Two Ingredient Strawberry Ice Cream

You know when you've spent too much time on Instagram or Pinterest when your tired brain thinks that Buzzfeed's Tasty videos are onto something with their "2 ingredient' ice cream recipes. Then you actually try them out and find that the ratio of dairy to everything else is too high. This strawberry ice cream tasted a lot like strawberry-infused cream than an actual strawberry ice cream, despite having mixed in 2 lbs of strawberries into the batch.

The Foodening Blog - Two Ingredient Strawberry Ice Cream

While this is a no-churn recipe, you do need a food processor or blender.

Tasty's recipe ratio:

1 pint heavy cream, beaten to soft peaks
One 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk

And, strangely, that is it for their "two ingredients". I put in more than their suggested amount of mix-ins into this batch. Tasty only uses 1 cup of chopped strawberries. I can't imagine how bad their ice cream tastes.

To this, I added 1 lb frozen strawberries (coarsely chopped in the food processor) plus 1 lb fresh strawberries, an additional half cup of organic granulated sugar to balance out the tartness of some of the strawberries.

And even with that, it didn't really have that strong strawberry flavor.

The flipside to this is to make an actual churn-based recipe and make a vanilla custard base, like what Alton Brown would suggest.

This batch made 2 quarts. While just tasting like frozen strawberry-infused ice cream, it lasted less than a week. What can I say. I really like ice cream.

Kitchen Notes: Garden Seed Starts, 2019

This spring I have been 'composting' a lot of the vegetable scraps directly into the raised garden beds to amend the soil. Generally this just involves digging a hole, dropping in some non-meat food waste, enslaving red wrigglers (worms) that I find lurking under my patio pots, and covering it with topsoil. A week or month later, the food is gone and I have nice dark rich earthy-smelly soil. Perfect for...

Despite the very warm start of May, I have not planted anything new in that raised bed. I should probably move all the flowering bulbs out of the vegetable garden bed into its own area at some point. Half of my rosemary bush on the side yard died when some boards from the fence fell on it during winter. Oh, and I picked up a rhubarb plant. That'll get put into the side yard as soon as I dig out the Prima apple tree that didn't seem to have survived our freak spring snow days in April. It's just as well.

The gold potato "seed" starts from sprouted potatoes in my pantry seems to be leafing very well. For months they were in a pot on the backyard side-of-the-house that gets less than four hours of sunlight, also covered by leaf mulch. Just last week I moved the pot to the backyard patio and it seems to be doing well.

The russet potato "seed" starts don't seem to be doing much at all. How long do I have to wait until the sprouts turn into leaves?

As for other plant "cuttings", I have some romaine lettuce that is regrowing its leaves nicely after having eaten the rest in a salad, I wonder if I should plant them down into soil now that they're starting to grow roots in the yogurt cups I have the plants in.

Cornbread with Fresh/Frozen Corn Kernels

Just how many cornbread recipes does one need anyways? Well, here is another and was less sweet than it should because I put in two tablespoons of the half cup that it originally called for. While it is made with corn and cornmeal, it is also made with wheat flour; so, definitely not gluten free. Recipe ratio comes from The Spruce Eats. I typically get my cornmeal in the bulk bins at the grocery store. Not many ways one can screw up cornbread, except maybe cook it for too long. I didn't have any half 'n half on hand, but I did have milk and heavy cream, so I used half of each.

Ingredients

1 c yellow cornmeal
1 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
up to 1/2 c organic granulated sugar
1 c half and half; or 1/2 c heavy cream + 1/2 c whole milk
1 c sweet corn, fresh or previously frozen (thawed/drained)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 F

Grease (with butter) an 8" x 8" baking dish.

Is there a purpose to the order of operations? Hmm, I wonder. Sift all the dry ingredients together. Then add the eggs, half 'n half, and sweet corn. Mix until just combined.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Tapioca Pudding

This recipe ratio comes from Bob's Red Mill and the pudding has a really fluffy texture; of course, this is from beating the egg whites. I would post a pic but it's just a vanilla pudding with tapioca in it.

Makes 6 (1 cup) servings

Ingredients

1/3 c small pearl tapioca, soaked in 3/4 c water for 30 minutes
2 1/4 c whole milk
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 c sugar, divided
2 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Soak tapioca in water in a saucepan that can hold at least 2 quarts. Don't drain any remaining water.

Add milk, salt, 1/4 c sugar, and stir frequently over medium heat until boilings. Then simmer over very low heat for 10-15 minutes.

In a small dish, beat the egg yolks. Temper the egg yolks by gradually adding some (maybe a tablespoon?) of the tapioca mixture to the yolks and stirring before adding the egg yolks+tapioca to the pot. Whisk together This is what gives the pudding its yellow-ish color.

As it is cooking over very low heat, beat the egg whites in a separate bowl with 1/4 c sugar until soft peaks form.

Once the tapioca has thickened, turn off the heat (momentarily). Stir or whisk in the beaten egg whites, about 1/4 cup at a time until it is well combined.

Turn heat back on to a low setting and cook for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat. Whisk in vanilla extract. Let cool before eating.

Apple Cider Vinegar & Honey Shrub

This batch made roughly 16 oz of syrup and seems to have the right "sweetness" for a drinking vinegar. What to do with the leftover grated apple? I am composting it in the vegetable garden.

Ingredients

One apple, cored not peeled
1/2 c organic granulated sugar
1/4 c raw honey
1 c raw/organic apple cider vinegar (ACV)

Directions

1. Combine ACV, honey, and sugar into a clean 1-quart mason jar.
2. Grate apple and add to jar.
3. Cap the jar and store in refrigerator for 2-3 days.
4. Strain vinegar syrup into a clean jar.

To Use

Mix 3 tablespoons of vinegar syrup with 8 oz of sparkling water.