Grandma Club

Ice Cream Social, Missing Recipes + Downloads

Here are the missing recipes and free downloads of not only some recipe cards, but blank ice cream social invites. The ice cream scoop and speech bubble on the recipe cards are left bank so you or your guests can color the scoop to relate to their ice cream and the speech bubble is where the flavor goes. Donovan did a great job making these. For the recipes, she watched the Good Eats episodes on ice cream many, many times. You can download them directly by following the following links:

Ice Cream Social blank recipe cards, 460kb [download pdf]
Ice Cream Social blank invites, 544kb [download pdf]

Mint Chocolate Chip Recipe
3 cups half & half
1 cup heavy cream
9 ounces sugar
8 egg yolks
2 teaspoons mint extract
20 Andes mints, chopped

Bring the half & half and cream up to 170 degrees in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally.Whisk the egg yolks until lightened. Slowly add in the sugar while whisking. Your sugar and egg mixture should reach a very light and creamy consistency, and should make thick strings when you lift the whisk out of the bowl. Add the warmed cream mixture a little bit at a time to the eggs, stirring constantly. When the eggs are up to the temperature of the cream, you may put it all together back in the medium saucepan and return to 170 degrees. Remove from heat and add the mint. Let the mixture rest for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator in a covered container before churning. Add the mints when mostly frozen in the churn.

Cinnamon Ice Cream
3 cups half & half
1 cup heavy cream
9 ounces sugar
8 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Bring the half & half and cream up to 170 degrees in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally.Whisk the egg yolks until lightened. Slowly add in the sugar while whisking. Your sugar and egg mixture should reach a very light and creamy consistency, and should make thick strings when you lift the whisk out of the bowl. Add the warmed cream mixture a little bit at a time to the eggs, stirring constantly. When the eggs are up to the temperature of the cream, you may put it all together back in the medium saucepan and return to 170 degrees. Remove from heat and add the cinnamon and vanilla. Let the mixture rest for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator in a covered container before churning according to your maker’s instructions.

Ice Cream Social

 

So, I am still waiting on some recipes, but I figured I should post what we have now and not keep you all waiting. I will post the lagging recipes later, promise! [Edit later: The free downloads and missing recipes are now available here.]

Our social was a similar arrangement to our liquor making party, where we made our ice creams before hand and met-up to eat them all together. Here is what was on the menu (recipes are linked by ice cream name):

• Noel brought coffee ice cream (and even brought it in a coffee container!)
• Donovan was an over achiever and brought mint chocolate chip and cinnamon ice cream (recipe link at end of post)
• I used the strawberries I froze from the fruit picking GC excursion and made strawberry ice cream from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. You can find it on their website, but you need to sign in.
• Honorary granny Betsy (who you might remember from the vanilla extract meeting) made PB & J ice cream. (recipe at end of post)
• Honorary granny Isabel and Liz made caramel and hot fudge syrups at the social. Nothing like fresh fudge.

 

Noel used an entry level ice cream maker and said that it did the job just fine. Donovan and I used an ice cream maker attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixers which we both liked. We grannies found making ice cream really simple and quick. There are ways to make ice cream without a machine, but none of us tried this time around. It seems that to get great success without a machine, you must use a custard-based recipe.

I made sure to have some non-dairy, non-sweet finger food around in case anyone needed a break from all the sweetness. Since we had five ice creams to sample I used my smallest bowls and spoons so that people would only take little bits and have enough room to try everything. If you host an ice cream social, make sure you have a large enough freezer or ask for people to bring small quantities; homemade ice cream tends to melt faster than store-bought. We really wanted someone to make ice cream cones, but that requires a machine. If you want to lower your level of dirty dishes, it may be a good idea to just buy some cones or waffles cups.

