Butterfinger Ice Cream

Because I love y'all!!

Ingredients:
2.5 cups Half and Half
8 egg yolks
1 cup Sugar
2.5 cups Whipping Cream
4 tsp Vanilla
1/8 tsp Salt
5-6 Butterfingers

Directions:
-In medium sauce pan (3qt), over medium heat, heat the half and half until it's very hot but not boiling. Stir often! Remove from heat and set aside.

-Whisk on speed 2 yolks and sugar for about 30 seconds. Should be well blended and slightly thickened.
-Gradually add half and half while continuing to whisk until well blended.
-Put this mix back in the saucepan and heat on medium heat, stirring constantly, until it steams and small bubbles form at the edge. Do not let it boil.

-Transfer the mix to a large bowl and add the whipping cream, vanilla, and salt.
-Cover and chill at least 8 hours (Don't have 8 hours? Put this bowl in a larger bowl that is packed with ice water and stir continually for 15 minutes)

-Put the Butterfingers in a ziploc and pound them with a meat tenderizer until they are in pea sized chunks.
-Refrigerate these for a little while just to keep them from melting ice cream when stirred in.

-This is where you put it in your ice cream maker
-I stirred it in my ice cream maker for 20 minutes, adding the butterfingers in the last 2 minutes
-It should be soft serve texture at this point, freeze for 1-3 hours to get that harder ice cream texture

Crock Pot Recipe Website

Ali found this great link where you can look up tons of Crock Pot Recipes, everything from dinner to dessert in a Crock Pot. I am a big fan of using mine, especially during the school day because you come home to a fully cooked meal. If you didn't want it to start when you left the house, you could plug it into one of those lamp timers and set it to start later in the day.

Two recommendations

One thing I recommend that is not a recipe is a seasoning called Chef Paul Prudhommes's Magic Salmon Seasoning. It is a dry seasoning that you can purchase in the seafood section of your grocery store. It comes in an orange can that stands about 5 inches tall. I sprinkle it liberally on our salmon before I grill it and it is delicious. There is some sodium, 100mg, but no caleries, fat or sugar in it. It is very flavorful and not spicy...my kids even tolerate it.

My second recommendation is www.bakerella.blogspot.com. I saw this lady on Martha, I believe. She makes clever little baking items...some of which are very detailed, but still has very cute and good ideas and tips. You may like to look at it.

Chicken Tip: Germs and Seasoning

So I am a bit a freak when it comes to chicken and cleanliness. Part of this I have done for awhile and then I learn something new and it has changed how I do chicken. I have always bought boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the 3 pack from the store and would take them home and separate them, as is, out before freezing them. I would wrap them individually in foil and put in them in a gallon freezer bag and be done.

Then I was introduced to a new way of doing things. Right now, I have lost my mind and can't remember who told me about this, sorry...but it is a brilliant idea I believe this person got from Rachel Ray. I still buy the same chicken I have always bought, but I have made my life easier and cleaner now that I have adopted this new way. The suggestion made on Rachel's show was to buy your chicken and season it before you put it in the freezer! So for me that meant separating the chicken like I did before, but trimming/cleaning up the gross parts of chicken and seasoning it too all before freezing. This has been so awesome, especially with a new baby.

To keep it organized and remember how I seasoned the chicken, I put 1 or 2 ckn breasts in a ziploc (whatever you would normally cook for a meal, sometimes 1 ckn breast is huge so I just do one) and write on the bag the date and what seasonings I used. It is great because the chicken is basically marinating that whole time before you cook it.

You get all the messy work done once! Before I was having to clean like crazy every time I made chicken just because I am a little weird. But it saves me time and money (for more cleaning supplies haha) and it is easy to tell Brent "hey, take some chicken out and put on the grill" if I am busy with Cole or running late after something.