Homemade Ice Cream and a Recipe

I bought myself a Quisinart ice cream maker on Amazon and I love it.  You put the bowl thing in the freezer. It's filled with a liquid. When it is good and frozen you put it in the machine, pour your mixture in and the bowl thing spins.   It turns your mixture to ice cream in about 30 minutes.  Here is a link to my machine.  I also bought this book on Amazon too.  So far I've made 5 flavors.

I like how I can make ice cream with so few ingredients.  Makes me feel pretty good knowing what is in it.  It is so good that I've been enjoying it in small amounts.  I put my homemade ice cream in wide mouth pint jars and they fit great in my freezer.  I want to share a unique recipe I found in the book that everyone has loved.

Aztec Hot Chocolate Ice Cream
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-Process cocoa powder (I used Hershey)
3/4 cup sugar
3 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli 60%)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 to 3 teaspoons ground chili powder (I used 3)
2 tablespoons brandy (I didn't have any and don't need the alcohol so I left it out)

Whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, and sugar in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, then whisk until it is completely melted. Stir in the milk, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, chili powder, and brandy.  Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

The recipe made just over 1 quart of ice cream.

Here is a picture of me making peach ice cream with some peaches I picked up that day from the Farmer's Market.  It needed the blender to smooth it out.

 Here is a picture of my wide mouth pint jars full of ice cream. The only problem with this method is that the jars are so cold when you're holding them with your left hand to scoop out ice cream.  I think I'll grab a towel next time to hold around the jar.

50 Hour Power Outage Candles

There have been so many natural disasters recently that it has me thinking I should be better prepared. I need to pack a bug out bag but we've never done it.  I did make my own candles in case of a power outage.  They are supposed to burn for 50 hours though I haven't tried it.  I didn't come up with this idea on my own, I took it from Happy Money Saver a pretty nice blog I follow.  My batch made 12 candles.  Click on the ingredients to get a link to where I bought the items on Amazon

12 half pint jars (8 ounces) They are available at most stores. At Lowe's they cost $9.49
5 pounds of Natural Soy Wax $12.99 on Amazon
Wicks, they come in a bag of 50 for $8.99 on Amazon but you only need 12. If you would like to get some from me I will gladly share for 18 cents each.
Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

1.  Glue a wick to the bottom of each jar.

2.  Melt the wax. You could use a double boiler but I just did it in 3 batches in my microwave using my Pyrex 8 cup measuring cup. Stir after each minute.

3. Carefully pour the wax into each jar to about 1/2 an inch from the top.  Be careful not to move the wick because the hot glue doesn't stick when the wax is fresh and hot.
4.  Let the jars cool just a bit so the wicks are stuck again.
5.  Put a piece of aluminum foil on each jar with a little hole in the center to keep the wick straight while the jars are cooling.

6.  Let the jars cool completely and then remove the aluminum foil
7.  Cut the wicks to about 1/2 and inch.  

So I made my own candles but is it worth it?

I could have bought "religious candles" at the Save A Lot store for $1.45 each. I don't know how long they burn but they are those tall skinny candles in a glass.
If I had to buy the jars my candles cost $2.62 each because I had to buy so many wicks.
If I could have had only 12 wicks for $.18 each my total would have been $2.05 each.
If I didn't need to buy jars and my wicks were $.18 each my total would have been $1.26 each.

However, it was fun to make my own candles.  Remember, if you would like wicks I have 38 more.