 

Make sure to have plenty of water around because ice cream makes you thirsty. It will also be good to have a bowl with some warm water to rinse the ice cream scoop in when switching flavors. We also offered some toppings like dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, and red hots. (They were also good for snaking while we waited for the syrups to be ready.) Other good topping ideas are granola, chocolate chips, or some fresh fruit. I had big dreams to make ice cream sandwiches out of my ice cream, but instead I just offered some chocolate cookies for people to make their own (or just crumble over their ice cream). Donovan brought some macaroons that went well with the ice creams.

  

Donovan also made some awesome recipe cards as little favors for everyone. We will have these as a free download over on this post. She also made awesome little signs to identify the different flavors.

Because everyone came equipped with coolers to bring their respective flavors, we separated some of the flavors into small containers and gave everyone some to take home. You come with one flavor, you leave with many. Thanks to our past canning projects, we also had enough small jars around to give everyone a bit of the tasty caramel and chocolate syrups.

OK, so for the recipes that were not linked in the "what we brought" section, here they are:

Betsy's Easy Peasy PB+J
1 carton vanilla ice cream
1/2 jar jam (strawberry is my favorite, but you may be a grape gal/guy)
1/2 jar creamy peanut butter (I used the new Jif PB+Honey variety)

Scoop entire container of ice cream into large mixing bowl. Gradually mix in jam. Once ice cream has turned a nice consistent pink or lavender, peanut butter is mixed in by the spoonful. Mix in until you're happy with the pb streaks. Refreeze for a few hours until it hardens and enjoy!

Donovan's mint chocolate chip ice cream
[available here]

Donovan's cinnamon ice cream
[available here]

With all that, I leave you to your own ice cream churning!

Ice Cream Social, teaser

The grannies hosted an Ice Cream Social this weekend. The social had five ice creams, two honorary grannies, and two yummy sauces. We are still getting all the photos and recipes together, so this is just a little teaser post. We will be making a proper project post very soon, complete with some free downloads! It will be worth the wait, promise.

Afternoon Tea

You may have noticed it has been a wee quite here. Well, we grannies have been so busy with traveling and enjoying summer that we just couldn't figure out a time when the three of us could meet-up. We finally figured out a day in September, but that is far off and I had friends visiting me from Miami that wanted to do something grandma-ish. With that, Donovan, my two friends and I went off to fancy afternoon tea.

After much searching online I decided on The Lobby at Peninsula Hotel. It was very fancy, as you can tell from the plates and silverware, but they were not uptight nor did we have to go there dressed in ballgowns or something equally silly. The price per person was about $48 with tax and tip and it was worth every penny. The atmosphere was great; the area was filled with sunlight and they had live music (two men on string instruments - I believe one was a violin and the other was a cello). To top it off, the food was very good.

Let us talk of the little nibbles we received, shall we? Put before us was a plate of three varieties of sandwiches, mini quiches, two different scones and about four or five different mini-cakes. And what was best is that they had enough so each one of us could have one of everything. I've gone to many tea services in my life and I do very much dislike it when they don't give you enough for everyone to try. Luckily, no splitting of mini-cheesecakes had to happen here, in fact, we had too much food and took some of it home.

Everyone had their favorite food bit, but mine was the tomato basil sandwich and the anise scone. For the first time in a tea service I had not only clotted cream and jam served with scones, but also a lemon custard. It was divine. Has anyone else had a custard served with scones before?

All in all, it was a very lovely, girly, grandma thing and the four of us had a lot of fun. I will definitely be going back to The Lobby for tea the next time I have a lady guest in town. For those who want to do their own tea party at home, I did a post about a tea party I did years ago on my old blog. There is a recipe for thumbprint cookies as well as some pictures of the table layout. If any of you would like a more in-depth post on hosting your own tea party, just let me know and I will make it happen.

The next grandma club is going to be our more traditional type with recipes and all that, but it is also going to be a little party. We have it planned for late September, so keep you eyes peeled.

PS- If you want to have tea at The Lobby, reservations are needed in advance. A little tip: ask to be sat near the windows, it is the best area there.

