My vanilla beans from Beanilla arrived just before we left for Disney World.  We got back just in time to celebrate Memorial Day and what better treat on Memorial Day than homemade ice cream.  I made Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with the Tongan Vanilla Beansand some of my Strawberry Sorbet.

Next I will be making some homemade vanilla but since it needs to “brew” for 6-8 weeks you’ll have to wait and see how that comes out.  They sent me Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Mexican Vanilla Beans and Tongan Vanilla Beans.  I have to admit that after opening the Tongan, the other two had a sweeter smell so I wonder what the difference will be in the taste of the vanillas but I am not complaining because the Tongan smelled good and it tasted wonderful in our homemade ice cream.

We (as in Prince Charming) smoked baby back ribs on the grill.  I cooked up some of my kidney bean casserole (G1 said it was the best casserole ever) and some corn on the cob.  I made a bowl full of cucumbers and onions in vinegar and broccoli salad.  Once we ate and gave ourselves some time for our food to settle we dove in to the ice cream, head first.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Recipe

(all 4 kiddos said it was the best ice cream EVER)

5 eggs

2 Cups of sugar

4 1/2 Cups of milk

3 Cups of heavy whipping cream

1 vanilla bean  (sliced open and the beans scraped and added into the mixture)

If you don’t have vanilla beans you will want to use 2 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract.

I like to use a blender to mix batches of my heavy whipping cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla beans and  milk together so everything is incorporated together.  I then pour it into the ice cream maker tub, seal it, pack the outer tub with layers of ice and ice cream maker salt and plug her in.  Once the ice cream maker stops I put the ice cream in a large plastic container and place it in the freezer.  Then, I started in on my Strawberry sorbet recipe.