Banana Split Ice Cream

Oh this is good. This is so good. I can't even tell you how good this is, it's so good.

It's 90 degrees outside. I needed ice cream. Sure, I could have gone down to the ice cream shop and gotten a cone, but with it would come a bad case of the bubble guts, and a wicked insulin spike and subsequent crash. Wegmans carries coconut milk ice cream, but every brand insists on putting that agave nectar in it. What's with that anyways? The organic equaivalent to HFCS, but I degress...

So it was settled. I'm making my own ice cream.

First I had to decide on a base. That was easy. Coconut milk. Sweetener? Nah, none really. Well maybe. How about a banana? Bananas are good. Yeah, I'll do one of those. What else? Chocolate chips sound yummy. I'll have some of those too. With that train of thought, my Banana Split Ice Cream was born.

I happened to have an ice cream maker in the house. I borrowed it from my parents I don't know how many months ago, the last time I got an itch to make ice cream, but never scratched it. It just sat in the cupboard, waiting for me to find the motivation. I found it.

Actually making the ice cream was easier than I thought. I was just paranoid I wouldn't have enough ice, but it was fine. Now I'm waiting for the ice to melt down the drain. It won't hurt to have some extra on hand of course. Same with the salt.

There are a bazillion ice cream recipes floating around the net, I learned. I went looking for a recipe to make sure I was doing it right. After drowning in recipes I gave up and decided to wing it. This is what I came up with...

Banana Split Ice Cream

Ingredients:
4 cups coconut milk
1 large banana (frozen then thawed)
2 scoops vanilla whey protein (optional)
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips (chopped in the food processor)
Salt (about 2 cups)
1 7-lb bag of ice

Start by putting your coconut milk, banana, whey and vanilla in the blender and mixing it all together. The banana doesn't have to be frozen and thawed, but mine was. It blended easier that way. You don't need to add vanilla whey, but I chose to at the last minute.

Fill your ice cream maker with your ice cream base. Add chocolate chips, nuts or whatever else you want blended into the ice cream. Only fill your ice cream maker half full. The mixture will expand as it freezes.

Follow your ice cream maker's directions for use. Mine simply instructed me to layer 2 inches of ice with 1/2 cup of salt until the bucket was full. Turn it on, and let it run. 40 minutes later, ICE CREAM!

*If you don't have an ice cream maker you can still do this! When we were kids we'd use coffee cans. You put your ice cream mix in a small coffee can and put the lid on. Put the small can inside a large coffee can. Fill in around the edges with ice and salt, and put the lid on the big can. Roll it around on the floor for 30 minutes or more and you'll have ice cream just the same. I've also heard the same method used with ziploc bags, but cans seem like they'd work better.

Once you have your ice cream, transfer it into a plastic storage container and pop it in the freezer- after eating some of course! Make sure you leave an inch or so at the top. It'll expand more in the freezer and you don't want the lid to pop off.

I really can't wait to try making more flavors now. My freezer is gonna be full of nothing but ice cream. The funny thing is that it tasted perfectly good without the addition of any extra sweeteners. I thought about adding some stevia but decided it wasn't really needed. The banana did just fine, as did the small amount of stevia in my whey. I think next time I'll try chocolate and almond butter, or dark chocolate cherry. It's probably a good thing I've run out of coconut milk, huh?

Watermelon & Goat Cheese Salad

I love summer. Summer means yummy light foods, and lots of delicious fruit. One thing that just screams "SUMMER!" is watermelon. You just know it's summertime when you're eating watermelon. Of course we all remember being kids, eating that big wedge of watermelon, spitting out seeds- sometimes at one another.

As the weather got warmer, and the sun grew stronger, I started getting a hankering for that ultimate summertime treat. I remembered back to the last time I had watermelon. It was at a cooking demonstration at our local arts festival, sponsored by Wegmans- my all time favorite grocery store. I remembered the recipe because it was so darn surprising. I never thought to make a salad with watermelon. We always used to just eat it. So the salad idea threw me a little, considering the combination of ingredients the chef used. Watermelon, feta and mint leaves. I wouldn't have thought to put the three together. I'm glad somebody did because it's delicious!

So I didn't have any feta cheese, but I DO have goat cheese. I've gotten into the habit of making goat cheese from raw milk I have access too. I figured I'd give it a try, and actually I like the goat cheese a lot better than the feta. It's less salty, at least the way I make it. It's a really, really simple recipe. So simple it doesn't even have measurements. You just sort of eyeball it, or go by your personal taste.