Fruit Picking

On the last Sunday in June, Grandmas Noel, Kathy and Donovan took a little trip along with a guest appearance by Grandma Denise. We picked up a Zip Car and traveled a little bit south of the big-shouldered city to the Garden Patch Farm and Orchard in Homer Glen, IL. Truthfully, Denise and Noel got the car and picked up Kathy and Donovan. Denise was the driver for which we were all most grateful. [We don't drive- We're Grandmas.]

It only took about an hour to get to the farm, and we were all surprised by that because the area is so much different from the city and only a short distance away. It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the oh-so-blue sky. The super bright sunshine could have baked us alive, but there was a strong breeze that kept us cool. Plus, every grandma remembered her sunblock and/or floppy hat. 

When we got there, we were greeted by chickens! [All the grandmas want their own chickens.] There is a cheery red barn where the farm sells it's produce and where you can pay your $5.00 to do your own picking. We paid up, got our lady bug hand-stamps, collected our berry buckets and listened carefully to the directions on where to go on the farm to pick the ripe stuff. Then we set out.

Raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, and sour cherries were all ready for picking. We found the raspberries first. The key to raspberry picking is to go to the middle of the bush where the berries are protected from the sun and birds and other pickers. You know a raspberry is ripe when it pulls easily off of the white core that attaches it to the bush. 

From the raspberries, we wandered up to the cherries. I hadn't planned on picking any cherries, but when I saw them, bobbing like Christmas ornaments bright and shiny red, I had to taste one. They were amazing. I was thinking sour cherries would be inedible without cooking, but turns out sour cherries are traditional jam and pie cherries. They tasted just like pie filling without sugar; also known as awesome. I would go back just to pick more of these cherries.

 

Lastly, we went hunting the strawberry. I probably ate as many as I put in my box. There is something magical in having a strawberry-scented breeze blow over you as you bite into a sun-warmed berry. That's worth my $5.00 picking fee any day. Despite tales from the farm staff of there not being a lot of berries, we found plenty without having to look too hard.

We spent about two and half hours picking and we each went home with strawberries, cherries and raspberries. More than we could use immediately, but the plan is to freeze them and post our creations with them later. Noel bought some super fresh [as in laid that morning] eggs from our chicken friends which she said were amazing. It's definitely not a money saving venture- raspberries and cherries were $6.00 a pound and strawberries were $3.00 a pound. Add in the picking fee and our car rental and we certainly could have purchased our berries at the store for much less. However, you don't get to eat berries off the bush in the store. We all agreed that our fun was worth every penny.

With what Kathy didn't freeze, she made strawberry vinegar, strawberry buttermilk cake and is in the process of "fermenting" a sour-cherry liquor. Donovan washed and pitted or sliced or cleaned up all her berries and put them into frezzer bags for later.

Instructions on the various ways to freeze strawberries.

Granola Bars

Last weekend, I made a dozen granola bars. I got the recipe from the kitchen sink. The bars were very tasty, but now that I have the process down I will make a few experimental adjustments for the next time. I'm listing the recipe below as I would change it... which is basically reducing the amount of salt, adding more honey and peanut butter, and using dried ginger and apricots in place of cranberries. I'd also love to find a substitute for the brown sugar, but I haven't come up with anything yet. If anyone has suggestions, let me know. There is a note that cautions the idea of adding more liquid to these bars, but my bars could have definitely used slightly more stick.

Check out Kristin's original post — she has some beautiful photos up.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup pepitas
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 cup whole almonds (or other nut)
1 teaspoon sea salt 
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup dried ginger
1 cup dried apricots

Here are the instructions per the kitchen sink:
Preheat the oven to 325. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, line a square baking pan (8 or 9 inches) with two perpendicular sheets of parchment paper that are long enough to leave an overhang. The sheets will form a “basket” for you to lift out the sheet of granola, before you cut it into bars.

Combine the oats, coconut, seeds and nuts; spread out evenly on the rimmed baking sheet and toast for 15 minutes. When the oat mixture has been toasting for about 10 minutes, combine the honey, peanut butter, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. If the sugar dissolves before the oat mixture is done toasting, reduce the heat to low.

