Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

I think I'm in love, in love with this recipe; the combination of pineapple, coconut milk, sugar and lime juice is utterly delicious and incredibly easy to make. I actually made this last Thursday because we were going away for the weekend, and I have learned to just take it easy, in stages, to give all the steps a chance to chill to the max.

So we start with just a few ingredients:

These were super easy to put into the blender; I blended the pineapple first, then added the coconut milk, lime juice, sugar and rum. then I placed the blender in the refrigerator to chill for several hours, or overnight as it turned out. The next morning I placed the mixture in the Cuisinart and let it churn for about 25 minutes; this really froze to a nice texture, but since I did not plan to serve it for several hours, I scooped it into a Gladware container for the freezer.

But what to serve it in , or more importantly, what to use for the important sharing picture. Terry had already posted a picture of her sherbet in a teacup and I shamelessly went to the china cupboard to see what I might have there. When I found a bone china teacup and plate decorated with yellow roses, that had belonged to David's Scottish/Canadian grandmother, I knew it would be perfect. And so it was, along with a golden spoon from a set that had come down from my mother in law.

But as pretty as this sherbet looks, it's flavor is even better - definitely a winner at the Battin house.

Summer, when I was a kid, and even when I had kids in school, used to end on Labor Day weekend. Oh I know it officially is summer until mid-September, but when school starts, summer ends. Ask any kid or mom out there.

Things are different now, and even though there are still some schools on traditional schedules, the school that I work in starts the new year the last week in August. It all works out in the end, but somehow it still feels like summer. So now I have two ends; the one where I go back to work on Monday, and then next week, after Labor Day. And given that we still have several Dodger games and Hollywood Bowl concerts into September, perhaps this is the year that summer had three endings.

I posted a lot at the beginning of the summer, and even got our Italy trip up and out there. Since then, with the exception of the Bakers and the Scoopers, it has been mostly good intentions, but you know, that's probably ok too. Summer should be for kicking back.

This has been a most excellent summer. In addition to the trip to Italy that David and I made back in June, we were also able to spend several days at the end of July in Northern California, visiting our younger daughter Rachel in Santa Cruz, and having a night each in San Francisco and Walnut Creek, also seeing some Slow Travelers and cousins.

And of course, there was the long awaited, long planned family reunion trip to Cabo San Lucas the first week in August. Originally planned as a big 60 BD celebration for my cousin Donna, it became the reunion of the Yosemite cousins and their familys, and now the additions of spouses and children who have become "Lees" over the past decade. We had an absolute blast and I highly recommend the all-inclusive resort concept for the extended family vacation - no one was in charge of anything except getting there.

And it is not like this has been a static summer for the Battin family. Oldest son Matt proposed to Emily and she said yes - they are planning their wedding for July 2009 in Bodega Bay. And if it was not already enough that our son-in-law Matthew was going to start law school in August, he and our daughter Sarah announced their impending parenthood for early next year. Rachel, the youngest, tells us that she is thinking about going back to school and becoming a winemaker. WIth Matt in Sacramento, and now Sarah and Matt there as well, and if Rachel does decide to attend UC Davis, we should probably look at moving north ourselves.

It has been 10 years since Matt graduated from high school. In this decade we have seen 3 high school graduations, 3 college graduations, 1 wedding and we are currently off the tuition trail. We have also buried our 3 remaining parents, making David and I truly the head of the family. David has had a hip replaced; my left knee has issues. But now we look forward to the next decade - another wedding, a baby, yes, we will be grandparents. What a concept.

To end the summer, or at least summer #1, we are going, with Sarah & Matt, to San Diego to attend the wedding of a truly dear friend of Sarah's: Alexis Cerin, who will marry Sean Sullivan tomorrow. Sarah and Alexis played club soccer in high school; her father, Vladimir coached the Rebels for several seasons. Tomorrow the Rebels will have a reunion of their own, as will some of the Rebel parents. And we are honored to be included in this most wonderful celebration. Not a bad way at all to bring summer to an end.

And all this without pictures.

Colleen made a comment yesterday, about how this making ice cream is really about so much more, that hit me in the same place. Baking, and now ice cream, has become bigger than the recipe, but how could it not, as it is a community of people, working and talking together, about a mutual interest, playing with photography, helping each other get to a common goal; I'm really glad I am along for this ride.

But now about the ice cream. I like the recipes that don't involve making custard, I will confess - this week it was easy to mix the mascarpone cheese and cream, the flavorings and put it all away to chill (my blender has never been used so much). But first we had to make the ribbon flavoring, something new for me to try.

