...the Excel file "Pie Night 2013.xlsx" rarely gets closed on my laptop. When I logged in this morning, this is the view that immediately showed up.
This is because we went Pie Night shopping yesterday. This is because when we got home, and after we had managed to find a place for everything (pay no attention to what is behind that curtain!), and after I had put the homemade ice cream ingredients together, I did the first step in this recipe. I took a 1/2 cup of a sweet red wine and simmered the blueberries in it for close to the 45 minutes that the recipe mentions. You'll start to think that it's not going to work this time. But you let it simmer on low, and you stir every 7.3 minutes, and finally, magically, mysteriously, you stir the next time, and you start to see hope. You start to see that when you draw your silicone spatula through the mixture this time, there are glimpses of a path left behind the spatula. But you know it's not "there" yet - so you let is simmer another 7.3 minutes, and when you some back, the pathway is a little larger. Do you take it off now? Do you go a little longer? You choose longer, because you want to be sure. And now you are getting the pathway you remember and love. You let it cool. You splash in a dash of blueberry amaretto syrup and tuck it away in the freezer.
And life is good.
...when you realize yet again that your house and refrigerator really are too small for Pie Night. But you know that the people you've invited manage to adjust and thankfully no one has taken you up on the offer of the empty lot next door for any bar fights. But your refrigerator is stuffed to the gills, and you have to tell your youngest daughter, B, that she will have to limit how many apple juice boxes she can store in the fridge until after Pie Night.....when homemade ice cream is tucked away in the freezer. (There is apparently a lot of tucking going on in our freezer right now.) I am very hopeful that homemade ice cream becomes a new Pie Night tradition!
Speaking of which, here is the recipe we found before S&K's gender reveal party. I have tweaked it a bit, so here is how we made it yesterday.
Since our freezer only makes a gallon, we've only used the 4 quart version, but here is what I do a bit differently to boost the flavor and creaminess.
Oh, and just for those who were here for S&K's gender reveal party, what we serve for Pie Night will not be blue, which was our first glimpse that the J-man would be the J-man and not the A-lady.
4 eggs
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 vanilla bean - seeds removed
Beat the eggs until foamy. I use my Kitchen Aid. Gradually add the sugar and beat until thick just like the recipe says.
2 cans evaporated milk
3 cups half and half
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
6 - 7 t. vanilla (I know that sounds like a LOT, but this is really to taste, and you want it to be a bit higher and more vanilla-y than you'd expect because the freezing process will make the vanilla less lively - which is a nicer way of saying it than that the freezing process will deaden the vanilla flavor a bit. That just sounds way too morbid!)
1/2 t. salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk (nope, I didn't use the name brand. I used the private label stuff.)
Mix and let chill while you are chilling your ice cream freezer and dasher. Or really while your ice cream expert is chilling your freezer and dasher. Turn it over to this expert and let them do what they do so well, and try to stay out of their way for fear that ice cream is like plants. It KNOWS that you don't know how to mix ice and salt to reach the right temp, just like you have a brown thumb. Which is slightly better than a black thumb, since you can at least grow herbs somewhat well - just like you can mix together the ice cream base, but not turn it into that magical, elusive concoction that makes ice cream ice cream.
And when it has been churned, and when the churning has stopped, pour it into your largest container (or multiple smaller ones), lick off the dasher and the spoon, cover the top of the ice cream surface with plastic wrap and tuck it away in the freezer for the Morrison Family 4th Annual Pie Night. As long as you have tucked it away with THAT designation, then you know you won't dig in before then. Right?
This stuff really is good - and it stays good up to 2 weeks.
18 pie crusts
5 dozen eggs
5 pounds of butter
Blueberries simmered in wine
1 gallon of homemade ice cream
Apples and pecans and coffee
Oh yea, it's beginning to look a lot like Pie Night!
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