When the oat mixture is done toasting, transfer it to a large bowl and add the honey mixture and fruit; stir to incorporate. Spread the mixture in the prepared square pan, using the back of a wooden spoon or bottom of a measuring cup to press the mixture into the pan and create a smooth, even surface. Bake the granola mixture for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

 

Ravioli Making

 For this installment of Grandma Club, the Grandmas all met up in my sunny kitchen to make an assortment of raviolis. We made the ravioli dough there and everyone brought in their own filling. Two batches of dough yielded about 9 dozen ravioli; enough for each Grandma to take home a dozen of each flavor.

I hosted this Grandma Club because I invested in a shiny pasta machine which we used to roll our dough out into silky smoothness. This was my first time using a pasta machine for any food items and the inaugural use of this particular machine. That meant that we had to run a small portion of dough through the various rollers in order to clean out any factory oil or dirt. After that, we dusted the machine lightly with flour and were ready to get started.

Basic Dough
(From the pasta machine instructions)
3 cups flour
4 eggs
2 tbs olive oil
pinch of salt

In a large bowl, combine salt and flour. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the eggs and oil. Mix together until incorporated. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Add water if the dough is too dry. Knead a couple of times until smooth. Let rest covered for 10-15min before running through the pasta machine.

Rolling out the pasta
(From the pasta machine instructions)

Work with a small amount of dough at a time [I used about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup]. Run the dough through the machine on the largest number setting. Lightly flour and fold in half and then repeat. Then decrease the number setting and repeat the folding process, adding flour if necessary, until you reach the desired thickness. We opted for the #2 thickness for our raviolis.

Forming the ravioli
(From the "make it up as you go" method and the "Noel has done this before" method)

The pasta machine produced a 6" wide by about 15" long strip at a time with the amount of dough we were running through it. We used a teaspoon to measure out our filling and placed a blob of filling every inch and a half or so down one side of the dough strip. We then used a little bit of beaten egg to moisten where the seams would be and then folded the strip over the filling. Starting from the center, we then pressed out the air from around the filling and sealed the edges. Then we cut out the ravioli and placed them either on racks to dry or onto a cookie sheet in the freezer.

Packaging the ravioli
(From the "make it up as you go" method)

At the end, I just drew identifiers on some plastic baggies and we dumped a dozen ravioli into each bag. We let the ravioli on the racks dry about 1 hour. They could probably have stood to dry a little more or get dusted with flour before going in the bag. The frozen ones, I thought, stayed much more independent of each other once in the baggie. And they took less time to freeze than to dry.

Squash Ravioli Filling
(Kathy's recipe. She had to double the amounts to make the three dozen for GC)
1 cup butternut squash, cubed
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Roast cubed butternut in 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until fork tender. Mash the squash with a fork (Hot tip: use a ricer) and mix in cheese and nutmeg.

Sweet Pea and Ricotta Ravioli Filling
(Noel's recipe. She got it from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)
1 egg
1 & 1/2 cups ricotta
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 minced garlic clove
a small grating of nutmeg
1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
1 & 1/2 cups sweet peas (she used frozen)

Crab Meat Ravioli Filling
(Donovan's recipe. She got it from somewhere online and then added stuff to it)

1/2 cup ricotta
1 6oz. can crab meat
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Eating the ravioli
I ate all of my raviolis in different dishes the week following when they were made. I paired the squash ravioli with a parsley and butter sauce. Kathy had recommended a sage and butter sauce, but Noel had gifted me with a bunch of parsley; so I went with that. The crab ravioli I did with red bell pepper and garlic oil, but I think it would have been best with a creamy tomato sauce. Finally, I made a sour cream pseudo Alfredo sauce with bacon and green beans for the sweet pea ravioli. That was my favorite.

