Mish Mash

So last night, was crafting night! I had some ladies over to work on the crafts of their choice. Most people knit, except one who was doing a very nice embroidery. We also had two people at different stages of learning. It was a really nice night! I love knitting company. It gives me people to obsess in front of, who won't look at me funny because of it. We will definitely have to that again!

I worked on my Central Park Hoodie. I'm so close to being finished with the back. I think it will be very nice when it's finished. Though of course I still have two fronts and two sleeves left.

So today was food experimentation day. First, I attempted to make Green Chili Stew in my new Crock Pot. So, that experiment didn't turn out so well. Granted most of my ingredients were slightly on the old side, but it was worth a shot. I keep trying to use raw onions in my crock pot recipes. For some reason I cannot stand the smell or flavor of onions that have been in the crock pot. So, next time something calls for onions, I'm going to have to sautee them, perhaps that will help?

The second experimentation was attempting to make "ice cream." For me this involves not using any milk. The ice cream maker attachment for my kitchen aid came with a recipe for gelato. It contained 2% milk, sugar, egg yolks and flavoring. I thought this might be a good start, with regular unflavored rice milk and only a vanilla bean. The motivation is that if the vanilla version turns out well, flavored versions (chocolate or strawberry, etc.) should be better.

I mixed up the milk and vanilla bean and heated it (it is the scalding step of the recipe), then mixed up the egg yolks and sugar. Tempered the eggs and poured it all back onto the stove. Let it cook for a bit. Cooled it down and put it into the ice cream maker attachment. I let it spin away. I tasted it on the way out and it wasn't bad! It still had that certain taste behind it that rice milk has. Perhaps a different brand might be better made and less of that flavor.

It's in the freezer, freezing up at the moment. The soft stuff was too sweet, which was my fault. I added extra. Next time I may try a chocolate or strawberry. See how that turns out. In the mean time I'm going to troll around the internet for recipes. Ones with eggs may work better for omitting regular milk, but I'll try different styles.