Our Iceland-UK-Olympics Vacation PART II

Here it is, finally. My Part II recap of our Iceland-UK-Olympic vacation. I blogged about our Olympic Games experience a week or so ago in a Vacation PART I. Now I'm going to try to cram in everything else we did on our trip in one post because I if I don't get this up all at once, I'll never get around to finishing it. [Like what I did for our Europe trip last summer :( ].

We did A LOT of sightseeing on our Iceland-UK trip. We tend to cram in as much as possible, which is good because we see a lot, but not so good because we sometimes don't have enough time at places we end up really liking. And we are constantly on the go from 7am until 10-11pm, which is exhausting. One of these days we'll go on a relaxing vacation and just stay in one place and do nothing. The kids won't know what hit 'em.

I apologize to those of you who follow me on twitter and or instagram as I include a lot of those photos you've seen already in this post. What can I say? I love using my iphone camera. It's so convenient, light and takes pretty decent pics. I took 472 photos with my iPhone and only 267 with my regular camera.

Iceland July 26-27, 2012 
When we learned that the airfare price was the same to the London with a stopover in Reykjavik no matter how long you stayed in Iceland, we knew we wanted to spend a couple of days in Iceland before making it all the way across the pond. Unfortunately, my husband made a mistake in our reservations that we didn't notice until weeks after, our two day jaunt in Iceland was reduced to barely 24 hours. Disappointing, but it is what it is and we enjoyed what little time we had there anyway. Good thing they get LOTS of daylight there.

Landing in Iceland
Sunset skies at 10:30pm

By the time we took the shuttle bus from the Keflavik airport to Reykjavik it was very late. Of course our stop was the last one. Of course. So now it's after midnight and we get to our room, which was an apartment right out of the coziest pages of an IKEA catalog. Seriously. So nice. We were famished, so headed out for some food. Pizza just because it was close to our apartment and the place was open at 1 am. Showers and then off to bed and it still wasn't fully dark outside. In the morning we walked around the city like tourists and then sadly headed back to the airport for our flight to London. The drive was nice, though, and we got some beautiful views of the Icelandic shores.

On the road from Reykijvak to the airport.

Iceland countryside

Iceland countryside

Such a unique and stunning landscape and overall a fascinating place. I can't wait to go back and explore the island. Hopefully in the winter so we can see the aurora borealis.

London July 27-28, 2012 
We arrived in London late Friday night, which was the night of the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. We caught some of it on the television in our hotel room, went out to get some dinner, and then watched the rest when we got back. It was pretty neat hearing booms of the fireworks from our hotel while seeing it on television. It was a surefire reminder that we were really in London during the Olympic Games! Except the next morning we hopped a train for Scotland. But we'd be back to London in just a few days.

Scotland July 28-30, 2012
We arrived in Glasgow, Scotland after a very pleasant and scenic train ride. I spent half the time looking out the window at the pastures and towns and the other half of the time reading an ARC of Hearts of Darkness by Kira Brady. I was very happy. :)

Here's a photo of the British countryside between London and Glasgow. Look! We even saw Dementors!!!! Okay, okay, so it's grime on the train window. ; )

Countryside view from train
between London and Glasgow.

Our first evening in Glasgow we walked around the city for a bit and dined at an Italian restaurant called Pesto for dinner. If you are ever in Glasgow, you have to go there for dinner. It was excellent!

The next day we went on a fabulous day tour of the Scottish Highlands. We used Rabbie's personalized small group tours in Glasgow and highly recommend them. Our tour guide, John, was fantastic. He knew so much about the history and culture of Scotland from a thousand years ago until today. When he wasn't telling us about Scotland, he played a wide variety of Scottish music old and new. He also taught us everything he knew about Scottish whiskey. Which was a lot. Ha!

Loch Lomond, Scotland

Bagpiper playing at a rest stop
near Glencoe, Scotland

The Scottish Highlands are absolutely gorgeous and in no way do my photos do this land justice. The colors and textures and magnificence of the hills that go on and on and the little houses tucked into the valleys and the way the clouds just hover over the lands. Just so beautiful and serene. Between you and me, I felt like I was on the set of a Julie Garwood novel the whole time. :)

Glencoe, Scotland

Glencoe, Scotland

Later that day, we did our best to spot Nessie the Loch Ness Monster as we toured the shores of Loch Ness.

