As a child, I once told a “fib” to my mom about ice cream… made up this whole story about how it wasn’t me who polished off the container – and of course, my mother knew it was me, because I love ice cream.  So, if that gives you any indication about ice cream history in my life…

For years, I stayed a vegetarian for 2 reasons:  ice cream and cheese… I didn’t want to cut those items out of my diet because I loved them too much.  However, when I finally “made the switch” to a full-fledged vegan diet in 2008, my ethics trumped my desire (for once!) and I cut dairy and eggs out.  There wasn’t even time for the ice cream-shaped hole to form in my heart; manufacturers were already producing dairy and egg-free desserts.  In recent years, this market has taken off – so clearly I am not the only one looking for quality vegan options.

With the help of two books - Veganomicon and The Vegan Scoop - I realized that I could take ice cream making into my OWN hands…

~Strawberry with Dark Chocolate shavings~

Armed with my two guides, I borrowed my mom’s ice cream maker – the Cuisinart Automatic Ice-Cream Maker.  This counter-top model is much easier to use than the wooden barrels and hand cranks and rock salt ones that I remember from summertime family reunions (although they were fun to hand crank for a while).  Simply mix up the ingredients (more on that in a bit…) and pour it into the pre-frozen cylinder.  It sits on this rotating base and slowly mixes up the ice cream.  It takes about 25 minutes start to finish.  So great that I am planning to buy my own after “test-driving” mom’s for the last few weeks.

As long as the chemistry of ingredients is right, you can make almost any ice cream flavor you dream up.  I tried a recipe from The Vegan Scoop and was disappointed when it did not turn out right – the base never “took” and while it was still good, it was more of an cold smoothie than an ice cream. This could be the result of a number of factors: this book instructs you to book the ingredients, let them cool, and then put them in the ice cream maker – so there are more variables. Perhaps I didn’t let the items cool long enough? or maybe the ingredients were not a good match for my appliance? The biggest plus of this book is the variety of ice cream flavors – it has over 100 flavors from fruit sorbets to decadent chocolate mixes, also includes novelty flavors like green tea and red bean … for that reason, I use it more for flavor inspiration than I do for following the recipes. I have had much more luck with the base written up in Veganomicon. It has 5 ingredients and doesn’t require cook/cool time. I pour the ingredients into my blender (VitaMix) and then pour them into the maker. Easy as … ice cream. This recipe cuts the time down and you don’t have to think about temperature control.

The recipe does use some soy products, but I am experimenting on how to eliminate them – with so many non-soy vegan ice creams on the market, I know there must be some way to get that consistency without it.  I am not sensitive to soy, but I know that it is an allergen to many people, and I like to find alternatives to it whenever I can.  The common substitution of almond milk in place of the soy milk works well, and one could also use more coconut milk than the recipe calls for a creamier texture.  The recipe also includes sugar and I haven’t made any substitutions there;  I am using cane sugar over refined sugar, but I have not tried using syrups or agave – perhaps another experiment is in order!

Here’s the Veganomicon base recipe ~ could be plain vanilla ice cream, or the base to  “dress it up” in different ways:

1/2 c coconut cream (the cream that forms at the top of coconut milk cans)

1 c soy milk (or almond, hazelnut, possibly rice, although I haven’t tried that)

3/4 c sugar

6 oz silken tofu

1 T vanilla extract

Puree all ingredients in blender or food processor and add to ice cream maker.  Yield is 1.5 pints of ice cream.

Following this recipe, I have made several variations – the strawberry chocolate above, strawberry blueberry sorbet, hazelnut, mint chocolate, and most recently, peanut butter.  I am interested in trying some others before I have to give it back… rum raisin is sounding good to me…

(*ahem* and don’t delude yourself… just because it’s vegan doesn’t necessarily mean that this is a 0 calorie/low fat health food.  I believe it is healthier than store-bought dairy ice cream any day – only 5 ingredients over the 20 or 30 unnatural additions you see in stores! – and the fact that it does not have milk or eggs makes it healthier – in my eyes – than the alternative.)

Kris’s family goes to the Maryland and Delaware beaches each summer and we always join them for a long weekend.  It’s a tradition-filled excursion; we tend to visit the same places and do the same activities each year.  It’s quite fun to have these same activities and compare them year to year.  One of the longstanding traditions is a trip to Assateague Island and the Assateague Island National Seashore, a barrier island off the coast of Maryland.  The island, as you may recall from previous posts on the subject, is home to dozens of wild ponies, descendants of the horses from a shipwreck centuries ago (date is unknown, but figured to be in the eighteenth or nineteenth century).

These animals have adapted to their environment and can drink the brackish waters of the marshlands and can eat and survive on the limited vegetation.  Because of this, their growth has been stunted over the generations – which makes them “ponies” rather than “horses” because they are not as tall as the regular horse breeds.

This year, we saw more ponies than ever before – between 20 and 25.  (Every other year we saw about 5 or less)  Luckily, we also had our new camera and some lenses to play around with as we photographed the lovely animals.  It was a highlight year!

We came across this large band of ponies – lead by an alpha male.  When another male came towards the group, the alpha chased him off with hoof stomping and neighing.  The last picture shows a foal, only a week old according to the ranger.  Baby’s hair was wavy ~ so sweet!