Watermelon & Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients:
Watermelon, cut into 1-inch cubes
Goat cheese, crumbled
Mint leaves
Lime juice (optional)
Sea salt (optional)

Mix your watermelon, goat cheese and mint leaves together in a bowl. Add more of this or less of that, depending on what you like. Drizzle with a bit of lime juice or sprinkle with sea salt, if you like.

See, I told you it was simple. My non-Primal family LOVES this salad and have requested I make it again.

Oh, and don't let that rind go to waste! Don't forget you can use it to make watermelon pickles!

Happy Summer everyone! =)

Midsummer Blessings

The Summer Solstice has arrived!

I find myself both festive and sad at Midsummer. The arrival of summer is certainly a joyous celebration, however I lament at the thought that it's the peak of the Sun's brilliance, and that after today He'll begin to wane into winter. It's a bittersweet sabbat to me indeed.

This year I celebrated the Summer Solstice at Wickerman, in Artemas, Pennsylvania. It's a fantastic event of the Pagan kind, full of inclusion, self-expression, gifting, self-reliance, participation and so much more.

At Wickerman I met so many interesting and fun people. They were both open and encouraging- just the sort of people I need in my life right now. I grew in several ways, learning to push my boundaries, step outside my comfort zones and be more confident, and I'm learning acceptance- mostly acceptance of myself. All of these were wonderful Midsummer blessings.

My ritual and the offering were simple- no tools, no sacred words. Just me, my other, the gods and a bottle of dandelion wine. It took only a moment, but that moment was more meaningful than words can describe. Of course there was the big burn event, which was amazing. It's just one of those things that you really have to be there to understand.

As Pagan celebrations go, the Summer Solstice is one of the biggest. Often rituals will take place at sunrise, while others are late-night bonfires. Sometimes both! It's traditional to gather herbs at Midsummer, with the belief that they're at their most potent at this time. Another great way to celebrate is to take time for summertime activities, such as swimming, playing yard games, picking wildflowers, enjoying the outdoors, and most appropriately... sunbathing. There's nothing like soaking up some of the Sun's rays on its most powerful day. Just don't say out too long. Sunburns aren't a blessing.

Since my "big" celebration was at Wickerman, I took some time today to do some small personal celebrations, including tending to my garden and catching a little sun. The sun just set, and I took a moment to say "farewell," knowing He'll be just a little weaker tomorrow. It's a mourning process I'll continue until the Saturnalia when the Sun once again regains his power.

You know I typically celebrate with food and share a recipe. My Wickerman celebration included my previously posted Dandelion Wine. After a weekend of really good eats, I'm sort of recovering with a 24-hour fast and a light dinner. I do have lots of fantastic Summer Solstice recipes, even though I didn't make any of them today.

This is a fun recipe that I plan on making soon. When I do, there will be a photo.

Sunshine Gelatin

Ingredients:
6 ounces gelatin
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 can mandarin oranges

Mix the gelatin and hot water in a bowl. Add the cold water, orange juice and coconut milk. Pour into a 8 by 5-inch pan.

Place pan in the refrigerator. When the mixture begins to congeal but is still liquid, sprinkle the chopped walnuts.

When gelatin is firm serve walnut side down in a bowl, with mandarin orange pieces on top.


And so with that I sit here and watch the last remaining streaks of pink in the sky fade away as the sky grows dark- a sure sign that tomorrow will be another bright and sunny day, a fraction of a minute shorter.

Happy Solstice!

Watermelon Pickles

I've sort of been on this pickling kick lately. Eggs mostly, but we had a delicous watermelon salad the other day and I decided I wanted to play with making pickled watermelon rind. It always sort of seemed interesting, not to mention I like trying "different" foods, and it takes advantage of my scavenger tendencies.

There were a few problems finding the right pickle recipe. First, it had to include ingredients I actually have in the house, or at least something close. Second, I didn't want it loaded with sugar. Most of the pickled watermelon recipes I found were extremely sugary.

After a great deal of searching I found a do-able recipe. It does have a lot of sugar in it, so I decided to cut the sugar in half and see what happens. I'm thinking I want to try this recipe later with apples. Pickled apples might make a nice Christmas gift.

Watermelon Pickles

2 lbs. Prepared watermelon rind
1/2 cup salt
2 qts. water
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon mustard seed
5 pieces (2 in. each) stick cinnamon
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup white vinegar
2 cups water
1 lb. sugar

Pare the watermelon rind, removing all green and pink portions and cut into bite-size pieces.

Prepare a brine of the salt and 2 quarts water; pour over rind. Cover and let stand overnight.

Drain the rind and cover with fresh water and cook until tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from heat and let stand several hours, then drain.