On a boat looking for the Loch Ness Monster!
Loch Ness, Scotland

Click on this one for more detail:

Castle Urquhart
Loch Ness, Scotland

I was sitting on the wrong side of the bus to capture a good shot, but here's what I got of the double rainbow we saw on the ride from Loch Ness back to Glasgow.

On plus side of the frequent rain showers in the UK?
So many rainbows! :)

Dinner in a Scottish pub that night. I had a traditional steak and ale pie. I wanted to be brave and have haggis but I just couldn't do it. Next time!

The following day we took a taxi to Celtic Park, home of the Celtic football club--my husband's favorite team. We kind of got there between a sold out tour and the next one, which would be a couple of hours later, so we opted not to do it. Instead we walked around the outside a bit and then bought my husband some clothing from the shop. He was pretty happy, which made us girls happy. :)

After that, we found our way back to the train station and hopped a train for Edinburgh for the day. By the time we arrived in Edinburgh it was probably after noon. Without a clear cut plan as to what to do, we meandered the streets of the Royal Mile--a landmark area of Edinburgh with a lot of history, culture, shopping and things to do. We knew we wanted to see Edinburgh castle, so we casually headed that way, enjoying the sights as we went along. We got taken in by a fun museum called Camera Obscura and ended up spending way more time there than we intended. So much so that by the time we walked to Edinburgh castle, the attendants literally closed the gate in our faces saying they were closed for the day an no one else could enter. I was stunned. I mean, it was totally our fault for not checking the time of the last entry and totally our fault for losing track of time, but ... but.. we were devastated. It still makes me really sad, and quite frankly mad at myself for letting this happen. So stupid! Argh! :( So now we have to go back to Scotland, too. Not a terrible thing, but with a whole big world to explore, I have to be honest with myself and think am I really going to go back there someday? I just don't know. Anyway, we wallowed our disappointment with an elaborate Thai dinner.

A view of Edinburgh, Scotland

The girls walking the Royal Mile
Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

After dinner we walked the perimeter of the Edinburgh Castle and more of the city streets, where the girls bought some pretty sterling Celtic rings they liked at a street booth. We headed back to Glasgow that evening, checked out of our hotel and headed back to the train station where we hopped a sleeper train from Glasgow back to London. We had taken a sleeper train in Europe last summer in Germany from Berlin to Munich, which was not the most comfortable or enjoyable experience [I felt SO claustrophobic!] so I wasn't so keen on another sleeper train, BUT it was much better this time. The cabins were just a tiny bit bigger, but that little bit of extra space made a world of difference.

London July 31-August 6, 2012 
Back in London early this Tuesday morning we checked into our hotel in Putney Bridge and then headed back into London to meet up with our friends for some sight seeing. [Our close friends from home joined us for part of our stay in London. This is the same family whom we visited for our January getaway to Florida]. We met at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre where we toured the theater and then went through the museum, learning all kinds of fascinating things about Shakespeare, his plays and the theatre itself.

Click on photo to enlarge for more detail:

Inside Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
London, England

We grabbed lunch then headed towards Buckingham Palace. First we "shopped" in Harrods [omg! sO cRaZy!] and then took a tour of Buckingham Palace. As you can imagine, the palace is a pretty fascinating place. Ultra fancy. Everything seemed to be silk, velvet, marble, gilded, etc. A bit much for my tastes, so I guess it's a good thing I'm not royalty! Ha! :o)

Buckingham Palace, London, England

London Monument
London, England

We were super lucky to have scored tickets to a women's football match that night--Great Britain vs. Brazil, which my husband and 17 year old went to see while our 13 year old and I went out for a nice, quiet dinner. They had a fantastic time watching the football--it was quite an exciting game and the crowds were wild, of course because Team GB won 1-0!

The following day we met our friends at London Monument which is a stone tower that commemorates the great fire of 1666 and celebrates the rebuilding of London. You get a certificate of achievement for walking all the way up the 311 stone steps of the spire and back down again. It's true.

That afternoon, we were Olympic spectators for women's court volleyball. We had front row seats! How lucky is that? You can read more about the Olympic stuff and see pictures on my previous vacation post HERE.

