When Life Gives You Lemons.....

You make Lemon Sherbet...

Times are tough and no doubt about it we are doing more with less now a days. We are watching our budget a little closer and eating at home more often. I think these tough times are a necessary part of life as they keep us in check and focus us on the important things in life: family, friends, and faith.

With the recent tragedy in Haiti it brings our focus in a little closer. It has for me anyways living in earthquake prone California -- the reality that Mother Nature can quickly turn our lives upside down. Those of you living in different states and countries can relate to natural disasters that are common in your area as well.

We all know Haiti won't be back to anywhere close to where it once was anytime soon. If you can give even a little to help those less fortunate, I encourage to do so. What might not seem like much to you may make a world of difference to someone who has lost everything and doesn't know what the future may hold them.

I'll include a couple of links, at the bottom of this post, to where you can continue to donate. I'll also have a  dedicated Red Cross link that I will leave in the upper right hand corner of my blog site all year long. As the people of Haiti gather up the pieces of their lives, at least they will know that there is compassion for their plight and many hoping for them to rebuild and carry on.

We can't control everything around us but we sure can make a difference to our fellow human beings...near and far.

Enjoy the day and appreciate everything you have. Live, learn, share, and have fun.

Ways to Donate:

Apple iTunes Haiti link

Amazon Payment link

Photographer for Haiti: One Respe link

American Red Cross link

I used the Joy of Baking recipe for the lemon sherbet. My only modification was to add the lemon juice to taste instead of pouring it all in at once. 

Thank you.

Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches

Since I began making homemade ice cream, I have had the grand desire to make great homemade ice cream sandwiches. I've seen many reviews of big fat ice cream sandwiches on huge cookies. But I don't necessary think bigger is always better. And I think after a while of eating all that ice cream your frozen taste buds won't be able taste the cookie or ice cream anymore.

This Christmas my lovely wife bought a set of ice cream sandwich molds, which really got my juices flowing. I read the instructions for the molds and they suggest using a store-bought cookie dough and rolling it out into a baking sheet. Once the cookie is baked and still soft, the instructions say to use the mold to punch out the top and bottom part of the ice cream sandwich.

I wanted to bring up the degree of difficulty and make my own cookie dough, so I searched my favorite food sites and blogs and landed on a sugar cookie recipe. When I was rolling out the sugar cookie dough, I thought it would be easier to stamp them with the mold and then bake them since sugar cookies for the most part retain their shape during baking.

I think my steps worked out pretty well, for the most part. I was able to place the bottom part of the cookie in the mold and fill in the chocolaty homemade ice cream. I then removed the mold and placed the top cookie. The ice cream sandwich was good but not great. I'm going to have to try again as it was a little messy to eat.  I was looking for a softer cookie so that when you bite into the ice sandwich it doesn't push the ice cream out.

As a quick alternative, I had some Trader Joe "Joe Joe's" (Oreo-like cookies), so I scraped out the creme and stuffed it with some dark chocolate ice cream. These were delicious and almost bite size, mini ice cream sandwiches.

Thank you for reading my first ice cream post of the year. Stay tuned for exciting new flavors.

A New Year

Happy 2010 everyone. I'm going to be working on the blog more this year and make a lot more ice cream for everyone to view and give comments on. As you can tell I'm already trying to make some changes on the site so that it present my ice cream better.

I'm sorry I have not posted any ice cream lately but they are coming. I've been practicing with my new camera and I've been learning how to compose great food shoots. It a learning a experience and hopefully you will see my progression along the way.

There is alot to look forward to this year and I'm excited to have this medium to share and get feed back from anyone that is interested.

Stay tune...