Homemade ICE CREAM

Chocolate Ice Cream - Photo: Pixabay

Have you ever wondered if there was a healthful alternative to the sugar and preservative filled ice cream you buy in the supermarkets?  If you have or if you would truly like to try homemade ice cream then this is for you.  I have a recipe for vanilla ice cream, that will knock your socks off when you taste it.

The first thing you need to know is how to make your own 100% healthy and natural vanilla extract.  You might buy this from a good quality store if you can find an unadulterated brand.  To make your own you’ll need about a quart of milk, a  vanilla bean (available at most health food stores), and a teaspoon of honey.  You put the milk in a saucepan and heat on high while you slice the vanilla bean lengthwise and in half.

Then put the halves of the vanilla bean into the milk.  Boil for around 15 to  20 minutes, then cook on medium heat for a half hour or until the milk has a thin sheet of film on top.  

Stir the mixture constantly as it cooks to prevent burning.  Cool the extract and freeze in a plastic bottle or container.  This extract will last you for quite a while since recipes call for only a few teaspoons each.  You should-if you plan to make the ice cream anytime soon- save a cup of the extract in a container in your refrigerator.  Whenever you want to make more ice cream just get the extract out of the freezer and thaw in the refrigerator until a few tablespoons or so are thawed, then refreeze the rest before it thaws out.

Now I’ll give you my vanilla ice cream recipe, follow the instructions carefully and you’ll get wonderful results.

Vanilla Ice Cream

You’ll need: 3 eggs, with the egg whites and yolks, separated, 1/2 cup honey, 

4 cups light cream, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.

1. In a medium size, bowl beat the yolks until smooth.  Gradually add honey, beating until well-blended and thick.  In a different small bowl beat the egg whites until stiff, stir beaten whites in with the yolk and honey.

2. Then add the cream and egg mixture together in a saucepan, cook on medium heat, stirring constantly for 15 minutes.

3. Stir in vanilla extract, and either process in an ice cream maker or just freeze in a bucket container overnight.  Serve with an ice cream scoop.

This ice cream is rich, creamy, natural, and very healthy I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Author: Beth Scott

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The Greens and Browns of Composting

Composting - Photo: Wikimedia

Imagine yourself as a chef of a fancy restaurant. To cook a delicious meal, you carefully measure the ingredients and combine them to create wonderful dishes. The same can be said when creating composts. This time, however, instead of the people in the restaurant as your customers, you will be answering the needs of your plants. And just like cooking, you are given the task of putting together in equal amounts the “greens” and “browns” of composting. 

 “Greens” and “browns” are nicknames which are used to refer to the organic materials used in creating compost. The major differences between these two elements are not so much on the colors of the organic matter themselves but rather on their basic components. The Greens are organic materials rich in nitrogen or protein. Meanwhile, Browns are those organic matters that have high carbon or carbohydrates contents. 

Because of their high nitrogen and protein contents, Greens allow microorganism in composts to grow and multiply. Also, the Green components generate heat in compost piles. The Brown elements, on the other hand, contain the energy that most soil organisms need. Furthermore, because of their high carbon contents, the Browns function as a big air filter, absorbing the bad odors that emanate from the compost pile. The carbons also help prevent organic nitrogen from escaping and also aids in the faster formation of humus from the compost. 

In case you’re stumped whether an organic waste or material belongs to the Greens or Browns variety, one of the easiest way to test it is to wet the material. If you find the material to stink after a few days then it belongs to the Greens variety. Again, remember not to be fooled by color. 

For example, although leaves come in green, brown, red, etc. colors, they are classified as Browns. Leaves are high in carbon. The evergreen leaves, for example, have higher carbon contents than any other leaves. However, there is always an exception. Oaktree leaves do not fall under the Greens classification. Oak leaves contain high amounts of nitrogen which makes them fall under the Greens category. 

