Ice cream and cake! Ice cream and cake!

Ok, not really but it is birthday cake flavored ice cream.

True story - On our honeymoon in Hawaii, The Good Husband and I had a fabulous dinner at our hotel. I had the seared salmon, TGH had the seafood lasagna, quite a stretch for him at the time. I was proud, in love, happy and full. We then went on a stroll on the beach and window shopping.

Then TGH spotted a famous, but not available near us, ice cream place. He ordered a large ice cream and I was so sad that I was so full from dinner I couldn't have ice cream.

Years pass. I hear about how awesome the ice cream place is and I curse my stomach from being full on my honeymoon and not allowing me the seemingly only chance I would have to eat such a wonderful dessert. But a miracle occurred.

The popular ice cream place came to our area. I was able to finally try it. I had the birthday cake batter ice cream since that was the flavor I had heard the most raves about. All the praise was well earned. So it was no wonder that this was one of the first flavors I made with my ice cream maker.

This was also the first ice cream I made that called for eggs. I don't know if it was because the fat content was higher in this but the ice cream mix froze in no time in my machine. I think it froze hard enough to stop the machine (if you have the ice cream attachment for the KA Stand Mixer, you know what I am talking about) within ten minutes. It also froze to rock solid in the freezer.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup yellow cake mix
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups milk

Directions:
Over medium heat, bring 1 cup of heavy cream, sugar, salt, and cake mix to a simmer. Separately, beat the egg yolks lightly in a medium sized bowl. Add a 1/4 cup of the simmered cream mixture to the egg yolks and mix. This is to temper the eggs and prevent them from curdling when added to the whole mixture. Add a bit more and mix, then add the entire egg mixture to the simmered cream. Stir with a whisk until the mixture forms a thin custard, about 5 to 10 minutes (or it reaches about 175 on a thermometer). Take off heat and add the remaining milk and heavy cream. Stir, then chill in the fridge.

Once the mixture is completely chilled, add the milk and stir in. Add the mixture to your ice cream machine and chill accordingly.

recipe by: The Tasty Kitchen

Trip to the Farmer's Market #2

I haven't yet made it to the weekend market so this is what I was able to get at the night time market. It is still too dark to take photos at the actual location but I did capture what I purchased.

A few pounds of red 'taters
1 bag of black walnuts
1 bunch carrots
1 package homemade English muffins
1 pint of strawberries
A few tomatoes
1 mini vanilla bean bunt cake
Organic mozzarella

I also picked up a pack of homemade basil champagne fettuccine but forgot to put it in the picture. Oops.

For dinner, The Good Baby and I had a tomato and mozzarella salad and bunt cake and strawberries for dessert.

I made some herbed 'taters for The Good Husband to eat with his lamb chops.

I plan on making some black walnut ice cream soon, since it is one of TGH's favorite flavors.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

We have a winner!Congratulations to edmontonjb. You will win a $40 gift certificate to CSN stores.

Thanks to everyone that entered, tweeted, followed and liked. Thanks!

First Ever Giveaway!

I'm pleased to announce my first ever giveaway! One of you will win a $40 gift certificate from CSN stores.

CSN stores have over 200 stores that will help you find the perfect track lighting, the sweetest modern furniture and, of course, the best cookware. You may recall I did a product review of the Kinetic Go Green Glasslock Assorted 8-Piece Food Storage Container Set I received from CSN stores. But instead of being a greedy whore this time, I'm giving you the freebies! The container set is still awesome but just a tad more than $40, so if you want it, you might have to pay the difference.

But there are over 200+ CSN stores, so you can buy almost anything.

How to score the gift card
Leave me a separate comment for each entry to be counted. This is mandatory. Head over to CSN Stores and tell me in which store you will spend your gift card. Include your email address somewhere in your comment.

Score more entries
~Become a follower of the blog and post telling me who you are

~Follow me on Twitter and tweet this. Tweet, "First Giveaway from @thegoodwifeblog & @csnstores http://tinyurl.com/5vjgwb #giveaway". Leave a comment with a link to your status.

~Like me on Facebook, The Good Wife Blog, or like CSN Stores. Leave me a comment telling me you did.

~Post about this giveaway on your blog or elsewhere. Leave a comment with a link.

Good Luck!

Please note: There may be shipping charges or in the case of Canadian readers, international fees, for certain products. Giveaway ends June 1st at midnight. I'll use random.org to pick a winner and I will email the winner. If I do not hear back within 48 hours a new winner will be picked. I will then give CSN Stores the email address of the winner and he or she will be contacted by CSN Stores and receive the gift certificate. If I do not have an email address for you, you cannot win.

