A Birthday Treat...

for Cynthia!
Today is my friend Cynthia's Birthday and I am so happy to be able to wish her a wonderful day here. When I think of Cynthia, I think of her kindness, caring (with a capital C), generous and graceful nature. We met on a food forum several years ago and though we no longer participate I can honestly say I met the BEST core group of nine friends there. When we all went to the blogging world, Cynthia chooses to have her's remain a private blog so that we can all enjoy seeing the wonderful photos and day trips she takes with her two precious grandchildren, Addi & Tate. She is a role model to me of how I want to be as a Grandma some day - Really, she is!! Cynthia has the best memory ever - she can remember and bring up things sometimes that just amazes me. I think it is the caring nature that shines the most through her, it doesn't matter that we are cyber friends or IRL friends, she truly cares about your life and families. Cynthia has shown me a whole new world of photography, and also introduced me to Peggy Karr glassware. I had not seen a lot of them here in MN but her collection is just amazing and it is such a joy when she shows her many pieces to us.

A week or so before we left on our trip, Cynthia left us a late night message about a cyber bargain and I was lucky enough to see it that night as they were sold out by morning. I got a $59.99 Cuisnart Ice Cream maker for $13.75 which included shipping! In honor of Cynthia's birthday today, I used it for the first time today.
My first try was a revised recipe using the ingredients I had on hand from the booklet that came with the maker.

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream from Cuisnart.

Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 cup whole milk, chilled
1/2 cup chocolate syrup
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed chocolate mint candies, such as Andes® (about 15 mints)

Instructions
Combine heavy cream, whole milk, chocolate syrup, sugar and vanilla (not mint candies) in a medium mixing bowl and combine until well blended. Pour into freezer bowl of a Cuisinart® Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker. Turn the machine ON and let mix until mixture thickens, about 20 - 25 minutes. Add crushed chocolate mint candies to ice cream during last 5 - 10 minutes of mixing. Turn the machine OFF. Transfer to an air tight container and place in freezer until firm, about 2 hours.

My notes: I didn't have whole milk so used a cup of chocolate skim milk and I didn't have the mints so it was just chocolate ice cream. Still very good though, I think I will be searching for a few lower fat recipes to use as it seems like a lot of cream.

Happy Birthday Cynthia - I am very thankful you are my friend!