A week or so ago, I made cookies that tasted delicious but just weren't quite right because I had used unsalted butter instead of salted. They stuck together in the container and were pretty flat. So I decided to make homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream this week, using those cookies. Ok so it's more like chocolate chip cookie ice cream, but you get the picture. I looked up a recipe for vanilla ice cream for my ice cream maker and couldn't resist sharing the second to last warning on this page lol!!!!
In related food fails, I totally messed up my ice cream. I haven't made any in months, so I was out of practice. I didn't like the recipes I found online, so I decided to just go with heavy whipping cream, milk, and honey, since I would be adding the cookie crumbles in for more sweetness and flavor. Anyway, the ingredient choice wasn't the problem. The problem was that I totally forgot that you have to turn the ice cream maker on FIRST before you put the ingredients in. I put the cream in, got the milk out, and put the milk in. Then reached for the plug and turned it on. In that short time, less than 3 minutes or so, everything froze in place. So I had frozen cream with frozen milk on top and the honey just congealed into a ball. Oops.
Luckily the cookie crumbles weren't in, so I can have a re-do!
I know this isn't a unique complaint, but do you know what made me so angry this week? I went to Trader Joe's to get a whole chicken so I could make crock pot chicken and then homemade chicken stock. I always prefer organic when I buy meat (and cage free and that other good stuff) so I went to that section first. $17 chicken. Ok, I thought, let's just check out the non-organic for comparison. $5 and some change. So yes, I walked out with the chicken that probably had growth hormones and lived in squalor, but I also spent less than a third of the organic chicken price. I do expect that organic will cost slightly more, but I was thinking $2-5 dollars at the most... not $12!!! Boo. By the way, out of that $5 chicken I got 5 servings of chicken, 5 pints of chicken stock, and 6 muffin tins of chicken stock (frozen that size to use in recipes). I think we'll be eating way more whole chickens around here, as much as the whole aspect of it having bones freaks me out.
Do you know that I've never prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy? Well, never until last weekend! I had heard of it, but just had never prayed it. Steven and I were in the car on the way to a wedding and decided to pray the rosary. I pulled up my (super awesome) Laudate app and saw the Chaplet of Divine Mercy so we did that instead, and very much enjoyed it. I still think Novenas are my favorite type of prayer/devotion. We only started doing them within the last year, but I really enjoy them! What's your favorite? Or is picking a favorite devotion like picking a favorite child? :P
Remember when I wrote about the kitty peeing and pooing on the guest bed? Well I put out a second pan and we were good to go. Animal behaviorists say that cats don't potty inappropriately to be bad, but to communicate something to you and it's our job to figure out what they are trying to say. She was trying to say that she's prissy and likes more potty options. Ok, problem solved. Right? Well, it was until last week when she peed on the guest bed again. It's only ever the guest bed! (Uh.... sorry guests.) I don't know if something stressed her out or what. This is not her M.O. but I guess it could have to do with her age. This is getting long, so meet me at take 6.
Ok, so anyway, I hate having to keep the door to the guest room closed. It just makes the house feel more closed off. So, while I try to learn to speak cat and figure out what the issue is, I was trying to think of something in the mean time to keep her from pottying on the bed. First I thought we'd go get another mattress protector (we had one on there but took it back off when the problem got solved the first time). But then she can still pee on the comforter and that sounds like a lot of laundry that Steven really doesn't want to be doing. So my genius solution? I bought a < $3 clear shower curtain liner to put over the bed. That way I can keep the door open, the bedding is preserved, and I'm betting she'll refuse to pee on plastic anyway. I'd say yay, but since I spent two takes talking about cat pee, I don't feel up to it.
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In happier news: New favorite show alert!!!!! Have you seen Call the Midwife? Oh man, I love me some PBS! I am hooked after the first episode!