Disclaimer: I was not compensated in any way for this giveaway.

Birthday Dinner

The Good Husband's birthday was yesterday and I try to make his day special by making all his favorite foods. For breakfast he had eggs and 'taters. We then went to a local craft festival and had a small lunch of fresh fruit, sun tea and donuts.

It was hot as hell yesterday. Summer has officially hit central Illinois. It is supposed to remain in the 90s this week with something like 80% humidity. How wonderful.

So this means that I will shun the oven for favor of cooking things on the stove and the grill since we don't turn our A/C on until at least the end of June. TGH wanted steak for dinner so I cranked up the crappy grill pan I have and slaved away.

You can always tell when I cam cooking either steak or on the grill pan since I set the smoke alarms off every.single.time. The Good Baby is used to the screeching by now. It's the one way she knows dinner is ready.

So we had a great grilled dinner of local, grass-fed, organic steak topped with blue cheese from the Farmer's Market, grilled asparagus and organic polenta with purple spring onions and blue cheese. Yeah, I went a little crazy with the blue cheese, but damn, if that stuff isn't moldy heaven.

To grill asparagus:
Trim and wash asparagus. Heat a grill pan on medium high heat until hot. Place asparagus on the grill and drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill for a few minutes on each side, turning often.

To make polenta:
Ingredients:
4 cups water
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup corn meal
1 green onion, chopped
blue cheese crumbles

Directions:
~Bring the water to a boil and add butter. Stir until dissolved.

~Slowly whisk in the corn meal, breaking up any lumps that might form with the whisk. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, switching to a wooden spoon to stir frequently. Cook polenta on low for 30-40 or until thicken and the sides pull away from the pan. Add the onion and blue cheese to taste. Serve immediately.

NOTE: I didn't stir in the blue cheese, since I had to leave some sans cheese for TGB. I should have dished her plate first and then stirred the cheese in but I didn't think about it. Oh well.

Farmer's Market Salad

I told you here, that I scored strawberries, spring purple onion, blue cheese and mesclun mix at the Farmer's Market the other day. I pondered what I would make for dinner with everything and on the way home wished I had walnuts to make a yummy salad. But lo and behold, I had a package hidden in the back of the fridge. Score!

A blue cheese and walnut salad with seasonal fruit is a favorite of mine. Now normally a blue cheese and walnut salad is good on its own. Add fresh strawberries and the dish only gets better. But what made this dish great was the blue cheese. F**k me softly with a chainsaw, if it wasn't the best blue cheese I have had in a long time. It was amazing and I hope they have it next week.

It was such a nice simple dinner and a great way to kick off the Farmer's Market season.


Ingredients:
5-6 strawberries, sliced
1 spring onion, sliced
1/4 cup walnut halves
4 oz blue cheese crumbled
1 handful mesclun mix
The juice of one lemon
A hearty drizzle of olive oil

Directions:
~Combine the first five ingredients and toss to combine.

~Dress salad with lemon juice and drizzle with olive oil.

recipe by: The Good Wife

First trip to the Farmer's Market

I was so unbelievably excited about the Farmer's Market opening this year. But wouldn't you know the first day it was cold and rainy and just all around crappy. Fortunately the Farmer's Market, while outside, is under a pavilion so The Good Baby and I were nice and dry, although cold.

It was too dark to take any photos and TGB started to get fussy and I had to hurry to get her back in the warm car. But it was good for the first one of the year. TGB got to pet a baby goat and she laughed the entire time it was licking her.

I came home with organic goatmilk bar soap, organic beef jerky, a pint of strawberries, organic blue cheese, asparagus, mesclun mix and purple spring onions.

I had a fabulous dinner of roasted asparagus with a poached egg but instead of making the balsamic reduction, I dressed the asparagus with fresh lemon juice and a generous pat of butter. Once you break the yolk, it makes something of a deconstructed hollandaise sauce.

I also had a small salad of blue cheese, strawberries, purple spring onion and walnuts.

TGB enjoyed a scrambled egg with organic cheddar cheese (bought last week at the store), asparagus and fresh strawberries.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

For my first Mother's Day, The Good Husband and The Good Baby bought me the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Did I ever tell you my first job was dishing up ice cream at the local Dairy Queen? It reveals how deep my love of ice cream is. But having the ability to make homemade ice cream was important for another reason. I could not find organic ice cream to save my life. I want TGB to enjoy some on occasion - like her upcoming birthday - but I want to make sure it is quality stuff.
So after I got the attachment, I decided I needed to find a good ice cream base recipe. Google tells me there are two kinds of ice cream, American and Custard style.