Once making the ribbon (and digging deep into the liquor cabinet for Kahlua and rum), and making the cream mixture was completed, it was time to it away to chill for several hours. I am learning that while making ice cream is not hard, you do have to allow for chilling time. The ribbon did get thicker in the refrigerator, but since it still seemed runny, I actually put it into the freezer along with the loaf pan I decided to use for layering, while the ice cream mixture churned away. Everything was pretty cold by the time the ice cream was done, and yes, it was softer than I expected due to the alchohol in the mix.

We came home late from a baseball game, so I decided not to scoop it out until the morning. It made a great breakfast for David, and he has called this one a winner. The small taste I had at the time made me agree - the Kahlua flavor was just amazing, and I think it was far easier to to than a traditional tiramisu - plus I prefer ice cream to puddings. I did not use all of the ribbon mixture, so I guess we could make another batch. But now onto Pina Colada Sherbet, and what I hope will not be an exhausting search for Thai coconut milk (actually I'm just happy that my long standing rum aversion seems to have disappeared during our recent vacation in Mexico).

I knew I would find a use for that solitary crystal coffee mug.

I feel like I have been MIA from the blogging world, and it's not the relucant thing at all - just on vacation, I guess. Since my last entry, we have had a short, but excellent trip up north, visiting a daughter in Santa Cruz, having dinner with fellow ST'ers in San Francisco, even a short visit to the cousins in the East Bay. And then there was an absolutely wonderful, long planned, family reunion week at a resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. But those are separate stories, and if I can get back into this blog thing, maybe I can get those in print later.

So, having digressed, here we are, the Slow Bakers are now Slow Scoopers (I also missed our last baking week and the gelato transition, sigh). Our first recipe from The Perfect Scoop was a butterscotch pecan ice cream, using yes, Scotch, and pecans. For a change, I actually had the ingredients, save heavy cream, and that was easy to get. It was also my first time with making an custard with eggs, cream, etc.

Making it was fun, and easy, tho I hate using all those bowls.

And here's another bowl, for ice:

Later that evening, while watching the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, I let the mixtures churn away in the Cuisinart. After it had done its thing, I decided not to put the pecans in the ice cream, since some of us have nut aversions, and served the nuts as topping to the ice cream. Being the newbie that I am, I didn't realize that I should have frozen the churned ice cream in order to get a harder scoop, so this week we are a rather soft serve version - the taste, however, was beyond delicious.

Butterscotch on the rocks:

The Sunday Slow Bakers were coming to the end of the road, so to speak, when someone (thanks Jerry) had the briliiant idea to make ice cream for the rest of the summer, and recommended a book, The Perfect Scoop by David Leibowitz. I am apparently not just reluctant about creating this blog, because while I love ice cream, my first inclination was to pass on this, since I had a great fear of a) eating too much ice cream and b) having to buy an ice cream maker, when I already have no room on counters or cupboards for any more "things".

After reading more and more enthusiastic comments for this project, I came to think well, why not, I do have time this summer and why not learn something new. I do not mess around; the next day I went to Costco and voila, I have a new toy, er, piece of kitchen equipment:

And then I ordered the book on Amazon. Reluctance turns quickly into action.

When the book came, I opened the ice cream maker box and decided to try out one of the recipes, even tho the Slow Scoopers were still Bakers. I thought a test run (or two) would be a good idea. I decided to make Lemon Ice Cream from the book, a fairly simple recipe using relatively few ingredients. The flavor was good, but the mixture did not churn into what I thought it should be, and we decided that perhaps the bowl insert had not chilled long enough in the freezer - it had been longer than recommended but I had only put it in that morning. We ended up freezing it in a container, so it was ok, not great.

Forward to yesterday, when I decided to give it another try.The insert had been frozen now for several days, and I thought I would try to make a sorbet. Very simple - strawberries, suger, water and a few teaspoons of fresh lemon juice (I already had citrus juice saved from the weekend baking project). I pureed the berries with the sugar, water and juice, strained it and put it away to chill. After dinner, I took the insert from the freezer, put it into the machine, poured the puree in the bowl and turned on the machine. After 25 minutes I looked in the machine, and wow, this was the right texture. The extra freezing did the trick. The sorbet was delicious and I quickly shared it with the neighbors (fear of eating ice cream, see above). As a matter of fact, I put some on a last slice of the Citrus Polenta Cake - great flavor combo, lemon and strawberry.

My Strawberry Sorbet:

Slow Scoopers began as a summer fling, but we have had more people join in and now it looks like we will be making ice cream until November! This is going to be fun.