#18 Recipe: Gelato AND #76 Mini Adventures: Homemade Ice Cream

So we went to Target last night and found an amazing deal: an ice cream maker for only $20! What a steal! Now, I love ice cream of course, but I ADORE gelato. I go nuts for the stuff! So, to celebrate our fantastic find, we found this amazing recipe for gelato.

Honestly, it isn't the easiest stuff to make - mostly because it takes so dang long. I just wanted to get that goodness in me! But you have to be patient, and it is quite rewarding when you're done.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar, divided
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
(And then whatever other flavoring you want. We just added macadamia nuts and caramel. That's Anth's favorite!)

To make it, you combine the milk, cream, and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook it until the sugar dissolves completely.

In a separate bowl, whip the egg yolks and remaining sugar together until they are thick and pale yellow. I did this with my kitchenaid and it worked quite well - I could tend to the milk on the stove while it was mixing up (wow, I'm thankful for than invention!). Then pour a little bit (1/2 cup or so) of the milk mixture into the eggs and stir, then add it all back into the saucepan. Stir constantly until it starts to get thick (the recipe says thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon - whatever that means!) but it does start to get thick after 7 or 8 minutes. Then add vanilla.

Now this is the important part - you have to wait until the mixture is completely chilled before you put it in the ice cream maker or else it won't work. We discovered this quickly. We actually tried putting it in when it had only been in the freezer an hour or so (and hot liquid does not cool very quickly in the freezer, even after an hour it was still lukewarm) and it did nothing. We left it in the fridge overnight, and tried it again today and it thickened into ice cream almost instantly.

We added the macadamia nuts just before taking it out of the ice cream maker and then added the caramel after serving.

Sooooooo yummy! I really want to try different combinations! Plus, it isn't really all that bad for you - only 3/4 cup sugar total, and mostly milk instead of cream. I don't know the exact calorie count, but it seems very healthy (and don't anyone try to correct me!).

In addition to being a new family recipe, this was one of our mini-adventures that we decided to do together, and it ended up being a lot of fun. Sugar always makes for a good bonding experience!

#15 Nonfiction: Rule #1

Just finished another good, practical book about finances and money management. This one targets investing. And not investing like day-trading and obsessing over the stock market, but investing for the average joe, but still getting a great return on investment.

The book is centered around the investing rules of Warren Buffet:

Rule 1: Don't lose money

Rule 2: Don't forget rule 1

Basically the book teaches you how to use the free tools on the internet (MSN Money, Yahoo Finance, etc) to find good, stable businesses at a great price (at least 50% off the actual value), and then invest your money in them by moving in and out (in when the stocks are going up, out when they are going down - and it shows how to predict this), so that you are virtually guaranteed not to lose any money.

The book is not about making a quick buck, or making millions and millions off the stock market (although the author had only $1000 to his name when he started and is now a multi-millionaire). You don't get in when the stock is at rock bottom, and you don't get out at the ultimate peak, because you can't really know where the bottom is until it starts going back up, and you can't really know where the top is until it starts going back down. But you learn to watch for the signs that is a safe time to invest your money.

So far the hardest part is just finding businesses that fit all the qualifications he says to look for - stable history, rising values, etc. I went through probably 150 different companies and came up with a watch list of about 20 that actually met all the criteria. And then only 5 of those were priced right. And then none of those had all the buying signs. So I don't have anything to invest in quite yet, but I have a great list of companies to watch for. And every few days I'll just go online, check where everything is at, and once I find the right price and the right buying signs, I'll put some money in. And then a little more. And a little more.

I'm actually pretty excited!

#15 Nonfiction: The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands

This book was definitely not anything that I expected. I turned on the CD while I was doing housework earlier today, just hoping that it might have some inspiration in it for learning how my husband's brain works better and maybe a couple pearls of wisdom in it.

I've always been wary of radio talk show people. So I wasn't sure how to trust Dr. Laura. (I was thinking of Sleepless in Seattle meets Delilah - who I generally can't stand).

But within the first 3 minutes of the program, I wanted to reach out and hug her! She is absolutely brilliant, and every woman should listen to this tape. She goes off on how women are too overconcerned with themselves and thinking their husbands should "romance" them all the time, and yet want to be thought of as brilliant and capable and fully independent of their husbands. She point blank said that the rise of feminism is one of the biggest causes of divorce and failures in families and that women blaming men for all their problems are actually the problems themselves. And this was all in the first few minutes.