In a sauce pan combine your pickling ingredients and bring to boiling, cooking about 5 minutes. Add the drained watermelon rind and cook gently until rind is clear and transparent.

Pack pickles into hot sterilized jars; cover with boiling syrup, leaving headspace. I sort of picked out most of the spices and cinnamon stick with a little extra syrup for a later batch. I allowed a few allspice berries and cloves into the jars, mostly because it looks pretty that way.

Remove air bubbles and seal.

Voila! Watermelon pickles!

This is a really good way to make the most out of your summer produce. No sense throwing away perfectly useable food, right? I'm sure you can use different spices and vinegars, depending on what flavor you're looking for. Balsamic vinegar might be tasty, or red wine vinegar which would add a lovely pink color. Beets would definitely add some nice color to the pickles, as they do with eggs. So many ideas, so little time...

Growing on the Wild Side

In thinking about last week's post, and at the request of some of my friends and readers, I think I will stick with the "growing" theme this week. I took on a fun little project that I will continue to expand in coming growing seasons- transplanting wild plants into my garden.

Some of my favorite foods are wild edibles, and sometimes it can be tricky finding them when I want them. I don't know why I didn't think of bringing them home before. It makes perfect sense after all. Local plants are often more hardy because they're meant to grow where you live. It's just a matter of replicating their preferred growing conditions- sun, shade, moist or dry soil, acid or alkaline. This works best in a potted garden versus an in-ground or even raised bed variety, so that you can move plants into the sun or shade, and each plant can have it's preferred soil. I'm already planning that someday down the road when I own a home, it'll be surrounded by wild edibles that I've kidnapped from nature.

The best time to kidnap your plants is a day or two after a good hard rain. The soil is softer and the plant has just had a good drink. Dig wider and deeper than you think you need to. Roots can go a lot further than you think. Better safe than sorry. Keeping a good root bundle with original dirt will help your odds of the plant surviving and thriving.

I've learned the best days to transplant wild plants are overcast. It'll help keep your new plants from wilting and being stressed. Check your plants for the first few days after transplanting. They might be a little wilty or stressed. They might need a bit more water, but they may be in shock, or the growing conditions aren't right for them to thrive.

I started with wild strawberries, since they seem to be more than abundant along my driveway. They're beautiful there, but I didn't want to compete with the deer and rabbits for the harvest, so I decided to take my share up on to the porch. Wild strawberries are also very attractive, especially in hanging planters. I have 2 buckets that I'm testing out this year. Wild strawberries will produce fruit for about 3 years and can be taken indoors when the weather cools in the fall.

I also decided to take up some yellow wood sorrel. I've been eating this stuff since I was a kid, but I never thought of growing it until now. It has a lovely tart lemon-like flavor, and the flowers are lovely. It's great in salads and having a bucket of sorrel right outside my door will make harvesting so much easier.

Some of the other plants I'm going to try transplanting, either this season or next include purslane and jewelweed. Another method I'd like to try is taking up seeds this fall from various wild plants, and trying to grow some of them from seed, like jewelweed, wild mustard, garlic mustard, and milkweed. I will let you know how that goes.

Some responsible kidnapping tips you'll want to keep in mind:

- Never take the only plant of a certain type, or all of one type of plant. Leave some behind to grow and reproduce.

- Be sure to get permission from the landowner before you dig.

- Never dig up a protected plant, or plants on public land unless it's allowed there.

So here are the new additions to my garden. So far they're happy little plants. Both are perennials and will come back every year if left outside, but I'm going to bring them indoors for the winter and hopefully they'll continue to thrive.

Dandelion Wine

I know, this post has been a long time coming. I've had so many projects going on, not to mention the process takes a little time, but here it is...

My first experience with dandelion wine was not the most pleasant one. I must have been 9 or 10 years old when I grabbed a pitcher of yellow liquid out of the refrigerator, thinking it was orange juice. You can imagine my shock and disgust when I discovered otherwise!

Now that I'm older, I have a certain appreciation for this fine golden ambrosia. It's the epitome of summer to me. There is no better way to celebrate the upcoming Solstice than with a glass of dandelion wine.

Making wine at home is really quite easy. You just need your fruit (and flowers in this case), sugar, and yeast. With those three basic ingredients, you can make wine out of just about anything. I've been doing a lot of dabbling lately, with various juices, fruits and wild plants. Dandelion is one of the more popular home brews, especially for country folk like myself.

Dandelion Wine

Ingredients:
1 gallon dandelion flowers
1 gallon water
1 yeast packet
3 cups sugar (or honey)
3 oranges, sliced
3 lemons, sliced

The process is simple. You'll need a large stock pot that will hold about a gallon of liquid, and a glass jar about the same size. As I mentioned before, a big pickle jar is best. Ball jars are known to break with hot water.