Other examples of Greens include animal wastes, grass clippings, and that leftover food from your kitchen. As long as you don’t use harmful chemicals like inorganic fertilizers and pesticides on your grass, then the use of grass clippings It is okay. Meanwhile, papers, wood chippings, sawdust, bark mulches, and other wood products are most often than not fall under the Browns classification.

Sugar products are also classified under Browns. These include molasses, syrups, sugar, and carbonated drinks. You could use these sugar products to activate or increase the activities of microbes in your compost pile. 

Some other Greens include vegetable and fruit wastes, eggshells, as well as coffee grounds, filters, and tea bags. For the Browns, they have hay, straw, and cornstalks. Pine needles fall also under the Browns category. However, it is suggested that using too much pine needles on the compost pile will give the Browns too much of an advantage. 

One can achieve a successful compost with the correct ratio of Brown and Green components. Ideally, a “Browns” and “Greens” of composting ratio of 3:1 would ensure a successful compost.

This means you will have three parts or the pile made of components high in carbon (Browns) and one part of it made up of nitrogen-rich ingredients (Greens).

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Sweet Vidalia® Onions Take on Today's Cooks' Need for Speed.

Sweet Vidalia Onion Souce - Photo: Flickr

Convenience is a key concern for today's time-pressed cooks. Less than 30 minutes preparation time, recipes with less than seven ingredients and quick-and-easy cleanup are three important issues for home cooks. 

Saturday Night Vidalia® Onions from Paula Deen-cookbook author, chef/ proprietor of The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga., and host of Food Network's "Paula's Home Cooking"-is a recipe that satisfies today's cooks' need for speed. 

As Paula says, "If your Southern food is authentic, it's not fussy! It doesn't require a sophisticated palate. The ingredients are distinctly Southern and homegrown." That's just what Paula's recipe for Saturday Night Vidalia® Onions is, too. Real. Simple. Homegrown in Georgia. This recipe can be prepared in the oven or outside over hot coals. Either way, it's delightful, just like its creator. 

More easy recipes featuring Vidalia Onions may be viewed and printed by logging on to www.vidaliaonion.org. Paula Deen's latest cookbook is "Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics".

Paula Deen's Saturday Night Vidalia® Onions

1 large Vidalia® Onion per person
1 beef bouillon cube per onion
1 tablespoon butter per onion
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim a slice from the top of each onion, and peel the onion without cutting off the root end. With a potato peeler, cut a small cone-shaped section from the center of the onion. Cut the onion into quarters from the top down, stopping within a half-inch of the root end. Place a bouillon cube in the center, slip slivers of butter in between the sections, and sprinkle with pepper. Wrap each onion in a double thickness of heavy-duty foil and bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Or, prepare a fire in a charcoal grill and place the foil-wrapped onions directly onto the hot coals and cook for 45 minutes, turning every so often. Serve in individual bowls because they produce a lot of broth, which tastes like French Onion Soup! Serves one person per onion.

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Joyful Autumn Rose Growing

Autumn Rose - Photo: Pixabay

The autumn months of September and October are when roses perform at their peak. After faithfully following proper rose procedures up to this point, now -- at last -- you should begin to reap the rewards of full, vibrant, glorious blooms. 

Your work isn't quite done yet, however. Although autumn is the best growing time, it's also the time you must prepare your rose bushes for winter coming onslaught. 

Producing those beautiful blooms you are so proud of is hard work -- for your rose bushes, too. They need a lot of water to fuel the flowering process. Continue to water them deeply, as often as needed to maintain growth. Watering daily is okay if you are showing them off, just be careful and observe closely so that you do not over-do the watering process. You want beautiful blooms, not drowned roots. 

Continue using water-soluble compost through the end of September. Consider a commercial bloom-boosting fertilizer. The large number in the middle of the formulation is your cue -- nitrogen, PHOSPHORUS, potassium (potash). 

Black spot and mildew are dangerous because conditions for their growth are ideal, so keep up with a vigorous spraying program through the end of October. Stop all fertilizing by the end of October, to let your roses begin the hibernation process. 

