Auntie Tips (23)

Tip 1:
To prevent superglue from drying up, place it in the fridge and it will be as good as new.

Tip 2:
To maintain the freshness of leftover spaghetti sauce, freeze the sauce in an ice-cube tray. Just defrost what you need each time.

Tip 3:
Frozen packets of ketchup and chilli sauce make up for handy ice packs when your kid gets those bruises or bumps.

Tip 4:
Wrap celery in aluminium foil before refrigerating and it will keep for weeks.

From : Simply Her - Sep 2007

Fruit Yogurt Popsicles

After lying around in my kitchen cabinet for months, the 8 popsicle moulds were finally being put to work for the very first time. I wasn't really thinking of making this until I saw the boxes of blueberries and strawberries on sale in the supermarket. And it wasn't everyday that we have blueberries here on this sunny island of Singapore. So, I decided to buy 2 packs of them to give this recipe a try, and to freeze the remainders for some other recipes.

One tiny change I made was to just chop up the fruits to tiny bits instead of blending them, so that I can still munch on the frozen bits of fruits while enjoying the smoothness of the yogurt.

Fruit Yogurt Popsicles (recipe from here)

Ingredients : 

- 1 cup plain yogurt 

- 1 cup fresh fruit or frozen fruit, your choice of blueberries, strawberries, cherries, etc

- 2 tablespoons honey 

- 4 wooden popsicle sticks or plastic spoons 

- 4 paper cups, 5 ounce size 

- aluminum foil  

Directions :

1) Place the yogurt, fruit (slightly thawed if using frozen) and honey in a blender. Blend to desired consistency (some kids like the fruit chunky and others like it smooth).

2) Pour into paper cups, filling them 3/4 full.

3)Cover the cups with foil. Make slits in the center of the foil covers and insert the popsicle sticks.

4) Put in the freezer for about 5 hours or until frozen solid.

5) When ready, peel off the paper cup and eat. 

Note : I doubled the recipe and managed to fill about a little less than 7 popsicle moulds.

Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

I didn't know what came over me to want to give this ice-cream recipe a try. I do not have an ice-cream maker to begin with. But sometimes, there are certain recipes that just caught my attention and I can't stop thinking about them until I gave them a try. And no, I didn't rush out to get an ice-cream maker either. Refer to the note at the end of the post to learn how to make ice-cream without a machine. 

To be honest, I didn't think there would be much success on this first attempt. There was a floating layer of fats (I think) after I had melted the chocolate and the cream together. And the final product turned out a bit too hard compared to store-bought. I didn't know if there is any relation to that layer of fats that I decided to omit when doing the final mix. But I was glad that the overall taste was good. So much richer and more chocolate-ty than store-bought.

Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream (recipe from here)

Ingredients :

- 6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
- 1 cup of whole milk
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup of sugar

Directions :

1) Put the chocolate in a 2-quart liquid measuring cup or a large heatproof bowl. Bring 3/4 of the cream to a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit a minute, then, using a rubber spatula, and starting in the center of the mixture, slowly stir the cream into the chocolate in ever-widening concentric circles. When the ganache is smooth, set it aside.

2) Bring the milk and the remaining 3/4 cream to a boil in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan.

3) Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together until well blended and just slightly thickened. Still whisking, drizzle in about one third of the hot liquid-this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won't curdle, Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remaining liquid. Pour the custard back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring without stopping, until the custard thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon: if you run your finger down the bowl of the spoon, the custard should not run into the track. The custard should reach at least 170 degrees F, but no more than 180 degrees F, on an instant-read thermometer (this took about 8-10 minutes on my stove.) Immediately remove the pan from the heat and slowly and gently stir the custard into the ganache. 

Note : If you do not have an ice-cream maker, refer to this article by David Lebovitz. Thanks to him, everyone can enjoy home-made ice-cream even though you don't have the machine.  :)