After the volleyball, we went with our friends on a London sight seeing boat tour on the Thames. The guide on the boat was very funny and we learned a lot about the history of London, mostly about the buildings and bridges along the river. My favorite part was seeing Tower Bridge up close from the water with the Olympic Rings on display there. After dinner that evening, we went up the London Eye, which is the largest Ferris wheel type thing in the world. I have to admit, it was pretty cool. My favorite part was being able to see inside the stadium where Beach Volleyball was taking place from the top of the London Eye. This is the same area where you can see Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

Here's a picture of London Bridge. It's the one in the foreground. Yes. That very very very plain one. Is London Bridge. Surprised? I know I was. Tower Bridge is the fancy one most people associate with London. You learn something new everyday.

London Bridge in foreground
Tower Bridge in background

Tower Bridge 

The London Eye at night

The next day we took a whirlwind bus tour outside London with our friends to Bath, Stonehenge and Windsor Castle. Like I said, it was a whirlwind tour. Lots of time on the bus and too short a time at the sites. I don't think we had more than 2 hours at any of the stops. It was kind of crazy, but I'm still glad we got to see what we did. Honestly, you don't need more than an hour or two at Stonehenge, but it would have been nice to spend a whole day each in Bath and Windsor.

At the Roman Baths
Bath, England

The girls at the Great Bath
Roman Baths, Bath, England

Stonehenge, England

Walking up to Windsor Castle
Windsor, England

Moat gardens at Windsor Castle
Windsor, England

Changing of the guard
Windsor Castle, Windsor, England

After the tour, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant right near our friends' hotel. It was a buffet and I ate way too much. Buffets are dangerous.. especially when it comes to some of your favorite foods. Ugh. This was our friends' last night in London so we said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest. Sightseeing all day and night is tiring!

The next day we toured Westminster Abbey and Westminster Palace, which is where Parliament is held. I learned so much about the British government on the tour of the Parliament. Very interesting and educational. I hope the girls got something out of it, too. I felt a little ignorant learning all this in my 40s and not in my teens or 20s. Anyway, the building is quite stunning on the inside as well as on the outside. Speaking of the outside, did you know that Big Ben is not the official name of the clock tower? Big Ben is only the name of the bell inside the tower. The tower is actually called Westminster Tower but is going to be renamed Queen Elizabeth Tower in the not so distant future. 

Westminster Tower [aka Big Ben]
London Eye in the background

After Parliament, we walked up to Trafalgar Square where we grabbed dinner. When it started to get dark, we took the tube to Tower Bridge for some nighttime photo ops of the bridge and the Olympic Rings. What an exciting time to be visiting London!

Tower Bridge at night

The following morning we caught the end of the women's triathlon in Hyde Park, which you can read in my earlier Olympics post HERE. I was very excited about this, especially since I did my first sprint triathlon last summer. Obviously no where NEAR the level of this kind of event or this caliber athlete, but at least I know what it's like to do an event like this, even in it's most simplest and easiest forms.

After the triathlon, we ventured on with our sightseeing. First we went to London Tower, which was a very interesting place. So much history there, I really had no idea. It has been used as a prison, an artillery, and as a vault of sorts for the Crown Jewels, which we got to see! All I can say is WoW! So sparkly. Absolutely gorgeous. You look at those jewels and think, "Really? That's REAL?" It's so beautiful that I swear your mind starts to rationalize that nothing real can be that beautiful so it must be fake. Does that make sense? Maybe it's just me. lol.

A view from within Tower of London

From London Tower we went to Tower Bridge, which is practically a stone's throw from London Tower. We went INTO the bridge and walked across the enclosed walkway at the tippy top of the bridge. We learned about the construction and operation of the bridge. They also had displays here on the history of the Olympic games which was pretty neat. At this point in our vacation, I think we all started to lose some steam and found ourselves resting on benches any chance we could get.

Resting inside the pedestrian walkway
at the top of Tower Bridge

On our last full day in London, the girls slept in late [myself included!] while my husband went football stadium hopping. He's a big football fan and was excited to be able to go to all these stadiums that he sees on television all year long. :)

After he got back we had a late breakfast and then headed for a special little spot in London. Can you guess where based on this picture?

Abbey Road

Okay, even if you're not a Beatles fan, you probably recognized it anyway, right? Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded their albums. This was a pretty fun little excursion.

