Triple berry ice cream, not my best photo but a cool way to make ice cream!
Triple berry ice cream made from the best berries I’ve ever had. Spooner’s farm a hometown favorite, that is part of my childhood and my mom’s (she even used to work there picking berries). I couldn’t resist a purchase of a half flat combination of raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.
Every year for the 4th of July we make our trek out to Washington State, place of my birth and where most my relatives live and by some kind of weird cosmic force McGyver’s parents decided to retire there. Makes visiting family a bit easier.
For the first time ever McGyver was able to get enough time to do a 10 day visit, this meant spending a couple nights with my BFF, a couple nights with my dad, a couple of nights with my mom and a few nights with his parents before heading back…
Before I inundate you with pictures, I was a poor picture taker most of this vacation and didn’t even take pictures of my beautiful berries, etc. As a matter of fact I didn’t take any pictures the whole time I stayed with my dad and when I stayed with my mom (guess I was too busy catching up to care).
I got what I got and that’ll just have to do…guess I really did take a vacation 😉
My dearest friend in the world, Jen, lives conveniently in Spokane the perfect stop over point between Great Falls, MT and the coast of Washington. We arrived late Friday night (leaving only a few hours after McGyver got off the plane from Fresno), stayed Saturday and left Sunday morning. Just so happens that Jen’s house is on a lake, nice way to start a vacation, right!
Jen and McGyver hit the lake
Turtles sunning on a log
Jen’s boy and our favorite Mountain Dude!
That lake was freezing…obviously no problem for a kid who wants to harass McGyver
Man time, later on McGyver read us a couple of chapters from The Jungle Book around the fire.
From there we headed to my daughter’s house for a BBQ and met up with my Dad and his fabulous girlfriend Barb. Leah put out a spread, wow! Stuffed me full and filled me with cocktails, I was happy! From there we headed up to my Dad and Barb’s house (we didn’t stay with Leah because they were meeting us down in Westport later).
Dad and Barbara live in a beautiful house up in the Mountains, my Dad fixed us breakfast every morning, brought back memories of when I was a child…he was the best breakfast maker ever! We went out to dinner one night at the Little Creek Casino to their Seafood Bar. Let’s just say that McGyver and I made complete pigs of ourselves. Dad and Barb shared a ginormous crab cake while McGyver and I may have put down a dozen oysters, calamari, a pound of clams and a pound of shrimp washed back with some good beer, Oink, Oink!
Next we went to Tumwater to visit my mom, sister and Niece. it’s always fun to cook with my mom! We tried to visit a Lavender farm but it was closed, we stopped by Spooner’s and bought berries (last day for strawberries) and she took me to a cool little shop called Buck’s on Fifth Avenue, at first I thought it was a male strip joint cause she said McGyver probably wouldn’t enjoy it…turned out it was a spice shop! We also visited relatives, ones that McGyver didn’t know he had 🙂
Great Aunt Ruth and 2nd cousins
Loved how they did this Mural in Olympia
Cool spice shop if you are ever in Olympia…Free sniffs!
I love how Olympia is trying to wisely use their limited downtown space. I’d give up some downtown parking for a cool spot like this.
After that it was off to Westport for 4th of July festivities, our annual crab feed and a little touristy stuff. After our shindig on the 4th (I was too busy serving root beer floats to do anything else) the kids and I went to the Mermaid Deli and Bar (BTW outstanding sandwiches, if you ever are in Westport I highly recommend them). We hung out back with their dog Pippin around the fire ring. We met one of their bartenders who’s stories had us in stiches, especially the one from the night before about being lost in the woods with his friends looking for a beach party and all their phone batteries had did using them as flashlights. As the only one that went through survivial training for two weeks he had this advice to his friends, and I’ll never forget this quote:
“Okay everyone, we just need to calm down, chill out and smoke a bowl”
Not the approach I’d take…
Leah and my son in law Jodus.
Because wine tasting wasn’t enough the boys had beer also.
