Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

A couple of years ago, I got a Cuisinart ice cream maker as a gift. Boy, what a difference this thing makes over my salt and ice kind of ice cream maker! It's so quick and easy! If I could regularly get raw cream or pasturized, organic cream without carrageenan, I'd make ice cream much more often. Carrageenan is a seaweed-derived additive that is on my list of yucky stuff in food I avoid. According to Dr. Russell Blaylock in his book, Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life, carrageenan is used as an agent to induce intense inflammation in experimental animals. It has also been implicated as a carcinogen. I don't believe I want any of that!

Anyway, carrageenan is found in every brand of locally available organic cream. It's not in the organic half and half, but that stuff is ultra-pasturized which is something else I try to avoid.

Last week, that changed. My local farm market got in some low-temperature pasturized cream with no other ingregients! It may not be raw, but it sure is good! Produced here in Kentucky by farmers who are not certified organic, but use the same practices, it meets three of my four main food goals:
it's local
it's virtually organic
and it's delicious

It's not raw, but that's to be expected in a state that doesn't allow raw milk sales.

So, I came home with two quarts of this delicious cream last week. My intention was to make ice cream, but I was sidetracked by strawberries. Strawberries, organic evaporated cane juice, and cream is a treat no one should miss. So, that's where the first quart went. Stinkerbaby even liked it and normally she doesn't like milk or fruit.

I did manage to get ice cream made out of the second quart. This is easily the best ice cream I have ever made! In addition to the great cream, it's a new recipe. This recipe is scaled for the little Cuisinart ICE-20 Ice Cream maker.

1 1/2 cup cream
1 1/2 cup whole milk
5 raw, pastured egg yolks (for those squeamish about raw eggs, see http://www.westonaprice.org/)
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
1 TBSP vanilla
1 TBSP arrowroot powder (cornstarch is an acceptable substitute)

Combine all ingredients and blend with a stick blender or mixer. Add to ice cream maker and let it go for about 35 minutes. Transfer to another container to ripen overnight. Lick the bowl and wait until tomorrow.

I have issues with food.

I know I am not alone in this. I want my family to eat well. I really do. Some days we succeed better than others. My dear and wonderful husband is what I would call "open-minded picky." He's not totally, irrationally, irretrievably picky. He will try new foods. His diet has changed a great deal since we have been married. But he is picky. Really picky. It's no wonder Stinkerbaby is picky, too. It's a constant battle. After reading Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions, I have tried to feed my family more nutrient dense foods and fewer highly processed ones. Growing up, I fell into the low-fat, vegetarian trap. My body has paid the price for that. I became lactose intolerant, I feel, as a direct result of the damaging low-fat, high-soy diet for so many years. Thankfully, after eight years lactose intolerant, I found a cure that worked wonders for me. I only wish I had found it sooner.

Nourishing my body and the bodies of those I care for has become a high priority. Beyond the difficulties in preparing meals, pickiness is my biggest problem. Whole, locally-grown, organic chicken with gravy made from bone broth- they will gladly eat. Any vegetables besides corn or potatoes- not so great. I have been learning some tricks to deal with my picky eaters.

In the case of the hubby, they are mostly work arounds since I figure he's the head of the household and if he wants something sweet for breakfast that's his right. I just try to make it something healthier sweet. For example, doughnuts are his ultimate breakfast. So sometimes I make homemade doughnuts from home-ground whole wheat flour fried in coconut oil and sometimes I make cinnamon coffee cake with eggs and whole milk and part sucanat and part xylitol.

Stinkerbaby is a different story altogether. What worked last week seldom does this week. She used to love mushrooms and salmon and spaghetti with meat sauce (not all in one meal! Yuk!). Now she won't eat any of these. Sometimes making baby-sized whatever works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes unusual presentation works (salmon salad in an ice cream cone- I know the cone's not great, but I'm trying here!). Sometimes it doesn't work. The best method consistently for Stinkerbaby is to let her help me prepare foods. This, of course, takes far longer and wastes some food, but it generally works. She won't eat eggs. But green eggs and ham that she gets to mix up- oh, yeah! Does anyone know of a good, natural blue food coloring? It's just a drop or two, but I hate using the petrochemical stuff in her eggs.

At least the baby is easy since he's still exclusively breast fed.

What works for you? Do you have picky eaters? Are you the picky eater in your family?

Introduction

Well, I suppose I have gotten the cart before the horse, so to speak.

So, let me introduce myself. I'm Susan, a stay-at-home mother of two wonderful, exhausting children, Stinkerbaby and Bonus. I have an awesome husband who is my tech support guy.

My interests are many:
family activities

cooking, especially baking
real food and traditional eating
natural, attachment parenting
babywearing
cloth diapering
breastfeeding
vintage sewing machines
repurposing, primarily clothing
sewing in general
taking pictures of kids and things in the natural world
being outdoors
gardening
thrift shopping
music

That is a partial list, of course. It's difficult to describe myself. If I've missed something, ask. I'll probably even answer!

-Susan