We then spent the afternoon in The British Museum which was phenomenal. You could spend days there and still not see everything, so we prioritized a few of their most popular items on exhibit and tried to fit it all in before closing time. The girls really petered out here so they plopped on a bench for a bit while Gabe and I zoomed around and tried to see the last few items on our list. We didn't quite get to it all, but did see most of the things on our list.

My guy inside the British Museum

Holding a Sumerian cuneiform
from 2700+ years ago! WOW! 

Hands on exhibit where we got to hold a piece of Sumerian cuneiform from 2700+ years ago! We also got to see the Rosetta Stone, sections of the Parthenon [a lot of controversy having this taken from Greece and placed in this British Museum.], the Lewis Chessman, a stunning collection of jade mosaic masks and sculptures from the Aztecs, and many other collections.

I knew we were all starting to fade because this was the first night we were back to our hotel before 7pm! I really wanted to eat dinner at this charming pub right around the corner from our hotel that we passed by every single day walking to the tube, but my youngest is a picky eater and didn't like anything on the menu and I was just too tired to be adamant about it, so we had dinner in the hotel restaurant. The food was good, but the pub would have been so much more British, you know?

The following day we packed up and headed to Heathrow for our flight home.

We had a brief stopover in Iceland again, but this time it was only an hour or so in the airport with extremely expensive food and souvenirs. We arrived in JFK airport in New York City at sundown and basically drove off into the sunset towards home in New Jersey. After being awake traveling for nearly 24 hours, it was pretty darned nice to sleep in my own bed. Even if jet lag did have me wide awake at 4 am for a few days straight. Yikes.

Arrived home to a beautiful Manhattan sunset

Home Sweet Home

First morning home, catching up on some emails...

Me and Peekaboo. 

I think she missed me. :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my vacation recap and look at my photos. :)

REVIEW: Deeper by Megan Hart

Published July 1, 2009 by Spice Books 
TBR Challenge Review: August

The theme for August's TBR Challenge hosted by Wendy The Super Librarian was "steamy reads." Without any hesitation, I knew I would chose a book from my TBR pile by author Megan Hart. I've read several of Hart's novels in the past, have a few on my TBR bookshelf and yet more on my wish list. Obviously I'm a fan of her work.

Megan Hart writes erotic fiction--but really unlike anything you'd imagine a book of this genre would be like. Although there are romantic elements to her books, and they are love stories at their core, the books are not what most readers would classify as a romance novel. The endings are not always happily ever after type endings, but they do end with a satisfactory level of closure. The stories simultaneously revolve around the lives and love stories of two or more characters. Hart's stories are a unique form of women's fiction. Women's fiction with honest, natural eroticism that shows the multitude of ways people are bound together by sex and love.

Deeper is not my first book by Megan Hart and it certainly won't be my last. Despite the fact that her stories often tend to leave me a little broken hearted, I still go back for more. Her stories are not easy on your heart and will likely challenge your personal moral compass. They're emotionally complicated and the conflict resolution is never easy or obvious. The stories sometimes make you uncomfortable, but they make you think, empathize and learn about human nature. And because of that, the characters and their stories are unforgettable. I end up thinking about them for a very long time after I've read the book. Weeks, months and even years.

Deeper is the story of Bess Walsh and Nick Hamilton through alternating glimpses into their lives at different time periods--Then and Now. Then is the summer Bess and Nick met when she was 20 and he was 21 at Bethany Beach. Bess was the college girl, working a summer job in the beach town while living at her grandparents beach house. Nick was the local bad boy. Bess' relationship with her long time boyfriend at home was falling apart and what she thought was love was nothing compared to the depth of passion and longing that she felt with Nick. They were undeniably drawn to each other in ways neither one of them had ever felt before. An attraction so deep that they'd be forever etched on each other's souls. Sadly, their love for each other was limited by how far they could break through their insecurities and vulnerabilities and they never saw each other again after that summer.

Until twenty years later, that is. Bess' marriage has failed and she finds herself back at her grandparent's beach house once again, still grieving for the lover she never got over--Nick. Standing at the ocean's edge with nothing but love and longing on her mind and in her heart, she cries for him and his name falls from her lips. Suddenly his mouth is on hers and his hands are on her body. A gift or a curse, neither one is sure, but a second chance is what they've been given and a second chance is what they're going to take.

