Parve Ice Cream Recipes

Hey everyone! Long time no see! No excuses, but I promise this post will make up for lost time. I invented the most amazing icecream recipes.

Here was my dilemma. I am hosting Thanksgiving this year (let me know if you want to come! Some people bailed but I am making 3 kinds of pie so all are welcome!). We keep kosher, meaning that if we have Turkey, everything else has to be parve (non-dairy). Well, I am making 3 kinds of pie. Apple pie. Pumpkin Pie. My grandmother's amazing recipe for Pecan Pie. If you have all that pie, you need icecream. Usually I would just get in my car and go to my handy dandy Trader Joe's where they sell great non-dairy parve icecream. But now I live in Alabama. There is no Trader Joe's. Even if there was a Trader Joe's it would be too far away to get the icecream home without melting in the car. Conundrum! I think not!

Cue the Icecream Maker. It was time to experiment. There are a lot of parve icecream recipes out there, but it is really difficult to get a lot of the ingredients down here in lower Alabama. I went through tons of recipes and decided to take the best aspects of all of them to create the recipes below. I combined this Parve Coffee Ice Cream recipe and this Parve Dark Chocolate Ice Cream recipe to make the Mocha Oreo recipe and I used the vanilla recipe that came with the ice cream maker combined with eggs and my own thoughts to make the Vanilla/Berry ice cream. Sorry no pictures. It got really hectic in the kitchen and honestly, I just forgot to take out my camera.

These recipes. I was skeptical at first. I went in knowing that this was trial and error and not expecting much out of it.

Results: these recipes are AMAZING. I swear I worked an Icecream miracle. Better than Trader Joe's if I do say so myself. Easy to get ingredients (aka if I can get them here you can find it where you are). My husband liked the vanilla/berry one that we made better than the icecream place (made with real cream) around the corner. Seriously.

Tips: Coconut milk can be found in the Ethnic food section. I looked through every brand before I found the last can of the one brand that was actually Kosher Parve. It was like the Channukkah miracle, but with coconut milk, not oil.

Creme topping. The Publix grocery store in Enterprise had Gefen non dairy whipped topping in the frozen food section next to the frozen Empire Chicken. I think Rich Whip would also work, but I couldn't find it here.

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Do not fill ice cream maker to the top. Make sure to leave room to add the filler in the last 5 minutes. Also, over filling ice cream maker will cause the ice cream not to freeze in the ice cream maker.

::SO HERE IT IS::

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Parve Mocha Oreo Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk

3 Tbsp instant coffee

1 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 cup almond milk

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

½ tsp vanilla

3/4 cup Double Chocolate Fudge Trios (crushed) or other cookie of your choice

1.     Warm the coconut milk with the coffee and cocoa in a medium saucepan. Whisk thoroughly

2.     Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Scrape saucepan.

3.     Warm almond milk and sugar in medium saucepan

4.     In medium bowl whisk egg yolks and salt

5.     Slowly pour warm milk mixture into eggs. Whisk constantly.

6.     Scrape eggs and milk back into saucepan.

7.     Stir constantly over medium heat. Scrape bottom and corners until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

8.     Pour custard through strainer and into the coconut and coffee mixture. Stir until smooth.

9.     Add vanilla

10.  Cool thoroughly and then put in ice cream maker according to directions.

11.  Add the crushed cookie in the last 5 minutes.

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Parve COMSTOCK Vanilla Ice Cream

1 carton parve whipped topping ex. Gefen

1 cup almond milk

1 large can COMSTOCK (separated) (I used the limited edition Berry one)

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla

1.     Pour the carton of crème topping into a large bowl. Set aside

2.     Pour the Comstock through a strainer, separating most of the jamlike substance from the fruit.

3.     Warm almond milk, sugar, and half of the COMSTOCK jam in a medium saucepan. Whisk until jam and sugar have basically dissolved.

4.     In medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and salt.

5.     Slowly pour the almond milk mixture into the eggs. Whisk constantly.

6.     Scrape eggs and milk back into the saucepan.

7.     Stir constantly over medium heat. Scrape the corners and sides of the pan until mixture thickens and will coat the back of a spoon.

8.     Pour custard through a strainer and into the crème topping and stir until smooth.

9.     Add vanilla.

10.  Cool thoroughly and then put in ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions.

11.  Add ¾ cup of the COMSTOCK fruit in the last 5 minutes.

Jewelry Part 2

Hey everyone! I think I finally came up with a name for my brand so stay tuned because an etsy account is in the making. The Real Ideal Jewelry Boutique. What do you think? Post comments below and other name ideas are more than welcome. I have been toying with a bunch of different names but they all seem to be taken. A free pair of earrings if someone can come up with something I like better than the Real Ideal. Second Place (and only because it is taken) so far goes to my amazing husband who came up with Great Expectations. I added Market, so the acronym was GEM. Also really loved, That Jewelery Place, and Femme, Fun, and Fabulous!

Anyway, below are some more of my recent creations!

Bracelets I reworked for a friend of my mom's.

Quirky Maze Earrings : These are a little psychadelic as you can almost see in the picture.

