3 Ingredient Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

• This past weekend, our family went strawberry picking at a local farm here in Barrie.  Needless to say, we arrived home with strawberries galore; some for snacking on throughout the week, and others destined for the freezer,  for future use in smoothies, jam, or pie baking!  I remembered that I had an easy recipe for strawberry ice cream in a magazine somewhere at home. Well, I found it and decided to give it a go.  You can find the original recipe online here: strawberry ice cream  This was my first attempt at making ice cream and you won't believe how simple it is to make.  All you need are three ingredients - strawberries, heavy cream, and sweetened condensed milk. And you don't need an ice cream maker, either! 
• I've had quite a few people request the recipe since seeing my story on Instagram yesterday, so I thought I'd share it here with you today.  
• I doubled the original recipe to serve the four of us here at home.  You can easily half the recipe, if you prefer.

• Ingredients:

• 450 g strawberries (rinsed, hulled, and chopped finely)
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (35%)
• 1 300-ml can sweetened condensed milk

• Directions:

• Boil strawberries in a medium saucepan (do not add water) over high heat until they are mushy and all the liquid has evaporated, approximately 10 minutes. Strawberries should measure 2/3 cup after boiling.  Chill completely in the refrigerator. Add cooled strawberry mixture to sweetened condensed milk in a bowl and stir until well blended.  Set aside. 

• Beat cold cream in a medium bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed, until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low and beat in sweetened condensed milk/strawberry mixture until just combined.  Mixture should be smooth and fluffy. 

• Pour mixture into a resealable container.  Freeze until firm, preferably overnight.  If you divide the mixture into two containers, it will freeze in less time.  Enjoy! 

After sitting for 8 hours in the freezer yesterday, the ice cream still wasn't as firm as I would like, so I left it in the freezer overnight.  It was the perfect consistency when I checked this morning.  Patience is key!  Although, my husband was perfectly happy to devour soft and melty strawberry ice cream after our dinner last night.  Ah-ha-ha!

You will not be disappointed with this recipe. This ice cream turned out incredibly creamy and berry delicious.  It's a keeper!  I hope you will enjoy adding it to your recipe box, as well!  

Blueberries, Pancakes, and Pie...Oh My!

July is national blueberry month and this past weekend was the Barrie Hill Farms Blueberry Pancake Festival.  If you follow my blog, you may remember that we visited the farm last month to celebrate the Strawberry Festival.  On Saturday, we woke up early in the morning so we could be one of the first to enjoy the delicious blueberry pancakes!  We arrived at about 9 am.  The weather could not have been any more perfect - it was warm, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining!

I asked the friendly gentlemen if I could snap a couple of photos.  It was so nice talking with them!

Our breakfast consisted of 3 pancakes, and 2 sausages!  It was delicious!

Now that our tummies were full, it was time to go blueberry picking!  We headed out on the wagon ride that lead us into the blueberry fields...

We saw a large field of gorgeous gladiolus growing there too! 

I bought a few stems of gladiolus to take home and put in a vase!

Blueberries for sale!

We had a wonderful morning at Barrie Hill Farms.  The pancakes were delicious, and we really enjoyed the blueberry picking.  Hmmm...now what to do with all those berries?  Why, a blueberry pie, of course!

Making the pastry dough

2 pounds of blueberries

Filled with blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, corn starch and a little bit of cinnamon!

The pie is ready to go in the oven!

Bubbling blueberry pie, right out of the oven.  Now to cool & set for at least a few hours...

The pie turned out delicious!  

It is really special when you add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  The sweetness from the ice cream really complements  the tartness of the blueberries!  I do hope you enjoyed reading this post.  It's another beautiful day here in my neighbourhood.  I hope it's a nice day where you are too!  Thanks for stopping by! XO

Saturday Teacupcakes and Sunday Strawberry Festival

On Saturday, Nuno went to a fishing tournament on Orr Lake , so it was just the girls and I at home for the day.  Anita was flipping through one of my cookbooks and asked, "Mommy, can we bake something today?".  I told her I would think about it, since I still had to finish up some chores and after all, it was Saturday, and I thought I should relax a bit.  Her request lingered in my mind and I remembered I had  new cupcake molds I still hadn't experimented with.  So the answer was, "Okay, we'll make cupcakes!".  And then, of course, Anita and Annabel cheered and waited as patiently as they could for me to finish my chores. 

Annabel sifting flour into the bowl.

Anita adding softened butter

Annabel adding sugar

Vanilla cupcakes cooling on the rack

I decorated them with cream cheese frosting (which I tinted pink).  The teacupcake molds were a hit! 

This past weekend, our local "pick your own" farm, www.barriehillfarms.com celebrated their 5th annual Strawberry Festival.  We decided to go pick some strawberries on Sunday and enjoy the festivities.  The morning started off very grey and cloudy, so we waited till later in the afternoon to see if it would improve. 

 

Nuno and the girls on the tractor trailer, getting ready for the ride to the strawberry fields.

 

 

Fresh picked new potatoes, sweet peas and snow peas for sale.

Fresh spinach and asparagus for sale too!

We had to wait a while for this strawberry shortcake, as the organizers had run out of cake, but Annabel didn't want to go home without eating it.  So, we waited, and it was definitely worth the wait!

This is what we purchased at the farm on Sunday - fresh picked strawberries, new potatoes, and sweet peas! 

The weather did improve and we had a fun afternoon at the farm!  I feel so lucky to live within a few minutes of this wonderful farm that provides such a large assortment of  fresh-picked produce from May to September!

Sunday's dinner - grilled pork, local new potatoes and sweet peas.

And don't forget dessert! Our vanilla cupcakes, cut in bite-size pieces, vanilla ice cream, and sliced strawberries soaked in their own sugar syrup. So simple, yet so delicious!

I will end this post with the beautiful backyard sunset I captured on Sunday evening.  Sorry for the rather long post.  I just had so many pictures I wanted to share with you.  I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday.  It is rather chilly and blustery here in Barrie.  Hoping it's warm and sunny where you are!  Thank you for stopping by.  I so enjoy having you.  Happy Wednesday! xo