Homemade ice cream – no ice cream maker required!!!

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this post!  I’ve always dreamed of having an ice cream maker, and I’m currently working towards getting a KitchenAid mixer (which includes an ice cream maker settting, I’m told!) for free as a bonus with my current job, but that won’t be arriving until early next year.  So, for this summer, I thought we’d have to stick with whatever was on sale at the stores!  Oh, but was I wrong!  Check this recipe out – courtesy of Paula Dean, my favorite Georgia cook!

 

Prep Time: 10 MINUTES!!!

Freeze Time: 6 hours

Servings: 8 servings

 

3 egg yolks*
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely crushed
2 cups heavy cream, whipped (Hint: start with only one cup of cream, then whip it to two cups) 

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and stir in the condensed milk and vanilla. Fold in the crushed cookies and whipped cream. Pour mixture into a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan lined with foil. Cover and freeze for 6 hours or until firm.
To serve, scoop ice cream from pan or cut into slices.  

* Food Network Kitchens suggest caution in consuming raw and lightly-cooked eggs due to the slight risk of Salmonella or other food-borne illness. To reduce this risk, we recommend you use only fresh, properly-refrigerated, clean, grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell.

The Value of One Penny – Homemade Laundry Detergent!

My husband alerted me to this story on cnn.com today – very interesting that we’re not the only moms out there trying to save money on groceries! 

After reading about the homemade laundry detergent, I did a little research, and found this cute blog with a great post about how her family made the laundry detergent (go down to “Science Experiment” Post)!  Just to break it down for you as to how cheap it actually is to make your own detergent, the recipe she used would wash 64 loads of laundry, and cost only $0.73 to make!  (For you non-math scholars out there, that equals $0.01 (ONE PENNY!!!) per load of laundry – can’t beat that, no matter where you shop. . . in fact, it might be cheaper than making a special trip to CVS to get FREE detergent with gas prices the way they are!  (Not to mention, you probably find at least one penny in each load of laundry you do! )  She found all the ingredients at her grocery store, and had fun making it one afternoon with her kids.

After looking some more, here’s a few other recipes I found for liquid detergents, powdered detergents, quick hints for making the detergent, and some tips for finding the ingredients. (Unless you already know what aisle Borax is in!)  I’m thinking about trying this, especially if it really does save lots of money every year. . . once I run out of free Tide from CVS!