A Patriotic View of the World Earrings in Red White and Blue. The first of my Patriotic Series. I decided that half the proceeds from anything I make that is Red White and Blue will go to the USO to support our troops. Military wife, ya know?

Easier to see here, the blue beads on the bottom have lighter blue splashes of color on them.

Cinderella Ballroom Blue Dangle Earrings. I also made a pair for myself. :)

I see Red White and Blue dangle earrings

Princess Love Earrings in Pink. Yes those are little wire hearts dangling at the bottom. These are more baby pink than picture portrays.

Immensity of the Sea bracelet in Teal

Check out those waves!

 CLASSY ORANGE SHERBERT NECKLACE. I may keep this one for myself but I can make others that are very similar!

This Bracelet holds the key to your future

Picture quality isn't the best, but you can sort of sea how the inside of the beads is kind of smoky like a crystal ball

Breakfast at Tiffany's Asymmetrical Necklace. Looks great on! I will try to take a picture wearing it so you can see.

Mint Cotton Candy Sea Stone Dangle Earrings. Mint and Cotton Candy colored stones.

The green color is more true to life in this picture. The pink is slightly more baby pink than this portrays.

Ballroom Chic Earrings with pearly beads and a little wire flower

Professor Plum's Necklace for Special Occasions

Professor Plum Earrings. These are a really beautiful plum color and are made of glass.

Claire keeping me company as I make and photograph jewelry. I freaking love this dog. 

Ok. I hope you are all beating the heat (unlike me. The airconditioner in my car broke and it is August in Alabama. Yay me.) and having a great day! Also, keep watch for The Real Ideal!

SUKKOT ARTICLE

Hey all! So to add to my ever increasing schedule, my husband and I officially became Jewish Lay Leaders here at Fort Rucker. Check out the article that I wrote (yet to be edited by the head chaplain so suggestions welcome) about Sukkot. It's going to be printed in the Army Flier newspaper!


SEASON OF OUR REJOICING

Believe it or not, the month long sequence of Jewish High Holidays is almost upon us! You may have heard of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), but have you ever heard of Sukkot (pronounced Sue-coat)? Explaining the holiday of Sukkot makes Judaism sound like the craziest religion in the world. Jews gather together and build sukkahs (little huts) outside their homes, synagogues, and even restaurants. These sukkahs have a roof made of natural materials through which one can see the stars, making them leaky, and at a time when much of the Northern hemisphere is beginning to become bitterly cold, Jews will eat and some will even live in these temporary shelters. During the seven-day holiday of Sukkot, people will also see Jews shaking a lulav (branches from a palm tree, a willow tree, and a myrtle tree) and etrog (essentially an oversized lemon with a nub on one end) up and down and in each of the cardinal directions.

Crazy, right? Yet this holiday is described in Leviticus in the Torah. It is a tradition that historically symbolizes the 40 year period when the Jews wandered in the desert and is agriculturally significant as the harvest festival. The holiday of Sukkot is one of the Shalosh Regalim – the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (also including Passover and Shavuot) where Jews would come from all over the biblical lands to the Temple in Jerusalem in order to make offerings to the temple in honor of these holidays. The sukkahs are like those used by farmers who needed to live in their fields while harvesting their crops, and this modest shelter teaches humility as well as hospitality as Jews invite guests and come together for meals and Jewish learning. The lulav and etrog are shaken in every direction as a reminder that G-d is all around us, and they are also carried in a procession around the Torah during religious services, mimicking a similar procession in Temple times.

Reality Check. So what does all that significance and history mean? Here is a story. I was eighteen and living in Jerusalem, Israel for one year. We had just returned from 4 days of desert survival training in the Negev Desert where my group would awaken each morning, pray and shake our lulavs, surrounded by a land untouched by modern society or conveniences. It felt like we had been brought through time into biblical Israel and were celebrating with others of our faith from a time long past. Now we were back in today’s world and I was with a group of my friends walking down the very popular touristy street called Ben Yehudah. At that time there was a kosher Burger King on that street, and because it was Sukkot, the Burger King had built a sukkah outside their restaurant so that observant Jews could do the mitzvah (commandment) of sitting and eating in a sukkah. It was such a strange meeting of old and new. I still had that overwhelming sense of connection to the Jewish past from our week in the desert, and now I was observing these ancient commandments and traditions while simultaneously being a twenty-first century teenager looking for some fast food. It made me feel a sense of continuity between the Torah and myself, and from the history of the Jewish people all the way to the present. It made the holiday of Sukkot relevant in a way I had never before experienced. It is also absolutely amazing to have lived in a place where it was that easy and simple to follow the commandment to sit and eat in a sukkah. I could go anywhere and eat anything, and yet my Jewish observance was provided for. That sense of history, of connection, and of being normal is one of the things that made my time in Israel so special to me.

