Jam

I learned the secret of making small batches of jam years ago from my dear friend Sylvia Thompson, a terrific cookbook writer.

Here's how the technique goes: Cut up the fruit and weigh it. Add an equal weight of sugar. Bring it to a boil on top of the stove and then let it sit overnight to macerate. The next day, finish the jam a couple of cups at a time in a nonstick skillet. Cooked over medium-high heat, it'll set in less than five minutes.

That's all there is to it. Last weekend I turned 2 pounds of nectarines into jam in less than 30 minutes of total work. What's more, because I couldn't figure out what sounded best as an accent flavoring — lemon verbena, rose geranium or basil — I made one batch of each. (For what it's worth, I'm still undecided: All of them are delicious. Obviously, more testing and tasting are required.)

Because the fruit cooks more quickly in small amounts, the flavor of the jam stays fresher. You also use less sugar than commercial jams, so the flavor is more about the fruit than the sweet (instead of 50% sugar by weight, commercial products must contain more than 55% sugar just to legally be called jam).

hamburger buns

40 Minute Hamburger Buns or Rolls
By Sue Edwards

***(Note: By Sue Edwards)*** Here on our ranch, I cook for three men besides by family and they all love hamburgers. These fluffy yet hearty buns are just right for their big appetites. I also serve the buns plain with a meal.

Ingredients
* 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
* 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions
* In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let
* stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a
* soft dough.
*
* Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about
* 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces; shape each into
* a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
*
* Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes
* or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.
* Yield: 1 dozen.


1/2 milk, 1/2 water for buns

Excellent flight search engine

http://www.hipmunk.com/
.

You can still sort results by price, number of stops, departure/arrival time, and duration, but you also get an extra search category called agony. What's "agony" entail, you ask? Hipmunk's co-founder Adam Goldstein explains that agony is:

..a combined function of price, duration, and number of stops—basically the total agony you'll experience in your butt and your savings.

If you've always dreaded searching for a flight because you don't enjoy deciphering your results, Hipmunk is a refreshingly clear alternative.

Another liquid nitrogen ice cream recipe

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Recipe

heidi notes: This is a nice, creamy gelato-type base. Infuse it, add stuff, get creative. I wrote this recipe a few years back - I tend to use arrowroot instead of cornstarch as a thickener in recipes that need it (it is usually less-processed than cornstarch). But because I haven't tested arrowroot in this base, I'll give you the cornstarch version. If you use this as a base for liquid nitrogen ice cream, please read up on the safety precautions that must be observed when handling LN2.

4 cups whole organic milk
1 vanilla bean, split
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place three cups of the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla bean over medium-low heat.

Meanwhile, pour the remaining 1 cup milk into a large glass measuring cup. Add the sugar and the cornstarch. Mix well.

When the milk starts to simmer, remove it from the heat and pour in the cornstarch mixture, stirring the whole time. Return the saucepan to medium-low and stir, stir, stir, until things start thickening up, 10 to 12 minutes. It should end up thicker than, say, a runny milkshake, but thinner than a frosty one.

Pour the mixture through a strainer into a mixing bowl, whisk in the vanilla extract, and let it cool on the counter for 20 minutes or so. I like to then chill it in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight until it is completely chilled.

Now you are ready to place this mixture in a metal-bowl mixer and do the liquid nitrogen thing (see above links and do your safety reading and research first), or you can just freeze this using the manufacturer's instructions on a standard ice-cream maker.

Serves 6.

Liquid Nitrogen ice cream

The price is about two cents to $2.75 per 100 cubic feet depending on purity, which isn't anything important here, so get the two cent stuff. You will also probably need a container, which you can rent/borrow from the people that you are buying the Nitrogen from. Don't use a cooler, as it will not survive the trip.

Simple rules for handling Liquid Nitrogen:
I could say DO NOT LET IT TOUCH SKIN but someone will be a bone head and do it anyway. The truth of the matter is that the human body is so hot to the Liquid Nitrogen that it will boil in your hand with out any harm to you. However, the instant you contain the liquid Nitrogen, like in a fist, you increase the pressure of the gas trying to escape. The pressure builds up enough to give you a very bad freezer burn. Enough to need medical attention, so take my word for it and don't.

Ingredients needed to make simple Vanilla Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream:

---

Milk
Heavy Cream (Half and Half will do nicely)
Real Vanilla (not that fake junk that's sold!)
Sugar
Liquid Nitrogen

Equipment needed:

---

Stainless Steel mixing bowl
Wooden mixing spoon
Gloves
A big sink or a level place out side.

First figure out how much you want to make. Multiply the total amount of ice cream by five to get the amount of Liquid Nitrogen needed to freeze the ice cream. A gallon of ice cream will thus need five gallons of Liquid Nitrogen.
Mix the Milk, Cream, Vanilla and sugar in the mixing bowl. The ratios should be twice as much cream as milk and about 8 tbsp of vanilla for every gallon of liquid. Sugar should be about 1 cup dry measure per gallon. If that's too sweet then half it. I do not know how artificial sweeteners react to the cold, so I don't recommend the usage of them.
Mix the ingredients until the sugar has dissolved into the milk and cream. Add in any fixings (candy, coffee, other flavors). Move to the sink if you haven't already.
Pour in the Liquid Nitrogen slowly and mix with the wooden spoon until completely frozen, which should be about 10 minutes. Wear the gloves, because it's going to be cold.
For a better freeze, prepare the icecream in a pressure cooker, and after adding the Liquid Nitrogen, clamp shut for 5 minutes.

Eat!

