Vacation Cooking

After a week at the beach, I'm relaxed and practically high from lingering scents from the kitchen. Most vacationers use the time away to get out of the kitchen and into a restaurant. Not us - we cook more on vacation than in a normal week at home. I spent some time in advance to pick all the recipes I wanted to try while I was gone, knowing I'd have time to cook as much as I wanted. Of course, I turned to my favorite site, myrecipes.com, for some new recipes. My favorite new recipe on the trip was Cucumber Dip. With grated cucumber, rice wine vinegar, and chives, it was refreshing and an ideal appetizer for hot weather. I made some pita chips for scooping and it's now in my go-to entertaining repertoire.

Every vacation should include homemade ice cream on the porch. We indulged in peach ice cream, right out of the ice cream maker, until we could hold no more. Most recipes call for ripening the ice cream in the freezer for an hour or so after it's made. I prefer the soft frozen mixture the minute it's ready. Try my quick version for a homemade treat.

Peach Ice Cream
3/4 cup milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup half and half
3/4 cups sugar
1 cups chopped fresh peaches
1/2 teaspoon lime zest

Whisk all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Pour mixture into the freezer container of an ice cream maker. Freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Yield: 1/2 gallon