Homemade Ice Cream

As a kid, I've always wanted to make my ice cream. Which would never occur to my immigrant Vietnamese mother. Why make things from scratch when you can buy them already made at the store? Luxuries that we Americans are used to were rare (if even available) for my parents when they lived in Vietnam. Wal-Mart is a mecca for them. Anything they want, they can buy. They worked hard to move to the States and to be able to afford the things they like.

Of course my sister and I have the opposite mentality. We attempt to re-use and recycle. We even go thrifting (to the horror of my dad who doesn't understand why we would buy something used when we can afford something new)! To them, shopping at the thrift store reminds them of when they first immigrated to the States and all they could afford were used dishes and furniture.

Anyway, I took Sophia to one of our favorite places, Whole Foods to hang out with one of our favorite people, Chef Egg. August's class was homemade ice cream! No ice cream maker required. It was so easy, you can make it at home in 10 minutes!

We love the Half Pints classes at Whole Foods. They're free and they teach kids to have fun making/cooking food. Check out your local Whole Foods page for the calendar of events. Our Silver Spring location will have one about after school snacks later this month.


First, add sugar, vanilla extract, and half & half to a quart sized ziptop bag (recipe will follow after pictures). Make sure bag is zipped closed completely. Squeeze to mix everything up, making sure you don't feel anymore grains of sugar. You can add any other flavorings you want in this step too: crushed berries, smashed bananas, chocolate syrup, etc.


Add lots of ice and sea salt to a gallon sized ziptop bag. Place sugar & half & half bag into larger bag. Close it up and start shaking. (Love that action shot) Shake and shake. Then shake some more. If you have leakage, you'll have to start over (we did). It takes about 10 or so minutes. Don't get to vigorous with the shaking as you might break open the inside bag. Once the ice milk (that's what you're really making) is to your desire consistency, remove it from the ice bag.

Squeeze all the ice milk into a cup, add your favorite toppings and enjoy! As you can see Sophia added lots of whipped cream and strawberries.

Double Bagger Ice Cream Recipe (courtesy of Whole Foods)

1/2 cup Half & Half
1 drop of vanilla extract
1T of sugar
1 Ziptop bag, quart sized

4C of Ice
4T of Rock Salt (Chef Egg used sea salt)
1 Ziptop bag, gallon sized

Mix the half and half with the vanilla and sugar in the small bag. Place ice and salt in the big bag. Place small bag inside the big bag and shake for 5-10 minutes until the ice cream is solid. Scoop out of bag and enjoy.

A lucky score

I love thrift store shopping! Usually I'm just looking for cool dishes or old pyrex dishes, like the turquoise one below. I've been making baked pasta dishes in it. It's great, goes from oven to table, and still pretty! Yes, I know there's snowflakes on it. I use it year round. And I got it for under $3. Can't beat that.


The pictures of the ones above are available on eBay, so hurry, if you want them! You can check out PyrexLove and see all the fun retro designs. I think my mom still has her Autumn Harvest set, 3 round ones with lids.

Last week I took a friend to my favorite thrift store. Sophia needed new jeans since it's now fall weather and she's way too tall for an almost 3 year old--38 inches! I decided to check out the plus-sized pants & jeans rack. SCORE! I found a denim jacket, 3 pairs of pants, and 3 pairs of jeans for less than $40! How about that?

It gets even better. One of those pairs of jeans was a pair of 7 jeans. I'm not a designer jeans girl, but for less than $6, it was all mine! When I slid on those pants in the fitting room (yes, my thrift store has fitting rooms, I'm lucky), I could hear the crowd roar, I was so excited! I've never owned designer jeans before. So, yep, I'm now the proud owner of my first ever designer jeans.

Have you discovered something awesome at the thrift store lately? Or scored a good deal you had to tell everyone about?

Great finds

One of the local furniture stores, Storehouse, is going out of business. My sister and I decided to stop by on Sunday and voila! We scored some funky swatches for 50cents each. Not bad, deal huh? Of course, the furniture, even at 80% was waaaaay out of my budget. I totally love the funky and retro prints. I think I'm starting to develop a fondness for browns and teals. These are the perfect size to make little handbags or purses.

After a brief scare on Saturday (Sis and I briefly thought our parents never made it to TX on their roadtrip--they left on Thursday but all is well), I found my best thrift store score ever! Check out this apron! I HAS to be vintage. The material feels like a thin linen. It's stiffened with age. It's hand embroidered on the front and all along the bottom of the apron skirt. AND the wasit band is hand smocked. How cool is that? My sis wants me to wear it but it's too cool and pretty for me to dirty up. Should I wear it?