Commercial Break: Homemade Hot Fudge

I enjoy cooking and making up my own recipes. The kids joke about me starting a cooking show about using up leftovers in creative ways. Well, this commercial isn't for using leftovers but about creating a homemade alternative to the high fructose ice cream toppings in the store. I can't claim that hot fudge is ever a health food, but what you choose to put in it (or leave out of it) can make a healthier alternative.

So if you like hot fudge check my Gramma blog and see my 4-ingredient recipe for hot fudge. Five minutes from stove to ice cream.

What Would Jesus Eat?

I'm reading an interesting book about the way the French eat and why we're fat and they aren't despite a diet filled with butter, real cream, delicious breads and wine at lunch and dinner. The answer, according to the author, is that they eat real food while we stuff our faces with faux food filled with: artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, etc. Some pre-packaged foods aren't too bad. Take the Kellogs raisin bran I ate this morning. The ingredient list includes: whole grain wheat, raisins, wheat bran, sugar, brown sugar syrup and less than 2% salt and malt flavor. Compare that list to Post's Honey Bunches of Oats: corn, whole grain wheat, sugar, whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, rice, high oleic vegetable oil (canola or sunflower oil), whet flour malted barley flour, salt, corn syrup, whey (from milk), honey malted corn and barley syrup...here's where it gets interesting...caramel color, natural and artificial flavor, annato extract (color), BHT added to packaging material to preserve product freshness. Read more here....

Summer Science and a Sweet Treat

Call it fun; call it food science. Here's a way to turn cream, sugar, and vanilla into a yummy summer treat while explaining to the kids about heat energy transfer (or not). I plan to do this with my grandkids on a hot summer afternoon.

How to Make Ice Cream in a Bag