American ice cream is the most straight forward since it is usually just milk, cream, sugar and flavors.

Custard contains eggs and has a deeper, richer flavor.

I decided for the first batch I would make a simple American style vanilla ice cream. Most of the recipes I have found call for seemingly large amount of sugar. This is because the taste buds are numbed slightly from the ice cream, therefor the sugar content needs to be strong enough to register on you tongue. However, I made this recipe twice and found it too sweet both times. I followed the recipe to the tee the first time and then reduced the sugar by 1/2 cup the second time. I think I will reduce the sugar by half the next time I make this and see where it stands.

Both TGH and TGB enjoyed it and didn't think it was too sweet at all.

Ingredients:
3 cups whole organic milk
3 cups organic heavy cream
3 cups organic white sugar (I reduced this to 2 1/2 cups and it was still sweet)
3 tablespoons organic vanilla extract

Directions:
~Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Cover and chill over night. Once the mixture is chilled, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

So now that I have vanilla out of the way, I plan to make vanilla bean and birthday cake ice cream. I also want to attempt to make mint chocolate chip.

But, tell me, what is your favorite ice cream flavor?

recipe by: The Good Wife

Summer of Change

I cannot wait for this summer. There are so many things I am looking forward to, so many things I want to accomplish that I really do hope this summer will be one of a permanent change.

The Farmer's Markets will soon be opening, allowing us to eat fresher and seasonally.

The Good Baby will turn one

I will have finished my first semester in graduate school, hopefully with a 4.0 GPA

I will have completed my mind/body stress reduction class

I will be able to stop pumping breast milk for TGB

And finally, but most importantly, I will be able to exercise again.

Everything I have read about breastfeeding (and I read a ton and attended several classes and still not all my questions were answered - but that is a separate post) says to not exercise because an acid can build up in your milk and your baby won't eat it. That seems a little strange to me but hey, any excuse I have to not move my ass is good with me.

Did you also know that while you are nursing you HAVE to eat an additional 500 calories a day? Hot damn! Pass me the cookies.

You see where this is going?

I was able to keep my pregnancy weight gain to 15 pounds and the day I left the hospital I weighed less then my first OB appointment. Now before you want to glass me, keep in mind that I was a member of the fatties before I got pregnant so I was advised to gain NO MORE than 15 pounds. But I know how easy it is to say "I am growing a freaking human here people, pass me that bacon double cheeseburger."

But I was lucky like a case of herpes to get gestational diabetes. I had to test my blood sugar seven times a day and I was placed on insulin. My blood sugar levels were so high when I failed my glucose test it set an office record and even after 2 months on insulin I had to be placed on a second dose of insulin my blood sugar levels were so bad.

So that is the only way I didn't gain 55 pounds during pregnancy. I couldn't drink milk, I couldn't touch a carb and fruit was out of the question. I didn't even have a piece of my baby shower cake.

Both my OB and my endocrinologist speculated I might have been borderline type 2 diabetic before I was pregnant. But there was no way to prove it.

With gestational diabetes you have a 2 out of 3 chance of getting it again with each pregnancy. So most likely I will have this again. But with diet and exercise I should be in a better place in two years when we try to conceive again.

So why didn't my fat ass get out and walk after I had The Good Baby? Postpartum depression and anxiety.

Yeah.

Like a case of herpes with hemorrhoids.

Any new mother will tell you that the first few months are about survival only. I was lucky to get sleep or a shower or brush my teeth, so eating the diabetes diet every 2 1/2 to 3 hours was not happening. By Christmas TGB was six months old and sleeping through the night. But it was the middle of winter and I was packing on my winter weight.

I told myself that my feelings of depression and anxiety were normal and everything would be better once TGB was sleeping in her own room, once she got over teething, once I am able to stop pumping breast milk. I stupidly enrolled in graduate school thinking I needed a distraction.

So the weight slowly crept up. Depression over my new life, my new role and coping with my new body did nothing to ease the pain that the life I knew before TGB was no more. So I ate that cookie and the bacon double cheeseburger and I now weight 15 pounds more then I did at my first OB appointment.

But I feel for the first time in almost a year like I have a grasp on my life, that I am able to control it in a way I couldn't before when every moment seemed to be slipping though my fingers as gently as razorblades.

I feel confident that I can change my body. I can be a great role model for TGB. I can teach her to love food but to not be a slave to fat or calories. I know there will be roadblocks along the way. I know there will be setbacks. I know there will be days when I want to give up and wish everything would just go away. But I know I can do this. I can face this challenge.

And I hope I will kick it's ass.