Fresh strawberry ice cream

Original Recipe
3 cups thinly sliced strawberries
About 1 cup sugar, divided
1 cup milk
2 eggs
dash salt
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla

Toss sliced berries with enough sugar to sweeten, about 1/2 cup.
Whirl in blender with milk until smooth, set aside.

In large bowl of mixer, beat eggs, remaining sugar, and salt until thick and light colored.
Beat in berry mixture, corn syrup, cream, lemon juice, and vanilla until blended.

Freeze until almost firm. Beat until smooth. Freeze again, then beat again.
Turn into chilled 9 x 9 inch baking pan or 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Freeze until firm, then cover airtight.

Garnish each serving with a strawberry. Makes about 1 - 1/2 quarts, or 8 servings.

Note: Reduce sugar to 3/4 cup if strawberries are very sweet.

Modifications
Yes, I used an ice cream maker. My modified procedure:
Once all ingredients have been blended, pour into ice cream maker, per manufacturer's instructions. After ice cream has been mix-frozen for the suggested amount of time (~20 minutes, in my case), scoop into smaller containers for freezing. Made ~2 pints.




This is definitely the best ice cream I've made at home.

Ice Box pickles

(click for full version)


I've done quick pickles before, but the vast majority of recipe's I've seen are for spicy, vinegary dill pickles. This is the first quick-pickle recipe I've seen for sweet bread-and-butter pickles. I had to try it. To be truly obsessive, I tried three recipes at once: this one, a refrigerator pickles recipe I had tried previously, and a generic quick pickle recipe. All three are now in my fridge, with tasty (but different) results.



Original recipe:
6 cups sliced cukes
1 cup sliced onions
Cover with water and let stand 3 hours

Drain &
1 cup vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp salt
1 tsp celery seed
Mix. Stir till sugar and salt are dissolved.
Pour over cukes.Cover
Store in refrigerator. Delicious and keeps for months.

Notes:
I assume "drain &" means the water is reseved and mixed with the vinegar. I had trouble visualizing a brine based on 1 cup vinegar and 2 cups sugar and no water.

I did a half-recipe of this - enough for a four-cup mason jar - and similar amounts of the other two recipes. Two large english cucumbers were sliced into chips and spears and divided between these three recipes.

Ice Box Cukes (Isllah's recipe box): ~3 cups water, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar (half recipe)
Refrigerator Pickles (Instructables): ~2 cups water, 1/3 cup vinegar, 2 teaspoons sugar
Quick pickle (Serious Eats): 1 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar

Flavorants for each recipe:
Ice Box Cukes: onion slices, celery seed
Refrigerator Pickles: dill, peppercorns, ground pepper, garlic
Quick Pickle: dill, ground pepper, garlic

The taste test:
The Ice Box Cukes were sweet, and definitely a good replacement for pre-made "bread-and-butter" pickles. Next time there's a gathering involving burgers on a grill, I might bring a small batch of these. Perhaps without the onion - I'm not sure I liked how that combined with the sweetness. These are good pickles to put on burgers and sandwiches.

The Refrigerator Pickles were ... ok dills. Not spectacular, just kind of middle-of-the road. These are the pickles I've made before.

The Quick Pickle, however, was strong. Not just vinegary, but the garlic and dill and pepper also came through very strong. I'll definitely be reusing and adapting this recipe for dill pickles. Next time I may add some chinese chilis, and maybe some cumin. I might even dial the vinegar back a little bit, or use a slightly better vinegar (since vinegar is such a huge ingredient for this kind of pickle). These are the pickles to snack on out of the fridge.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

This is a strange and fascinating recipe that I had to try. Don't think of it as chinese, it's definitely an all-American sweet-and-sour dish. When it's done right, it does make excellent leftovers.

I had to try this a few times, mostly because this was my first attempt at making meatballs. The poorly-formed oversized lumps of meat I pressed together for my first batch were kind of undercooked. Not good. I really had to try again and apply the lessons learned before I thought I could do a fair write-up.

Original Recipe:

1 1/2 # hamburger
2/3 cup cracker crumbs
1/2 cup minced onions
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tblsp veg. oil
2 tbls cornstarch
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1 1/4 cup water
3/4 cup drained pine juice
1 can (13 1/2 oz.) pine chunks
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1 1/2 tblsp. soy sauce



Mix hamburger, cracker crumbs, onion, egg, salt, ginger, and milk together. Form into one inch meatballs and brown in 1tbls. veg oil. Simmer until meatballs are cooked through. Remove from pan.
Mix cornstarch and sugar together, then add vinegar, water, soy sauce, and pine juice. Stir until smooth. Pour into skillet and cook over med heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil one minute.
Add meatballs, pine chunks, and chopped green pepper. Heat through.
May be served over rice. Can be prepared the night before and heated when ready to serve.




What worked:

• A good basic recipe for meatballs.


• A decent "midwestern style" sweet and sour sauce. Might reuse it (perhaps with a bit less sugar).


• Many leftovers for the two of us.


• I think this actually works better over brown rice than white.

What I figured out:

• First, FOOD PROCESSOR. I made the second batch of meatballs in the food processor (just pulsing instead of all the way "on", because I stil lwanted some consistency).


• "13 1/2 oz" of pineapple chunks is pretty much precisely what I head left after draining the fluid from a 20 oz can of pineapple chunks.


• Err on the side of SMALL meatballs. Bite size, or smaller. They will cook faster, cook more evenly, and stir more easily when you put everything together for the final step. I sauteed the meatballs in very small batches, to give me room to work - and it took me a long time. A very long time. I'll probably do larger batches next time I try this.

What I changed:

• My "hamburger" was about 1 pound beef and a half pound of pork.


• More pepper. For the final version, I actually used two whole green peppers.


• Also, the vegetables end up very raw and crunchy in this version. It's visually appealing, but I felt the need to cook the whole combined dish an extra five minutes with the larger amount of peppers I used.