One of the most compelling aspects of Hart's characters is that they are so very real and flawed. They have real problems, make life altering decisions, make real mistakes and have to deal with the consequences. The mistakes they make aren't easy to fix and sometimes they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. There are several crucial secondary characters who contribute to Bess and Nick's story, such as Bess' husband, her two teenage sons, and her friend Eddie from that summer long ago who is now a business owner in Bethany Beach, but what goes on between Bess and Nick--and their personal issues-- is what's at the heart of Deeper.

Nick is the charming, sexy, aloof bad boy. He has the reputation of being a player and not sticking around. He admits he's an asshole and absolutely doesn't talk about he feels. He has issues trusting others--even those who promise to be there for him. Deep down, he's pretty insecure when it comes to emotional relationships. Not when it comes to sex, though. He's definitely uninhibited there. But when it comes to expressing how he feels, what he wants or any emotional intimacy--that's a tremendous obstacle for him and he just closes up. Eventually he drops hints of how he feels about Bess here and there, but because of HER issues with self doubt, it never really sinks in with her and what little does sink in, she doesn't believe him.

Then there's Bess. Every man she's ever loved has never been fully open and honest with her. He's either been a cheater or has the reputation of being a cheater or a player. Naturally this makes her even more susceptible to self doubt than she already is by her very nature. The men she is drawn to only fuel her self doubt and it's no wonder she feels unworthy of a faithful, long time lover. All of this inhibits her from being honest with herself and from speaking up for herself, her needs and wants in her relationships. As the story progresses, though, she starts to learn to be honest and upfront with how she feels in her relationships and to make healthy decisions in her life.

Deeper is one of those books that's just so darned hard to review. There's so many facets to this story to discuss, but near impossible to tell about in a review because it's the readers journey that's just as important as the character's journey. The reader gets jumbled up and tossed about as easily as the characters. It's so much better to experience it yourself than through another reader's eyes. So go read it.

I give Deeper 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads, but if I could give half stars, I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Why not 5 stars? Something about the supernatural aspects of this story just pull me out of the story. It's not quite paranormal and definitely not realistic, but somewhere in between, a place I have trouble with. While I feel this book is mostly Bess' story, it is also Nick's, yet it was difficult to find his personal growth in the Now. I'm not sure what he learned from his second chance. [I think you should read the book so we can discuss this]. Overall, though, this was a wonderful, unforgettable read that will stay in my thoughts for a long time.

GRADE: A-


Other books I've read and loved by Megan Hart:

Tempted
This Is What I Want
Taking Care of Business [co-written with Lauren Dane]
Stranger
Everything Changes
Naked 

I also have Broken and Dirty by Megan Hart on my shelf, but haven't them read yet.

Have you read any of Megan Hart's books yet? Which ones? 

And if not, what are you waiting for?!

Our Iceland-UK-Olympics Vacation PART I

The 2012 London Olympic Games

I know I said I was going to tell you about our recent Iceland-UK vacation in one post, but I'm sitting here watching the 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony on TV right now and am feeling inspired to at least tell you about the Olympic games part of our trip!

Many years ago we decided that we wanted to visit England one day. Then when London was announced as the host to the 2012 Summer Olympics, we decided that's when we should go. So this vacation has been part of our plans for a long time. Over a year ago, we bid on tickets to several Olympic events and ended up with tickets only to women's court volleyball. Our entire trip was then planned around these tickets for Olympic volleyball on August 2, 2012.

We left the USA for Iceland on July 26, 2012, visited Reykjavik for a day, arrived in London late July 27, 2012, took a train to Scotland for several days, returned back to London where we spent the rest of our trip, save for one day when we left the city for a whirlwind tour of Bath, England, Stonehenge and Windsor Castle. I'll tell you all about the rest of our trip in another post. For now, here are some photos from the Olympic games we attended.

In the afternoon of Tuesday, July 31, 2012 we met a family from Canada who had extra tickets for women's football [soccer] that night so my husband and eldest daughter were very lucky to be able to go to that game. They saw Great Britain vs. Brazil! So fantastic to see these two teams play each other. Let me tell you that any Olympic game is just AWESOME to see in person. But when the host team is playing? The crowds go WILD! It's like nothing else. You can imagine what it's like to be there in person when you're watching the games on TV and you see and hear the spectators cheering, but when you're there it's SO much louder, more thrilling and you cannot help but feel so lucky and so happy to be a part of something so spectacular. Great Britain won that game, by the way. GBR vs BRA 1-0.