In cooking, I found that the ravioli need about 10-12 minutes; not so much for the filling but for the pasta itself. I panicked with the first batch I made because they floated almost immediately and I really undercooked them. I had one ravioli break each time which happens to me with store bought ravioli too. Such is the way of ravioli. Perhaps I am just not gentle enough.  Kathy said she also had some troubles with this and says to not poke your ravioli. Noel said she loved them all, but had some sticking issues which she thinks would be handled by dusting them with flour next time.

Liquor Infusing

Howdy, folks. The grandma's gathered this past Saturday to enjoy a holiday-quantity of food and spirits. Our project this month was slightly different than the ones we've done in the past because we made some concoctions on our own and then got together to share them. Each of us made a flavored liquor that took a few weeks or so to infuse. After that, the only thing left to do was drink! So, we got some friends together and had a little celebration. Donovan made limoncello. Kathy is a superstar, so she made two! (Strawberry & Blackberry Liquor and Minneola Tangerine Liquor.) I made the Honey-Oat Infused Vodka for the second time because it sooo good. The liquors stay good in the freezer for up to three months, so do yourself a favor and don't make yourself drink it all.

We've listed all the recipes below and if you want to see some snapshots, checkout the photostream on flickr.

Limoncello
This recipe takes one week to make and makes about 2 quarts of limoncello. Plus, you get a lot of lemon juice as a bonus which can be used for sorbet or lemon curd or lemon meringue pie. [Recipe from the Martha Stewart website]

• 11 lemons
• 1 bottle 160-proof vodka, or grain alcohol
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 cups boiling-hot water

1. Peel strips of zest from lemons using a vegetable peeler; reserve lemons for another use. Put zest and vodka in an airtight container; let stand at room temperature at least 2 days (or up to 1 week).
2. Stir together sugar and the hot water until sugar is dissolved; let cool. Stir sugar mixture into vodka mixture; refrigerate in an airtight container 1 day.
3. Before serving, pour through a large sieve into a decanter or serving vessel; discard zest. Limoncello can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container up to 3 months.

Oatmeal Honey Liquor
Like I said, it's the second time I've made it. This time, I used lowfat milk for the quaker shaker instead of half and half. I think this is my new favorite way to serve this — the half and half was too strong and diluted the flavor. But lowfat milk or soy milk work perfect. The recipe already here.

Strawberry & Blackberry Liquor
This recipe calls for two separate infusions lasting a week each. The reason for this is because the fleshy fruits being used only release so much flavor. Two infusion make for a rich flavor.

Infusing
Place 1 pint strawberries (hulled and cut in half), 1  blackberries and 1 bottle 151 proof vodka (or similar) in a glass or plastic together with no metal parts. Let sit in dark, cool area for a week, shaking once a day. After a week, strain fruit from infused liquor, reserving liquor. Pour infused liquor back into container and place 1 _ strawberries (hulled and cut in half), 1 1/2 pint pack of blackberries and one vanilla bean (cut in half) with semi-infused liquor. Part two of sitting in the dark with daily shakings. After one week of the second infusion, strain fruit and reserve infused liquor.

Finishing
Keep liquor covered while preparing simple syrup so it doesn't evaporate. To make simple syrup boil three cups of water in a medium saucepan. Stir in 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar and 1 1/2 cups brown sugar. (You can replace the confectioners sugar with regular sugar, but it will take longer to dissolve). After sugar is completely dissolved, let syrup cool completely. When cooled, mix simple syrup with infused liquor. Let finished liquor chill in fridge for a few hours or up to a day before serving. Keep in fridge; this is one of the only liquors that froze when placed in the freezer. This liquor tastes like jam and goes really well with soda water.

Minneola Tangerine Liquor (regular tangerines or clementines will also work)
8 minneola tangerines (or similar)
1 bottle 151 vodka, or similar
3 cups sugar
3 cups hot water

Wash skins of tangerines well and peel rind with a peeler. Place peels in a glass or plastic container with no metal parts. Pour bottle of 151 vodka into container and store in a cool dark place for two weeks, shaking once a day. After two weeks, strain peels from liquor, reserving the infused liquor. Keep covered while working on simple syrup. To make simple syrup boil three cups of water with three cups of sugar. Heat over medium-high heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. After syrup is cooled, mix syrup into infused liquor. Let finished liquor chill in fridge for a few hours or up to a day before serving. Liquor can be kept in freezer for up to three months.

