The Big Three-O

Today I am 30 years old. I remember when Rebecca turned 30 last year I was pretty excited to be married to an older woman. We get to be the same age for two months out of the year.

Rebecca went crazy with office decorations with the help of Wade, my co-worker and friend, and Devon, a security guard. It was pretty embarrassing. :-)

Traditionally in my parent’s family we’d have a dinner on Sunday to celebrate a birthday but that tradition is giving way to a Saturday brunch that can stretch on into the night. I look forward to these events. Unfortunately I’m allergic to Amanda’s dog. I can usually go several hours at Jorgensen Manor before it gets to me.

In our own family we have a tradition of inviting my friends over for cake on the evening of my birthday. This year I had essentially called it off because I was too allergic to want to go pick up a cake (we had a coupon for Costco’s huge chocolate cake that expired Saturday) but apparently Rebecca had other plans. Wade showed up and said he was just in the area and thought he’d stop by. I believed him because I trust my friends. Then the Browns showed up, then Jim, then the Jobes’. I was delighted!

Cameron didn’t show up because he doesn’t check his messages. He even says so but really he could be more clear. We’ll make it up to him.

Thank you all for your thoughts, wishes, and presence.

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.

Names

We recently discovered that Noah and John have the same letters except A and J which happen to be my initials. This was not intentional, but we may have to name the next boy Jonah.

Emus

On Sunday we went for a drive exploring our new home town, Spanish Fork, and it’s neighbors. It was a pleasant drive with a few surprises we totally weren’t expecting. The most unexpected find was a couple of Emus on a farm somewhere in Lake Shore.

Joust!

Emus apparently make this weird sound, almost like the sound a watermelon makes when you thump it. See if you can hear it in this short video clip.

We also saw a couple of large game animals (Elk?) in a farmer’s yard.

elk.jpg

Camera Phones

Camera phones are stupid, but I also happen to have one. A Motorola V220. The camera on it is awful but you’re more likely to have your phone with you than your camera so it’s come in handy from time to time.

Anyway, I’ll be replacing the V200 with a better phone this month so I thought I’d post some of the photos I’ve taken with it. Some of them are actually pretty good.

http://gallery.jorgensenfamily.us/andrew/phone/