Magic Vanilla Ice Cream

serves 4

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 ounce white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cups cold heavy cream

Microwave sweetened condensed milk and white chocolate in large bowl until chocolate melts, stirring halfway, about 30 seconds. Let cool. Stir in vanilla, salt and sour cream.

With electric mixer on medium-high speed, whip heavy cream to soft peaks, about 2 minutes. Whisk one-third of whipped cream into white chocolate mixture. Fold remaining whipped cream into white chocolate mixture until incorporated.

Place in airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 6 hours or up to 2 weeks. Serve.

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From NPR. Really good! I successfully made lavender ice cream with this recipe. I attempted to chocolatize it, but it didn't have quite the effect I wanted. I have a few other recipes I'll try involving custard, but this is definitely a keeper because it is quick, easy, and delicious! I used vanilla yogurt in place of the sour cream.

Quick Lemonade

almost from scratch!

1/2 cup lemon juice
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar syrup

Mix, add ice, enjoy on a hot day!

Sugar Syrup

yields 1 1/2 cups syrup

1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Mix and heat until sugar dissolves completely. Use in lemonade, teas, and other beverages in which excessive stirring to dissolve sugar is not desired.

Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting

I direct you to Dulcedo, where Dana has posted the recipe along with beautiful photos of sprinkle-laden cupcakes. Thank God for Notre Dame students!

My only addition to her recipe is to fix up some chocolate frosting and mix Bailey's in. Oh, that must be what heaven tastes like!!

Most Favoritest Pancakes Ever

makes ten four-inch pancakes

1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp melted shortening or salad oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract

Beat egg; add remaining ingredients in order listed and beat with rotary beater until smooth. Grease heated griddle if necessary. To test griddle, sprinkle with a few drops of water. If bubbles skitter around, heat is just right.

Pour batter from tip of large spoon or from pitcher onto hot griddle. Turn pancakes as soon as they are puffed and full of bubbles but before bubbles break. Bake other side until golden brown.

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This recipe, originally "Favorite Pancakes" from Betty Crocker's Cookbook of 1969, was a staple of my childhood. I changed the white sugar to brown sugar and added almond extract for truly delicious pancakes that are not your typical breakfast fare. With butter and real maple syrup, they are AMAZING.

Harry Potter eats update

I bought lots and lots of jelly beans from Kroger, the candy store, you name it, and finally snagged a little baggie of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (along with a chocolate frog and a wonderball, whee!) which I mixed in the bowl that's been sitting on our table for the past week or two. I think my parents are a little wary of what they might pull out of there, but really, the chance of a vomit or earwax is very slim compared to, say, a root beer or cream soda. There are tons of those, and I personally think the root beer gets kinda icky after too many of them.

I did finally make pumpkin pasties, which were basically mini-turnovers. Really simple (except the folding and sticking dough together) and really yummy! Great snack for anytime.

As far as butterbeer goes...I've tried a few different things, most recently making hard butterscotch (with homemade butter and all) and dissolving the entire batch into a 2-liter of cream soda so that it's all ready-made. That's probably the best method I've found yet, and it's in the fridge already so it's nice and cold when you want it. Actually, the other night I had a terrible time sleeping, and about 3 am I got up to drown my sorrows in comfort food. I heated up a foamy mug of butterbeer and sipped that alongside a plate of cornbread & honey. It was very comforting. I can definitely see myself living off of that next winter the way I lived off of apple cider my freshman year. =)

Oh yes, and I ordered $20 worth of screamin' sour pop rocks from poprockscandy.com...48 little paper tubes of 'em. They're stored in my room along with a few bags of regular fruity ones from Food Lion, two boxes of sour nerds, and crayola gummi frogs to make chocolate frogs with. That ought to tide me over for a while.