jeni’s sorbets

I’d been ~~salivating over~~ waiting to use my new Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams cookbook (thanks Susy!) until I was ready to make their classic Salty Caramel as my first foray into the book. That, or their Ugandan Vanilla Bean, because I love my husband.

But, as you know, in my never-ending quest to empty our teeny-tiny freezer (you’re probably wondering how it keeps getting full again. All I can say is, I manage to do it…over and over again), I found I had the exact ingredients for not one but TWO different sorbet recipes.

So, Cranberry Royale and Watermelon Lemonade it was!

You make the cranberry sorbet much like you’d make cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving…cranberries, water, sugar and maybe some citrus. Jeni’s recipe calls for grapefruit juice and zest, which you can see in the photo. Her sorbets also call for light corn syrup. She goes into detail in the first sections of the book about how to make ice cream “scientifically.” I tried to follow, but the basic gist of it is the challenge of getting everything to bond with the water molecules. Unbound water molecules = icy ice cream or sorbet, not creamy.

After making grapefruit/cranberry sauce, you puree the mixture (if you’d like) and set it aside to chill. She recommends putting it in a ziploc and setting it in ice water; I chose to leave mine in a bowl in the fridge for a couple hours. Mine got a lot thicker, although I don’t think it hurt the finished product.

Every time we open the freezer, Hadrian thinks he’s getting a treat. Ice cubes. He loves them. I do, too, since they’re free (essentially) and always available. And free. And the only mess they leave is a little water here and there.

Here’s the watermelon lemonade sorbet. A relatively decent shot, if I do say so myself. Taking into account the poor lighting in the kitchen and the fact that I was holding the camera directly above it and snapping blindly, I DO say so!

A word about the watermelon sorbet: It didn’t turn out very well. Very icy. But it’s my own darn fault. I used sub-par watermelon (that I’d already frozen–because it was SUB-PAR), and bottled lemon juice. So, yeah, I knew this one wasn’t going to be spectacular or anything.

Finished cranberry sorbet…in a ball jar. I’m getting all fancy here with my food styling. The cranberry is AWESOME. Perfect creamy texture–how did that happen, there isn’t anything creamy in it??? I guess it’s all that water-bonding Jeni was talking about… And it’s got that back-of-your-tongue bite to it that is reminiscent of cranberry sauce. In fact, my first bite made me feel like it was Thanksgiving!

I’m a busy girl today with NO BREAKFAST! Had to fast for a blood-draw this morning for a health-screening appointment (so we can get extra points or something for a discount with Moog’s health insurance…), but I’m packing a Luna bar and a banana to fuel me up so I can hit up Wegmans before a run. Then I’m computering here at the hotel, meeting a friend (I have a friend!) for coffee, making cookies at Andrew’s parents’ house, then mad packing for our trip to Dayton tomorrow! Can’t wait 🙂

sugar high

I didn’t sleep very well last night; it was as if I could FEEL the sugar running through my bloodstream! Seriously…I think I’ve become so used to a “whole foods diet” that something like a giant sundae with all the fixings will totally throw my body for a loop. Rule of thumb: extravagant desserts are for super-special occasions, single-scoops are for treats.

I fueled up this morning with the last two slices of my Great Harvest cinnamon raisin bread, fruit and yogurt before pilates and kickboxing. My lunch, however, was worth writing home about:

YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM. I’m trying to finish off my quart of plain yogurt before our trip this weekend to Dayton, so I decided to build a meal around it. I spooned about 3/4 C into a bowl, swirled in some Trader Joe’s Mango butter to sweeten it up, and topped with granola, shredded coconut, flax seeds, flaxseed meal, dried cranberries and blueberries. It was almost TOO sweet! And at 485 calories, it better keep me full for AWHILE.

I’m going to be a busy girl today–LOTS of phone calling, computering and perhaps a trip to the mall. I have TWO freebie coupons from Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works–can’t wait!

BIG breakfast & weekend re-cap

Wireless is back at the hotel! Hallelujah! Seriously, I was really beginning to miss it. Pathetic, I know, but for a blogger without a day job, what the heck else was I going to do?

After going almost three days (gasp!) with only one picture-less post, I feel I owe my loyal readers (ha!) a bit of a re-cap:

First, this morning (since it’s more timely–it’s the journalist in me):

BIG BREAKFAST! Plain yogurt flavored with 1/2 banana, mashed, and 1/2 tbsp Trader Joe’s Mango Butter, blueberries and granola, AND Great Harvest whole-grain cinnamon raisin bread with 1 tbsp Justin’s Maple Almond Butter, the other half of the banana and a tablespoon of maple syrup. I was craving maple this morning.

It was 526 calories and felt pretty heavy in my stomach on the way to the gym, but I’m glad I had it! It powered me through an hour of Pilates, 45 minutes of hard swimming (did some sprints!), and kept me going for an additional two hours of putzing around after I got back from the gym. Usually I’m RAVENOUS by the time I pull out of the parking lot of the gym, if not before!

Back to Saturday:

This was my post-run breakfast on Saturday. I went out for a quick three miles while Andrew took Hadrian on a walk/ball-throwing session, then we both did a nice four-miler in the neighborhood near our hotel. This is one of my best shots yet, so I had to share.

I love granola. LOVE. This is Wegmans Granola with Raisins, and unfortunately, it’s only OK. I mean, what did I expect? It’s just light and not very cluster-y. I’d rather it be chock-full of goodies and in big chunks. Alas, it was cheap. It was the peach, blueberries and coconut milk that really did it for me!

(I did order the OpenSky cherry chocolate granola fundraiser that Kath recently sent out in support of another blogger–I would want some nice stranger to order granola to raise money if I got cancer, too–so that should be here soon. Will post when it arrives!)

The rest of Saturday, as I said here, was filled with laziness and movies. Mad Max is STILL on TV as of yesterday and if Andrew puts it on one more time, I might go through the roof.

We tried a new church Sunday, and liked it enough to go back. We’ve been a bit discouraged in the church department, so we’re excited that we found something we felt was authentic and like it could be ‘home’ to us. If we decide it is, I’ll let you know!

As Abigail will be leaving for college in less than a week (where did the summer go?), we popped over there for an impromptu visit. I brought the computer and snagged some of their internet to catch up on calorie-counting (I was trying not to get obsessive about it, but I’m less than a pound from my goal and my OCD tendencies make it hard to just ‘let things go.’) and check my email.

Did you know you can pickle things just by putting them in the juice from your pickles? I didn’t…I think I read it in this month’s Shape. I’ve pickled green beans before, but always using the canning method and pickling salt. The article said you basically just throw veggies into the juice after you finish off a jar of pickles. Go figure.

So, I bought a half-pound of green beans (for 50 cents!) and blanched and shocked them before packing them into the jar:

Don’t they have great color?

I also made two batches of Jeni’s sorbets, but they will get their own post 🙂