Baking Days.

Thursday and Friday are my prep days, the days I try and make all the things we eat for the next weeks meals, and I rotate meals/buns/ goodies and make lots and freeze the extras. It's a system I just started and so far I love it. Here is the baking I did yesterday and today :) 

I made my baked oatmeal recipe times 9. No joke! One mix up of 5 and then one of 4.  Made 48 baked oatmeal muffins and put 3 large 9x13 pans in the freezer. Neat trick I just learned. Put bakers paper in the pan, than your stuff, cover with wrap and freeze, take out of pan, bag up and label, and put it back in the freezer...when it's time to eat just put it in the pan and bake! BONUS the pans just need a quick wash instead of a deep clean when your done :) 

Here's the recipe..

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar, I do less 
1 tsp cinnamon 
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup melted butter
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups oats
1/2 a cup raisins or craisins 

Mix it all up and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 

If you want a 9x13 pan full, double it! That's a meal for my crew :)

It can be a little hard to get the frozen stuff out of glass dishes. I placed mine upside down, inside the bag I was going to freeze it in and set it in the sun. About 20 minutes is all it took and the glass popped right off and I could take the pan out and label and freeze the meal. Part of the problem was I trimmed the bakers paper too short and couldn't get a good hold on it to pull out the meal. Leave it long and fold it over! This picture was before I trimmed it. Yes I made the lasagna with homemade cottage and cheddar cheese, only the Parmesan cheese was store bought.  I use little noodles so it's easier for the kids to eat, no cutting needed, and cheaper! These lasagnas need the cheese on top and they are done! 

Yesterday I put 3 lasagnas in the freezer and today 3 baked oatmeals using the same pans :) I've done this with 9x9 pans and 9x13 pans. Less waste than tinfoil pans and stack easy in the freezer. I learned this neat trick from a Momys on my Momys.com board! Oh and this can be THM too if you use a approved sugar :) 

Easy Peasy Pizza Night!!

Everyone helped! 

Pizza the super easy way! 

Sliced bread

Ketchup 

Italiano seasoning

sausage

cheese

Mushrooms were optional.. :) 

Pineapple would have been fantastic but we don't have any :( 

You could do anything you like though!! 

We get 6 loaves of bread a week in trade and we are getting over run with bread in the freezer so we are looking for ways to use up more bread. 

These are awesome and totally make the list!!

Bonus.. the kids just did it tonight... completely alone... 

And they loved every minute of it :) :) :) :) :) 

Baking With The Kids!

Putting raisins on the cinnamon rolls. YUM!! I made 4 doz and froze a bunch for later.. still have some to enjoy later :) 

We did quite a bit of baking before Christmas. We made several batches of chocolate chip cookies and froze them. We did a batch of ginger snaps and a large batch of buns. We did cinnamon rolls with raisins and craisins. We did a couple of pies, some chocolate no bake cookies and we did some caramel popcorn!! It was really easy and we all enjoyed making it. Here is a little movie of the kids watching the popcorn pop in our air popper.. I love G's little happy squeal half way through.. and how Mr. J3 snags a piece.. so LIKE both of them!! 

The caramel popcorn was really fun.. easy and fun!! I posted the link on our fb page when we made it. 

Here it is!! http://www.houseandhone.com/2011/12/hone-made-caramel-pop-corn.html?m=1

This was a real hit at our church last Sunday and I have a feeling I will be making it again soon. We doubled the recipe and it still didn't last long! 

Cleaning the last of the caramel out of the bowl! 

The finished caramel popcorn... drool... drool.. 

Kids Projects~ Cheese Making.

Stir, stir stir the milk while it heats to 120F!!

 J is stirring, E is checking the temp.. they all had a turn doing both. 

L measuring the vinegar for this simple vinegar cheese! 

3/4 of a cup per gallon of milk.

Taking a look to see if it's the right temp yet! 

Yes they are in their PJ's!! It was a lazy fun day! 

Pouring in the vinegar!! While his sister stirs. 

Stir stir stir!!

Normally it changes color. The cheese stays white and the whey goes greeny. I'm not sure why it didn't.. maybe because she's not on green grass?? The cheese looks good though! 

We let it sit for 30 minutes, drained it off and let it drain for 4 or so hours before putting it on a plate in the fridge. I use this cheese for breadstix and lasagna's and IN stuff. You can also slice it and salt it and it's a pretty good melting cheese for sandwiches or what have you. You can drain it just a tiny bit, crumble it before adding salt and pepper and cream to make a cottage cheese but I prefer to use rennet for cottage cheese now that I know how :) 

First Steak... A Moment of Drooling...

