Monthly Archives: September 2007

Passport

For the first time in my life I am free to leave the country, or more importantly I am free to re-enter the country if I leave. It’s funny how I never really thought about how I lacked that freedom.

United States Passport

I payed for expedite service (an extra $60) and was surprised to find my passport back to me in a few days. We applied on the 11th and received our passports on the 19th.

By the way, I didn’t scan it just for your amusement (which is not to say I wouldn’t have!) but rather I’ve been told it’s good to have copies of your documents separate from the originals and also leave a copy with someone you trust who is not traveling with you. I have 300dpi scans of all of my ID documents.

I Ate Bruce’s Cookie

. . . and I’m not proud of it. Bruce Perens was a keynote speaker at the Utah Open Source Conference. I thought I understood Open Source but he really opened my mind. My favorite points were concepts like disclosed (but not open) source for voting machines and nuclear power plant controls and differentiating vs. non-differentiating software.

Anyway, there were cookies in the lobby and I took the last one just seconds before Bruce came looking to see if there was one left. I offered it to him but he wouldn’t accept. I’m really sorry, Bruce. I owe you a cookie.

So far the conference is awesome.

Peaches and Cream

Our neighbor gave us a bag of peaches so we made ice cream out of them. We based our recipe on this one because we couldn’t find my parent’s recipe soon enough:

Homemade Peaches ‘n Cream Ice Cream

3 c. mashed canned or fresh peaches
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
4 c. milk
3 c. whipping cream
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. salt

If fresh peaches are used, cook and sweeten to taste. Combine peaches and lemon juice. Combine milk, whipping cream, sugar, vanilla, almond extract, and salt. Add peaches to milk mixture. Chill. Churn freeze. Yield about 1 gallon. Any fruit may be substituted for this recipe.

We made twice as much (for a family picnic) and made a few modifications. We didn’t mash the peaches but rather puréed about 2 cups of the peaches and left the rest cut small. We also used half-and-half instead of milk and only half as much as the recipe called for.

Peaches and Cream Ice Cream

The taste is wonderful and very creamy. Almost exactly like peaches and cream. Next time I think I’d purée at least half of the peaches and I might use a few egg yolks. Egg yolks are an emulsifier which means they cause the fats and other liquids to stay completely mixed which I think would have given it a better texture. Many of the recipes I found online use egg yolks (some even used whole eggs!). That’s what makes a French ice cream French, by the way, also known as frozen custard but for some reason the US government restricts the use of the word custard to desserts containing some large quantity of eggs that’s more than people usually want to use.

Shortly after we made the ice cream we saw that Jeremy had emailed us the family recipe.

Peach Ice Cream

Combine:
6c Mashed Peaches
3c Sugar
the juice of 2 lemons

Add:
1 pinch salt
1 can canned milk
1 pt Whipping Cream
1 pt milk

Combine and freeze in ice-cream freezer.
Makes 5-6 quarts.

That stuff is really good. I’d recommend you try that recipe first. It should be noted, though, if you didn’t figure it out already, that homemade ice cream can be more expensive than even the more premium ice creams at the store.