If you want, you can add cookie dough or just about anything else to the mixture. Don't worry, it will freeze (trust me, it has no choice but too!).
Other flavors can be made by replacing or adding with the Vanilla with your choice of:
Coffee (hot, strong and fresh is the best) - with a few whole beans - yum!
Cookie dough - either homemade or store bought will do.
Candy - A Milky Way is good in bits, as is Heath Bar.
Liquors - Don't worry about the low freezing point, Liquid Nitrogen is much lower!

Ice cream without an ice cream maker

I do believe in equal-opportunity ice cream-making; even if you don't have an ice cream maker, you should be able to make it home for yourself. Yes, an ice cream machine doesn't cost too much, but it takes up precious space in small kitchens, and you may not want to keep one around. But up until now I hadn't been satisfied with any methods of making ice cream sans machine.

The bag method is simple, but messy. You fill a large plastic bag with ice and salt, and then put a smaller bag inside with a cup of ice cream mix. After some agitation, the mix in the inner bag will get cold enough to freeze into ice cream.

But this method is prone to leakage — you often end up with salty brine all over the kitchen countertop, or even in the ice cream itself. There has to be a better way, I thought.

I did a little reading, and I was inspired by David Lebovitz's stir-every-30-minutes version, and by Kenji's very scientific analysis of what needs to happen for ice cream to freeze satisfactorily.

• How To Make Ice Cream Without a Machine - by David Lebovitz
• The Food Lab: Real Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Machine - by Kenji at Serious Eats

Kenji's article is fascinating because he shows just how ice cream is affected by stirring. If you just throw ice cream mix into the freezer you'll have a solid block of icy dairy — not very scoopable or fun to eat. You have to prevent large ice crystals from forming while freezing the mix. There are many ways to do this, but they are variations on one simple concept: Mix or agitate the ice cream while it is being frozen.

David Lebovitz addresses this by simply stirring the ice cream every 30 minutes for about 3 hours as it freezes in the freezer. David's is a good method, and the one below is directly inspired by it. I just didn't want to be bound to my ice cream for 3 hours! I also felt that the mixing option still leaves in some large crystals.

This method makes the process much quicker, and you only need to mix it twice. It also produces a very smooth, creamy ice cream which, depending on how much fat is in the ice cream base, rivals any other homemade ice cream for texture.

The only drawback is that you need a fairly large freezer and a bag of ice — which again may be hard for those of you in small city kitchens. But if you do have the space, then give this a try! It's easy, not messy at all, and awfully delicious!

What You Need

Ingredients
1 pint (usually a half recipe) of ice cream mix, well chilled
Easy Ice Cream Mix Options:
• Eggless Cornstarch-Based Mix
• Rich Ice Cream Base with Eggs and Cream
• Sweetened Condensed Milk Ice Cream Base

Equipment
Very large mixing bowl or stockpot
Small 1-quart bowl
Chopped ice
3/4 cup rock salt or kosher salt
Electric hand mixer OR whisk
Towel

Instructions

1. Fill the large bowl about halfway with ice. Stir in 3/4 cup rock salt.

2. Nestle the smaller bowl in the ice. Try to get almost completely buried in the ice. Fill the smaller bowl halfway with ice cream mix (use at most 1 pint of mix).

3. Use the hand mixer to beat the mix for 10 minutes. You may find it helpful to half cover the bowl with a towel, to help prevent spattering. The mix should get very cold to the touch, although it will probably not start transforming into actual ice cream. (Note: If you don't have a hand mixer, then you can use a whisk, but you will need to whisk for at least 15 minutes. Great upper arm workout!)

After you have aerated and chilled the mix for about 10 minutes, cover with a towel and place the entire set of nested bowls — large and small — in the freezer. Freeze for 45 minutes.

4. Remove the bowls from the freezer. Draw a spoon across the top of the ice cream mix. It's probably the consistency of loose pudding, especially on top.

5. Mix again with the hand mixer for 5 minutes. At this point the mixture should be the texture of soft-serve ice cream.

6. Remove the small bowl from the large bowl, and cover the top with plastic wrap touching the surface of the ice cream. Freeze for an additional two hours, or overnight, before serving.

Additional Notes:
• Remember, as always with homemade ice cream: The more fat in the ice cream, the creamier it will be, regardless of churning method. A custard ice cream with all cream and egg yolks will turn out less icy than a milk-based mix. I actually used a milk-based mix here (2 cups milk, 1 cup cream) and while this is more to my taste, it definitely turned out a little icier than a more fatty mix would have.
• On ice: I used about 6 standard-sized ice cube trays (72 ice cubes, smashed up a bit in a bag beforehand) to fill my big bowl.

Time Bank

Start a Neighborhood Time Bank to Help Out on DIY Projects, Get to Know Your Neighbors

You already know how towelcome new neighbors to the community, but to get to know them better, home-centric blog Re-Nest recommends starting a Time Bank. As you help them with their DIY projects or errands, they help you with yours.

Photo by Michigan Municipal League (MML).

The logistics of a time bank are simple. For each hour you help someone out with their project, they help you out with yours:

Need help building a deck? Maybe catching an airport shuttle isn't in your budget right now. Enter: the Time Bank. Their Mission is, "strengthening communities through reciprocity." If you spend an hour doing something for someone in your community, that hour goes into the "bank" as a Time Dollar. You can then spend that dollar to have someone else do something for you.

While there are official channels through which you can create a neighborhood-wide Time Bank, with a central web hub and all (so others can find it), you could always use less formal means, too. Even if it just means pitching the idea to a few neighbors as a cool idea (and have them then pitch it to other folks they know in the community), you could have a pretty casual, helpful set-up going. Not only is it a great way to get to know your neighbors, but you'll probably gain some good DIY experience (and maybe even learn a trick or two) in the process. Hit the link for more information on Time Banking, and share your thoughts in the comments.

Time Banking [via Re-Nest]

Send an email to Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com.