Right before we went on 'the BIG TRIP' we butchered our 2.5 year old steer.. Steers-eye. His name was Bulls-eye (You know like the BBQ sauce)  but when it no longer described him we changed it :) He was the very last of "The Bindy Line' a line we are happy to be done with as they tended to be more high headed then we liked. ANYWAY!! When we got back from 'the BIG TRIP' we got some steaks out and Papa BBQ'd them!! WOWZA!!! Yes it was a picture taking moment.. we ate the last of our last beef in March.... traded some chicken for a little bit during the summer (a roast and some hamburger) but this was, quite likely, the 1st steaks we've had since last year at this time... and Man oh MAN did they taste good!!!! I think he BBQ'd 6 steaks.. and I don't think there was any left!! 

Serious Fry Making.

Papa got a new potato slicer a while ago and had to try it out. 

It has 4 blades; tiny, med, large and wedges. It works great but it really does need a anchor board to hold it still.. Half his energy went into holding it still while the other half went into pushing the potato through the knifes. It makes great fries! 

He deep fries them in lard on the front porch (what a nice change from inside on the stove!!) on our outdoor burner. They are the best fries EVER!!! I think once we get it set up so it's easier to use I'm really going to like the wedge knifes for baking wedges... YUM!!! 

First Fruits 2012~ Rhubarb

J and L cut up the rhubarb they harvested from our plant. We made a rhubarb crisp with it and stuck in in the oven. When Papa went to work in the morning he turned it on and we had a nice hot breakfast to wake up to! We are going to try and do more breakfast prep like this as the house is cool in the morning but not cool enough for a fire and the oven on for an hour or so warms us right up.

Next time though I'm going to remember to put sugar in the rhubarb!! 

Here is what we did.. it was pretty good, but not the best we've made.

Chop rhubarb into fairly small pieces.. too big and they will not cook through. 

We had about 8 to 10 cups of rhubarb.

Pour about a cup of sugar? (this is the part I forgot!) over the rhubarb evenly.

Mix together 

 1/2 cup flour, 

1/2 cup of sugar,

About a cup of melted butter,

1tsp salt,

2 cups and a bit :) oatmeal,

1 tsp cinnamon 

until well mixed..
I used my new mixer with the whisks.

Dump this over the chopped rhubarb in the baking dish.. we used a roaster :) 

Make sure you cover all the rhubarb.

Bake at 350F for about an hour.

 ENJOY!! 

We love rhubarb crisp with cream or milk on top for breakfast, lunch or dinner :) Or dessert :) 

Or all 4 :) 

*Spring Yumminess*

Strawberries 

Whipped Cream 

and 

Angel Food Cake..

YUP from a BOX :) 

Super Duper YUMMY!! 

~Strawberry Jam Night~

My wonderful friend Mrs. B and I made strawberry jam together last week. 

The kids helped and we had a blast! 

Strawberries rinsed and the tops cut off. Lucky worms :) 

Smashed up strawberries in my food processor.. 

Chopped up strawberries waiting to have the pectin and some sugar added in before cooking.

Wonderful Mrs B who stirred both large batches of jam! 

A closer look! You can see it is boiling :) 

The very yummy strawberry foam. 

We got to this point and I found out that Mrs B had never ever canned or made jam or anything like this before!!  She was amazing! I told Papa later it was like working with myself :) Like as in TWO of me! We worked very well in sync together! And we got 8 pint jars and 6.5 quart jars full of jam!

Putting it into jars! Clean hot jars, wiping the rims, putting lids and rings on and placing each jar upside down to heat the seal.

Mrs. B's finished 8 pint jars with 3 of my quart jars! Good Stuff! 

A few days later I made 6.5 more quarts for a total of 13 quarts of jam.. should last us for a bit anyway! 

Oh and if you are wondering about a recipe? 

It's easy.. 

You buy a box of pectin from the store and follow the instructions :) 

We both bought lite pectin which uses less sugar and then both used less sugar then they said..

which makes the jam a little runny but really easy for kids to spread :) 

SUPER EASY!!! 

I love easy :) 

Cooking Beans From Dried.

I enjoy eating beans and so do most of the kids. Papa, not so much.. unless I make chili with them. 

