Icecream in Winter

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out"

Dr Seuss

On my mission to live slow, I have been making lots of things from scratch, but I still like to find the easiest ways of doing this. There are better things to do than spend all day in the kitchen.

Yesterday I made Ginger Icecream, which is my own interpretation of Annabel Langbein's icecream recipe here. This is a great recipe, that doesn't require extra stirring once it has gone into the freezer, nor do you need an icecream machine. In fact when I started making it, I didn't even have an electric mixer, and it wasn't too bad to make with a hand beater. I just make the base recipe, then add whatever I feel like, but keeping to the quantity guidelines.

For the alcohol in the recipe I add Stone's Green Ginger wine, plus I stir through some finely chopped or grated fresh ginger, about the size of a thumb.

Ingredients for ginger icecream

One of the good things about making your own food is control of what you eat. I like to lower the sugar content of the icecream by using half quantity of Dentasweet, which is like sugar in consistency, but is Xylitol, a product made from plant extracts, with half the energy of sugar. It tastes no different to using sugar.

What You Give Out...

The cookbook mentioned above is a bit special...apart from that it is good (you should also check out her Busy People's Bread ).

This is a bit of a story...

A while back I met Derek's great nephew, aged about 11 at the time. He was so enthusiastic about cooking - with plans to become a chef - that I was really impressed by his passion. Wanting to encourage him, I posted him a couple of magazine type cookbooks that I had, along with an encouraging letter, and thought no more of it.

Later in the week, I received in the mail a prize for having a letter published in a magazine..a cookbook. Then another day or two later a courier arrived with a parcel. It was a thank you present from a young Christchurch couple who had come to stay with us, with their two little ones, just after the second earthquake. It was Annabel Langbein's Free Range Cook book. 

Sent two cookbooks out ...got two straight back!