Earl's Court Venue for Court Volleyball
2012 Summer Olympics, London

Two days later, on the afternoon of August 2, 2012 we headed to Earl's Court for women's court volleyball. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you probably saw most of these photos already. We had only picked up our tickets that morning in London, but when we got to the stadium we noticed that our seats were split up! Not good. I guess this happens often enough because we were directed to the ticket reconciliation counter to see if we could switch our seats. I was worried that we'd get worse seats, but no! They were even better! We were in the FIRST ROW! Yay! How's that for luck?

We saw two matches that afternoon. First was Turkey vs. Serbia, in which Turkey won in three sets. SRB vs TUR 0-3 and then Great Britain vs. Italy in which Italy won in three sets GBR vs ITA 0-3. We had a fantastic time. We were all smiles and kept on the edge of our seats watching these fantastic athletes compete against each other. Here are some photos from women's Olympic court volleyball:

Women's Volleyball
TUR vs SRB 3-0
2012 Summer Olympics, London 

Team GB Women's Volleyball
GBR vs. ITA 0-3
2012 Summer Olympics, London

The court sweepers for women's volleyball.
2012 Summer Olympics, London

Whenever we were in our hotel room we had the BBC coverage of the Olympics on the television. On Saturday morning, August 4, 2012 we caught the women's triathlon on television and I remembered that I made a note to myself WEEKS ago that I wanted to try to see some of this event! You know, since I became a triathlete myself last year and all. ;) So I did some super quick research on the triathlon course and where would be the best place for spectators without tickets to go for viewing this event. We booked out of our hotel, hopped on the Tube and raced over to Hyde Park where we were able to catch the last few laps of the running component of the triathlon. Even though it was really crowded and we had a limited view of the course, it was still SO thrilling or me to be able to catch part of this event in person. I was quite happy. Here are a few shots of the athletes in women's triathlon:

Women's Triathlon
2012 Summer Olympics
Hyde Park, London

Women's Triathlon
2012 Summer Olympics
Hyde Park, London

And that my friends, is how we were spectators in the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Truly an experience of a lifetime. And if I could do it again, I would. In a heartbeat.

A view of Beach Volleyball
as seen from the top of The London Eye

Now I want to go to Sochi in 2014. :)

Ice Cream Makers & Ice Cream Cookbooks

It's been weeks since I've participated in Weekend Cooking, but not because it hasn't been on my agenda. I have a bunch of cooking posts swirling around in my head, but unfortunately just as many distractions interfering with my good intentions. Take this ice cream post, for example. Would you believe I've been planning this post since June?! I have. I wanted to post it the first weekend in July to ring in National Ice Cream Month [July], and then I thought for sure I'd have it scheduled to post while I was away vacation and now here we are practically mid August, I'm back from vacation and NOW I'm finally getting it up. In the end, I'm actually not that bothered that I didn't get this up in time for National Ice Cream Month because if you ask me, every month is ice cream month!!!

In case you haven't already picked up on this little fact about me, ice cream [and gelato, frozen yogurt, sherbet, sorbet, etc.] is my favorite food. I could eat it every day all year long, even if it's bitter cold outside. I know I'm not alone. However, the high fat and sugar content of ice cream and most other frozen treats don't really fit in my daily diet. Instead it should be a once in a while treat. Yeah.. I'm still working on that. Anyway, because I struggle with that idea of ice cream being a 'once in a while treat,' I'm always on the look out for the perfect lower fat, lower sugar, but still satisfying ice cream that I can eat more often than 'an occasional treat.' I've even invested in home ice cream makers so I can fiddle with recipes, ingredients and flavors on my own. I don't really save money making my own ice cream, but there is benefit of being in control of the quality of ingredients [all natural products, organic when possible], as well as the wonderful reward of making something from scratch.

In this post, I'll talk about two different types of ice cream makers that I've used over the years as well as four different ice cream cookbooks that sit on my shelf. Throughout the remaining short weeks left of summer, I plan to actually make some homemade ice cream and share some of those recipes with you. I hope I inspire you to join the fun and make some homemade ice cream yourself! See the end of this post for information about a cooking challenge called "Operation Use My Ice Cream Maker!"

Ice Cream Makers:

I've had two different kinds of home ice cream makers over the years, both automatic electric models, but slightly different in the method of freezing the ice cream.

