Lavender Honey Ice Cream

Hi There, where ever there is...

My sis and I went to the Farmers Market on Saturday and picked up a beautiful bundle of Culinary Lavender.

The original bundle was about 3 times this size.. Huge I tell ya!

Ever since watching It's Complicated.. a favorite movie of mine. I've been interested in making some Lavender Ice Cream. So after our trip to the Farmers Market we headed to Trader Joe's to pick up some Organic Milk and my sister made the ice cream. She's the one with the ice cream maker.. until I can get one. It's on my "must get" list!

I don't have the recipe yet, so this post is going to be a teaser. I will get on her to email the recipe for me and I will edit this post as soon as I've got it!!

I know that she used a basic vanilla Ice cream recipe. With whole milk, half and half, eggs, vanilla, and honey. She steeped a bit of the lavender in with the milk just until it got hot but not boiling. Then she pulled it out. From there I don't know. I've never made Ice cream before, she's the pro!

All done and churning in the I.C. maker

Finished product

It was so good. We have a lot of different ideas in the works with this recipe though, as my niece doesn't like the honey and after a few consecutive bites the honey was a bit overpowering. But all in all The Lavender Ice Cream was a SUCCESS!!!!

In other random news.. my favorite beer at the moment is....

and I bought some delicious chocolate croissants at TJ and had them Sunday Morning....

 This is what I've been doing in all my spare time....

Sherice oxoxox

Raspberry Freezer Jam

WOW.... Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. I guess life took over.

Yesterday I was at the Farmers Market and came across these beauties.....

I've been wanting to make Jam but it seems very intimidating to me so I remember my sister telling me about how easy freezer jam is. So searched online for a recipe that sounded easy and fool proof. I used this recipe..http://www.chestertownfitforlife.com/2010/09/how-to-make-raspberry-freezer-jam.html#.UANZUnAzLRw   It was easy peaze!


First you mash up enough Raspberries for 2 cups.. I measured out 2 cups whole berries and then added another cup. 

I was texting my sister and was NOT paying attention and I added the 4 cups (I know, it's an outrageous amount of sugar) directly into the mashed Rasp. w/out measuring out the 2 cups. But oh well, I wasn't about to through out those berries and start over. So I hoped for the best. It totally worked out!! Yay!!

Then you mix it well and let it sit for 10 mins. Come back and add in 1 pkg (1 box) of pectin. I used the Sure Jell kind and 2 Tbls lemon juice.

Then set a timer and mix for 3 mins.. my Gymboss timer
came in really handy for this part

start stirring.. you'll get an arm workout for sure!

Then once the 3 mins is up your ready to fill what ever it is your using. I used some small pint (I think) jars I have on hand.

Once all your jars are filled you let the jam sit on your counter for 24 hrs.. I made mine about 7 pm and when I got up this morning about 9am I put one jar in the fridge and the others in the freezer. I could tell it was already thick. I'm very impatient so I didn't wait the 24 hrs and it worked just fine!!

I got about 7 jars of jam out of 2 cups of berries.. You can use any fruit for this recipe I'd imagine. As long as you can mash it up. I'm going to try making Peach jam next month. We always go to our local peach growers and pick peaches in Aug. One of the best things about the month of August. Fresh, sweet local peaches.

Eating this jam reminds me of spending time at my grandmas. We'd always have fresh Raspberry jam with homemade bread and butter at dinner time.

Isn't it funny how eating something or smelling something can just transport you right back to a memory you've forgotten about.

This morning I still had quite a few Raspberries so I made some delicious Raspberry Muffins.

Here's the recipe...

1/2 cup room temp butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup fresh or frozen Raspberries (toss in flour so they won't sink to the bottom of your batter)
turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top

cream butter and sugar in mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs mix until blended, add yogurt blend, add in vanilla and milk and blend until mixed well. combine dry ingredients and add 1/2 into wet, blend then add in rest of dry and thoroughly mix. Toss your berries in a little bit of flour, this helps them so they won't sink to the bottom of the mix. add to mix and blend by hand, so as not to break up all the berries. Place in cupcake holders in a muffin tin. I used a reg size ice cream scoop. Sprinkle with Turbinado Sugar. Bake @ 350 for 25-30 mins

These are really yummy!
They are moist from the yogurt with a bit of sweetness from the Turbinado sugar on top! So good with a hot cup of coffee!


Here's my workout for today.

The squats w/ leg abduction on the bosu were very hard! I do squats all the time and my legs were toast by the time I was done with 3 sets.

 Have a nice week ~
Sherice oxox