The ponies have free reign over the island, but there are still areas for sightseers and campers to park their cars.  It was quite a funny juxtaposition to see the ponies lined up in between the cars in the campground parking lot:

…and even ponies like to hear the sound of the waves…

Over a year and no socks in sight… and then the sock bug bit me again right before the Vancouver trip in February.  I finished a cuff on the plane ride out there and knit a few more rows, but just as quickly as it came on, the sock bug went away again.  However, I pressed on.  A few months later, I now have a pretty pair of socks to show for that tenaciousness (heh – yeah 4 months of persistence!)

Canada Socks
Pattern: Canada Socks from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Red and Ivory = Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima /
Gray = Tess Designer Yarns
Needles: Size 0 and 1 US

The socks were a fun mix of stranded colorwork and simple stockinette – two favorite combination.  The yarns work well together.  I altered the pattern’s cuff slightly, choosing a simple ribbed cuff instead of the vikkel braid outlined in the book.

The pattern was fun, and by virtue of the name – I will think of Canada when I wear these socks.  I have seen the east and the west of Canada… now I just have to see some of the in-betweens!

The socks were the final knit in my Stanley Cup Stashbusting knitalong with my friends on the Ravelry Puck This group.  We had about 20 participants (all hockey-loving knitters like myself!) and many projects – from blankets to washcloths and sweaters to socks.  It’s a fun chance to talk about what we are knitting as we cheer on our teams as they play towards the Cup.  Last night, the beautiful Stanley Cup was awarded to the fabulous Chicago Blackhawks team.  They played a great season, and it has been so much fun watching this team build themselves up after many years of abysmal attendance and indifference.  I adopted them as my “Western” team last year, so it was a joy to see them hoist the Cup only one year after my #1 team – the Pittsburgh Penguins – did they very same thing.  Congratulations to the Hawks!  So happy for them!  and happy for hockey in general – great ratings, top tweets on Twitter, and so much promise for the future.  Maybe the best-kept sports secret isn’t really a secret anymore?

So, in this quest for the Cup (and a few days before the playoffs started) I have been on a stashbusting kick – and I have some nice things to show for it!

My results:  1 blanket, 2 garments, 2 scarves and a pair of socks!

April – June 2010

…

Do I win an award for stashbusting?

“One day, I will stop by… have a look around…” Sitting at the traffic light, with my blinker on to turn left.  Looking directly ahead at the historic grounds and the small gravestones peeking above the grass.

“Why not today?”

Blinker off. Drove straight ahead into the small lot.  Exploration time.

…

I pass the historic landmark road plaque nearly everyday.  The plaque refers to the grounds of Christ Episcopal Church, established in 1711, and the church that was constructed a century later.  “Old Brick” is nestled right alongside several busy roads – tucked back behind some large poplar and oak trees.  You pass by it on the way to the market… the post office… the library.

After a lovely day with my mom (we spent it searching for a few key pieces at local thrift/consignment shops), we also stopped by “Old Brick” to walk the grounds of the old church, and the adjacent cemetery. Luckily, I had my new camera with me to capture the moments.

I felt like I discovered a little gem – so close.  I had every intention of stopping *some day* but having lived in this area for nearly nine years, I still hadn’t done it.  What places are on your “someday” list?  Do you think you could find a moment to explore and document that place within the next few days?

Larriland Farm days are back!  And this time, we went to the wonderful pick-your-own farm with the nieces.  It was all about the strawberries~

About 90 pounds of strawberries!  We had three rows (about 20 feet long) that were assigned to us – a group of 6.  They say it is the best picking that they have had in recent memory – I guess Snowmageddon was good for something!  Each plant had about 15 strawberries each, and they were like rubies under the dark green leaves.  So beautiful.

Since we had a clear plan for our berries, Kris and I took the most of them.  We split it 60/30.  It was an afternoon of washing, hulling, and freezer preparation.   The ripest and most delicate berries were taken out, cleaned and then sent through the juicer.  The juice is then frozen in popsicle holders and consolidated into plastic baggies in the freezer.  These little juice pops are used throughout the year for punches and sangria.  The majority of the berries were frozen whole – laid out on wax paper in the freezer shelf (so that they wouldn’t freeze together in one giant block after washing) and then consolidated into baggies.

…and with the others… we made some jam

My sister Sarah was in town for the long weekend, and she expressed an interest in learning how to can.  I picked up some jelly jars and pectin beforehand, so once she made it over, we were ready to go.

We made two batches of jam – the first was strawberry lime jam.  For this one, I used the Ball No-Sugar-Needed Pectin.  It called for apple or white grape juice for sweetener, but also gave instructions for adding some sugar.  Since I did not have the juice on hand, I did in fact add a bit of sugar to the recipe ~4 cups according to the recipe.  I found the recipe and adaptation on Ravelry’s Canny Crafters group page.  The original recipe was adapted from this one - just subbing lime juice and zest for the lemon.

The second batch used the same recipe as a guide, but a different flavor.  This was strawberry vanilla jam using Pomona’s Universal Pectin.  I saw several recipes for vanilla varieties and nearly all of them used a vanilla bean – but since I didn’t have one, I subbed 2 Tablespoons of vanilla extract.  I used the guidelines for sugars from Pomona’s box.  We had approximately 10 cups of strawberries, and I used a mixture of cane sugar and agave nectar for the batch.  And, it came out perfectly!  Such a nice gel and quite yummy too!

13 jars in all – 8 of vanilla and 5 of lime.  It was a great day.  Sarah, Kris and I had a lot of fun doing it all!  Now we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor over the whole year.  Planning to make more preserves, jellies, and canned goods this year – it’s fun to do!