The great ice cream contest!

Yes, we did, we bought yet another kitchen toy.  Thank goodness that the biggest room in our apartment is the kitchen or I think we may be in a bit of trouble.  I am very adamant about multi-use appliances and do my best to purchase them whenever possible, our kitchen-aid mixer has the ability to add attachments to it, I wanted an ice cream machine.  It arrived and I popped the bowl into the freezer before I left for work.  Yesterday we had a free evening to begin our madness.  I decided to go with a frozen yogurt, made from home made yogurt I made over the weekend with fresh whole milk and cream.  Mr. Mouse went with a good old fashioned ice cream recipe using the same farm fresh milk but in 2%.  He also (sneaky guy) shredded fresh coconut and used a little bit of Nutella for flavoring.  He got the first spin in our new toy, it's a neat thing that ice cream maker and I must say his ice cream came out really delicious.


For my recipe I did a peach vanilla frozen yogurt.  Once the yogurt was strained I popped it into the freezer, I used 3 farm fresh peaches which were just perfectly ripe, 2 tsp of vanilla flavoring and about 1/8c of raw sugar.  I boiled it and pureed it with the hand blender to get everything to a consistent texture.  I then popped that into the freezer to cool down.  Once the ice cream bowl was sufficiently re-frozen I pulled all my frosty cold ingredients together and popped them into the mixer then just let it go slow and low for about 20 minutes.  I think thoroughly chilling everything really helped with keeping the bowl frozen and making my yogurt creamy.  It was delicious.  The next day we re-tasted recipes, Mr. Mouse graciously said that my recipe won, I think he as just being nice, they were both really good and easy to make.  The only thing I did not like about both of them was that they pretty much froze solid once in the freezer, instead of staying creamy, I need to do a little research on why that happened, all in all, I look forward to making all different flavors of home made ice cream, yogurt and sorbets!


Until then
~CM


p.s. Below is the recipe I started off with, then I altered it according to my preferences, I got it from the following web site: 
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/a-frozen-yogurt-recipe-to-rival-pinkberrys-recipe.html


Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe
Heidi notes: First off, remember it is important to use good-quality whole-milk yogurt. The version in David's book is Vanilla Frozen Yogurt. This time around I skipped out on the vanilla, opting for straight, bright white yogurt with the sweetness playing off the tang of the yogurt. I also used slightly less sugar than called for here, more like 2/3 cup - but you can go either way depending on what you like.

3 cups (720g) strained yogurt (see below) or Greek-style yogurt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla (if using). Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Refrigerate 1 hour.
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
To make 1 cup (240g) of strained yogurt, line a mesh strainer with a few layers of cheese cloth. then scrape 16 ounces or 2 cups (480g) of plain whole-milk yogurt into the cheesecloth. Gather the ends and fold them over the yogurt, then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. So, for the above recipe start with and strain 6 cups of yogurt.
Makes about 1 quart.

Goatgurt?

I got a new yogurt machine this week.  It's a yolife machine which is great because I can make large batches of yogurt in mason jars or smaller ones in the little glass jars provided, there is one drawback, it does not have a timer so it will not shut off automatically.   As you may know I have recently become obsessed with Greek strained yogurt and I wanted to take it to the next level of making the yogurt with a goat milk and heavy cream mixture.  Goats milk has really great nutritional qualities, is naturally homogenized and is the closest milk to a mother's human milk that we can get.  
 My "goatgurt" failed - dare I say it was baaaaad,  but I have a couple of things working here and I am not sure which one of them it was that did not work.  First it's a new yogurt machine, I may have misjudged how long it would take to "yo" in a larger container (I used two 24oz mason jars each filled to the 2 cup mark) and I also did not bring the milk to a full boil and then back down to the temp the culture needs. I simply took it up to the temp the culture requires.  Well the end of the story is that the mixture never solidified after 14 hours and it did not have the yogurty smell that I am used to.  I took a little sip, it actually tasted really good so it was a little depressing that I had to dump it.