Start by picking your dandelions- about a gallon jar full, picking just the flowers from the stems, just like you do when making fritters. You don't want any greens or stems in this. The base of the flower is ok. I just take my pickle jar out into the yard with me and pick until the pot is full, with about an inch remaining at the top.

I fill my stock pot with water and set it to boil. Once the water is boiling I pour the hot water into the pickle jar until the jar is full. Put the lid on and let this set for 3 days. Basically you're making a really strong dandelion tea.

After 3 days pass, dump your flowers and water back into the stock pot and add your orange and lemon slices. Boil gently for 20 minutes. Strain out the flowers and fruit pieces and stir in your sugar. Allow your mixture to cool before adding the yeast. I usually let it set over night before adding the yeast, just to make sure it's not too hot.

Add the yeast and stir it in. Place a piece of cloth over the top of the jar and secure with a rubber band. Put your jug in a dark place, like a cupboard or pantry for 3 weeks while it ferments. You'll know it's done when you can smell the alcohol. If you want a lighter wine, reduce sugar to 2 cups.

When fermentation is complete, strain and bottle your wine. Sediments will continue to settle, so I use removable cork caps in the bottling process and let the bottles stand upright. After 1 year I siphon out the clear wine into new bottles and leave the sediments behind.

Dandelion wine ages extremely well. My parents have a small jar of dandelion wine that is now approximately 15 years old. It's a lovely clear, amber color, and very strong. It tastes like a wonderful brandy rather than a wine. Most dandelion wine is drinkable immediately but is 100x better after 1 year, but feel free to let it age longer. It'll only get better with time.

It's my tradition to enjoy a bottle of dandelion wine at the Solstice, however it's equally appropriate to have a glass for Easter/Ostara as a celebration of the returning Sun and springtime. Adding a sliced of orange to the glass makes a lovely presentation.

There are probably hundreds of recipes for dandelion wine floating around the internet. Some use honey, some use sugar. Some recipes add raisins, which I've not yet tried. There are as many methods as there are wine makers, so feel free to explore and experiment. You really don't have to worry about doing it "wrong." Just enjoy the process.

Note: One little tip I found helpful, especially for anyone interested in winemaking. Keep notes! Take notes on your process and your ingredients each year. That way when you open a bottle of wine you can note the resulting flavor from the process you used. That way you can tweak and change your recipe over time to get the perfect results.

Growing

Part of me thinks it's ironic that I'd be writing about growth just as it seems my blog has stalled out momentarily. The problem lies in that I have seeds planted, both figuratively and literally, there's a lot of growth, but no fruits as of yet.

The first place I noticed growth, more rapid than I could keep up with, were my ugly little baby birds. Before I knew it they'd outgrown their nest and eventually left one by one. It's almost sad not having them there, though I am relieved to not have to worry about a bird flying into head as I come up the stairs.

The garden is coming along adequately. I wish I could say it's coming along nicely, but as my first year doing a potted garden, of course there will be a learning curve. The Brussels sprouts are going crazy. The peas seem to be coming up happily. There are signs of peppers, carrots, daikon and beets finally. I've still yet to plant my lettuces. The broccoli and cauliflower... well they're just sort of pathetic right now. I hate having such a short growing season, but that comes with living in New York. Frost until Memorial Day is just one price we pay.

As I said, I've got a lot of seeds planted- a lot of projects rolling along. Various wine projects- dandelion, pomegranate, knotweed, just to name a few. An interesting goat cheese fluke that yielded mozzarella created another seed of inspiration. A fluke I must now attempt to reproduce. The mealworm farm seems to be rolling along nicely. The worms have grown, going from pupa stage into beetles. Now it's a matter of waiting for more wormies to appear.

I was also delighted to find a huge crop of knotweed right in my back yard, and just this morning I discovered my driveway is completely edged with wild strawberries. The trick will be getting to the berries before the deer and rabbits! There's also an abundance of garlic mustard and jewelweed at my disposal. I absolutely love this new apartment. So many wonderful wild foods right on my doorstep!

There's also been a great deal of spiritual and emotional growth lately in so many ways I cannot even begin to describe them here. A great deal of it stems from my camping trip at Forest Folk a couple weeks ago- something I must certainly nurture and help grow.

Sorry, no weird recipes, magickal tips or Pagan bits this time. I've got a few ideas in store for the coming month, however. So much to do, so little time! Not to mention this fine June weather leaves me wanting to do nothing more but lie about and sun myself like a lizard. I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts, for soon it'l be winter again.

Until next time, be well always.