Sunday, July 15, 2007

Mindless Summer Fun

We did a whole lot of NOTHING this weekend. Its been an intense couple of weeks, it was hotter than hades and everyone just needed some serious chillaxin'. I went to the gym, church, the farm market, and the grocery store between Friday night and this evening and those were the only times I left the house. I watched a whole lot of nothin' on TV--The Biggest Loser special editions, hours of FoodTV and Dr. 90210. My mind is officially mush.

I did make the effort to go to the farm market today and they had just picked lima beans. I LOVE fresh lima beans. I don't know why frozen ones from the store just aren't the same--but they are not. Growing up we cooked them, then when the water was mostly gone added milk and butter and ate it over white bread. I have no idea why, I just know that it was GOOD. Today I bought 5 pounds of lima beans. It is so hard to tell how much that is in terms of beans because the pods are so big. I brought them home and shelled them and shelled them and shelled them in front of the mindless TV. I cooked some and stuck a bag full in the freezer. They were delicious. Between that and the salad with fresh, halved yellow and red cherry tomatoes, a bit of fresh basil, mozarella and balsamic vinegar--it tasted like summer.

Es and her boys came over to share in the bounty. I also whipped up some homemade ice cream, it was our second batch since receiving the freezer for Christmas.

MM: Does it turn off when its done?
GM: Nope
MM: How long should it go?
GM: The instructions said 15 minutes
MM: How long has it been?
GM: I don't know
MM: So, how will you know when its done
GM: Last time I listened to it and I knew. Your Dad says it is when water comes out of the drain hole.

7 comments:

Esmerelda said...

Oh you forgot about the FANTASTIC LAMB! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Sorry I was such a tired mess. Switching back to mommy mode after a hot date adventure weekend, is soooo hard.

Ann(ie) said...

mmmmmmmmmmmm. Homemade Ice Cream. I gotta get my butt over to Esmerelda's site and read about this hot date adventure weekend!!!

Builder Mama said...

Lamb? LAMB? Oooh, drool drool drool.

GMan is right about the ice cream freezer - you have to kind of listen to the motor and cut it off just as it begins to strain really hard. Which is probably coinciding with the water coming out of the drain hole. We need to make some this year too.

MamaMaven said...

Yeah, I kind of snuck the lamb in there. Gman says he doesn't like it but I do and it was on sale. I used a pretty spicy marinade. It was really tender and yummy. He still kind of turned up his nose though once I told him what it was.

g-man said...

The lamb was ok. (once I knew it was lamb, I thought it was a shitty steak at first, glad to find out it was lamb) The ice cream thing I was just playing by ear since it is not the same as doing it by hand.

Tree said...

Ice cream recipe? What type of maker? I am still trying to make my fancy-dancy Krups work with a recipe. I would make everyone's evening if I could whip up some homemade ice cream tonight while they are at t-ball.

I hate to admit this, but I have never in my life had lamb.

MamaMaven said...

Tree, we are using a big freezer (1 gallon) and my family recipe.

4 oz eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
can evap milk
2 QT milk
2 cups sugar
4 eggs (beaten)
2 TBSP vanilla (I thought it was too vanilla-y last night)
pinch of salt

Mix everything together well and off you go.