Today at the market we bought 2 pints of whole milk, it's not raw the great state of New York will not let us choose to purchase raw mile.  This milk is also not ultra pasteurized so the cream still rises to the top.  We tasted it and um it is really great and dare I say milky tasting, if you have had fresh milk form a happy cow lately you know exactly what I mean.  We are still on our search for raw milk but we will most likely have to go black market to get it, or buy a cow.......I somehow think our landlord will not be real happy with the second option.  With this milk I am going to take a second stab at a really good healthy yogurt on the new machine, if it's successful I will be trying the goat yogurt again and see if it's the actual milk or my new machine that is causing the difference.


As an aside, I recently had a fresh batch of yogurt which I strained.  I put fresh blue berries and maple syrup over......oh good god it was just delicious!  Move over honey - maple syrup may take over from here!!!!!


I will make the yogurt tonight and let it do it's thing.  More tomorrow on this little experiment.


Later
~CM

Duck, Duck Goose!

We got a duck today as well.  I had some left over plum sauce from a previous meal so we decided to do a slow cooker duck with plum sauce and fresh veggies and an apple (we're kind of shooting from the hip on this one).   The kitchen smells heavenly.  It has a plum-y meaty delicious scent floating throughout.  I think we will make some sort of delicious potato dish to accompany daffy and I would like to incorporate the "yogurt cheese" that we purchased today into it the potatoes in some way.  The "yo cheese" has a really great thick texture and has the flavoring of a cross between sour cream and cream cheese.  It's just great.

Well these are my idea for the meal.  We shall see what kind of journey our duck takes us on and I will update when we have tasted, eaten and discussed the meal in detail as we always do.

Until then
~CM

Presto! it's pesto!!!!!

Well it's Saturday, in our household that means farmer's market day at McCarrin park near our house.  We ran into our farmer friend from Vermont and talked with him about our visit to his farm.  We, of course, got some delicious cheeses too!  Onto the meat man next and we they had fresh duck this week.  Well say no more mr. meat farmer and yes please we will take one of those :)  A few other veggies and fruits and a baguette to round out our trip should do it.  With the cheese - oh and I bought fresh basil too, so with the cheese and basil I made a wonderful pesto and will divide it up into an ice cube tray for freezing so we can have single servings of pesto as needed.  I use a recipe form the Hippy gourmet's cookbook (check him out, he's cool and really fun to watch on youtube.  Here is his recipe:


12 cloves garlic (approx 1 head of garlic)
4 cups fresh basil
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used a hard artisan goats milk cheese - so good!)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste (remember cheese has salt in it so start out light and add slowly)


I have a food processor so i tossed everything in there and let it, um, process.  When I was done blending it up i tasted it and it was really REALLY garlicky.  ugh! I thought I ruined it.  But instead of messing with it further I let it sit, and sit, and sit and it is just now coming into it's true flavor.  It's a rich and delicious pesto, oh winter bring on your wrath!  I have delicious home made foods to battle you all season!

~CM

Four Springs Farm day 3

 

Our last day :(

 

These are the broiler chickens, we helped to give them water, they were very nice.

 

These are young laying hens who have not started to lay eggs yet.  Mr. Mouse made friends with one who got stuck in the fence, I think she had a little chicken crush on him.....

 

This gentleman was the head rooster for the older ladies who did lay eggs.  

I liked his fancy tail feathers.

 

This is the laying hens house.  All the different chickens and turkeys are moved to a different part of the farm each day to help keep the grasses healthy and so the chickens get fresh bugs and grasses to eat each day.  The little fence is a mild electrical fence to protect the birds more from predators than to contain them. 

 

These are the turkeys (obviously) they are only about 2 months old, they make the cutest little cooing noises and are kind of funny to watch.

 

The farm barn and one of the little camp cabins.

 

One last sunset to round out our trip......

Four Springs Farm day 2 part 2

 

Deep in the woods on the farm we found a stream of water and sunlight.

 

Our favorite time of day......dinnertime.  

We made bison sliders, cooked pumpkin, potatoes and roasted corn on the cob.