My first ice cream maker was an Oster Ice Cream Maker [picture to come tomorrow], which is no longer available for purchase, but is similar in design and function to the Hamilton Beach model and others like it, sold on amazon here. It has an electric motor base which turns the container of ice cream mixture that sits within a larger container that is layered with ice and salt to freeze the ice cream as it is being churned. It typically takes 20-30 minutes for the mixture to be of soft serve consistency. [Note: Ice creams that I made with my Oster machine always turned out softer than ice cream parlor soft serve. The Cuisinart [see below] produces firmer soft serve closer to ice cream parlor consistency.] The inner container is then taken out of the ice and put into the freezer for 4 hours or longer to firm up, which is also called ripen in the ice cream making world. You need to have plenty of ice and salt on hand before you make ice cream with this type of ice cream maker. The ice and salt does make this process a little messy and my Oster machine was pretty noisy.

Cuisinart 1 1/2 Quart Ice Cream Maker

My second ice cream maker is the Cuisinart 1 1/2 Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker and this is my favorite. It's super easy and not as messy as the Oster with all that ice and salt. This also happens to be the ice cream maker that Jeni Britton Bauer, author of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, uses to develop the recipes in her cookbook, which I own [see below]. This ice cream maker also has a electric motor base, but the freezing method is slightly different. The ice cream bowl for this ice cream maker has special liquid built into wall of the bowl that when kept in the freezer, gets cold enough to freeze the ice cream mixture into ice cream during the churning process. Simply spoon out the ice cream into a freezer safe container when it has reached soft serve consistency, which is about 20-25 minutes, and transfer to the freezer for ripening. For this ice cream maker, you need to have space in your freezer to store the bowl. At least several hours before you want to make ice cream, but I just keep it in there all the time, just in case! Storage space in your freezer for the bowl is the only downside to this ice cream maker. Otherwise, this ice cream maker is easy to use, relatively quiet and produces consistent and pleasing results every time. This is the model that I recommend to friends all the time. I have a friend who has the newer Cuisinart 2 Quart model and she also loves it.






Ice Cream Cookbooks:



Ice Creams & Sorbets
Williams Sonoma Kitchen Library
General Editor, Chuck Williams
Recipes by Sarah Tenaglia
Photography by Allan Roseberg
Published in 1996 [Time Life Books]

This was the first ice cream cookbook I purchased and was really one of the very few cookbooks dedicated to ice creams and frozen desserts in bookstores at the time. The ice cream recipes are very rich, calling for a lot of egg yolks and heavy cream. I made the Coconut Ice Cream once. It was so sickeningly rich that one spoonful was more than enough decadence for one day and I honestly don't think we ever finished the batch. There are some gelato recipes that sound good, though, like Banana Gelato and Double Espresso Gelato, so maybe I'll try those someday.



Ice Cream
by Shona Crawford Poole
Photography by William Lingwood
Published in 2001 [revised edition] by Conran Octopus Limited a part of Octopus Publishing Group

I picked up this ice cream cookbook a few years later when I was looking for ice cream recipes that were lighter than the ice creams in the Williams Sonoma cookbook. Recipes that didn't rely so heavily on egg yolks in the base and maybe used a combination of cream and milk in the base. I was also looking for some recipes with exotic or unusual ice cream flavors. This cookbook has several recipes that fit the bill. Recipes such as Saffron & Mace Ice Cream, Mango Ice Cream and Rose Petal Ice Cream.

Unfortunately, like may industrious cooking intentions... I never got around to making any of the recipes in this cookbook. Part of the reason is good intentions gone bad, and the other part is that the ingredients are in metric units, as it is a British published cookbook. This is a really lame excuse as the quantities can be easily converted, so really I have no excuse!

