Butter Pecan Ice Cream

So, this is the recipe from this months Backyard Poultry (with a few 'tweaks' of course). It's beyond good, even if you have to buy the stuff at Wally World. Oddly, I do not like honey, but I think the orange/honey flavor is what makes this recipe work.


2 cups cream
1 cup milk
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup honey
6 egg yolks
Salt
Orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup toasted pecans


Combine cream, milk, buttermilk, orange juice, and honey in a saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Whisk yolks, with a pinch of salt, in a medium bowl.

While using one hand to whisk the yolks, carefully use a ladle in the other to stir the simmering cream mixture. Now, pour a ladleful into the yolks and whisk. Keep whisking/stirring. Do Not Chew Gum or Attempt Anything Else during this process.

Repeat a couple of times, then pour the yolk mixture into the saucepan.

Continue whisking until the custard reaches about 160F.

Remove from heat and stir in orange zest; chill.

Dump the spiders out and scrub yer ice cream gizmo, then process as usual, stirring in the pecans at the last minute.

Menu Planning

It's a bad stink bug year, worst I've ever suffered through actually. The only effective management turns out to be a shop vac; it's a really good thing we don't have neighbors here at SHG. Anyway, as a result, today we're having Fried Green Tomato and Bacon(!) Sandwiches, grilled eggplant, and the Last of the Lettuce Salad. The tomatoes demonstrate an ever present stink bug; they're worse than Broccolli Stuffed Donkeys.

I picked a bucket of blackberries for cobbler tomorrow, hopefully there'll be some rhubarb to go with it. My thumb is an attempt to demonstrate the size of the berries. We're fixin' to try a new ice cream recipe from Backyard Poultry, go figure. It involves yard eggs, honey, orange juice, and pecans from SHG, and milk, cream and buttermilk from the neighbors dairy; pretty cool, nothing from Wally World.

For the main event tomorrow we'll be having the ever popular Mexican West Virginia Hot Dogs. Those are essentially a hot dog stuffed with jalapeños and cheese, wrapped in Bacon(!), and served on a buttered and grilled bun. With chili and jalapeño cole slaw. And beer. Lots of beer.

The Red Screw Top is simply adorable, and is in no way involved in meal planning. Well, she's always planning a meal, but you know what I mean.

Happy Memorial Day y'all!

Blue Butterfly Flowers

Mexican Weather Forcast

Tuesday night: Poca probabilidad de lluvias y tormentes electras after 1AM. Mayormente nublado, la low around 69.

No kidding.

My Single Weapon

Is pictured below; it's a Glock 30, a .45 semi auto with a double stack; there's an extended mag available that allows you to load thirteen rounds but I don't have those yet. Then again, if you can't stop a Bad Guy with ten (actually eleven) rounds of .45 ACP, well, three more probably won't help all that much. At any rate, this a full size manly handgun that's been compacted down to be easily concealable. It's very accurate and easy to operate. Glocks are famous for having no bling, not even a safety, which makes them very reliable; they're partly plastic and very durable. They require no tools to disassemble for cleaning, which is a significant disadvantage, as you have to get everyone else a beer when your gun is clean and they're still struggling with little pins and such.

The TCP (that's short for Teeny Tiny Taurus) is adorable; it makes me want one in pink, with a shiny Show Me Some Chrome slide. Yes, they really make that. Anyway, it's an extremely difficult weapon to shoot, as in, no concerns about groups, I'm lucky to hit the paper. It loads ten rounds of .380, and snuggles right into your pocket to go anywhere, anytime. It would be perfect for a Flashbang ( you know, the bra holster). In addition to being nauseatingly cute, it makes your wrist and hand hurt after only a few shots. Being so little, it has terrible recoil, being so short, it's hard to aim. These little .380's are quite effective though, when handled properly. Remember Govenor Goodhair and the coyote? Ruger now sells a .380 Coyote, heh.

Remember that Boar?

He's here. He's Really Big. And smart too, cleverly showing up the only morning there wasn't time to Baconate him. I don't think boars are good for eating, but I could be wrong, let me know, if so.

He's in this terrible picture, use yer imagination; the Baconater is shown for...reference, yeah, that's it:

What's Growing Now:

It's still darn cool for around here, so we're still getting lettuce and pole beans, no more peas, but occasional tomatoes, and lots of parsley, cilantro, and shallots. The dill just went down. In two weeks we'll be awash with 'maters; the squash and cukes are finally blooming. The eggplant and basil are languishing, waiting for the soil temperature to come up a bit.

It's been a good year for dewberries, we've had a berry tart or Dewbarb cobbler every weekend this month-the cobbler is Teh Awesome with Italian Cream Cake ice cream.

What do you think of the fancy garden sink?

Update: just noticed the picture of The Neighbors, the calves, which was added accidentally. They are however
growing, and will stay.

Kittehs and Flowers

A series. Granny harrasses me mercilessly if the flowers aren't on the table when she gets here. Can you tell which ones came from the store?

My Word!

It was 39F this morning, mind you, that 's cooler than most February mornings. This is South Texas; It's May. WTF?