Homemade Ice Cream, Pickles, and Ticks. . .

Our office is open 365 days a year 24/7, we do not close for anything, not even bad weather.   When you work in the medical field you learn that this is just how it is.  Your family must also adjust.  I do not mind it because I know I am making a difference in someones life, I usually do not get to see the end result but sometimes we get to hear wonderful stories of our recipients connecting with our donor families and that is amazing.  That is what gets me through adjusting Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations with my family. 
We do not do things traditionally in my household.  This year  I wanted to do the 4th more traditional.  I had to work the night of the 3rd so,  I slept most of the morning of the 4th but I had bought an ice cream churn that week and we were going to have homemade ice cream for the 4th.  I told the hubbs about my idea and he grumbled, naturally, he does not like homemade ice cream.  He says it is always runny and gross and he only liked chocolate.   It was my mission to make the best homemade chocolate ice cream ever.  I searched the internet all over to find what I thought was a good recipe.  Turns out, I am the bomb when it comes to making ice cream, I even wowed the hubby.  Best ever chocolate ice cream, it tasted and had the consistency of a Wendy's frosty.  Yummm!!  I bought a Hamilton Beach traditional ice cream churn and it worked wonders.   I will do this again, it was easy and not messy at all, there was a little bit of a learning curve since I had never actually done this before.  I will share my recipe later in this post.
We are getting cucumbers by the baskets full and I have made four jars of fridge pickles, I will share that recipe too.  It is easy and no cook but you have to keep them in the fridge.  We have eaten two jars and I gave one jar away and I made another jar yesterday.   I also eat cucumbers just by themselves and I add them to my water with a little lemon.  I have used a couple that got to big to eat on my eyes.  LOL!!  We do not waste in this house.
In between lacrosse and doing yard work for the ladies in the area Sprat has been fishing with his friends.  They have evidently been fishing near a tick Hilton, Sprat has come home with several ticks on him each evening.   On the 4th he came home with one attached to his shin, yuck!!  He came to me and said,  "Mama is this one attached?"  I put my glasses on so I could see the little bugger and sure enough it was attached.  I got the Vaseline and coated the tick, hoping it would let go, he did not.  I worked on this bugger for a good bit before I got him off of my Sprat.  The last time Big T had a tick I was not sure what kind it was so I took him and the tick to the doctor and they said it is there standard procedure to give anyone that has had a tick attached antibiotics.  I scheduled Sprat an appointment to see the doctor.  Sure enough they wanted to give him antibiotics.  Sprat is allergic to almost all antibiotics and I have not been real keen on him taking any type of antibiotic.   They wrote a prescription for one they did not have record of him being allergic.  The hubbs and I worried and fretted over whether to give it to him or not.  His reactions were not breathing trouble but that could be the next one.  Long story short we are on day 3 of antibiotic with no reaction so far.  Sprat is taking benadryl with the antibiotic to try and reduce any reaction he might have.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will make it through  this regimen. 


On to the recipes:

Chocolate ice cream

3 cups heavy cream
2 cups half and half
2 cups whole milk
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Mix dry ingredients first then add water, whole milk, half and half, and heavy cream
Get your churn set up and add your ice cream mixture.  The churn said it would run for 20-40 minutes and cut off on it's own.  Mine did not cut off so I checked it after about an hour and it was so fluffy and wonderful.  I think it was fluffy and creamy because of the heavy cream and half and half.

Lax, Lax, and more Lax Weekend. . . .

Big T had a big weekend with four games and four big wins for the team!!  I am so glad I was able to see him play with this group of boys.  The gentleman that heads this group up is awesome and he said it best when he said; "Unselfish, hardworking,young men from 12 different high schools came together as a team," on Saturday to win Big!!    These boys have had maybe 3 practices together as a team and they played so well together yesterday, it was great.  I love watching these kids play, they are a young team and they each have so much potential.   I look forward to seeing these boys play in the future. 
It was an extremely hot yesterday and we played on turf, whew, that made it very hot.  Those boys played their hearts out and they left everything on the field.   It was a great day to be a Lax Brah. 

Big T with a nasty poke check 

Big T with some great air for the blocked pass!!

Not Aunt Bee's Pickles Story. . .