You can continue to cut rose bouquets through October without causing any harm to the bushes. To encourage rose hips to form, just remove the petals of the dead roses. 

Fall just happens to be the right time to start planning next year's garden. Order new flower catalogs for your research during the dark and dreary months of winter. This is my favorite part -- all fun and no work. To get your best selections possible, place your new roses order early. Rose growers know when the best time is to ship new bushes to your climate zone.

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Making Quality WINE

Home Winemaking - Photo: Wikimedia

Wine is a very wide term that is simply fruit being distilled and fermented for the product of an alcoholic drink. When most people think of wine they immediately think grapes, but there are so many different sources for wine production these include rice (sake), various fruits (elderberry, grapefruit, cherry, etc.), barley, and even honey (mead). 

For the purposes of this wine article, we will stick with wines produced solely from grapes. These are categorized by several means, of which include vinification methods, taste and lastly vintage. Many unknowing wine drinkers wouldn't care about the subtle differences in these categories, after all, most people rely completely on the taste of the wine. However, for many aficionados out there wine is a very intense passion. Their wines must always meet the highest expectations everything must be spot on, the variety of the grape, the taste and vintage must all meet the highest standard before serious wine connoisseur will consider purchasing a bottle. 

Vinification 

Vinification is the process by which grape juice is fermented into wine. This fermentation process is what determines the quality of the wine and this is what gives the wine it value. A common misconception by the novice wine drinker is the colour of the grape juice varies, this is not so as the juice from a grape (red or white) is almost a clear liquid. What does determine the colour of the wine is whether the grape skins have been fermented with the wine or were they left out, red wines are fermented with there skins on and with white wine, the skins have been left off and as for rose wine, well it is just a combination of the two wines

Sparkling wines and champagne are carbonated, this is where carbon dioxide enters into the mix, this process is achieved by fermenting the grape juice twice. The first time, the juice is fermented in open containers, which allow the carbon dioxide to escape and with the second fermentation, the juice is kept in closed containers, trapping and infusing the C02 with what is then wine. 

Taste 

Most wines are described as dry, off-dry, fruity, or sweet. This is a direct result of the amount of sugar that is left over after the fermentation process has ended, a Dry wine has very little sugar content, while a sweeter wine has a higher sugar content. 

Beyond this basic taste analysis, wine-tasting enthusiasts have developed a system of wine classification, this entails the more in-depth the tastes and the more aromas the wine gives off. Much less informed on wine find this system hard to grasp, but the seasoned wine drinker considers the ability to discern even the most subtle elements of a wines taste to be a great achievement. As one example, Cabernet Sauvignon which is a very popular wine that tasters claim contains a combination of black currants, chocolate, mint, and tobacco flavours. 

Vintage 

Vintage is a straightforward classification when the wine is concerned, this refers to the year of the grapes harvest from which the wine was produced. This is important because many grape growers have exceptionally good harvests only during certain years. Also, the best grapes are usually singled out for use in a producers vintage bottles. You get the highest quality wine from that year’s harvest.

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Gardening Organic Tomato Made Easy

Tomato - Photo: Pixabay

I bet you have already seen organic vegetables being sold in supermarkets. Nowadays, the area dedicated to organic produce in supermarkets is growing and more. It used to be that people are going organic as a matter of alternative, lifestyle changes, or making a statement. But today, organic food has become more the conventional rather than the alternative. 

The benefits of organic gardening can never be observed more in the area of commercial agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables. Tomatoes, for example, are becoming bigger, rounder, redder, and fresher through organic gardening than previous cultivation methods. Gardening organic tomato is really not a mystery but rather involves balancing the health of the environment and the plant itself. 

When planting tomatoes using organic gardening, it is important to note that healthy tomato plants will be able to repel pests and diseases better. There are a number of ways to make certain that your tomato plants are healthy.  For one, you could start by buying plants or seeds from disease-free varieties. Local varieties usually have a developed adaptive mechanism which protects them from common pests and diseases. 

Tomatoes can be divided into determinates and indeterminates. The first variety will grow to a certain extent and then stops. Unlike the indeterminates variety where the tomato vines continue to grow which is why you need to provide support for the plants when you cultivate these kinds of variety. 

Planting tomatoes in an organic way mean you need a very healthy soil. Note that healthy soils are rich with fungi, bacteria, and other organisms that are good for your tomato plants. You need to understand that ordinary backyard or front yard soils are not often sufficient to provide tomato plants with the sustenance they need. The key to growing great tomatoes are good quality soil. 

This is the reason why other people are tempted to use chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides to augment the poor quality of their current soils. Although using chemical fertilizers do offer quick results, it is not the true way of organic gardening. 

Just like any other organic gardening, the use of composts in your tomato gardens is very important. By adding composts, the soil will become healthier and will be able to provide a better source of nutrients for your tomato plants. 

Now pests are common occurrences and in your tomato garden, one of the most common and most damaging is the Tomato Hornworms. These are large caterpillars and mostly found in the Northern parts of America. They can cause a lot of damage not only in tomatoes but in eggplants, pepper, tobacco, and potatoes when they are left to themselves. 

If you notice any Tomato hornworms in your garden, you should start with pest control as soon as possible. The most basic and remains one of the most effective in dealing with pests is to get down and handpick the caterpillars from the plant’s leaves or stem. 

Another option would be to release in your garden natural predators and in the case of Tomato hornworms, lady beetles or lacewings are effective friendly insects. These insects will attach the eggs of the hornworms destroying them from the source. 

Gardening organic tomato can be very easy, all you need a simple guide, a sample pamphlet maybe or a brochure. Just remember that organic gardening will require special care and attention. 

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TOMATOES - No Refrigeration Required

Fresh Harvest Tomatoes - Photo: Pixabay 

Did you know that one of the most popular vegetables in the United States is actually a fruit? Categorized by botanists as a fruit but eaten by consumers as a vegetable, tomatoes are appreciated for their combination of sweetness and acidity.

Any way you slice it, tomatoes are a delicious way to add nutrients to the diet. They are rich in vitamins A and C and are a good source of potassium. Tomatoes are also naturally low in sodium and contain no cholesterol.

Many people store tomatoes alongside other vegetables in their refrigerator's crisper drawer, but that's not the best place for them. Tomatoes should be stored at room temperature to maintain maximum flavor. Cool temperatures inside your refrigerator will stop the ripening process and begin to decrease the flavor and change the texture. Try storing your tomatoes in a decorative bowl on the counter.

Tomatoes and bananas help each other ripen quicker. Tomatoes and bananas emit a naturally occurring ripening gas called ethylene and when you store the two together they both ripen rapidly. If you need to ripen a tomato quickly, store it in a closed paper bag on the counter. The ethylene gas speeds up the ripening process when confined around the fruit in a closed bag.

Although tomatoes are native to Central and South America, they are now eaten throughout the world and are an ingredient in countless recipes. Many people consider tomatoes an essential part of their vegetable gardens each summer and they are available at your local market year-round.

For more information about tomatoes online, log on to www.sunripeproduce.com. For more recipes and information on how to incorporate a variety of fruits and vegetables into your diet, visit www.5aday.org.

Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo is a fresh tomato salsa often served as a dip for tortilla chips but it's also terrific spooned onto grilled fish, chicken or pork.

Ingredients:

8 SUNRIPE Bella Roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
2 jalapenos, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy.

Serves: 8 − 1/2 cup of vegetables per serving

Nutrition Information per Serving: calories: 15, total fat: 0.2g, saturated fat: 0.03g, % of calories from fat: 8, % of calories from saturated fat: 1, protein: 1g, carbohydrate: 3g, cholesterol: 0mg, dietary fiber: 1g, sodium 149mg.

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