Time Flying By

Where does the time go? Wasn’t it just June? And I could’ve sworn yesterday was Monday. Paul and Laura are on their way already. Paul has a doctor’s appointment at 8:30 in Leominster (the same building as where Laura went to turn some papers in for the Navy, if Mom and Grandma remember waiting there on the way to the airport). I just called Laura to remind her to pick up her birth certificate and social security card. She could have when he went last time but didn’t think of it I think.

Yesterday I did a four-batch base for ice-cream and then did four other batches: mint using mint syrup that I also made yesterday, ginger, banana, and peanut butter. I froze banana, mint, and peanut butter yesterday and ginger so far today. We’ll see what gets done today as the day goes along. I’m thinking chocolate, coffee, and vanilla and I’m not sure about the last. Maybe another mint with extract.

Sugar, corn starch, salt and milk bubbliing away waiting to be added to the eggs.

Ginger soaking in hot milk.

Sugar (turbinado), corn starch and salt waiting for milk to be added.

Gallon jar full of ice-cream base.

The mint syrup is interesting. I’d looked up online how to get mint flavor into milk using mint from the garden. The best looking answer came in the form of making mint syrup and adding it to the milk. It’s super easy to make (recipe below) but uses water so I had to think about what I’d do because I don’t use water in the ice-cream. The solution actually was quite simple—I added powdered milk for the amount of syrup I used and reduced the amount of sugar. I only used one cup of syrup and there isn’t really that much of a mint flavor to the ice-cream so I’m going to have to use more or augment with extract or essential oil. I do want to try making it with more of the syrup because I think it would be really cool to have mint ice-cream made only with mint from the garden. Another thing I might try is using more mint for the syrup or doing double or triple steeping. Goodness knows we have enough mint.

Mint leaves simmering.
I used 2 cups of mint leaves and 8 cups of water.

Mint syrup in a jar.
It's dark because I used turbinado sugar.

Last night the young women were having a surprise baby shower for Heather Myler and mothers were invited as well. As it turns out, I was the only mother who went but that’s okay. It was kind of fun. Paul and Laura got home in time for Laura to go with us which worked out really well because I could leave Joseph home. He wasn’t excited about that at all but life isn’t about getting what we want all the time. When I got home I found out he actually had fun. At first, he said if he couldn’t watch a movie, he was going to go upstairs and go to bed right now. Paul told him that was fine; not getting the response he was looking for, he didn’t do it. They ended up going to see a mechanic friend of Paul’s who is good at working on Fords. He’s going to take a look at the van on Sunday. He’d love to rebuild the red van as well but we don’t have the money for that (although I’d love for him to rebuild the red van too). Paul likes Dennis but once he gets over there, Dennis likes to talk. There is a swing set for Dennis’ grandkids but Joseph didn’t want to play on it, he wanted to go in the garage with Paul. Paul said this was actually good because it gave him an excuse to leave sooner than he’d normally be able to. After that, they went to get a new door handle for the front door because the inside half completely broke off a couple of days ago. When they got home, Paul realized it wasn’t the right one but it would work for the door to the basement. They’d already taken the rest of the one off the front door so we have a hole at the moment. Joseph got to help do the basement door and really liked that. He actually got to use the screwdriver and tighten up some screws. He was so proud of himself when I got home.

The temperature so far is nice today but the humidity is not. I really do not like the humidity. I imagine I’ll get some laundry done today. More ice-cream will get frozen. I have three books I’d like to read before school starts. Now it’s time to get some boys working on school work. I like them to do that for about an hour. Right now I need to quickly go print something out for Seth. I’m going to download some pictures before I actually get this posted for today but in the meantime, have a wonderful day.

Mint Syrup Recipe

1 part fresh mint leaves

2 parts water

2 parts sugar

Bring the water and mint leaves to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for 30 to 60 minutes. Strain out the leaves and add the sugar. Heat and stir to dissolve sugar. The resluting syrup may be added in 1 tablespoon increments to 1 cup of milk for minty milk. Green food coloring may be added.