 

Cook my pretties!

 

C'mon, would you want to leave this place????

 

Sorry if I keep posting this one, but the colors are spectacular!

 

Setting.........

 

Sepia after dark.

 

Our late night snack, we roasted pumpkin seeds fireside and sprinkled them with maple sugar.

Four Springs Farm day 2

 

Sunrise at the farm, it was so peaceful.

 

This pic was just awesome, I love the moon in the upper corner.

 

This is the sun rising over the opposite hill, the picture is beautiful but does not do what I actually saw justice.

 

Mr. Mouse took the reigns for brekkie, he made roasted eggs and we reheated the potatoes, let me tell you, roasted eggs are GREAT, and it was really fun to watch them cook.

 

This was my first conscious experience with instant coffee, I have to say it was pretty good.

 

More sunrise.

 

Morning dew on the spidey webs.

 

The quaint little town of South Royalton (about 15 minutes form the farm)

Four Springs Farm day 1

 

 Sepia sunset at the farm

 

The beginning of out campfire, I am prepping dinner for the hot coals.

 

I just had to plug this beer.  It's local VT beer called Long Trail and the type if Blackbeary Wheat....

it was truly delicious!

 

So the meal for the first night was a veal stew.  The veal and cheese was purchased at our friends farm in West Pawlet, VT.  The fresh produce was procured from various market stands on the roads we drove upon.  I kind of flew on by the seat of my pants in the tomato preparation; I cut the top off and added some goat cheese, fresh garlic and a splash of beer it cooked down into this wonderful tomato soup. I added corn to the potato dish, it was seriously the BEST corn we have ever eaten.  Oh and the veal stew........what can I say - it was unforgettable.

 

The beginning of sunset from our camp site.

 

Even in Bl & W it's really beautiful

 

Check that sexy tomato out!

 

Unbelievable.

Vermont Photos 1

 

View from the car window

 

Harvest Moon

 

We stayed at the Dovetail Inn in Dorset the first night, 

it was just the cutest and truly very New England town.

(view from the front porch)

 

Mr. Mouse making friends with some chickens at our friends farm 

Consider Bardwell Farm located in West Pawlet, VT.

 

So apparently if you see a sign like this, you are supposed to turn around.....um...we did not do that, we forged on like two stubborn Brooklyn Mice and ended up wrecking the car a little.  We ripped the bottom up on a rock......*sigh* lesson learned!

 
 

Driving on the scenic highway 4

 

Seriously........it's just beautiful

 

We turned into Four Springs Farm and this was the view.  Spectacular!

Straight to the source- totally honest food, people and place!

Last weekend we went on our long overdue camping trip to Vermont.  On our journey we planned to stop at roadside markets and plan our meals based on our purchases.  We also were able to stop at a farm that we purchase our cheeses from at the local Brooklyn farmers market.  It was awesome being in the actual barn that the goats and cows get milked.  Unfortunately we did not get to see any of the fine ladies, they were out playing in the pastures, which is where they should be.  We arranged to camp on a farm, apparently this is a very common thing to do in Vermont.  Our trip was fantastic!  I really REALLY did not want to leave.  The people were wonderful, the farms were beautiful, Vermont itself is very beautiful and camping was a really fun release from our city life.  It was hell getting out of the city but once we were on the highway it was a really pleasant drive.  We had three glorious days of campfires and cooking on them as well as drinking some delicious local beer fire side and watching some of the most unforgettable sunsets I have seen on the east coast (the photo above, is the view from our tent!).  We also got to help with farm chores, although I can't exactly call them chores, it was really quite a good time.  Mr. Mouse made friends with a bunch of chickens and I helped pick plums and wild blackberries, really not a bad day at the office I must say, I even managed a little bit of a sun tan.  I have a ton of photos from our weekend, I am going to break them up into different posts for east of loading everything, sit back and enjoy some great pics.  We will definitely be back to good 'ol VT, hopefully SOON!!!!!!


later
~City Mouse.........thinking that Country Mouse sounds like more fun.......hehe