Very simple ice-cream

I just wanted to share this very easy ice-cream recipe. Its very simple, no need for an ice-cream maker and no need to stir half-way through the freezing process.

There are only three ingredients

16 fl oz cream (double or whipping)

450ml /405g tin sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspn vanilla extract

I'm not sure whether the term double or whipping cream are universal but UK double cream is 48%fat and whipping cream is 36% fat. Using whipping cream makes slightly more icecream while double cream makes a denser richer icecream.

Whip the cream until it holds its shape. Add the vanilla and condensed milk and continue to whisk unil mixed. Then freeze.

It really is that simple and its very yummy. Compared to some commercial icecreams it is very rich and probably seriously unhealthy!

Hyacinths

Each year when the children were small they chose their own hyacinth to grow in one of those glass hyacinth vases. After they had flowered I planted the bulbs out in the garden wherever there was a bit of space. We've lived in our house now for sixteen years so there are lots of hyacinths dotted around the garden - a wonderful perfume when I am hanging out the washing in the mornings. I like the way tha family traditions develop and add a little bit of history to the home each year.

Local Food Shopping

Which is the most eco-friendly way to shop locally- do I walk to the shop in my village or do I drive to the nearest farm shop?
The food shop in our village while not one of the big supermarkets is part of a national chain. If I shop there I only buy fresh vegetables from the UK though they could still have travelled many hundreds of miles. The shop is just a half mile walk from home. The nearest shop to stock local foods is a farm shop about six miles from home and which aims to stock local food, grown or made within 35 miles if possible, maybe further afield at this time of the year but always UK.
Today, I had already shopped for the week and only wanted potatoes, some green vegetables ( to make a change from endless root vegetables) and a loaf of bread. So which would use the least fossil fuels, walking to buy food that may have travelled long distances to get to the shop or driving a total of 12 miles to buy just three items of locally produced food? Neither shop regularly stocks organic vegetables so that doesn't influence the decision.
Today was a sunny spring day and the walk won over the car trip but all the green veg came from Spain so I bought bread and potatoes and we ate parsnips from my allotment (again!).

Decluttering

I am tidying again today. It has rained so much lately and the ground is so waterlogged that I can't do any gardening and I've run out of other excuses!


I am having a lot of difficulty getting rid of stuff at the moment. When I started work and lived in shared houses I could take all my possessions with me in the back of a VW Polo, well sometimes when I moved it might have taken two journeys, but it was still a lot less than I have now.


There are all sorts of things I find difficulty geting rid of. Take, for instance all my university notes which are in boxes in the loft.

When did I last work in a field related to my degree? Just before my first child was born and he will be seventeen this year.

Is there any information in the notes that I couldn't get from other sources if I needed to? No, probably not.

How many times have I looked at them in the last say ten years? Maybe twice and then only to show the boys that in the "olden days before computers" Mum wrote out all her notes longhand!

So, why can't I get rid of them? I don't know perhaps its some sort of identity thing, a link with the life and job I had before I had children.


You are now probably getting somew idea of why this is taking so long. I need to become a bit more ruthless and throw out without thinking too much. Any tips on how to do that would be welcome!

Last Wednesday

After enjoying the account of Burdockboy's day posted a few days ago, I thought I would have a go too.

My day is last Wednesday which is a non-working day for me ( decided I might be thought a bit odd taking photographs at work).

In the kitchen at around 6:30am drinking tea and making packed lunches.

After husband and youngest teenager have left for the train, I wake eldest teenager, put on a load of washing and weigh out ingredients for bread rolls for tomorrows lunches.

Around 8:30 am I give eldest teenager a lift to school and then stop off at the allottment to dig leeks for tea.

Back home to hang washing out, drink coffee, check emails/read blogs, bake rolls and start making bolognese sauce in the slow cooker.

Next the boring bits cleaning, washing up and generally tidying followed by a sandwich for lunch. Then, more cooking, making ice-cream and bread.


I will post this very easy ice-cream recipe another time, its so yummy it would be mean not to share!

More bread, this time using the breadmaker, teenagers eat and eat and eat.....

I drive to pick up eldest teenager from school at 2:15pm taking knitting to do in the car while waiting.

Its a sleeve for a jumper I'm knitting in 4ply and its taking forever, partly because its on 2.75mm needles and partly because I only do five minutes at a time.

Time for a cup of tea and then more housework before out again (with knitting!) to pick up youngest teenager from train. More tea and chat before starting dinner.

I always make two meals on Wednesdays because I work on Thursdays and then have to pick up youngest teenager from an after school activity, the round trip of just under twenty miles taking about one and half hours due to rush hour traffic. So Thursdays is busy and stressful and made bearable by having something to eat all ready made.

Thursdays dinner used the sauce from the slow cooker to make "Hot pot Haggerty". Bolognese sauce layered with sliced cooked potatoes and topped with grated cheese. I can keep this in the fridge over night and then put it in the oven when I get home from work and set it to switch on automatically while I am out. I get back about half an hour before my husband gets home and we want to eat so I just have time to cook some vegetables.

Back to Wednesdays dinner "Anglesey Eggs" which is mashed potato mixed with cooked chopped leeks in a casserole dish with a layer of halved hardboiled eggs on top all covered in cheese sauce and baked for around 30 mins - popular and filling.


Pudding was apple crumble and ice-cream.

After all the washing up, tidying the kitchen and making packed lunches for the next day ther isn't much evening left but I do make time for some knitting. This is my home knitting (too big to do in the car) a top down raglan cardigan which I am knitting too use up left over balls of wool. I am just finishing the first sleeve and it is quite fun to knit but there a lot of ends to deal with as there are so many colour changes.


This has been an interesting exercise, I didn't realise how much my day was taken up with cooking and washing up, how much tea and coffee I drank and also when I don't work on my allottment I get virtually no exercise. I definitely need to plan a long walk and some fresh air this weekend to make up for it.