Oh my!! Ryan, my dashing husband and friend, bought me a Kitchenaid mixer with the icecream maker attachment for my graduation present! He couldn’t wait on graduation and let me open it yesterday when it arrived. I squealed and hopped up and down, and I still type this with a smile. It is lovely and cornflower blue, which is a perfect color and will nestle quite well in the butter-yellow (or lemon, I haven’t decided) kitchen I want one day. Shades of yellow are such welcoming colors for both bustling cooking experiments with friends or a homey atmosphere for coffee.

We immediately set about making homemade biscuits and chocolate cake with buttercream icing, haha. Clean and healthy eating – be gone for an evening or two!
Today I successfully tempered egg yolks without making scrambled eggs, and I was always a little leery of this process. The resulting homemade French Vanilla Ice cream with Strawberries was worth the slow effort. I did however speed up the chilling process by putting the container of cream in an ice bath, even while chilling in the refrigerator. Work smarter, not harder…and Ryan added to that logic by saying that next time, I should pour salt in the ice bath to lower the temperature. Yup yup!

Also, there’s specific instructions on NOT pouring hot water in the freezer bowl to clean it, just to let it get to room temperature before cleaning it. I was immediately reminded of an IT Crowd episode where Moss was to “just turn it OFF and walk away!…just walk away!”

Within 48 hours of obtaining the Kitchenaid mixer, Ryan and I made biscuits, chocolate cake, icing for cake, ice cream, and peanut butter cookies. Oh dear but oh YUM! Done experimenting for a little bit…back in with the clean and healthy eating!

Now to homework and studying again. The semester’s not done, and I must not get carried away. Graduation is in 10 days…