I bought, several years ago now, several buckets of dried beans through a lady in town here who does a bulk store once a year. 

I love them!! 

I've finally figured out a good way to use them so they taste 'right'. 

First I put several scoops of beans into my roaster. 

I use my 2 cup measure and fill it about half way up. 

Yup, when I do beans I DO beans :) 

Then I get all the kids to wash their hands and pick out the rocks, half beans and any bean that doesn't look 'right'. They LOVE this chore. I LOVE this chore.. 

but every time I go to do it they want too.. and they out number me. 

I still get to sort beans a little :) BECAUSE...

when they are done it's MY turn to go through them and makes sure they got everything. 

After sorting I fill the roast with water and let it set overnight. 

Now there are two ways to do this. You can put the roaster where you want to leave it for the night and add water.. or you can add water and then move the roast where you want it. 

I've had bad luck with BOTH!! The only other advice I have is; whatever you decide to do, 

make sure there are no kids, dogs, toys etc in between you and where you are going to.

OK after you clean up what ever mess there may be let your beans soak over night. I check mine before bed and often add more water then as the top half of the roaster is dry. 

 The next morning, unless you forget like I did last time, or afternoon rise the beans off in cold water. I have a great big colander and I put it in my sink, dump half the beans into it and rise and then put those beans in my big pot to cook and do the other half OR if you want to bake the beans put the colander somewhere to drain and rise the other half of the beans in the roaster. 

Then when your beans are all together again add some salt (I'm so precise I take my salt container and pour til it looks 'right!', but it should be about a tablespoon? or two?) and enough water to cover the beans. Yes I have a BIG pot! If your going to bake the beans do the same thing. BUT if you do the roaster half full of dry beans you will NOT have room to bake them as the top ones will not be covered in water. The soaked beans will TOTALLY fill your roaster!! That is when I found my big pot 

 I've cooked my soaked beans several ways. They've all worked. 

You can leave it on your wood stove for the day as long as you have a small fire in it, or even overnight. Too much fire will just cook them faster!  Be sure to stir! 

No fire.. will not cook beans.. but wait you knew that :) 

OR

You can put it on high on your kitchen stove until it boils, turn it down and then simmer it for a few hours. (Actually I normally put the pot on the kitchen stove to boil and then put it on the wood stove for the day.)

OR

 You can bake them at 350 for an hour and then 250 for the rest of the day/night. 

I really should soak them for the day and cook them on the wood stove at night next time. The weather is getting warmer and the fire during the day was too little heat so I had to keep it going hotter then I wanted and leave some windows open this last time. 

There you have it 101 ways to cook beans.. or did it just feel that way to me?? 

OK after your beans are nice and cooked.. Oh wait..

How to tell if your beans are nice and cooked. 

Well.. 

I eat one. 

If it crunches..

NOT COOKED

If they are all sticking together and mushy..

COOKED!!! 

:) 

Yes that is really how I tell.. I told you I was precise  crazy. 

Maybe I'm precisely crazy? 

Nope that's not it. 

Ok after my beans are nice and cooked I take some out of the pot for chili for supper :) 

Then I get out a bunch of containers, big or small. How many beans would you like to use at once? Find a container that size or sizes. Fill your containers up, mark the containers with a sharpie and stick them in your freezer.  I let the beans cool a bit first as hot beans really burn! 

Next time you want to make chili or refried beans, grab a container of beans out the night before or the day of and thaw it in a sink of hot water or your microwave.

It's as easy as that :) 

I've also canned them but I don't find it's worth the time put in. Takes too long. 

Though it is nice to have about if your a last minute cook!! I just followed the directions in my canning ball book :) I think :) 

Egg In A Hole

Our children beg for egg in a hole :) We love it. Takes a while to do it right but it's worth it.

First, if your using homemade bread like I do, slice it about an inch thick. 

The depth keeps the egg from spilling out too much. 

Then I cut the holes in the middle. I find with store bought bread I can rip the holes but 

with homemade bread cutting works better and the outsides stay in one piece. 

The kids love the middles so they go on the table too.

Heat your pan up nicely, add a bit of butter and the bread and then crack eggs into the middle of each toast. Salt and Pepper them the way you would eggs. We like the yokes popped but I had not done it yet in the picture. Let them cook for a bit on a med low heat if you want your yokes done, or a bit hotter for shorter if you like them runny. 