That experience on Ben Yehudah really touched me and has made sukkot, also know as the Season of our Rejoicing (and who doesn’t love having that in their lives?), one of my favorite holidays. This year, at Fort Rucker, we are going to build a sukkah and I invite each and every one of you to come and sit and eat in our sukkah. We will be having a dessert potluck on Sunday August 30 at 7:00. Kids welcome and they can even help us to decorate our sukkah with paper chains and drawings! You can even bring your neighbors! Please contact me, Jenn Kalik, at (203) 314-4196 if you are even thinking about coming (no R.S.V.P. necessary but we need some idea of numbers) or want to be a part of a Jewish community here at Fort Rucker. I have no idea how many of you this will reach, but if any of you are like me, and missing that Jewish something in your life down here in the Bible Belt, I truly hope you will come and celebrate this amazing holiday with us and help us to create a Jewish community here at Fort Rucker.

Helpful Holiday Dates:

Rosh Hashanah: Sunset of September 16 through nightfall of September 18

Fast of Gedaliah: September 19

Yom Kippur: Sunset of September 25 through nightfall of September 26

Sukkot: Sunset of September 30 through sunset of October 7

Shmini Atzeret:  Sunset of October 7 through nightfall of October 8

Simchat Torah: Nightfall of October 8 through nightfall of October 9

Death By Peanut Butter Cookie Brownies

Hey all, so I have been experimenting with different techniques in the kitchen. My latest concoction was... AMAZING. I'm pretty sure my husband hates me because I feed him so much sugar and fat and yet he has to stay fit enough to pass his upcoming APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test).

This latest recipe was based off of this recipe that I found on Pinterest.

All I did was substitute the oreos for Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Voila!!

INGREDIENTS:
1 package of Nestle Premade cookie dough. Slightly softened.
24 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (they were on sale at Walmart!)
1 box of brownie mix and the water/oil/eggs required by the mix

1. Preheat the oven to 350. The blogger for the oreo bars suggests lining the pan with foil or wax paper and then spraying with cooking spray. I was lazy and didn't do this and my brownies were a little tough to get out of the pan. I don't think the taste suffered any though!

2. I took my tube of cookie dough and I cut it into half inch disks. I then layered the bottom of my pan with the disks and then smushed them together to create one solid pan of cookie dough. I found that cutting them first helped me to evenly distribute the cookie dough. ALSO, if you want thicker brownies you can use an 8x8 pan rather than the 9x13 pan I used, and then you only need 12 Reeses Cups. I would still use a whole thing of cookie dough and an entire batch of brownie batter though.

3. Layer the entire pan with the Reeses Cups

 4. Make the brownie Mix as directed on the package.

 5. Pour the brownie batter evenly over the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

 6. Take a minute to eat the leftover brownie batter. I know I know I know you're not supposed to because of the eggs, but I freely admit that in this case I am a rule breaker and it is just delicious!

 7. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

I'm not as good at taking food pictures as other bloggers might be, but use your imagination, because these were just fantastic!

Great! Everyone have an amazing day and check out my other blog posts. There are some other recipes and also a ton of handmade jewelry!

Jewelry Boutique

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a glorious/sweltering day. I know I am!

So, many people have been asking me about the jewelry I've been making. I started making jewelry to give myself something to do down here in UCLA (Ugly Corner, Lower Alabama) but I've discovered I really love being able to create something usable and beautiful or fun. I love allowing myself to be super creative, or at least to use the ridiculous amount of beads I've purchased over the last couple of months. Below are a bunch of pictures of pieces I've created. The red heart necklace is spoken for (by me!) but the rest of it will eventually (hopefully) be sold on an etsy account I have yet to make. I was thinking that I might name my store JK Boutique, with the tagline being "It's Jewelry. It's Kismet." Do people know what Kismet means? Please leave your suggestions for boutique names in the comments section below. I would be happy to get the help and if I choose your name, FREE EARRINGS. Seriously.

Awesome. So here are some of the pictures of stuff I've made. I was thinking that earrings would run between $8-12 and necklaces around $15-20 ish. Awesome.

OH! Also, PLEASE forgive the crappy photography. I haven't really figured out how to take pictures of this kind of thing, although I did find a great use for my china dinner plate :) Note: The flash sometimes made strange reflections, and the colors are much more vibrant in person.

Red Heart Necklace Repurposed from an Italian Glass pendant given to me by my inlaws :)

again

Bird's Nest Necklace

Again

Close Up Bird's Nest Necklace

Sorry, I had a really tough time capturing this one

Asymmetrical necklace.

Psychedelic Sweetheart Necklace

Psychedelic Cherries Earrings

Again

Cute together!

Garden Party Earrings

Inspiration Earrings in Crystal

Happy Tears Earrings

InspiRED earrings

A Whole New World Earrings

Purple Vineyard Earrings

Cosmic Earrings in Pink

Cosmic Earrings in Pink

Aztec Lime Necklace and Earrings

Close Up

Jazzercise Earrings in Pink and Lime

Purple Heart and Silver Sweetheart Earrings (PS. The purple ones are Much More purple than in the picture)

More Inspiration Earrings. They say, "Believe in Love," "Never Never Give Up," "Live Laugh Love," "Live Your Dream," "Karma," "Love and Be Loved." 

I've also made some other awesome necklaces and even a charm bracelet, but they were gifts and I gave them away before I got pictures. I have an awesome one with wooden beads, and some beautiful blue beads with silver filigree work that I gave my mom for mother's day.

So leave a comment and let me know what you think!