An annual thing…
Uh yeah, oyster shooter time
slurp
Look ma all gone…not sure if I can swallow it though…
First timer, he did good.
till next year (check out Leah’s cool nails, she does them herself)
and then on too…
This will make some boys happy!
They had a lovely hidden back area. Looking like vacation?
I was more interested in the flowers 🙂
Just a few samples to test.
After our touristy bit it was time to get down with the crabs!
McGyver looks nothing like his dad… Psst, don’t tell Grandpa HoHo he was on the internet, this internet thing scares him.
Ready for a lesson on cleaning crab
Pippin watches closely to make sure Leah is doing it right.
Strong as a Leah-tard (the nickname is a family joke and comes from her ballet days)
Success!
We like to clean our crab before we cook them. I’ll post a full tutorial later on, it makes a big difference in the flavor of the meat.
(at least to us).
The chief crab(by) cook.
Whilst all this was going on we were also getting into the ice cream making. Like I mentioned before I had bought all these berries from Spooners. With the strawberries being on their last day they wouldn’t hold for long so Grandma Hoho suggested making ice cream. So the night before I mixed up the no-cook triple berry ice cream batter and made a batch of freezer jam.
Unfortunately when Grandpa Hoho had dug out the ice cream maker from the magical garage of everything and more, the machine had rusted. Now there is no such thing as a general type store in Westport, shoot its only grocery store just recently closed and a trek to Aberdeen on a holiday weekend wasn’t about to happen. I looked to my phone and Google and found this nifty method for making ice cream without a machine.
They also couldn’t find an ice cream scoop…how I don’t know, they have everything else, even a shrink wrap machine!
Place a bowl in a larger bowl, surround it with ice and ice cream salt, add the batter to the bowl and beat.
Beat for ten minutes. If you are using a mixer that is older than you and weighs a ton you may want to switch out. The towel keeps the splatter in control.
Freeze for 45 minutes, the surface will be pudding like.
Beat for another 5 minutes, the ice cream will end up with a soft Ice cream viscosity.
Put the ice cream back in the freezer and it’ll be ready when you are. I was amazed at how well this worked, a pretty nifty trick. A metal or glass bowl for the inside works best, here we are using what is affectionately called the popcorn bowl and a giant tupperware that is still in great condition. The ice should be broken up and you’ll need 1/4 to 3/4 cups ice cream salt (1/4 cup was enough with the amount of ice we used). Before you start make sure there is enough room in the freezer for the bowl with ice.
Chow time in the new covered back porch.
I got the original instructions from here: The Kitchn: How to make ice cream without a maker.
For the ice cream you can use any mixture of berries you have on hand. I wish I would have taken pictures of mine, the blackberries were the size of my thumb!
- 1 cup strawberries
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 3/4 blackberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups heavy cream (do not substitute if making without a machine)
- 1/2 bag crushed ice
- 1/4 to 3/4 cup ice cream salt
- In a large bowl mash berries, sugar, lemon juice and salt until well broken down, stir in cream and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours.
- To make ice cream, nestle a quart sized stainless steel or glass bowl into a larger bowl, approximately twice the size. layer some ice around the bowl and sprinkle with ice cream salt, repeat until ice and salt mixture reaches top of bowl.
- Pour the ice cream mix into the smaller bowl and mix on medium to medium high speed for 10 minutes, you may want to cover with a towel to prevent splattering. Place in freezer, ice bowl and all and freeze 45 minutes.
- Remove the bowls, the mixture will have a pudding consistency in the middle and be a bit firmer on the edges. Mix with a hand mixer another 5 minutes (no towel needed). Place back in the freezer for a minimum of another 30 minutes.
- Yields 1 Pint
Sounds like fun. Love Leah’s nails (and her nickname!) And I think I’m going to have to find a fallen tree to make that planter… gorgeous!
Karen, that is exactly why I took a picture of the log, I just love it as a planter! And the detail on the end just makes it all that much better.