Flip the over a bit after you think you should. Carefully done and you shouldn't have too much mess everywhere :) Fry them up till they are nicely browned on both sides, try to only flip them once :) Great meal! We like them as leftovers too.

~Sourdough Starter~

I found a recipe for Amish friendship bread starter in a book I recently finished which made me remember that while I had my AFB starter years ago I really enjoyed it. I also learned that a AFB starter is a sourdough starter and there is a web page with TONS of recipes on it for just about everything you can think of to make with AFB starter! SO I followed the recipe and made my very own sour dough starter!! I'm still not totally sure that I didn't kill it this morning when we made sourdough pancakes with it and I'm hoping it will bounce back as I forgot to feed it before I took out the 4 cups of starter I need to make the pancakes. I did remember after and did feed it then so hopefully it is still alive! Here is the link that I found with the recipe for the starter and the things you can make with it. I fed my starter on white flour to start it off but I`m going to slowly change it over to whole wheat as that is what we use most for pancakes etc. I keep mine in a 1 gallon plastic bag in the kitchen which works well for storage without having to worry about spilling or contaminating it.  I can`t wait to see what I can all do with it :) This morning we did the pancake recipe II on the site above and we thought it was a bit too sweet and the pancakes themselves were really soft and mushy and did not flip well at all. I think we will keep looking and see what other recipes we can find. I`d love hints :) Or recipes!! Just leave a comment on the bottom or email me!! 

Yogurt Love :)

I recently found this online.
 
Took me all of 4 seconds to talk Papa into ordering it for me :) Here Glengarry Cheesemaking is where he ordered it from. My new butter churn I got this summer is right under the yogotherm :) I love it too!!

I LOVE IT!! It makes 1/2 a gallon of yogurt at a time by simply keeping it the right temp. I recently did a bit of an experiment where I did my half gallon of milk heated to the right temp of 115F and added the starter; about 1/4 cup of yogurt from the last batch, stirred for a bit and poured it into the half gallon bucket that fits nicely into my new yogotherm pictured above. I had a little bit left over so I poured it into a plastic container, put a lid on it and placed it beside the wood stove on a table. I expected to have yogurt in both containers when I finished as this was how we used to make yogurt.. though with not a super good success rate which is why I got the yogotherm. In about 7 hours I took the container and the bucket and placed them in the fridge.  The next morning J wanted yogurt for breakfast so I took the container and opened it.. the milk had separated and not made yogurt!! I was a bit apprehensive but got called away and J got the bucket out of the fridge and placed it on the table.. and dished it up and it WAS yogurt! When my old yogurt failed I assumed it was because the starter had not worked.. but I learned with this experiment that it had not failed.. my temps by the wood stove must vary too much to keep the yogurt alive but the insulation in the yogotherm keeps it regulated and makes perfect yogurt every time.. or at least the 3 times we've had enough extra milk to try it :) Like I said I LOVE IT!!!

Spring Rolls, Coffee and Fun!!

Our dear friend Mrs. L came over the other day and taught Papa and I how to make spring rolls. The pork we thought we'd gotten out of the freezer turned out to be beef but they still turned out really well. We both learned how to wrap them up in their flour warps and I have to admit all mine turned out to be short and fat and all of Papa's were perfect.. long and skinny. Humm... I guess he can have that job :) They turned out to be a lot easier to make then I thought. Mrs. L doesn't use a recipe so I didn't get one either but basically it's fine noodles, graded and squeezed carrots, meat, sugar, salt and pepper, soy sauce, eggs and the mystery fungus.. some kind of chopped mushroom that looks like tiny stripes of fabric. Despite being hamburger instead of pork they turned out wonderful.
The next night Mrs. L brought her 4 children and Papa took them on sled rides with a sled he borrowed from work :) And of course they had to warm up with hot chocolate and cookies!! They had a blast!! Papa also BBQ'd some chicken which we served up with baked potatoes and green beans :) Chocolate chip cookies and Kettle Popcorn made for a great dessert. While Papa and the older kids were outside Mrs. L and I baked the potatoes, played with J3 and Baby G and visited. Great times!!

Cinnamon rolls for Havi

The kids and I recently made cinnamon rolls and posted a finished picture on FB. An friend of ours from Wa. State asked for the recipe :) Here you go Havi!!

I just use bun or bread dough with a few additions for the dough. I make my dough in the bread machine on the dough cycle.

2 Cups warm water
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil or butter

Let this set until the yeast has come up from the bottom to float on top.

