Akers at Spiritual Zen, who writes the only blog (other than by personal friends in real life) that I absolutely always, without fail, without skimming, read word for word every time he writes.

Loving my SodaStream!

OK, I've had my SodaStream for 6 months now. It is no longer a new toy. It is an essential part of my kitchen and worth every square inch of space it takes up in my motorhome. Believe me, if you live in a motorhome, an appliance MUST justify its space.

It's summer now so cold drinks are essential. A squirt of lemon juice, a few drops of STEVIA, a bunch of ice and carbonated soda water is delicious. A little orange juice and soda water beats any orange soda I've ever had. How about cherry vanilla? Use the 100% cherry juice from the health food section of the supermarket and a splash of vanilla extract.

I have given some of these as gifts and the recipients have loved theirs as much as I do mine.

If you are a regular reader, you know this is not a business site and do not do this blog for money. The affiliate link is to make it easy for you to find it. I will only ever put links up for something I 100% believe in.

Fish & Felons - Interesting

I found this quite interesting.

http://neopaleo.typepad.com/the_neopaleo_gourmet/2007/02/fish_oil_and_fe.html

SodaStream! My new toy.

I have a new toy, and a new solution!

I like to drink soda. I don't like to drink sugar, much less the HFCS that most soda is made of. A bunch of yummy chemicals with bubbles added isn't really what I want - but there's that yummy part, right? And then, while I was shopping for something totally unrelated, I found the solution.

The SodaStream carbonates tap water. Or bottled water, or filtered water - whatever water you drink. You add either the mixes they sell or better yet 100% juice.

My personal current favorite is 1 part orange juice to 4 or 5 parts carbonated water. I have already given 2 of these machines as gifts. My older daughter, who received one of them, likes to juice a clementine into her sparkling water. Cranberry juice. Grapefruit juice, fresh from the grapefruit. A little lemon and a little lime, for those of us who miss Mountain Dew. Grape. The possibilities are endless.

You can get one online at Soda Club USA, or in person at Camping World, Boater's World, or Williams-Sonoma.