Ice Cream! You Scream!

Right before I left Texas, my Mom and her crazy gal pals thru me a lovely bridal shower. It was really fun (Quite a few blog posts will stem from that day) and I couldn't believe that sweet Cydney Wilson drove 2.5 hours to from Baton Rouge to Jena and back to be there. It really meant alot to me that she spent five hours driving  round trip to be there. 

On the drive in that morning, she and I had a second to chat. Cydney informed me that she was very excited about the gift she was bringing me that day. She told me that she had made sure to choose something that we had registered for, but she didn't want to buy us a plate or silverware, she wanted me to think of her the "once a year I actually used it." I laughed and couldn't imagine what she was talking about but I couldn't wait to find out!

The present opening begins and when I get to Cydney's gift I am thrilled to find this:

If Cydney Wilson honestly thought that this baby would be collecting dust in a closet at my house, she has lost her mind! We moved into this house 18 days ago and I have made 4 different slushy treats and I believe there will be many more. I love this thing! Sorry Cydney if you regret this purchase since I feel like I have to tell you every time I use it.

I kicked off my ice cream maker adventures with a simple vanilla custard (delicious!). Since that went well, I decided to make a more interesting flavor: Honey Rosemary. This worked out well because I am also making an effort to use things we have. Since we have rosemary in my herb garden and we have a huge thing of honey that my dad gave us awhile back, I decided to give it a go. I found a good many recipes but this one looked like something I could pull off.

The great thing about living in Virginia is that I am now a quick 2 hour drive to my MOH, Kristen. Lucky for me, Kristen came to visit us this past weekend. We had big plans to break in the ice cream maker, we have been talking about all the delicious things we can make. As a bonus, Kristen showed up here with a fabulous birthday gift for me. And the fun began.

One of the first nights Kristen was here, our dinner menu was Roasted Tomato soup of Grilled (4) Cheese sandwiches. It was a great opportunity to use my new Crockpot (thanks Jessica) and our griddler (thanks shower hostesses). A full blog post will be dedicated to this meal. Back to the ice cream making......

After soup and sandwiches, we enjoyed chocolate peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cups mixed in. I may have added some hot fudge since I don't believe in over kill . We got this recipe from the book Kristen gifted me. Did I tell you I have the BEST friends ever?

Last night, I decided to break out the Mediterranean cookbook I bought at TJ Maxx (for $3) awhile back. Soon, I will share the recipe for that dinner because it was unbelievable! Well, I just had to make us a little treat to top things off. Going back to my obsession with using things we have, I found a recipe for sorbet that required Rose' wine. I had bought a ton of stuff (including a bottle of rose' that I will never drink) when Marcello's in Baton Rouge went out of business last year. At a later date, I will share the details of how to make this delicious sorbet.

Its a dang good thing I started this blog today. I already have so many things to share. If I had waited 1 more week this intro to my ice cream making would have been a whole book! I know its super exciting and there will be so much more to come. Thanks, Cydney and Kristen for giving me such great treat. I love you!

Do you have any suggestions for flavors we should try?