We have a hand-crank Donvier we got when we were married in 1995 that is almost constantly in use from about the 4th of July to mid-September. (The brand-name one is overpriced. Get a clone, which can be had for under $20 on sale.) DH wants an electric and I may get him one for his birthday (which is 2 days after Christmas LOL) if end-of-summer sales yield any REALLY good prices on reliable machines. Here's the base recipe we use, from the Ben & Jerry's book... I don't think you could GET any simpler, and it's surprisingly good. We pretty much never use a custard base because our kitchen is not air conditioned, and diddling around making custard in a 90-odd degree kitchen is officially Not Worth It in our book. For a 1 quart ice cream maker, combine 1 can sweetened, condensed milk (many of us remember it as "Eagle milk") with 2 cups light cream, a splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Do NOT leave out the salt! Stir well, chill at least 2 hours before putting in the ice cream maker. You can substitute full-fat ("cream top") vanilla yogurt for half the cream but it doesn't really save you much calorically, just does interesting things to the flavor and can make you feel a little virtuous LOL! Lower-fat yogurts give a strange chalky texture and unsweetened yogurt makes for very sour product. (Found from unpleasant experience that just chucking a quart of yogurt straight from the container into the ice cream maker, no matter how yummy it is normally, does not make nice frozen yogurt, oh no not at all!) There's a simple plain base, now start playing... A super easy way to get a delicious fruity flavor ice cream is to substitute 1 cup of a good strong jam for 1 cup of the cream. (I don't recommend doing both jam and yogurt and eliminating all the cream. The result came out... the only word I can find for it is "stretchy".) The jam concentrates the fruit's flavor; warm "seedy" jams like raspberry or blackberry until they're liquidy and push them through a strainer if you don't want to be picking seeds out of your teeth for days. If you want fruit pieces, line a cookie sheet with the nonstick foil or baking parchment (or a Silpat if you're blessed with one), spread out a layer of finely chopped fruit with the pieces not touching, or minimally touching, and freeze rock solid. Add the fruit pieces at the very end of churning. Toast any nuts you wish to add for a stronger, "nuttier" flavor; and grating frozen chocolate bars on the largest holes of a grater (use an oven mitt to hold the chocolate so your body heat doesn't melt it) gives a better result IMO than using chocolate chips, even the mini kind. If you want to use something like butterscotch chips, freeze them and break them up in small batches in a food processor on "pulse". Good use for one of those mini-chopper types. Remember that your liquid ice cream/sorbet/yogurt mixture has to be almost sickeningly-sweet in its unfrozen state to taste "normal" as a finished product - the cold numbs your taste buds so all the flavors have to be STRONG. Oh, and filling the churning chamber more than about 2/3 full, 3/4 at the most, can be a recipe for a Big Sticky Mess. So don't do it. Honey-sweetened ice cream does not store well more than 24 hours - it gets crumbly and weird-textured, so if you want to do something with honey, have enough people around to scarf it down within hours of curing. Alcohol will interfere in the solidifying process so if you really load it up even with an overnight cure you may not get more than a "soft serve" texture. We bought a whole slew of nice little (not quite 1/2 cup) lidded plastic containers into which we portion the ice cream while it's still in the "soft serve" state. Pop them in the freezer and in 4 hours it's solidified enough to have the proper ice cream "mouthfeel", although I like 8 hours' curing time. If we don't pre-portion it DH will go WAY overboard! Oh, and the famous Mark Bittman/New York Times "eggless ice cream" was IMNSHO utterly REVOLTING.

I got this from a Bobby Flay program several years ago: 1 egg, beaten 1 cup ice cold water 2/3 cup flour beat the egg with the cold water, then add the flour. (you may add herbs or spices with the flour.) You may need more flour to get the right consistency. You want it to be thick enouugh to coat the back of a spoon. Keep the mixture very cold. Dip and coat your vegetables, shrimp, even squash blossoms in the batter, fry in hot oil, and drain on paper toweling.

BLACK BOTTOM ORANGE MANGO TART Crust: 1 1/4 cup crushed chocolate graham crackers 1/4 cup finely crushed walnuts (should be powdery) 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup melted butter Filling: 1 pkg orange Jello 1/2 cup boiling water 1/2 cup orange juice 3 oz cream cheese 1/4 cup sugar 2 cups fresh mango, put in a processor until smooth 1 pint heavy cream, whipped until firm peaks form To make crust, assemble all ingredients & mix in medium bowl. Press into a lightly buttered glass pie dish. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 10 minutes; remove & set aside. To make filling: dissolve the Jello in 1/2 cup boiling water, adding in the orange juice as well. With a hand mixer combine the cream cheese, sugar & mango until smooth. Gradually mix in the Jello & fold in the whipped cream. Pour into the graham crust & chill until firm, approximately 4 hours.~~Taste of the Caribbean

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup 1 or 2 boneless chicken breasts (can be frozen), cut into thirds 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (I like del monte) 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce 1 medium onion, chopped 1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 bay leaf 1 (10 oz) package frozen corn 2 Tbsps chopped cilantro 7 corn tortillas Vegetable oil Place all ingredients (except cilantro, tortillas and vegetable oil) in crockpot. Cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours or on High for 3 to 4 hours. Shred chicken with forks; stir in cilantro a few minutes before serving. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips; place on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, spread tortilla strips over soup. Makes 8 servings Adapted from allrecipes by several different sources My note: I added a little sugar toward the end (after testing) and bought canned whole chilies so I could remove seeds. Also made sure I bought Mild enchilada sauce! This is really delicious (and I like that I could throw in frozen chicken :) Ann