Well, the ice cream maker came last week and I made chocolate ice cream yesterday. The kids were asking about it all day. “Well, are you going to make it, are ya, huh, huh, huh?”

When I served it I felt like we had just gotten our orders handed to us from Dairy Queen. When it’s done it’s the consistency of soft serve. There was a little left over since it makes about 2 quarts but the kids already want to know when I’m making it again. Mr. Bird had another serving today already, so he likes it too. :)

The hardest part of the whole thing was cooking the mixture because there were several steps. Not really hard, more like time consuming. I put the mixture in the fridge all day and all I had to do after supper was pour the mixture in to the pre-frozen bowl and let the kitchenaid do all the stirring. It was ready to eat in about 20 minutes. It’s pretty cool!

I returned one of Mr. Bird’s Christmas gifts to me (with his blessing of course) and have ordered 2 items to replace it. One of the items I ordered was an ice cream maker attachment for my kitchenaid. Hmmm. I have to stop now. I’m indulging too much. This is not normal for me. I do know that it will most likely get plenty of use because Mr. Bird likes milk shakes and the kids go through ice cream like a hot knife through butter.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming….

I’m a little late making applesauce this year. It usually takes me 2 days to do 2 or 3 bushels of apples. This year we bought 2 bushels. I also bought something that made it so much easier that I finished in 5 hours instead of 2 days!

And here is what I bought to make things easier. A KitchenAid! I can’t believe I’ve done without it all these years. I’ve been using a hand cranked food mill that used to take me forever! Not anymore.

Finished product. Total of 25 quarts canned.