The cucumbers are coming in like crazy so, the hubbs and I made some quick refrigerator pickles.  The hubbs loves his jalapenos and of course they ended up in my mild mannered dill pickles.  I  do not like sweet pickles or bread and butter pickles, I am a straight up dill pickle girl.   The hubbs got his jar with jalapenos and I got two jars, one with a little onion and one straight dill.  I just tried the jalapeno ones last night and I must admit they were awesome.   They are not too hot but have just a little kick.  I tried the ones with onion this morning, yes I eat pickles in the morning, anytime is a good time for homemade pickles.  The ones with the onion are good but, if you do not tell my hubby I said this, I will admit the jalapeno ones were the best.  The boys do not like any kind of pickles so the hubbs and I have three jars to eat and he does not like them that much either. 
Here is the recipe we used, we tweaked it to fit our personal taste, I do not remember where the original recipe came from but this is ours.

Refrigerator Pickles

We used standard mason jars:

In each Jar

3 cloves garlic peeled
3 tsp black pepper corns
1 small onion sliced
2 bunches of fresh dill
4 slices of jalapeno with seeds

Several cucumbers sliced into spears and cram as many as you can in your jar.

Liquid

2 cups water, 4 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 1/2 Tbs kosher salt.  Mix together until salt dissolved.  Pour over your cucumbers in the jar.  top with part of your dill and make sure your cucumbers are covered with liquid and put your lid on.  Invert your jar a couple times to get everything swished around and put in the fridge for 2 days.  This recipe is for one jar of pickles, you will have a little liquid left over. 

Hope you are enjoying my recipes and my stories, stay tuned. .. .

Cooking again. . . Memories

Sprat made some home fry potatoes today for lunch.  This goes along with his learning to cook before he goes back to school in the Fall.  He used his daddy's potatoes out of the garden to make his potatoes this morning and they were really good.  Big T even ate some and liked them and he never eats them when the hubbs makes them.   I love that Sprat is wanting to learn to cook, he is so excited about it and has a real knack for it too.  I hope I can teach him some of my favorite recipes to take back to Boston with him.
Sprat's girlfriend came for a visit, I must admit, I was not ready for this.  I am not ready for a serious girlfriend, I do not think he has ever been serious about a girl before.  He dated but, he never called one his "girlfriend" before.  This young lady is from Massachusetts and this was her visit to the South.  Sprat took her on the sweet tea tour of North Carolina. He took her to all of his local watering holes and hangouts.  He introduced her to all of his friends.  She loves sweet tea and has called and asked for a recipe, I do believe she is hooked. 
Sprat is getting excited about going to this new school in August, he is a little nervous but very excited.  He has his new schedule and we will go in July for orientation. 
I remember learning to cook when I was Sprat's age, I had helped my mom in the kitchen but I had never cooked a whole meal by myself.  I remember trying Swedish meatballs and I did not eat meat at that time, they were terrible.  I cannot remember if anyone in my family ate them, I think they did but I am not sure.   I do not remember the first thing I made successfully but, I do remember there were many things I made unsuccessful.  I remember a lot of frozen burritos and french fries in college.  I was no cook in college, I fancy myself to be a very good cook now.  I hope I can help my son do better than I did in college with the cooking. In the new school he will have access to a kitchen, so he will be able to cook if he likes. 

Whirl Wind Weekend. . . Weddings, Family, and Lots of Lacrosse. . .

The hubbs nephew got married and the hubbs and I went to the wedding and Sprat took Big T to his lacrosse tournament.  Sprat played Lax Dad on Saturday, keeping up with a cooler, advil, and snacks for Big T and himself.  So proud of Sprat for stepping up and looking after his brother and encouraging him through some pain and loss over three games and a thunderstorm.  The hubbs and I had a good time at the Wedding festivities.  Big T played three games on Saturday and two games on Sunday, the hubbs and I got to see him play on Sunday. I do love watching my boys play lacrosse, they play with their whole heart.  No matter what team they are playing on.  Big T played on a travel team this weekend, they have practiced two times before this weekend and yet they played well together.  They played against teams that have been together for years and beat them.  This group of boys were well coached.  I wish this team could stay together but unfortunately they all go to different schools.  It was an exciting afternoon at the Lax tournament. 
Sprat also had games on Sunday, so  I got to see both the boys play this weekend.  I hope when Sprat starts school and gets started in his new season of lacrosse at college we will get to see him play there too.  Here are some highlights from the weekend:

Big T in the middle with the clear!!