Sweet Scoops
by Shelly Kaldunski
Photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy
Published 2009 by Weldon Owen Publishing

My daughter gifted this cookbook to me a few Christmases ago. Does she know her momma, or what? Again, I can't believe I haven't made anything out of this cookbook yet. The recipes are largely straightforward from the classic to the modern, ice creams to gelatos to frozen yogurts, sherbets, sorbets, and granitas. There's even a chapter dedicated to making your own cones, cookies and toppings. There's an ice cream social waiting to pop out of this book. Avocado Ice Cream, Banana-Maple frozen yogurt and Melon Sorbet.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
by Jeni Bauer
[Most] Photography by Stacy Newgent
Published 2011 by Artisan, A Division of Workman Publishing Company

This is the most recent addition to my ice cream cookbook collection and my favorite so far. It's written by Jeni Bauer, owner of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio where Jeni has been making artisanal ice creams by hand for years. The cookbook, which won the James Beard Award for Best Baking and Dessert Book of 2011, contains recipes for 100 of Jeni's best gourmet ice cream, frozen yogurt and sherbets plus recipes and instructions for other delicious ice cream creations such as specialty sundaes, macaroon ice cream sandwiches, homemade cones, Baked Alaska and other toppings, sauces and baked goods to use with the ice creams. Of the 100 recipes, I would like to taste them all. No kidding. I'm going to make one of the recipes ASAP if I could only decide which one to make first! I'm thinking Backyard Mint Ice Cream, Sweet Corn & Black Raspberry Ice Cream or The Buckeye State Ice Cream which is honeyed peanut ice cream with dark chocolate freckles.

Other recipes on my list are the Roasted Pistachio Ice Cream, Roasted Pumpkin 5-Spice Ice Cream and the Baked Apple Sorbet. Another must-make on my list is the Gucci Muu Muu ... an exotic chocolate ice cream infused with curry and toasted coconut. And in the depths of winter when head cold season hits, I'll be sure to try the Influenza Rx Sorbet, made with lemon and orange juices, sugar, honey, ginger, pectin, cayenne and bourbon. Maybe not the most traditional flavors, but you have to admit they sound incredibly tempting and delicious.

Visit Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at their website http://www.jenis.com/
and at their blog http://jenisplendid.typepad.com/.

Operation Use My: Ice Cream Maker
For more ice cream fun, I'm joining the lovely Trish who blogs at Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity and is hosting an "Operation Use My: Ice Cream Maker" challenge through the rest of the summer. I plan to put my ice cream maker to good use the rest of this summer and may even try my hand at experimenting with Jeni's basic recipe instructions to create my very own recipe.

Do you love ice cream, too? 

What's your favorite ice cream flavor(s)? Favorite topping?

Do you have an Ice Cream Maker? 

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Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Please visit Beth's blog for more information and join the fun! 

Note: your post does not have to be posted on the weekend, but do visit Beth's blog over the weekend to link up your post. 

Home from vacation!

Hello everyone! Hope you're all well. It's been a while, so I wanted to let you know I'm home from vacation and I can't wait to tell you all about it! I scheduled some posts to go up while I was away and had good intentions of finding some time [and WiFi!] to come online to reply to comments, but alas we were SO busy ALL day and then SO tired at night to do anything more than shower and flop into bed, so I wasn't able to keep up with the blog. Hope I didn't come across rude by letting your wonderful comments go unrecognized!

Me and my husband
with Urquhart Castle in the background
viewed from Loch Ness, Scotland

If you follow me on twitter or Instagram, I already bombarded you with pics and tweets about our trip. If you're not in one of those two crowds, don't worry. I plan on bombarding you, too! ; ) I'm writing a blog post in which I'll share some pictures and thoughts about our trip to Iceland, Scotland and England--including the Olympics!--over the next couple of days. Such a great vacation! I'm going to blog about our 12 day trip in one post because last year I attempted to post our wonderful vacation throughout Europe in several installments--one for each city we visited-- but I never finished them!!! I got as far as Paris and Amsterdam but never got around to telling you about Berlin, Munich and Geneva! That still really, really bugs me to this day that I never followed through with the rest of those Summer of 2011 vacation posts. Anyway, I need a few days to gather my photos and thoughts into a concise post, so please stay tuned!

In the meantime, I hit the grocery store at 7 am this morning since we had nothing but a bottle of ketchup and and a handful of moldy cherries in the fridge and now I'm knee deep in laundry waiting for twelve days of mail to arrive so I can catch up on bills and such. That will be a blast of reality, aye?

I also want to catch up with YOU, so tell me what's going on in your area of the world right now! I'd love to hear from you. 

Cheers! 


p.s. I'm extending the deadline to enter my Christmas in July FIVE giveaway until Sunday, August 12 at 11:59 am EST [just before noon], so if you haven't entered yet, please visit that post HERE!