She says wives need to turn to their husbands for support, not just to their girlfriends, and that they should be romantic toward their husbands if they want their husbands to be romantic toward them. She says to stop beating around the bush if you want something and just tell your husband directly, but not nagging about something (i.e. "how much did _____ cost you?!?!) but rather about the actual issue (i.e. "hey darling, can we talk about money? I think we're spending too much"). And she says that men want to be their wife's hero, her knight in shining armor, so humor him once in a while with this fantasy.

Wow, I was surprised she wasn't shot by the fem-nazi's after what she said! But it needed to be said!

Really, all I can say is that every girl needs to read this book or listen to the book on tape. Seriously. It has great, practical advice, not all fluffed up.

My favorite line: Happiness is an attitude, not a reality.

#15 Nonfiction: The Peacegiver

I've been reading a lot of these nonfiction-fiction books lately. And this one was just as exceptional as the rest of them.

The story is about a husband and wife that are not getting along at all, both blaming one another for the marriage issues. The husband is visited by his deceased grandfather in his dreams, who teaches him through gospel stories about how the atonement isn't just for sinners and how it can apply to the problems he is having in his life.

Although my marriage is just fine right now, there were plenty of applications I could make to my own life. The big one being upset (but upset isn't really the right word...some sort of combination between upset and jealous) that people who have hurt me haven't "gotten theirs" and actually are doing quite well for themselves and have certain blessings in their lives that I've been trying to achieve. Yeah, I know that's a bit of a big confession to make, that I harbor all of these bad feelings toward others, something of a grudge against them. But I didn't realize that I did it so much until I was sitting up thinking about it one night after Anthony fell asleep to me reading to him again. So now that I know I have the issue, I can start to work toward it, and find more happiness in my own life. I don't even remember anything in the book that particularly dealt with that subject, but the fact that it got me thinking and that I made that realization about myself has really changed my perspective. Isn't it crazy how books can do that - make you think about something completely unrelated and, in effect, change your life?

The book is easy to read, and captivating, and will definitely get you to think about things in your life, even if you think everything is all honky-dory right now. We all can learn more about the atonement and how we can apply it in our lives.

#18 Recipe: Arancini

So I tried out this sicilian dish last night. It was more complex than most anything else I've ever tried - there are 3 different multi-step processes you have to go through, but it turned out pretty good. Anthony actually really liked it, despite the fact that somehow in my world of amazing intellect I mixed up the mozarella cheese with hash browns. Hash browns?! Are you kidding me?! Yeah, I didn't notice until afterwards. Hey, they're both shredded and white and my darling husband put them both in clear plastic bags right on top of eachother! How in the world would I have known different?! I mean, I guess I could have tasted it, but I wasn't thinking that it could be anything other than mozarella cheese. Hash browns come in a big red bag, I know, I've bought them before!

But, they still turned out pretty good. Fortunately, I made enough of the filling that I can try to make them again (with the cheese this time) later this week.

Anyway, here is the recipe, from Rachael Ray's website:

Rice Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked rice
1 quart chicken stock or bouillon
3 tablespoons softened butter
4 egg yolks
1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Filling Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 pound ground veal, beef, chicken or pork
1/4 pound mozzarella cut into half-inch cubes
1 can tomato paste (6 ounces)
1 can water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup frozen peas

Frying Ingredients:
4 egg whites, slightly beaten
2 cups bread crumbs
Enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the pan 2 inches deep

Preparation

For Rice:Combine rice, chicken stock and butter in large pan. When chicken stock begins to boil, turn heat down low; stir rice once, then cover pan tightly and simmer until all liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Rice should be soft and slightly sticky so that it will hold together.Set aside rice to cool. Add egg yolks and parmesan cheese to cooled rice; stir well. Refrigerate while making the other parts of the recipe.

For Filling:In a saucepan, heat extra virgin olive oil and sauté onions and celery until golden, about five minutes. Add meat and brown. Stir in tomato paste, water, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes. Add peas and cook for five minutes longer.

To Fry:Add enough extra virgin olive oil to a pan with high sides so that it is about two inches deep, then turn to medium-high heat. While extra virgin olive oil is heating, shape rice mixture into round balls, about 1/2 cup each. With your finger, make a hole in each rice ball. Add one tablespoon of the meat filling and the cheese cube and cover the holes with more rice. Dip rice balls in egg whites and roll in bread crumbs until thoroughly coated. Drop carefully into heated extra virgin olive oil, a few at a time, and fry until golden, turning around for about 3-4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Serve warm or at room temperature and with a side dish of tomato sauce.

*Changes I made: I made the rice with my rice cooker, and used just a little bit of extra virgin olive oil instead of the butter. I also eliminated the salt from the filling (because I just don't need the extra sodium) and the peas as well (because I couldn't find any fresh peas - only frozen, which I can't stand). You also don't need to use a full 2 inches of olive oil to fry them (the stuff is expensive!) so I just went about a 1/3 inch deep and was more careful rolling the balls around. I just did one at a time.