We had a hankering that having some delicious food would be essential in getting us to the end of the tasting having sampled each liquor at least once — so we made sure to have a surplus of bites and treats close by.

Denise made a Rosemary Flatbread with Blue Cheese, Grapes, and Honey from Dana Treat as well as having a few other pizza inventions of her own. Donovan made Grasshopper Brownies from Smitten Kitchen and I also chose a recipe from Smitten Kitchen — the Chocolate Caramel Crackers. Kathy made Glazed Sausage Bits and Berry Tart, recipes that can be found here, both are from Jacques Pépin's book Fast Food My Way (of PBS fame).

Do it yourselves, grannies... have a party!

Be a Granny

We've gotten a lot of comments/emails saying you want to be a granny or want to get your friends together to do these projects. We love hearing you guys are inspired by our projects; getting others involved in these type of activities is the major reason we started recording out projects on this blog. We decided to create a little badge so you can show your granny dedication. If you and your friends participate in grandma club-like activities, become an honorary granny! Copy and paste the code in the box below to add the Honorary Granny button to your website or blog.

<a href="http://16sparrows.typepad.com/grandmaclub/" title="LWA"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3646/3464529700_6fa6a70178_o.gif" width="144" height="115" alt="Grandma Club" /></a>

We also have this code in the sidebar.
Keep tuned, we are working on project-based badges, ala girlscouts.

Vanilla Extract

 
This project was hands down our easiest yet. All it takes is some high proof vodka, some vanilla beans and some nice bottles. Here's how it went...

Our supplies:
41 2oz bottles (The odd # is because Donovan has some amber bottles about her house)
1/2 lb of Madagascar whole vanilla beans
3 bottles of high proof vodka (you want to aim for 150 proof, but we used 80 proof and 100 proof as well)
A funnel and a steady hand

We placed 1 1/2 vanilla beans in each bottle than filled the bottles up to the bend (to leave displacement space for the dropper) and then screwed on the cap. We were done! We cut the beans in thirds, because of the height of our bottles. Some we split in half long ways as well, but for the most part we just cut them to fit the bottle. You need to let the extract infuse for 3 months before using. The reason for the high proof vodka is because the higher the proof, the more the flavor the liquor leaches from the vanilla bean.

The pouring of the vodka into the bottles is a little trickier than it seems, as proven by my spilling vodka all over Donovan's kitchen table three times. Donovan also had a little trouble when trying her hand at it, so I was glad to know it wasn't just me!

     

As I said, this project was very mellow, so if you are going to do this with friends have nibbles and adult beverages at hand. We always have these necessary supplies at every granny club meeting, but found it quite imperative at this meeting to keep us all "busy." Speaking of supplies, here is where we got our stuff:

- Bottles from Specialty Bottle (Donovan and I have been ordering from this company for years)
- Beans from Beanilla (First time order. The beans were vacuumed-packed and came out sticky and nice. Will order from again)
- Vodka was purchase from our friendly neighborhood liquor store

We went with bottles that had droppers to make for easy flavoring of foods and each granny ended up with 10 bottles of extract. We got both cobalt and amber colored bottles to appease our different taste in colors. You'll want to stick with darker colored bottles as opposed to clear glass to protect the extract from sun damage. Even with giving some bottles away, we certainly won't need to buy vanilla flavoring for quite a while! We had a guest granny for this project, Betsy of Foxglove Accessories, who may be joining us for our next granny club meeting.

Finished product:

As for our next meeting, we are still working out the date for it, but this one is going to be a wee different from our others. Each of us will be starting the project on our own but will be finishing it together. Oh yes, it is a project that takes some fermenting time. That is the only hint I will give, although it is quite a big hint!