Sprat in the middle, black helmet, blocking the shot!!

It was an exciting weekend all the way around!!  Lax on !!!!

Cooking 101 for your College Student . . . Beyond Raymen Noodles. . .

I sold Pampered Chef for a long time and love their products, one of my favorites was their mandolin slicer.  I have the old school model without the finger protection.  I tell you all of that to share that last night while Sprat was helping me fix dinner I sliced my thumb.  All the years I used that thing and never had any trouble with it and I did it while showing Sprat how to use it and how not to slice a finger.  LOL!!  Well, in a round about way, how not to slice a finger. 
We made the zucchini pasta again because, we have zucchini in abundance right now.  Sprat had fun learning how to saute onions and garlic and this time we added a pepper from the garden.  Sprat does not particularly care for zucchini but he enjoyed the cooking and so did I except for the slice and dice I pulled on my thumb. 
Sprat wants to learn to cook other things too, he may try his hand at my amazing homemade alfredo.  He is even going to go to the grocery store for me to pick up all of my ingredients.  I will share my recipe for my alfredo today so that you can try your hand at it too.

Alfredo

1 box angel hair pasta
4 tbs butter
3 cloves garlic pressed
2 cups heavy cream
fresh Parmesan 1 cup
fresh or dried chives to top
1-2 tbs flour
dash of white wine


Melt butter and saute garlic till is smells yummy, add your flour and make  rue, all on med low heat. add a dash of wine and then slowly and while stirring add your heavy cream.  Turn you heat up a little and grate your parmesan and add it to your cream mixture.  It should bubble and get thick, when it does that it is ready to serve over your angel hair pasta.  You can use any pasta you would like and you can add things like broccoli, chicken, shrimp, beef, really anything. 
I have never been a fan of fat noodles so I always use angel hair, it is a texture thing with me.  You can add fresh chives and parsley too when you serve. 
Hope you enjoy my recipes and my funny stories about my kiddos.   Stay tuned Sprat is wanting to learn to cook this Summer and this should be loads of funny posts.

Garden Veggies and a Recipe. . . .

Our garden is coming along and I have learned a few things:  1. we cannot grow Brussels sprouts in the Summer, 2. cauliflower needs shade, and 3. I love cucumbers.  I am sad our pod people did not grow, we will try them again in the fall.  I do not think we will try cauliflower again, it seems futile.  On the upside my herb garden is doing wonderfully, I have dried lots of oregano, basil and sage.  Mark dug our potatoes and onions and we have them stored.  We have our first zucchini and I made an amazing pasta with it the other night, I will share that recipe at the end of this post.  I do believe the hubbs and I could live out of our garden, the boys on the other hand, require meat and other stuff. They are broadening their pallets though, with some veggies.  Our cucumbers are coming in like crazy, cannot wait to do some pickles with my very own fresh dill.  There is just nothing better than fresh veggies and herbs. 
Update on Sprat, we got to meet the girlfriend this week.  She came for a visit and Sprat took her on the sweet tea tour of our little area.  She is from the Boston area and this was her first trip to the South.  Sprat took her to all of his stomping grounds and local watering holes.  She went to Church with them ( I was working) yesterday and then to watch adult lacrosse Summer league.  She had not seen Sprat play lacrosse at school since his season was cut short with the school closing. 

Here is my Zucchini recipe:

2-3 zucchini sliced thin
1 box angel hair pasta
2 cloves garlic pressed
2 onions sliced
4 Basil leaves torn
3 stems of lemon thyme
olive oil
white wine

Saute garlic and onions in olive oil and then set aside,  add sliced zucchini to the oil and saute until tender add a little wine and continue cooking.  Add back the garlic and onions that you set aside and simmer then add Basil and Thyme with another splash of white wine and cover to simmer a little longer.  Boil your pasta and when it is done throw it in  with your Zucchini another dash of wine and cover on low. 
You can add mushrooms, peppers and pea pods if you would like.  I did not have those on hand the other night.
Serve with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese.