DIY Real Vanilla Extract

Well we’ve had an eventful year already. The Chef found out that he had a pretty good size hernia late last year, and the hospital couldn’t fit him in until the beginning of the year. The day of the surgery they told us he wouldn’t be up and moving for 3-4 days. Wrong. It was a good week before he was willingly getting up and moving on his own. So that was fun. But it’s taken me about two weeks to get back in the groove of things. Guess I can’t complain. When half of your team is down, it’s then you realize how much you depend on them!

One of the things that The Chef and I have been making ourselves for quite some time is homemade vanilla. It’s so incredibly easy, and your wallet will love it. A small bottle of real vanilla extract at the stores cost anywhere from $7 on up. What many people don’t know is real extract is more than likely just infused alcohol.

I think you see where I’m going with this.

We used a cheap clear 750ml bottle (or somewhere around that size) with a pop-top to hunker it down (or just use the vodka bottle if you’ll be using it all).

Filling the bottle with a vodka of your choice (we used Svedka because you can get a pretty big bottle of it at Costco for $21, good quality while still on the cheap side), cut open 2-4 vanilla beans, length-wise, and scrape the seeds out of the pod and into the bottle. Once the seeds are transferred, drop the pods in as well. Place somewhere safe for 2-3 weeks.

Over the course of the weeks, you’ll see the alcohol start to turn tan, to a light amber, to brownish amber. This is the color we want! (Depending on how big your bottle is will depend on how many vanilla beans you will need to use. If after two weeks it’s still not dark enough, scrape out and add another bean for another week.) Filter out all bean pods at the end, when you have achieved the color. Pour the extract back into the bottle and voilá! You now have a huge bottle of vanilla extract that tastes amazing and will lasts you months (if not years. However much you make sweets 🙂 ) I go through mine in about 6 months. I definitely needed a cheaper version than the $7+ sample size bottle from the stores. Ugh.

*Tip: The cheapest place the buy vanilla beans, that we’ve found, is World Market. You can find them in a small ziplock bag (not the bottle) for $2.99 for two beans. AMAZING! But if you know of another place that has them even cheaper, let us (and everyone else) know!!

Did you know that the imitation vanilla and some vanilla extracts, aren’t even vanilla? They contain or are actually vanillin which is a common vanilla flavoring made out of a component found in wood. It is also easy to make synthetically. Not exactly what we’re looking for when preparing quality made foods, amiright? Read labels!

I hope you all are baking plenty and staying cozy!! Lets hope and pray for no more surgeries in 2015! YES LORD!

-The Everyday Chef and Wife

New Years Goal 2015- Something for the mind, body, and soul

We don’t like resolutions.

But we do like to think of goals of how to better ourselves in the next year. Something to strive for, giving a little room for set backs, but with enough motivation behind it to drive us through the year. The old saying “practice makes perfect” is getting a facelift, because no one is perfect. “Practice makes permanent” as our pastor just taught us last Sunday, are words to live by!

This year The Chef and I are slightly continuing our goal from last year, only with more oomph. We are going handmade and homemade, baby! Down to the wire as much as we possibly can. We are going to try to figure out how to make as much of our own food instead of buying processed, packaged foods.

We did pretty good last year, with making our own pizza, ice cream, pasta, mascarpone cheese, and various other things. But the problem was, we didn’t plan properly. We would make things here and there when we had time and thought of a new recipe to blog, and then when it was inconvenient, we would go out and buy the product. What’s that about?

Oh yea. I had no motivation.

This year I want to strive to make (and pre-make) as much of our food as we can. Also, keeping track of our grocery bill each month to see how much we’re actually saving. And on the way I really want to talk and learn more about what preservatives, gmo’s, fillers, and other unnecessary chemicals are being used in store bought items and how they effect our body.

We want to be healthy, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to use sugar, heavy cream, and butter, but we want to be wholesome in how we eat, in monitored portions. Because it’s not always what you eat, but how much. Moderation is key.

Obviously there are going to be things we can’t make, because unless The Chef is hiding the fact that he can crap an egg, I think we’re going to have to go the buying route. Where we are saving money on not buying convenient food, we’ll be putting it into better quality (organic, gmo free) products wherever we can.

There are going to be failures of recipes (oh so many…), and I know I’m going to want to quit. Please stand by us and be patient as we learn.

We are so excited with the changes and goals we are setting. Here we come 2015!

– The Everyday Chef and Wife

Dinner Tonight 10-27-14

I’m writing to you in a freshly made bed with a huge comfy sweatshirt on. One of The Chef’s sweatshirts. There is a magnificent feeling of crawling into a bed with freshly washed sheets. What feeling is that? I feel like there’s not even a word that properly describes.

It’s similar to the feeling of sinking your teeth into a slice of pizza. I’m not talking about the mass chain pizza slices. I’m talking about great pizza. There has only been a few times in my life where I have felt such utter blissful indulgence when biting into a pizza, and tonight was one of them.

I made an accelerated version of artisan bread dough/pizza dough, where I put
2 2/3 cup of warm water
1 Tbsp (yes Tablespoon) of active dry yeast
6 cups of bread flour
1 Tbsp salt

I let it rise for 1 1/2- 2 hours for the first rise. Quartered it off, used one quarter for the pizza and froze the rest in their sections.
2nd rise for 1 1/2 hours.
Preheat the oven for an hour with your pizza stones/unglazed quarry tiles in for the preheat.

The Chef made this exquisite masterpiece tonight with a garlic butter sauce, fresh mozzarella, and Brussles sprouts, broccoli, and pepperoni for toppings. We’ve made this pizza before and it’s always been a knockout but tonight he completely outdid himself.

If I was a rich girl, I would be opening up a pizzeria tomorrow so I could let you try a slice. The only enjoyment about being full, was the reminder that leftovers would be available for lunch tomorrow.

I’m just sorry you won’t be there.

Not really. More for me.

-The Wife-

Dinner Tonight 10-24-14

I made vegan pasta! Wanna know how?

Flour, salt and water.

The Chef had a personal chef cook day, and he’s always hungry by them time he gets home. And he never wants the leftovers that he might have of the food he just made. It was up to me to scour the fridge.

I found leftover Brussels sprouts from our garden, and an heirloom tomato. That’s not all we have in our fridge, believe me , but it’s what piqued my interest. But what could I make with it to fill our bellies?

Homemade pasta.

I know I posted way earlier about homemade pasta, and it’s a good recipe. But to me it was just a little to much to just whip something up. Call me lazy. I decided to just try flour, salt and water instead of the original recipe. I want things cheap but good. I like to get back to the basic of basics.

I roughly diced the tomatoes and cut the sprouts. Oiled em up and flopped it on a cookie sheet, and popped it in the oven to roast.

For the pasta I took about a cup of flour and around a half a cup of water and a sprinklage of salt. This isn’t exact. I added more water and then more flour to get a smooth textured ball, kneading it a few minutes to really work the gluten. Letting the dough rest for about 10 minutes wrapped in plastic wrap, I prepared for the following steps. Wipe down the counter, lightly sprinkle with flour, get your fav rolling pin, and go to town. To the town of pasta.

I rolled mine as thin as I could pooooossibly roll it. It had such a beautiful, smooth surface. I worked any excess flour into the dough as I was rolling it out because I had to peel it off the counter. But it was really quite perfect; when you eat the cooked pasta, you didn’t get the excess flour/starch left on. Delightfully light and tender.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, salting the water for extra flavor. This isn’t a step to skip. Salt your water.

Using the rolling pin as your cutting guide, and a pizza cutter as your tool, roll the pizza cutter against the side of the rolling pin to cut the pasta into whatever-width-you-desire strips. Toss them into the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Strain but don’t rinse.

With the pasta in a personal sized bowl, I put in just a touch of butter to melt over top, but I think some really good EVOO would be just as tasty. Use good stuff. Sprinkle some fresh Parmesan on, a little bit of lemon zest (that really rocked it!) and salt and pepper. Top with the roasted veggies.

*Note: this dish is not vegan with the Parmesan cheese or butter but they are completely optional.

Holy cow it’s like I’m in Italy. Or I could imagine. (Anyone want to put me up??) The flavors were perfect. The slight al dente bite of the pasta mixed perfectly with the roasted veggies. The tomatoes were sweet and flavorful, and the Brussel sprouts gave it a slight earthy flavor, but the Parmesan and lemon zest really hit it out of the park. It was so simple and clean tasting. I could’ve ate 10 bowls. Lemon zest on pasta could be my new favorite thing…

No pictures this time as it was 9 pm when we ate and we scarfed it down so fast that my shutter probably wouldn’t have been able to capture it anyways.

But I would like to make a quick video about it… Hopefully soon. *hint hint on what’s in the works possibly* we’re getting our ducks in a row…

Wow! So 90% of that meal came from the work of my very own hands. I grew the veggies, and I made the pasta. How much more satisfying can you get? And it was really quite easy. I feel like lasagna would be harder.

That reminds me. I haven’t made lasagna in a while.

Try out vegan pasta! It’s so easy and satisfying! You’ll feel accomplished, I promise you that.

Whew with full, happy bellies, I wish you good morning/day/night.
-The Wife

A catering event for the books!

Sometimes I wish I could just attend the parties we throw, instead of working them (behind the scenes, babysitting, etc.). This past weekend The Chef threw one heck of a partay. I was able to help with the creation of the dessert small bites (and by that I mean I thought of them and tried them out to see how they would work… I didn’t actually make them for the event. A professional did that :P). I love all the events that The Chef’s done, but since I was able to see photographic proof of this one, I wish I could’ve attended as a guest. I would have ate my whole weights worth.

I’m not going to tell you how much that is though.

I made a call to my photography colleague/friend from college, Marcella, who also graduated in photography, if she wouldn’t mind running down to the event to capture the deliciousness of the party. Let me tell you, it looked AH-mazing! (and I’ve had some of the left overs and those are pretty fantabulous as well.) She did so fantastic. We have booked her for future events when I’m stuck at home with The Little Man… Thank you Marcella!!!

The Chef did pasta stations where you can custom create your own plate with noodle types, sauces and toppings, along with different appetizers and charcuterie boards, cheese platters (cheese from Appertivo at the Downtown Market), and homemade desserts. I think my favorite is the ice bowls that we made with pansies and herbs frozen inside, encompassing Love’s Ice Cream’s Pumpkin and Thyme Sorbet, and also the homemade caramel corn (my recipe :)) in paper cones that they received right as they walked into the venue. “Please beam me right into that party, Scotty.”

Photo Credit to Marcella Jo Photography

*Descriptions of what each item is can be seen when hovering over the photo.*

Pasta Station

Small bites

Charcuterie and Cheese board

Cheese platter

Charcuterie and cheese board

Cheese board

Cheese platter

Gazpacho Shooters

Prosciutto crostini’s with goats cheese and cherry chipotle sauce

Prosciutto crostini’s with goats cheese and cherry chipotle sauce

Homemade Caramel Corn

Homemade Caramel Corn

Homemade Caramel Corn

Homemade Caramel Corn

Homemade Caramel Corn

Homemade Caramel Corn

Bahn-Mi lettuce wraps

Bahn-mi lettuce wraps

Bahn-mi lettuce wraps

Tuna tar-tar on rice crackers

Tuna tar-tar on rice crackers

Tuna tar-tar on rice crackers

Panzanella Salad

Field and Fire pull apart baguettes

Butter Rum Shrimp with pesto dip

Butter Rum Shrimp with pesto dip

Butter Rum Shrimp with pesto dip

Homemade Desert – Made by Brigitte Fouch

Chocolate Truffels

Chocolate Truffels

Chocolate Truffels

Homemade Ice Bowls with pansies and herbs, with Pumpkin and Thyme Ice Cream made by Love’s

Homemade Ice Bowls with pansies and herbs, with Pumpkin and Thyme Ice Cream made by Love’s

Homemade Ice Bowls with pansies and herbs, with Pumpkin and Thyme Ice Cream made by Love’s

Homemade Ice Bowls with pansies and herbs, with Pumpkin and Thyme Ice Cream made by Love’s

Pots de Creme

Pots de Creme

Pots de Creme

Lace Honey Tweels with Vanilla bean creme

Lace Honey Tweels with Vanilla bean creme

Tea and French Press Coffee

Tea and French Press Coffee

Tea and French Press Coffee

The Chef even did a cooking demonstration on grilling tips and techniques and how to make the Pots de Créme!

Thank you to everyone who helped out and made it a great event! Thank you to the Downtown Market for being such a great venue to work at! It is gorgeous!! A special thanks to Appertivo, Field and Fire, and Love’s Ice Cream for helping us out! You guys rock! We love doing business with you!

We are ready for more! We can’t wait to show off your dream parties and ideas!

-The Everyday Chef and Wife

 

Easy Homemade Peach Compote and Cream

The summer has almost faded. I’m slightly torn with how I feel about it. On the one hand, the summer gives us yummy fruits, sunny beach days, warm nights for bonfires and stargazing, fresh garden treats and soooo much more.

But the fall gives us pumpkin flavored everything, spices, cozy nights, fuzzy socks and big sweaters, game nights by the fireplace, the ability to actually want to cuddle instead of pushing your significant other away for fear of suffocating heat.

I loooove fall. But more on that later.

Let’s make the most of summer while we can. Wring out the warmth and goodness for as long as we have it.

So confession. I have this problem about not using up the last of things. Especially fruit. It always seems to go bad before I can use it. I have all these great ideas that I want to use them for, and then poof. Fruit fly heaven. But this time, this time I was determined to use the last of these darn peaches for something. Then it hit me. Peach compote.

I have realized the amazingness of making my own jams and jellies. Compotes included. You have any fruit that needs to be used up? Just throw it in a pot with some sugar and water and maybe a bit of lemon juice and you’re golden. It’s pretty soothing.

Anyways, my three peaches needed to be used pronto. I saw the fruit flies circling it like vultures. For this compote I used:

Said three peaches, peeled and cut into chunks
3 Tbsp of sugar (you can choose to do more or less. Sweetness is to taste)
1/2 cup of water
1-2 tsp corn starch (mixed with a tiny bit of cold water to dissolve)
The juice of one small lemon (or half of a large one).

Cook on medium-high heat for 15-20 min. Let cool a bit before serving. Take cold cream (heavy or half & half) and pour over top. Serve and enjoy!

Make sure you taste the compote to be sure it’s to your liking. The lemon gives it a slight tanginess, but it’s more for depth of flavor. I found that it definitely needed it. Without it, it didn’t have enough flavor.

Use up those fruits! Take advantage of summer! But please God, let fall be close by!! My sweaters are calling my name.

-The Wife-

Grilled Peaches with Homemade Mascarpone, Honey and Almonds

This creation though. Holy smokes.

We first had this up at our friends cabin a couple months ago and we have not been able to stop thinking about it. The flavor of the grilled peaches is out of this world, mixed with the creaminess of the mascarpone just slightly beginning to melt, and the sweetness of the honey and the earthy crunch of the almonds…. Do I sound like a Food Network host yet? It is a perfect summer treat.

Plus, they are an easy ‘wow’ to impress guests (or your stomach) with, that doesn’t take a ton of time or effort. (As long as you have the homemade mascarpone cheese already made.)

Fire up yer grill and lets get cookin’!

No serious, fire up your grill.

Wipe down the grates with an eensie bit of oil to ensure no sticking occurs. Cut the peaches in half, pitting them, and then quarter them (you could technically just half them if you wanted too). The Chef wants to note that when you cut the peach to place them on a cutting board, and with the knife already having punctured it, roll it until a complete circle has been made.

Then taking the peach between your hands, gently twist and pull until the peach comes into two parts. Now you can decide to quarter them or leave them as is.

We decided to quarter them.

Make sure your grill is nice and hot so the grate will leave marks on the peach. Place the peaches on the grill and cook until they have good grill marks. When you go to check them, be careful that they don’t move and you have a weird mosaic of grate marks. Unless you like that kind of thing…

Flip them over, if quartered and repeat. When they are looking awesome, take them off and place them on whatever plate(s) you wish to serve them on. It’s a little tricky to move them after you put the mascarpone on. It turns into a slippery little bugger with the hot peach melting it.

If you want to make the mascarpone extra pretty, take two spoons, using one of them to scoop of the cheese. Take the other one and scoop it off of the other spoon, going back and forth, and slowly “rounding out” the cheese. It gives it a cleaner look. It’s up to you.

After placing the mascarpone cheese on the peach, drizzle just a little honey over top. Sprinkle with chopped up almonds.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Is that not the most delicious thing ever? I love that it’s versatile to either be a side or a dessert. Completely satisfying!

Share this with your friends! It’s too good to keep to yourself…

-The Everyday Chef and Wife-

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

This is The Chef’s baby. He is so stoked about this. I (The Wife) have only had mascarpone cheese maybe twice before he discovered how to make it. That stuff is kind of expensive. Have you ever bought it? It’s like $5-7 for 8 oz. No thanks. The Chef figured out how insanely easy (and cheap) it was and has made about 4 batches in 3 weeks. I’ve had mascarpone cheese coming out of my ears! Someone save me!

But it is delicious and there is so much you can use it for. This post will just be for how you make it, but stayed tuned for some yummy ideas!

I tried it out this time to make sure it was as easy as what he was bragging about. If you know how to read a thermometer, then you’re golden. Grab your whipping cream that I just know you have stock piled in your fridge. Oh you don’t? It’s just our weird family who buys it in multiple half-gallon quantities…

You need:

2 cups of heavy whipping cream. The research that we’ve done has suggested not using ultra-pasteurized, but we used Costco’s organic whipping cream, which I believe is ultra pasteurized, and it worked just fine.
1 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
A candy thermometer

Pour the heavy cream into a medium to large saucepan over medium high heat. Bring the cream to a simmer, being careful not to burn the bottom, until it reads 190˚ F.

Pour in the freshly squeezed lemon juice and stir for 5 minutes, constantly, maintaining the heat at 190˚.

The cream will have thicken enough to coat the back of the spoon. Take off the heat and set the saucepan in a bowl of cold water/ ice water. Let it come to room temperature.

In another large bowl, drape a clean towel, multiple layers of cheese cloth, or what we used, a clean apron, over the bowl. Once the cream has come to room temp, pour onto the cloth etc. and cover the whole bowl with plastic wrap.

Place in a refrigerator, and allow the cream to strain overnight. Once it’s finished straining, work the cheese off of the material and place in an air tight container. You have mascarpone cheese!!

You’ll see cloudy water in the bowl that was drained from the cream. This is the whey. You can throw this out, unless you have some magical use for it.

Since it’s fresh, with no preservatives, it’s best to use the mascarpone cheese within a week. We don’t want any upset tummies. That’s no fun.

Ok, so how easy was that?? Don’t you seriously feel like an artisan cheese maker? I can totally see why The Chef was so excited. I’m more than a little geeked.

Come back to hear what you can do with it now!

-The Everyday Chef and Wife-

 

DIY Grape Jelly

I will simply state that I will never be too old for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. These are God’s gift to man. In my older years, I have expanded my horizons of jelly’s on my sandwiches. Apple, strawberry, blackberry, etc. but I keep coming back to grape. The guy who created this sandwich got it on the nose. The combo just… works. And those stores that have the free sampling of all the scrumptious jams and jelly’s? I mean, hello! You’ll find me in there pacing back and forth in front of them trying to make it look like I’m making up my mind of which one to buy. No. I’m just hungry and it’s free.

To continue, I have recently become obsessed with making me own jams and jelly’s. If I see fruit that I know we’re not going to eat right away I plop it in a pot and simmer away. It’s so much easier than I originally thought. And boy are they deeeelish!

This one time The Chef had a catering event with fruit trays and I saw how much left over grapes (they were green grapes) he had, I just knew that we wouldn’t be able to go through them all. I’m one of those people that if the grape is just a tad wrinkly, in even the slightest way, it gets discarded. It’s incredibly wasteful, I know, and this habit drives me up the wall. So before that happened, I wanted to get the most use out of them. I quickly looked up references to see if I was on the right track and away I went.

About 4 cups of green grapes, 1/2 water, and 1 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil and start mashing to extract the juices. Cook and mash for about 10-15 min.

I had about 4 cups (or a little more) of grapes to start out with. I picked them off the stem and through them in a large pot. I added about a 1/4-1/2 water and 1 cup of organic cane sugar (reg granulated works fine too). I turned the heat onto medium high (more on the high) and let it come to a boil. I got out a masher and I started mashing the heck out of them. They have to cook a couple minutes before they really start to mash. I continued cooking and mashing for a good 10-15 minutes. I let the mixture cool a bit. Taking an old, clean, shirt that I had cut up to make a makeshift fine cheesecloth, I poured the cooked, mushed grapes into the shirt that was position over another mesh strainer and a medium size pot. I squeezed, and pushed, and wrung, and used every bit of elbow grease I had in me to get as much juice out of those grapes.

Don’t have a fine cheese cloth? Use an old CLEAN shirt and use as a makeshift one! Put over a strainer and medium size pot to strain out the grape skins and pulp.

With the juice, now free of grape skins and pulp, I put the pot over high heat and attached my candy thermometer. I waited and waited until finally it reached 219˚. This is what they consider to be optimal jelly making temperature. I personally don’t know what would happen if you achieved a higher temp. Maybe even more coagulation? To me, 219˚ worked relatively well, but it was a tad runny. But the taste was amazing!! I poured it into 2 6-oz sealed containers, so it gave me about 12 -oz total, give or take a few. So at 4 cups of grapes (I’m going to guess that’s a good size bag from the store..) you get 12-oz of homemade vegan grape jelly. No gelatin= 100% vegan!

Note*- You can add as little or as much sugar as you’d like. I read a recipe that used 3 cups of sugar, and to me that seemed a little too sweet. That might also help with the thickness of the jelly as well. But for my first time making actual jelly, I can’t complain, and I will definitely be doing it again!

Sorry Smuckers. This girl is making her own jelly from now on.

Go try it out! Tell us what you think!

-The Wife-

Velvety Smooth, Homemade Salted Caramel Ice Cream

The winning flavor, with the recipe, as promised!

I’m honestly a little hesitant to give out this recipe. It’s that good.  But it’s too good not to give out, and our main purpose is to make sure you have your hands on some ridiculously good recipes so you can “wow” that friend of yours who might make a lemon meringue pie better than you.

We’ve all done it… Amiright?

I learned something when reading recipes, not from blogs. They leave out “a lot” of details! I miss hearing about the experience and the kind voice saying (reading), “‘this’ might happen but dont’ fret! It’s supposed to do that even though it looks wrong!” We tried out this creation a while ago and no notes were made that would’ve given me great comfort. So I will make sure I will tell you all that I learned so you don’t sweat and stink all over and almost dump out a could be masterpiece.

Now this recipe is absolutely 100% achievable. But you will not find it in the “5-minute Ice cream recipe” section of anywhere. It takes a little time, but if you follow all the instructions and go slowly and confidently, you will attain “udder” success. See what I did there?

I’m sorry I did not do step by step with photos for this recipe. It was at night, the lighting was horrible, we did it on a whim, and it definitely saved me some time and stress. I deeply apologize. But you can do it without!  I’ll still make it entertaining.

 

 

For the Caramel gather:

-1 cup sugar (we used organic evaporated cane juice from Costco–the green bag. The flavor brings just a little more vanilla than regular– that’s in all recipes as well, not just this one)
-1 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
-1/2 sea salt
-1 tsp vanilla

Put the sugar in a pot or pan over medium heat. Stir out any clumps, and continue to stir until the sugar starts to melt. It’s ok if you still need to stir for a while even after the sugar starts to melt. Just make sure that it all cooks evenly, but you do want to swirl it especially near the end.. You want the sugar to be a nice amber color.

When the sugar has melted, add the cream. (Please be careful because it will spit at you.) This will also harden the sugar. THAT IS OK! you will just continue to stir it, scrapping down the sides and the bottom of then pan continuously until the sugar has dissolved. The color should be a creamy amber/brown. It took ours a while to dissolve and it did not burn. I was freaking out that it would, but it never did. But you can definitely smell if the sugar/caramel does start to burn. It’s a pretty distinct oder.

Pour the caramel into a bowl and add in the salt and vanilla. Stir until incorporated. Then let it sit and cool to room temp.

For the Ice Cream base gather:

-1 cup of heavy whipping cream
-1 cup of whole milk
-1/4 cup of sugar
-3 eggs
-A candy thermometer or thermometer that goes above 170F˚
-A sieve/ fine mesh strainer
-Ice cream maker

In another pot, combine the cream, milk and sugar over medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring occasionally and keeping an eye on it.

Meanwhile, crack them eggs and whisk em up in a medium sized glass bowl. When the milk/cream/sugar mixture is boiling, with a ladle and a very slooooow stream, add half the mixture to the eggs while simultaneously whisking, as if to save your life.

This is called tempering the eggs. If you add too much too quickly or not whisking fast enough, you will scramble the eggs. Baby steps, nice and easy and you’ll be fine!

When you have a good amount, you can add the egg mixture back into the pot with the rest of the cream mixture. With the heat still on medium,  stir the mixture until it comes to 170˚F. (Do not boil!) The mixture will be thick, like a custard, and will coat the spoon. Then with a large glass bowl and your sieve/fine mesh stainer, pour the “custard” through the sieve and into the bowl. (This will catch any scrambled egg bits that might’ve popped up…that’s ok!)

Finally, pour in cooled caramel and stir until well incorporated.

In an ice bath, place the glass bowl so it rests on the ice. Stir the mixture until it’s to room temperature, or pretty close. Pour into ice cream maker and let it work it’s magic! It will be more like soft serve when it’s finished so put it in the freezer until completely set up (4+ hours).

But make sure you sample a bit!

Ugh it is heaven. “Udder” heaven.

-The Everyday Chef and Wife (and friend Sarah who helped create the wonderfulness that night)