Oh, and the rice balls ended up being pretty big - larger than my fist. There was enough to make maybe 5. I probably should have worked the rice a little bit more in my hands so that it wasn't so thick around the filling. Then I could have made them a little smaller as well. Either way, one rice ball each was enough to fill up both my husband and myself.

I'll update after I try it out again.

#15 Nonfiction books: Debt Free on Any Income by Tracy and Lyle Shamo

This book has special meaning to me because my Aunt and Uncle wrote it. Tracy is my mom's sister.

The book has been out for a while, and I've been wanting to read it since I knew they were writing it, but I just finally got around to doing so.

And I was not disappointed.

There is a lot of wonderful and practical advice for creating a budget and paying off debt. We have been very fortunate to not have a whole lot of debt. We had a little bit on a couple credit cards, but I was able to pay those off right away. The best thing is though, after performing a few of the calculations in the book (using their software), we realized that we could pay off our cars and the house in about 10 years! Isn't that amazing?! And we were planning on staying in this house at least that long anyway. To think, when we get to selling our house, 100% of the money could be cash towards a new house! That idea is just so energizing!

Anyway, this book is a pretty quick read - I finished it in only two days since there are a lot of charts and numberical data and the meat of the book is very concise with little to no fluff. It is great advice for everyone! I'm thrilled about the changes that we can make to our lives to save additional money and pay off all our debts. And it won't even change our standard of living hardly at all. It will just make it more organized!

I recommend this to everyone!

#15 Nonfiction books: Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

Just finished listening to this book on CD. It was great!

Definitely not what I expected - the book is a dialogue between a high exec in a larger corporation and his newer lower exec, training him on dealing with people. I've been reading a lot of these fiction-non-fiction books lately, and I kind of like them. It's definitely a different experience than reading the standard textbook like approach. I do like the intellectual feel of standard nonfiction books, but this one had a great combination of both.

And the message was superb. I know I've heard similar things before, but not quite in this way. You know when you hear a message and sometimes, even though you dont mean to, you start to apply it to someone else that "really needs to hear this" and you sort of forget about yourself? I know, you probably have never done that, but I'm usually very guilty of it. Well, this book doesn't allow you to do that. It cuts it off right from the beginning, and reminds you not to do it all throughout. Nevertheless, everyone should read or listen to this. It's not just about "self-help" but about life skills in business, relationships, etc.

#15 Nonfiction books: SHIFT by Gary Keller

This book is mainly about real estate, and about 90% applies almost solely to real estate agents, but just about anyone in sales or their own business can use the principles toward their own success.

The premise of the book is how to succeed even when the market shifts and is a "bad market." This is all what we're hearing on the news every day in every single business. The book teaches several principles and habits for taking your business to the next level, whether the market is good or bad.

Since I'm doing a lot in real estate right now, there were several specific things that I can apply directly to my own work, but I think the underlying principles will help me in anything that I try to to.

#32 Movies: Benjamin Button

Wow.

This was an amazing movie.

I'm not going to say much about it, because everyone should go see it. It was so unusual, so creative, and just so good! It was very well done, and really draws you in to all of the emotions.

I think my favorite thing is just how the movie makes you think. Its not just the fact that you've never seen a movie at all like it, but all the little proverbial quotes in it as well that just make you stop and think.

Here are some of my favorites: (don't worry, none will ruin the movie) (oh, and by no means is this a complete list...there are so many more!)

"We are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss."

"Life can only be understood looking backward. It must be lived forward."

"We were meant to lose people. How else would we know how important they are?"

"You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went, you can curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go."

"It's funny how sometimes the people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us. "

"Don't let anyone tell you different! You got to do what you're meant to do!"

"Sometimes we’re on a collision course, and we just don’t know it. Whether it’s by accident or by design, there’s not a thing we can do about it."

"Have I ever told you I've been struck by lightning seven times? Blinded in one eye; can't hardly hear. I get twitches and shakes out of nowhere; always losing my line of thought. But you know what? God keeps reminding me I'm lucky to be alive."

"Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people dance."

"For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit... start whenever you want... you can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that stop you. I hope you feel things that you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

#24...Almost...

One of my goals is to fix something in the house all by myself.

So when the toilet started running, I was actually pretty dang excited!

Anthony had mentioned something about needing a red rubber ring and just having to replace it. Super easy, right?

So while he was at work on Friday, I thought I'd surprise him!

