Homemade Ice Cream

I purchased Aaron an ice cream maker for his birthday this year along with a recipe book. The book was a recommendation from Aaron's brother, Gavin, who has been making homemade ice cream for a while now. We tried it out this week Monday and made a simple chocolate ice cream out of our book and... MAN was it delicious! Considering all the cream, eggs and chocolate that is in this ice cream, its no wonder it is so tasty. Although, this also means it is full of fat. I think we will make the "real ice cream" on special occasions, but that is not to say that we won't be using the machine. It also makes frozen yogurt, sorbet and gelato. Gavin also says that using corn starch instead of eggs is a good way to reduce fat while keeping the texture of the ice cream. There is another book which I purchased for my Mom which is a vegan ice cream book which I will be sure to borrow and try out some recipes. I am excited to start making all sorts of healthy-ish goodies. With summer just around the corner, this was the perfect gift. Homemade Fro Yo here we come!

Meat Grinder

Deciding to purchase Aaron a meat grinder for Christmas was such a good choice. We are now able to purchase quality meats and grind them ourselves. No more mystery ground meats for the Lock household. We have been very busy with some family things lately so we have not been using it as often as we'd like to but we will definitely not be purchasing any ground meat anymore. As for sausage stuffing, we have yet to try it out.... but soon. This summer I think we will be making some sausages and smoking them in the eggs.

We recently tried our hand at making smoked pork belly (bacon). It turned out amazingly! We got together with Aaron's brother and his wife and we made 3 pieces. We used a recipe from the Charcuterie book as a base but then took some liberties and added some sweet to one piece and some savory to another. All 3 were very good and there wasn't any significant difference between them... it was great right off the smoker or fried up in a frying pan as traditional bacon. We just need to find the time to do it again, and soon!