Peach Raspberry Vanilla Ice Cream

We have been itching to make homemade ice cream, but it hasn't been very "summer-y" around these parts until the last few days.  After much debate, we decided on a vanilla ice cream with peaches from Zak's grandparents and raspberry jam or syrup to swirl in.  We ended up using the basic vanilla ice cream recipe from our ice cream maker book and went from there.  The result was simply delicious.  We were too eager to try it after a few hours in the freezer that we completely forgot about the sugar cones we bought.  Anyways, this was supposedly a 2 quart recipe, but we separated it into two containers to fit into the freezer, so I don't know how much total it made.  But it was worth it!

1 c. milk
3/4 c. + 2 Tbl. sugar
pinch of salt
1 c. half & half
1/2 Tbl. vanilla
2 c. heavy whipping cream
2 c. pureed peaches (2 fresh peaches)
about 4 Tbl. seedless raspberry jam (didn't have any homemade stuff, but Smucker's worked just fine)

1.  Scald milk on stove until bubbles form around the edges, remove from heat.
2.  Pour into a heat-proof large bowl and stir in sugar and salt until it's all dissolved.
3.  Add in half & half, vanilla and heavy cream.
4.  Cover tightly, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5.  For the pureed peaches, Zak blended them with about a Tbl. of plain yogurt to smooth the texture out.  And then he heated up the jam in the microwave so we could pour it easily.
6.  Add peaches to refrigerated mixture and freeze according to ice cream maker's directions.
7.  We added the jam after about 20 minutes of mixing it, just on top and let it run for a few minutes.
8.  Freeze for at least 2 - 3 hours before tasting, it will be tempting though!

before freezing

it was a bit soft when we ate it, but it was so good (also check out the cute bowls Zak's parents got us, we love them)

delicious!

Baked Coconut Chicken with Sweet & Spicy Apricot Sauce

I follow this cute blog, Six Sisters' Stuff and they have some good recipes that I've tried in the past few months.  And this one is another new recipe that we are fans of!  We really enjoyed it, the sauce was a great compliment to the chicken.  I decided on using an apricot-pineapple blend instead of just plain apricot, and it was fantastic. Next time I will cook the chicken at a lower temperature, because it didn't turn out as beautifully golden as I wanted; some of the coconut got a little burned.  I ended up not the full amount of the ingredients, so I'll copy what I used here.

Chicken
1 1/2 lb. chicken, cut into strips (about 25 pieces is what I got)
2 eggs
2-3 Tbl. flour
3/4 c. sweetened coconut flakes
3/4 c. panko bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional, didn't use this time)

Sauce
1/2 c. apricot-pineapple (or just apricot) preserves
1 Tbl. unseasoned rice vinegar
3/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1.  Preheat oven to 425 (original recipe says 450) degrees.  Line baking pan with foil, spray with nonstick spray.
2.  Combine coconut flakes, panko bread crumbs and spices in a medium-sized bowl.
3.  Place flour in one shallow bowl; beat the eggs and place in a different shallow bowl.
4.  Working with one chicken tender/piece, dip in flour, than egg & completely cover with coconut-panko mix.
5.  Once all pieces have been coated and placed on the baking pan, cook for about 15 - 20 minutes, until golden brown.
6.  Combine all the sauce ingredients, place in dipping bowls.

pretty chicken before baking

sauce

the extra coconut I sprinkled over the chicken burned a bit, but I just brushed it off and it was still great

Nutritional Facts for chicken
servings per recipe: 5
amount per serving (about 5 pieces)

Calories: 269
Total Fat: 7.9 g
Saturated Fat: 4.6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.8 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 1.4 g
Cholesterol: 152.9 mg
Sodium: 480.1 mg
Potassium: 435.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 12.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
Sugar: 1.6 g
Protein: 35.7 g
Vitamin A: 3 %
Vitamin C: 3.7 %
Calcium: 2.8 %
Iron: 10.8 % 

Nutritional Facts for sauce
servings per recipe: 8 
amount per serving (2 Tbl.)

Calories: 60
Total Fat: --
Saturated Fat: --
Polyunsaturated Fat: --
Monounsaturated Fat: --
Cholesterol: --
Sodium: 5 mg
Potassium: --
Total Carbohydrate: 14 g
Dietary Fiber: --
Sugar: 9 g
Protein: --
Vitamin A: --
Vitamin C: --Calcium: --
Iron: --

Apricot Jam

As I mentioned in the other blog, we got a bunch of apricots from Zak's grandparents. We both like apricots, but decided apricot jam would be superior. I haven't really made jam on my own before, and I was nervous about doing it without my mom or grandma helping me. So I searched on-line for recipes that seemed simple enough and wouldn't require me buying / using a bunch of canning gear. I found this one on food.com. It was so easy and didn't take too long. I just wished there had been a few more basic directions, because I was a bit unsure about how small to dice the apricots, or how thick the mixture would be before pulling it off the stove, just stuff like that. And the recipe said I would get 5 pint jars out of it; I only got 4 jars, which was a bit of a bummer. But it tastes amazing! It's a bit thick, but that's ok with me. It's yummy and we have three jars in the freezer!

8 c. diced apricots

1/4 c. lemon juice

6 c. sugar

4 or 5 pint jars or 8 - 10 half-pint jars

1. Sterilize jars and lids by boiling in water for 10 minutes.

2. Once timer is up, turn off stove, put lid on pot to keep jars warm. Once jam is near done, transfer jars and lids to towels to dry.

3. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

4. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves.

5. Once mixture reaches a modest, rolling boil, continue boiling for 30 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent from sticking.

6. Remove from heat and fill jars, leaving some head space.

7. Let jars sit and cool for awhile before transferring to fridge or freezer.

Enjoy!

Bing Cherry Jam

Well, we still had a lot of cherries after we made the ice cream, so I figured I'd make cherry jam. I found a pretty simple recipe online that worked well, the only problem was that I wasn't sure when the jam was done, because it was my first time doing it alone. But it seemed to work just fine, and now we have yummy cherry jam to enjoy for awhile!

4 c. pitted fresh bing cherries
2 c. sugar
2 Tbl. lemon juice
1 pinch salt
3 Tbl. dry pectin

1. Add the cherries, lemon juice, sugar, salt to slow cooker; stir gently and let stand for 15 minutes or until sugar is mostly dissolved.
2. Sprinkle with pectin.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 2 1/2, stirring 2 - 3 times while cooking.
4. Remove the lid, turn the cooker to HIGH and cook 2 - 3 hours more, until jam reached desired consistency (make sure to check on it every once in awhile, because I had a huge mess to clean up--but I had left the lid on it)
5. Ladle the jam into clean spring-top glass jars, or screw tops with new lids (I bought some plastic freezer jars from Ball that worked just fine), let stand to cool.
6. Store, covered in the fridge for up to 2 months, or freeze.

This recipe's supposed to yield 5 cups. I doubled the recipe and filled 4 16 oz. plastic jars. Just sayin'.

work station

173 cherries = 1 hour to pit

all ready after hours of cooking

on homemade bread