Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (and New Years photos)

Once again, this post is a little late (10 days) in coming.  Sorry.

I spent forever trying to figure out what kind of ice cream to make first in my ice cream maker.  I saved recipes for mocha coconut, dolce de leche, nutella swirl, almond cherry, etc.  I wanted something crazy fun, and then the voice of reason (Devin) said maybe you shouldn't make something too complicated for the first time, in case it doesn't turn out right.  Boo!  He was right though.  I would have been so upset if I made some fancy ice cream and spent lots of money on ingredients only to have it bomb miserably.  While he was right, I also knew that he just wanted vanilla.  Nothing adventurous for Devin. He wanted the "yellow" ice cream (don't worry, I have since walked on the wild side with the mocha coconut - it was amazing, I wanted to bathe in it - seriously make this one!).

So, I followed the PDubs recipe for Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.  I had bought vanilla beans from Trader Joes at Christmas in case I would need them for something.  I never needed one before, but they were too fun to pass up. Turns out I did need them.  Score!

Making ice cream is a lot more time consuming than I expected.  I definitely did something wrong because it took like oh 1.5 hours for my base mixture to thicken.  I was not a happy camper.  Plus, it didn't thicken enough so it never completely turned into ice cream (of the soft serve nature) while in the ice cream maker and so it took way longer to harden up in the freezer.  I don't think I heated the half and half up enough at first, then I don't think I was supposed to use a nonstick pan and I think it was a little too much liquid for my ice cream maker (the mocha coconut ice cream came together much better).  All complications aside, the vanilla ice cream turned out awesome!  It was slightly too rich for me (could be all the heavy cream, sugar and half and half) but Devin loved it.  Here are the pictures I took while making/serving it.

Oh and Janey loved it even more than Devin!

(it's on her nose!)

I ended up making this banana bread.  It ended up being a little bit dry.  Do you know what moistened it up??  A little time in the microwave and some vanilla ice cream on top!

Last but not least, some pictures from our New Years crab leg dinner.  My camera lens got all steamy from the kitchen so I apologize for some of the streaks.

Treat Yo Self!

So Long!