Add 6 cups of flour. I did 2 whole wheat and 4 white.

That is my bread recipe :) To make cinnamon rolls I put in twice as much sugar, a egg and another tsp of yeast.

You can either make it on the dough cycle on the bread maker or by hand until it's well mixed and dough :) Then let it rise for about an hour or until it at least doubles.
This part is fun and the kids love to watch and help. Sprinkle flour on the table or where ever you have a nice big surface and roll out your dough. I did half at a time because it makes it easier to deal with. When it's about a 1/4 of an inch thick get some soft butter and butter the surface of the dough. Lots or little will depend on the person. I do about half of the surface with a very lite cover of butter. Then take cinnamon and sprinkle some on :) This too depends on the person. I have a great big cinnamon container and just do a light dusting. Brown sugar is next and I try and cover as much of the surface as possible with a thin layer. Raisins, if you like them, go on next. About a cup in total for all the bread. Too many and it makes it hard to roll up!
 Rolling it up is fun! start at the long side of your dough and roll it up until all the dough is rolled. Pinch the ends into the side of the roll and your ready to cut! We always eat the ends of the roll :) I cut mine about 2 inches deep all the way down the roll. Put them in the pan as you go to save mess. Put them cut side up into the pan. I let mine rise for about 20 minutes.. until the sides are touching. If you let them rise too long you'll have all dough :) Btdt. I baked mine for about 30 minutes at 350 but my oven is a bit cool.. so 25 might do just as well on yours.

I don't make these very often and I'm still playing with the recipe. I like to use my bread recipe because I have it memorized. Cinnamon rolls that I've had that others have made seem to have richer dough which is why I added the egg. Next time I may add two just to see what that does. But these were defiantly better then the last batch I did with no egg and no extra sugar or yeast. Hope you like them :) Oh and I just put store bought icing, and only a tiny bit, on them when we eat them. You could also mix a bit of icing sugar and milk and drizzle it all over them while they are warm. The kids like them plain with no icing or anything. These do tend to stick to the pan.. so loosen them up as soon as the cool off a little and then cover them with plastic wrap before they are completely cool... YUM!!!

Baked Oatmeal Muffins!

What a great way to start the day :) I make a bunch of these a head of time and the kids drag them out of the freezer, nuke them, and make their own breakfast!! Really nice on the days when the baby finally went to sleep at 2am..

This recipe is from a book Papa brought home from Virginia in 98 called Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and Kitchen Secrets by Esther H Shank.
It's on page 90 but if you just open our book on the binding it falls right open to it :)

Baked Oatmeal

2 eggs beaten

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil, we use homemade butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix this all together until it it well mixed. 

Then add.

3 cups quick oatmeal

1/2 raisins or not if you don't like them :) Most of us here do so raisins are a must. 

Pour into a greased 8X12 baking dish and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. Serve with warm milk. Mildred Bucher. 

We do this recipe twice and still put it in the same size pan and it works.. you just have to cook it for 40 to 60 minutes instead of 25 minutes. This morning Papa did it SIX times and we got a 8X12 baking dish and 3  muffins short of 4 doz. 

Bagels! 1st Try!

We, Papa and I that is, made bagels today for the 1st time ever. It won't be the last. We'd been talking about trying them for quite a while and then Auntie R tried them and FB me the recipe so we decided to try them this morning together while Papa was home. The 1st plan was to get up early and have them ready for breakfast when the kids got up. Well we ended up watching a movie which had troubles at the end and  we fussed with that for much too long and ended up going to bed in the early hours of the morning. SO we changed the plan, slept in, and had them for lunch with Papa taking his to work. Here is the recipe.

Susan's Egg Bagels

Jody Prival

2 pkg. active dry yeast (regular--not fast acting)
2 cups warm water
3 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
6 cups flour
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon dry onion flakes (optional)Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar and salt, dissolve. Lightly beat in the 2 eggs. Stir well. Add 4 cups of flour, stirring to make a smooth thin dough. Then add remainder of flour to make a stiff dough. Knead this dough 15 minutes. Then set aside covered to rise for 40 minutes.Divide the dough into 20 equal parts and knead each separately to form a small ball. Push a floured finger through the center of each and twirl it around your finger to make a bagel with about a 1 to 1 1/2" hole and an outer diameter of about 3". Let rise for 20 minutes.
Bring to boil 3 qts. water with 1 tablespoon sugar in it. Boil 4-5 bagels at a time for 4 minutes each, turning carefully. Dry on a paper towel. Mix the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water, beat well, and brush the bagels with the mixture. Bake 20-30 minutes at 400oF (until brown). Don't expose to direct fire in the oven.