{BONUS TAKE}: I have a guest post going up today at Written By the Finger of God. Annabelle is collecting Catholic love stories (swoon!) and I couldn't resist typing mine up and submitting it, so check it out! It's not a re-post, but an all-in-one-spot account of the love story God has written for Steven and me. Not totally sure what time it will go up, but it will also post on my blog here this afternoon.... but don't read it here; read it there so you can get lost in the other love stories she already has up, like I did! Then submit your own!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
Boo I'm sorry your cat is giving you troubles! And I can't wait to read your guest post!
ReplyDeleteAnd I've never made ice cream before, so you're one step of me. However, it is one of my 101 in 1001 things :)
It definitely took me a few tries to get the ice cream right, but that's because I'm difficult and wanted to make my own recipe ;). The ones in the book had too much crap in them. But once you get it down, it's actually super easy and delicious! You should register for the cuisinart ice cream maker...
DeleteI have a hard time shelling out for organic meats, too! We mostly eat veggies and beans, so meat as protein is rare, but even on those occasions, I ususally wind up going with the regular choice. I've recently started cooking with whole chickens, as well! I love doing the stock and using the chicken for soup and barbecue or Mexican pulled chicken meals. Your muffin tins are changing my life--that's sooo much smarter than me pouring the contents of a boiling pot into huge Tupperware bowls that take up my fridge space for weeks! Have a good weekend, Stacy, and I can't wait to read your love story =)
ReplyDeleteI hadn't yet decided what to use the leftover chicken for, so thank you for the ideas! I have an aversion to reheating and eating right off the plate because it seems to change the texture. I'm thinking some kind of chicken taco... yum!
DeleteI am freaked out by chicken bones, too!
ReplyDeleteLol I'm glad I'm not the only one! The only meal with a bone in it I can even eat is ribs and that's pushing it.
DeleteI need to come to your house for some chicken and ice cream! Yum!
ReplyDeleteIt is so infuriating when it's clear that grass-fed beef or organic chicken is better, but buying it will put you out of house and home! The fact that our food manufacturing has gotten to such a low point and we who have mouths to feed almost don't have a choice is pretty discouraging. I just met another Catholic mom with three kids who buys raw milk, makes her own butter, and ferments her own vegetables. It sounds lovely and all, but my question is HOW and WHEN do you do all of this?! It'd be so nice to just be able to go to the butcher, the baker, etc., but America just makes it so difficult. Grr!
Going to check out "Call the Midwife" and that guest post of yours now, woohoo!
Haha come on over... Lord knows we don't need to eat all the ice cream ourselves :)! Ugh yeah, if I have no kids and can't find the time to do all that, I know it will never happen when I DO have kids! I guess we just have to shop the best we can, but some things will have to give. Let me know what you think about Call the Midwife. I am SO excited for the next episode!
DeleteGood news on poultry - no hormones can be used in the meat (see: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FACTSheets/Meat_&_Poultry_Labeling_Terms/index.asp#15). I also learned they can't use in hogs. They can use antibiotics though.
ReplyDeleteWhy did I not know that!?!? You just changed my life!
Delete#3: Given that it's Trader Joe's, you're safe from hormones, probably safe from antibiotics, and probably safe from squalor.
ReplyDeleteI love Trader Joe's, but unfortunately I don't think they are above squalor :(.
DeleteWait, you mix your ingredients IN the ice cream maker?? My instructions said to have the mixture sit out 1-2 hours or overnight, so I have to mix them in advance.
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Nicole's mom makes amazing chicken soup and roast chicken using whole chickens - cheaper and very yummy. But I can't get over tearing the chicken into pieces! I don't mind that it HAS bones - but I don't want to have to break them myself. *shudder*
We buy chicken and eggs from a local farm (they also sell us our thanksgiving turkey every year), and all the animals are on pasture. Yup, it's expensive. We spent $20 on a 5.5 lb chicken last week, but it was the only meat we ate for the week (and I used every last scrap of that bird!), so for us it was worth it. But I know the sticker shock is hard to get past, and sometimes I just can't do it, and I get the almost as good alternative.
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