vegan ice cream

A piece a Week – A summer sojourn by the beach

| poppypeach
With the summer vacation coming to a close we had a last sojourn by the sand dunes in Monterey Bay. I found this lovely Air BnB right on the beach by the sand dunes of Pajaro Dunes Resort for our neighbors family and ours. It was just one night but being right near the beach bought an incredible sense of relaxation to all of us with healthy and delicious meals, reading and chatting. The kids enjoyed the walk along the beach this morning with following the dolphins and sea lions jumping happily in the waves eating their breakfast of fresh anchovies. 
This week I celebrated a much needed clean and dust free house with a vegan strawberry ice cream using a favorite recipe from Food 52. I used brown sugar and lemon to macerate the strawberries to add to the ice cream maker – delish.
Strawberries macerating

Coconut cream in a ceramic bowl I made

Ready to eat and a job well done!

I am in the middle of making a cardigan at the moment which has taken me ages to knit – I think it take me up to half an hour to knit one row as there are so many stitches. This is the Noro yarn I have left for the rest of the cardi and the sleeves – hopefully there will be enough!! This has been an excellent summer project whilst watching the kids flicks at the local cinema each week and our marathon of Harry Potter films!

Goodness Gracious – Great balls of yarn!

And now for our last sojurn of the summer in the sand dunes of Monterey Bay. When we stayed at Sunset State Beach I always wondered how to find accommodation at the condos right on the beach nearby and there we were living it up and relaxing to the sound of the ocean right at your doorstep. We had fig tart for elevenses after our walk along the beach watching the dolphins play and jump up in the water showing their underbelly – it made us all so happy! And yes we have been watching The Lord of the Rings films too over the summer.

Fig tart – perfect with a cup of tea for elevenses 

The sunset by the dunes at our back patio

We found the shells of the sand dollars and I have seen them at the California Academy of Sciences but to see them move is pretty cool I found this video of sand dollars in action.

The kids check out a live sand dollar 

Let’s chase the birds said one kiddo and off they went – just like a Hitchcock film!

Our walk this morning and the sun coming out

Enjoying the freezing cold sea water between my toes

Find the busy bumblebee in the gardens of Pajaro Dunes Resort

A piece a Week – We all scream for ice cream!

| poppypeach
With some lovely heat this week for the summer holidays I was inspired to make vegan fresh mango ice cream. Somehow to make a project anything larger than food is difficult being in mamma mode with the kids – all day, every day with hardly any downtime. This delicious recipe is a favorite vanilla base from Food52 with fresh mango and nectarine fruit pulp added to the mix in the ice cream maker. I enjoyed this ice cream in a bowl I made in pottery class with fresh turkey figs – summer is here!!
Vegan Mango Ice cream with fresh turkey figs

A piece a Week – Tote Bags for lots of stuff… and some tasty vegan ice cream!

| poppypeach
A sneak peek of what I will be showing at the FabMo Textile Art Boutique coming up on October 25th. In production mode I finished a small park tote and 3 patchwork large tote bags, perfect for picnics or your camera (they are quilted with a lining and pockets on the inside, so super soft). I found a couple of unfinished quilt tops at FabMo one distribution that had so much work put into them that I saw that they needed to be reworked into to something to be used and appreciated for its quirky beauty. Plus I really did like a lot of the fabrics quilted throughout. 
Small X body park tote

Large patchwork tote bag with ribbon detail – repurposed from FabMo fabric

Very subtle design on this quilt with a martial arts belt as a handle

For those who like checks with their flowers – quirky is the key here!

This week just flew by and last week was a doozy! The beginning of the week was cruising along until I got myself a flat tyre – boo! Fine and dandy and AAA came and saved my distress and then I had to drive to San Jose to take my car in to get a new tyre. The tyre was not in stock so I got to drive around in an SUV for a couple of days – the kiddos really loved the sunroof! And yes, secretly I did enjoy driving around in it too – the environmental activist inside me does not agree!! Anyway while waiting to go to my appointment I had time to whip up some strawberry and fig ice cream, just the thing to get your day on the right track. It was a vegan vanilla ice cream found on Food52 – I am so happy that I can eat ice cream and it does not mess with my insides like dairy ice cream. I think the picture below is straight out of the ice cream maker in a soft serve form with macerated strawberry juice on top – delicious.
Macerated Fig and Strawberry Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream – fun with my ice cream maker

My wheels for a couple of days – the Subaru Forrester!

 Oh and this week Mr Ash took up Martial Arts – here he is in his little outfit! I love it and watching the class and the kids in action is wonderful. I just need to get him to practice everyday which isn’t too hard as it is really good exercise for him after a day at school. I am hoping that he sticks with it and enjoys the benefits of martial arts.

The next Bruce Lee

Thursday night I went to the SF Etsy Meet and Make with the San Francisco Etsy team at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. We made super cute gold dipped geode jewelry. My friend Cristiana from Pebble and Fire made a necklace and I made a ring. It was a fun class using the supplies found on this Pinterest page from Katy Atchison who taught the us this fun craft. The gold liquid gilding mix was intense (keep the lid on as it stinks like chemicals) but looks so good! Any jewelry you have just sitting around can be jazzed up with this stuff and it goes a long way!!

At the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco – needle in a haystack!

Sunday I made more ice cream as the end of another weekend was upon us! I had a couple of mangos from my CSA box and they were so tasty (not as good as Bowen Mangos from Queensland), still these were California grown and local – yay!!

Vegan Mango Ice Cream

For this amazing mango ice cream with a base of coconut milk – here is the recipe, an adaptation from a recipe for vanilla ice cream I found on Food52 and another Vegan Mango Ice Cream recipe.

2 cans coconut milk (I used one light and one full cream)
2 cups mango chunks – cut 1/2 inch square or smaller
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
1/2 cup agave sweetner
1 tablespoon vodka
1. Mix 1/4 cup of the coconut milk with the arrowroot starch and keep aside. 
2. Puree half the mango chunks. 
3. Combine the pureed mango, remaining coconut milk, agave and lime together in a saucepan and bring gently to a boil, take off the heat immediately and stir in the arrowroot mixture. This should cause the mixture to thicken slightly. 
4. Whisk through the 1 tablespoon vodka (alcohol does not freeze and this is added to keep the ice cream smooth and creamy).
5. Let the mixture cool and keep in the fridge overnight – it will be nice and custardy the next day. 
6. Once cold and thick, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and follow the manufcturers directions. My Cuinsinart ice cream maker takes less than 20 mins to get this going and it is so good straight from the ice cream maker! Eat straight away if you like a soft serve type texture.
7. Alternatively put the ice cream in a loaf tin and freeze for 2 hours or more with parchment and a rubber band to keep it sealed in the freezer. 
8. Serve covered in mango – this was fresh mango from my CSA and it was amazing once it was ripe!!

We all scream for ice cream – Enjoy!!!