From the Dinner Co-op

Looking good!! We did the egg yolk on top and I think next time we won't. Made the outsides really chewy. Oh and make sure you bake them long enough or they'll have 'gooey' parts inside the ring. Not that I really know anything about it as this is our 1st try. I used my bread maker for the mixing and it worked great! 

Papa 'twirling' two at the same time. He's a mechanic so his hands are rarely 'food grade' so I make him wear gloves :) He whines but he wears them :) Note J doing school work in the back ground. Because today is Friday and the T's come over every Friday afternoon when we'd normally be doing school. I gave J the choice of doing his school last night, this morning or tonight. He woke up and told me 'I'm starting school right now so I can play later!' and proceeded to do his English and Science at the table. English before breakfast! He did his Socials Studies later on after the T's had gone. I love how he enjoys school and I rarely have to nag him into doing it. (He's so far ahead in his Math that he skipped it all together today.) He'll start grade 2 Math by the end of next week. 

You really should do 20. We ended up with 16 and they were too big. I want to try them as mini's too. Oh and make sure the inside hole is BIG. Very few of ours actually had a hole in the middle. But the water took FOREVER to boil so they rose a bit long too. (And yes I started the water boiling right after we got them into rings but it was a large pot and still took over the 20 minutes to boil.) They really should look like the inside hole is about 3 times bigger then it should be before they rise that last time.

Eggs!!! And My Ice Cream Recipe!

Papa found 6 lovely chicken eggs in the hen house this morning. With every thing on our plates this fall we didn't have time to figure out how to get a light into our new chicken house, so we ended up having a 'dry spell' of about 2 months without very many eggs at all. (We even BOUGHT eggs from the store for baking!) But about 2 weeks ago Papa got a new extension cord and light bulb and TA DA there was light!! That is the one bad thing about using the green house for the chickens, so far. It's quite a ways from the house and not set up at all for lights and things. The calf, Meatloaf, broke one bulb, and another one just burnt out. We finally got one to stay on and now we are getting eggs!! Worth the hassle for sure. Tomorrow night we are having Mr. & Mrs B over for supper before they drive out of our lives again for another month of traveling and homemade ice cream is on the menu!! BBQ's chicken or a pork roast, baked potatoes, salad, corn and ice cream for dessert! Yummo!! We might even make COOKIES tomorrow and eat the dough raw!! Oh wow. Now I'm drooling!! :)

If you've never had it or made it.. you've got to try it.
Here's what you do!
Ice Cream.

1. Whip 4 fresh farmer eggs till they are a  really light yellow color and foamy. Make sure you scrape the sides and get it all mixed in.
2. Add 1/2 of sugar and 2 tsps of Vanilla, keep whipping till it's all mixed in!!
3. Add about 4 or 5 cups of cream, some people cut it in half with milk, but we like it with just cream!
4. Mix it together until it's all the same color!
5. IF you plan on freezing it after making it you can add about a tablespoon of vodka to keep it from freezing hard as a rock!! If you planning on finishing it off that night don't bother.

Now this is the harder part. We have a ice cream maker that comes with a bowl that you freeze and then you add the mixture to the frozen bowl while the machine turns the bowl and it mixes very nicely into wonderful ice cream.  All I have to do is set the timer and take it out when it's done I've also heard you can put it in the freezer in a shakable container and take it out and shake it at intervals which mixes it and makes ice cream. There is also the old ice and salt hand cranker which I've heard works well but have never seen done (that I recall) or used.

Now if you want to make chocolate ice cream or some other kind, play with it. Last time I made chocolate I just whipped in cocoa powder with the sugar and it was AWESOME!! You need quite a bit of cocoa mixed in. I think I did 1/4 cup and you could have done 1/2 no problem! We've also mixed in ice cream sauces in the last few minutes or candies, cookie dough, chunks of chocolate bars, (be aware. Chocolate chips HURT when you bite into them frozen!!)  mint thin paddies are REALLY good :), strawberry jam works great with some strawberry drink mix (my kids think strawberry ice cream has to be pink) to make a great strawberry. There are lots of combo's to try!! Have fun! Kids love to help you make it, and eat it,  and HEY it's even science :)