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Summertime...
It's summer. It's official now. We've made our first real ice cream.
Using a real vanilla bean, real cream from the local dairy (not ultrapasturized or ultra homogonized so it clumps just a bit, beautifully, and has that incredible mouth feel when frozen), two eggs, a touch of sugar, and a bit of time and attention over the stove and cooling off before being put into the freezer.
The freezer was well frozen, too, as the paddles did stop and reverse eventually. So it was frozen really nicely. We had the real ice cream with fresh raspberries. It's definitely summer.
The sugar snap peas are delivering huge handfuls of sweet pods. Jet will even eat them, though under protest. The onions are getting big, the carrot tops are tall. The sweet peppers seem to be doing really well. But the tomato plants, this year, just aren't thriving worth a darn. And I'm entirely unsure as to why. Last year they did great.
The hanging plants are all up, though, and they seem to be doing a bit better than the garden once. So I'm going to try a few other plants in a different bed just to see if the positioning makes a difference.
We've also started cooking outside more, to not heat up the house. The gas grill and range that John bought included a little oven, so this year we don't have to leave the toaster oven outside and still have muffins, scones, or Dutch Babies when we want them. It's a nifty little oven, and it is good to keep all heat outside.
We're swimming nearly every afternoon just to cool off. It's been really nice, even though the afternoon thunderstorms have started rolling through as well, pouring down a cooling shower with the fireworks display of lightning and rumbling thunder. It's been a lot of fun.
Jet's come up with new rules for the summer... well, he says they aren't exactly rules... but, for him, it's not morning until one has had breakfast, afternoon unless one has had lunch, or night if one hasn't had dinner yet. So there's been a few mornings when Jet's said, "Mom, it's not morning for you yet, you haven't had breakfast!" Hee.
I like the ruling.
Using a real vanilla bean, real cream from the local dairy (not ultrapasturized or ultra homogonized so it clumps just a bit, beautifully, and has that incredible mouth feel when frozen), two eggs, a touch of sugar, and a bit of time and attention over the stove and cooling off before being put into the freezer.
The freezer was well frozen, too, as the paddles did stop and reverse eventually. So it was frozen really nicely. We had the real ice cream with fresh raspberries. It's definitely summer.
The sugar snap peas are delivering huge handfuls of sweet pods. Jet will even eat them, though under protest. The onions are getting big, the carrot tops are tall. The sweet peppers seem to be doing really well. But the tomato plants, this year, just aren't thriving worth a darn. And I'm entirely unsure as to why. Last year they did great.
The hanging plants are all up, though, and they seem to be doing a bit better than the garden once. So I'm going to try a few other plants in a different bed just to see if the positioning makes a difference.
We've also started cooking outside more, to not heat up the house. The gas grill and range that John bought included a little oven, so this year we don't have to leave the toaster oven outside and still have muffins, scones, or Dutch Babies when we want them. It's a nifty little oven, and it is good to keep all heat outside.
We're swimming nearly every afternoon just to cool off. It's been really nice, even though the afternoon thunderstorms have started rolling through as well, pouring down a cooling shower with the fireworks display of lightning and rumbling thunder. It's been a lot of fun.
Jet's come up with new rules for the summer... well, he says they aren't exactly rules... but, for him, it's not morning until one has had breakfast, afternoon unless one has had lunch, or night if one hasn't had dinner yet. So there's been a few mornings when Jet's said, "Mom, it's not morning for you yet, you haven't had breakfast!" Hee.
I like the ruling.