Wednesday 19 December 2012

Christmas Ice Cream Recipes

I am beginning to wonder if this is perhaps the wrong time of year to have published an ice cream book but c'est la vie and all that.  It was already written and I was eager to try the whole eBook publishing thing.  I have sold a few books, of course, but not a truck load so to speak!

To me, ice cream is an all year round treat, even in colder climates. As evidence I was in Moscow about a quarter of a century ago, maybe more, in December and it was quite common and strange to frequently see people eating ice cream cornets in the street.  I don't know if it is part of the Russian culture!

Me at the Kremlin!


Anyhoo - back to my theme - there are three ice creams that I traditionally make at Christmas, all based on my one simple recipe, they are ...



1.   Buttered Rum & Ginger Ice Cream


I usually make this for pre Christmas social do's and sometimes for Christmas Eve.  It is one of my real man's favourites despite it being somewhat exotic by his normal standards.


2.   Ice Cream Mince Pies
Christmas Dinner alternative dessert and to my mind, because I don't usually like mincemeat except in thes, much nicer than traditional mince pies.


3.   Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

There are lots of recipes about for this but I have been making (and selling) this version for years and years, it is both the best and the easiest I know of.  I usually make this a few days after Christmas.


I'm afraid I cannot actually give the recipes here as part of my agreement with Amazon is that the material is not published elsewhere but I can encourage you to buy the book!  Go on, you know you want to!  Right, that's enough encouragement from me, sorry about that!

If you are British its just £2.25, please go here Amazon.co.uk

If you are of the American persuasion get it here Amazon.com  for only $3.60.

Sunday 16 December 2012

Who knows what this is?

Here is a portrait of an inclusion in one of the easy peasy ice creams featured in my eBook - my cat and I used to be quite partial to this stuff but that's not much of a clue!  Any ideas?  See end of this post for the answer.


The recipe using this mystery ingredient is in the chapter headed Savoury, Interesting and Peculiar which also includes such delights as Cracked Black Pepper Ice Cream (lovely with strawberries), Werther’s Original Crunch and delicious Blue Cheese Ice Cream which I like to serve drizzled with honey - like this ...


I don't, however, normally serve it on a piece of wrapping paper as in this photo.  Having made the ice cream I was at a loose end for an appropriate dish for the picture and, as it happens, I am rather pleased with the result. Artistic or what!

If you would like to read more please go Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com and have a 
or download a sample.  I promise you that this is a really easy way to make excellent ice cream, if you are at all dubious try the Maple Syrup Ice Cream, the first recipe in the first chapter; Very, Very Easy Ice Creams.  I think you'll be impressed.  Here is some served with sugared walnuts.



Reviews

I am proud to have received the following two reviews on amazon.com ie. from the Americas.



Answer

Popping Candy aka Space Dust - I had an unusual cat!


Monday 10 December 2012

A Spooky Stumble Upon Story!

As you may have noticed I have added some sharing buttons to my side bar, please feel free to use them.  Please!  When testing them out I remembered a strange, strange thing that happened to me on Stumble Upon a few years back

Spooky Story

My real man and I were sitting on opposite sides of the table and I was passing the time stumbling on Stumble Upon.  I used to do it so much before I thought of trying my hand at being a writer.  Well, (this is the personal bit) ...

... my darling leant across the table and looking me in the eye licked around the edge of the lid of my laptop in a suggestive manner!  At my age!  I pressed the stumble button again, you can see how addicted I was, and got this ...



Just that and nothing else in large letters on an otherwise blank screen.  I was so surprised I didn't even look at the address bar just stumbled again as quick as I could.  Since then I have tried and tried to find this again but the only references I can find to screen licking are on foodie sites and um, you know, "adult" sites.  However even if I did find this again on Stumble Upon it was still one hell of a coincidence.

Something worth licking...


Wild Berry Pavlova Ice Cream made using my basic recipe method and my fail proof meringues - picture taken in Tortola a few years ago.   

I apologise for this seemingly blatant advertising; this picture is already on the relevant page but I have just discovered that food porn sites won't accept two or more pics from the same URL,I have to put them in a post before submitted them and I'm quite pleased with this one! 


Sunday 9 December 2012

Is this Pinteresting or Not?

What a lovely way to pass the time / useful tool / bloody nuisance Pinterest is!   

I joined about a year ago because it looked a good way to store visual notes of books I wanted to read, things I wanted to cook, good ideas for the home etc.  After a while I started a collection of photos of Cornwall where I lived years ago and have returned to in my dotage!

Click here to see more of lovely Cornwall!
Having submitted many photos from my foodie blog Sudden Lunch to all the food porn sites such as Tastespotting, Foodgawker, Dishfolio and Tasteologie with mixed reception I decided to start my own food porn board, so there!

... and here for more food pornography!
Missing the beautiful British Virgin Islands I started a board with many of my own photos of the islands plus lots other people had posted.  When I am feeling "homesick" I can really enjoy my misery by looking at what I am missing. 

Go here to make yourself miserable too!

When I wrote my ice cream book I took loads of pics, far too many to be used in the format it is now published in so I though it a good idea to devote a board to these photos in the hopes they would promote the book and give people who have bought it an idea of the end results.  Hence ...


... or here to be advertised to!

Did you know you can have up to three secret boards?  I am currently collecting pictures on it for my leftovers book due out in the spring.

What you you think?

I have no idea, as yet, if this is going to give good results forpromoting my writing but I think its well worth a try andI enjoy it  in any case.  Has anyone tried Pinterest to promote their book?  What do you think?  Any suggestions?

Funny Ha Ha and Heck!

Here

... and here.
If these are not to your liking I do have other boards!




Friday 7 December 2012

How to Make Ice Cream without Eggs

I can't believe what an eejit I am.  I've been making ice cream ("stringent testing" you understand) thinking about ice cream, eating ice cream and writing about it and yet it never occurred to me what a bonus it is that the recipe I propound in " Lush Ice Cream without a Machine" Doesn't Use Eggs.  A friend who was reading my book said, and I quote ...

"We are delighted because William can't have ice cream with eggs in it so
this gives us lots of options".

Brilliant, I wish I'd noticed that useful aspect of the easy, flexible recipe I am so pleased with before I published the book!    

Cream for Ice Cream

A few people have asked me how much they should whisk the cream when making ice cream so here is a picture of the ideal texture ...


A little too much whipping and the cream will be unworkably thick, a lot too much and it will turn to butter!  Useful but no good for ice cream.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Phew!

"Lush Ice Cream without a Machine" is now available for Kindle on Amazon and what's more today and tomorrow it is priced at ... FREE!  I'm quite excited.  Please download it here (or here if you are on the other side of the pond) have a read and, if you would be so kind, give it a review on Amazon.  Preferably fabulous of course but honest would be helpful too!

If you are bit unsure whether you fancy it go to the Lush Ice Cream tag at the top of the page and peruse the contents.  

I'm not going to put up any more pics of the book - here's a romantic rhubarb sundae!


Tuesday 30 October 2012


Welcome ...

... to my brand new blog-website type thing which is currently "under construction".  If you have just happened here you might like to have a look at my blog Sudden Lunch which has been going for a couple of years and is about my interest in spontaneous cooking, often from leftovers.

The reason for this new blog is to promote my writing - my first book, "The Leftovers Handbook" is to be published in March 2013 (end of the World permitting), I have had a few magazine articles published and intend to try my hand at eBooks.  It seems the time is right to get a bit more professional and have a web presence.

Cheers!