Homemade Peach Ice Cream.... WIN!

I have been away far too long. Somehow, even with kids that aren't in school, the summer has gotten crazy! Playdates and parties, chores and an ever needy patio garden, it has just all come to a point where I am so busy every day! So, I apologize for being away so long.

Part of summer fun is farm fresh produce. Not the bland, picked too early, from another country produce at your local grocery store. Its the amazing, you can smell it as you walk up, farmer's market produce. I'm not sure if it's being from the south or being from the family I am, but I love peaches. Love in a way that I wait all year for the couple of weeks of amazing peaches the summer brings. In our family we eat South Carolina peaches. Georgia's are good. A good SC peach though? It's like candy. 

Jonathan is off today so we're having a big family dinner for our little family to celebrate. Roast chicken and sides still to be determined but I am thinking at least roasted potatoes. I should have bought  some greens at the market yesterday, they were beautiful. I forgot though. Oops. 

I was going to post this tomorrow, because I didn't plan on taste testing until after dinner. But I did taste test. And I MUST share this with you. Here's the pin for the simplest peach ice cream ever. No cooking! No raw eggs! All you will need an ice cream maker of some kind. We have a Kitchenaid mixer with the ice cream maker attachment. You can put this into a regular ice cream maker or use some of the other pinterest ideas for making it without a maker.

Here is Melissa's recipe from the blog Bless this Mess. 

3-4 medium peaches, peeled and pitted (I used 6 because I wanted this to be SUPER peachy)

1 cup whole milk

1 cup granulated sugar

pinch salt

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 T. vanilla extract

Ice cream in progress

Add the peeled and pitted peaches to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. In a medium bowl mix the peach puree, milk, sugar, salt, heavy cream, and vanilla extract together until the sugar dissolves. Add the ice cream mixture to your ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s directions.

Melissa's Notes:

If the peaches don’t want to blend up try adding part of the milk called for to help things move around. If you like more chunks in your ice cream, blend up 1/2 the peaches and dice the other half. Add the diced peaches to the ice cream just before serving.

If you like a harder ice cream, put the ice cream in a freezer container and cover. Let it freeze for at least 2 hours and then let it sit for 10 minutes on the counter before serving. The ice cream straight out of the maker is just like soft-serve. Out of the freezer it is like store-bought.

Now, my Grandmama's homemade peach ice cream will ALWAYS be the best. Because she's the best and that's just how things go. But this is seriously the best I've had other than hers. I would imagine that you could substitute any other fruit for the peaches. I have some fresh picked blueberries that will be topping this yumminess. It's only because I forgot to put them in that they're not IN it. 

This Must Change.

My blog is not a platform for my views. I like to try out crafty/cooking/hippie things and share them. What I saw on television last night made me think that perhaps I need to share it. I am sick. I am appalled. I will not keep quiet.

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/21/19062348-disabled-workers-paid-just-pennies-an-hour-and-its-legal?chromedomain=rockcenter&lite

The gist of the story is that while District Management makes in excess of $400,000 yearly, some employees working for Goodwill make as little as .22 an hour. I know some people who are handicapped and I cannot fathom them being forced to work for so little because it is the only job that they can get.

I have donated to Goodwill. I have shopped at Goodwill. Thinking that I was helping people who otherwise wouldn't be employed. Watch this commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLM0EKjhuGs, it makes you think that you are doing amazing things for that man's sense of self worth. Instead, he probably makes little to nothing hanging clothing every day.

Please, I implore you, share this on your blogs, your facebook pages, your groups, everywhere. This must change.

Homemade Papusas.... FAIL.

There is this little place tucked into a mostly hispanic neighborhood here in the 'ville that makes the most incredible food.. It's called a papusa. These are wonderful little Salvadorian corn cakes filled with beans and cheese (or other stuff), flattened out and then cooked on a griddle. It is served with a vinegar based slaw and  together, they are my favorite thing in the world to eat.

Out of curiosity one day, I looked them up on Pinterest. If it is possible for a mere mortal to make, they'll be there. And I wasn't disappointed. There weren't an abundance of recipes, but I only needed one, right? Here's the one I found! It sounded REALLY simple. At first I was worried, could the most amazing food on the planet be this easy?? And then I thought about it... It's peasant food, of course it's simple.

I went to work making the most delicious papusas in the history of papusadom. I made refried beans from scratch, grated queso fresco... This, my readers, was going to be the best meal ever. This is what papusas look like...

And this is what mine looked like.....

Nailed it.

I even got Mr. Needlesandpins involved. He's a chef.. which means he can cook ANYTHING... right?
Wrong. The one on the right is his papusa.

So, here's the recipe. I want one, or all, of you to try it. And have success with it. And please, comment and give me your secret.

Papusas:
Recipe from kidworldcitizen.org
2 c Maseca (corn masa flour) *look in Latin American grocers
1 1/4 c warm water
salt
soft, white cheese
oil
Mix the ingredients together, for several minutes. It may look dry, but do not add extra water unless it absolutely will not stick together. Too much water, or too little water will both affect the dough and it will not form a ball properly.
You should be able to roll the masa like playdough into balls. Pat your palms together to flatten the balls into disks, like thick tortillas. If the dough is too sticky, add a tiny bit more of flour; if it is to dry, add a drop more of water.
Fill with cheese (or other fillings, beans, meats, etc)! Put the grated cheese in the middle of the dough, and bring up the sides and pinch close. Re-mold the masa into a fat tortilla again, with the cheese in the middle.
First, heat up a non-stick pan: either a cast iron pan, traditional comal, or a griddle. When it is heated and lightly oiled, cook the pupusas until slightly golden, 4-5 minutes per side.