Well I went to home depot and went to the plumbing section and there were 2 different kinds of red rubber rings and some other red rubber things. So I asked a guy working there (I don't think he was normally working in that section, but he seemed to know what he was talking about). He told me to get the other red rubber things - toilet flappers. However, I got home, took the lid off the toilet, and my toilet doesn't even have that part in it!

So I went back to home depot again, returned the toilet flappers, and bought the red rubber rings. Then I went back home, and switched it out. Easy.

Unfortunately, after turning the water back on, it didn't fix the problem.

Now, I got smart. I took a video of what the toilet was doing and the sounds it was making and took it back to home depot (for the 3rd time) and showed it to the actual plumbing specialist. He said that I had a little bit bigger problem than I thought. See, home builders like to skimp on little things like quality toilet parts, so even though the toilets have only been in use for about 6 months, their parts were already wearing out. So I had to replace the entire flushing mechanism.

He said it wasn't too difficult, so I went home, pulled out the instructions, and got to work!

I actually got pretty far, but then I realized that I needed a plumber's wrench and I knew we had one somewhere from installing the sink in the house, I just couldn't find it.

I was looking for that thing for at least a half hour. I knew what it looked like, but it was no where to be found!

That's when Anthony came home. And he walked over to right where I was looking, and pulled it right out.

Then he walked to the bathroom to see what I had done...

...And this is what he found:

And so, since it would have hurt his manhood or something to have his wife fix the toilet, he took over.

And finished it in like 10 minutes.

So I almost completed the goal.

I'm sure something else will break in the next 2 1/2 years though. So I should start earlier in the day so my husband doesn't come home in the middle. :)

#18 Recipe: Egg Noodle Casserole

My first recipe.

And it didn't really turn out very well. I mean, the flavor was good, and my husband will tell you that, but I attempted to make my own noodles, and apparently they don't cook quite the same way as the storebought kind. Meaning, I kind of didn't cook them enough. At all.

Ok, and it took me nearly two hours to complete a simple recipe. (Part of that was running to Fresh & Easy to get the ingredients that I thought we already had...)

Overall, I definitely want to try the recipe again. I'll just make sure I cook the noodles longer!


Egg Noodles

2 1/4 c Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
3 Eggs

Combine ingredients in mixer until clumpy. Then hand mix to form a large ball of dough (add flour if too sticky or water if too dry). After you have a ball of dough, attach it to the dough hook on the mixer and mix on level 2 for about 2 minutes.

(This is where my love for my mixer comes in - I put the dough in the mixer, walked away for 2 minutes, came back and it was magically done! I love this thing!)

Let dough sit for 20 minutes before rolling out, then cut into desired shape and let dry for at least another 20 minutes. Boil noodles until cooked thoroughly. (Takes a bit longer than you might expect, at least for me).


Chicken & Noodles

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth (more or less, depending on thickness)
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
4 chicken breasts
Seasoning salt to taste (I used Laury's)
Onion salt to taste (not too much or else it is just too salty!)
Crushed black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon (ish) extra virgin olive oil

Sautee the garlic with the olive oil and add diced chicken breast. Cook thoroughly.

Add the cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup, then the chicken broth until you get the desired consistency. Season with the seasoning salt, pepper, and onion salt, but again, not too much or else it will be really salty (and there is already plenty of sodium in the soups).

Add the egg noodles from above when it is all done and voila! Easy yummy food!

I think if I were to do it again though, I would add a little bit of sour cream, and maybe some fresh chopped green onions instead of onion salt, but I always try recipes as close to verbatim as possible before improvising.

#15 Nonfiction books: Burying our Swords by Kevin Hinckley

Anthony and I read this book together. He loves it when I read to him before bed time.

It was a great book. Short and simple, but with a pretty powerful message about a man struggling to cope with a wayward son who learns to examine himself first.

I've read a few stories like this before - extended parables, so to speak - and I really enjoy them. The whole book is centered around a single verse of scripture, and the few chapters before and after it. It has so many deep insights out of so little initial information!

I love how the scriptures work like that. Take a single statement, and you could study it for hours on end! Entire reference works could be written about each and every chapter in the scriptures, I'm sure. It wouldn't be hard.

That is what makes the book so thought provoking. And even though it is a really short read, I've found that the book affected me in more ways than one. It wasn't just the message of the book, but more the content. I've found that in my own personal scripture study now I'm thinking a little bit more outside the box and applying the same principles toward other scriptures. It makes it so much more meaningful and enlightening.

It was so funny while I read, because a certain insight would hit me and I'd pause for a moment to think about it, which of course would make Anthony quickly exclaim, "hey, don't stop, I'm awake, I promise!"

Great book. And a big THANK YOU to my MIL for recommending it and buying it for us for Easter!