I Heart The Mudflats

I drink hot chai with honey almost every afternoon, it stops me from snacking and stops me from craving sweet things that are bad for me.  I have been thinking for sometime that I really wanted to make a chai ice cream (yes this defeats the purpose of drinking the chai to avoid sweet bad for me things but it sounded so good anyway).  So yesterday I finally made it and its wonderful. I made this in an electric ice cream maker,  you can use whatever you have but the results and times may vary.

Char’s Honey Spiced Chai Ice Cream

(This recipe was created by me. Please do not repost or publish it without written consent from me or another admin on I Heart The Mudflats blog.  You can contact us by clicking here)

3 Twining’s of London Indian Chai Spice Tea bags (This is my favorite chai tea because it is well spiced)
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup Sugar
1/8 cup Honey
1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste (you could substitute half a vanilla bean with the seeds scraped, but you need to remove the bean before churning)
1/8 tsp ground Cardamom
1 cup heavy cream

In a small non-reactive saucepan heat milk to simmering. Add the tea bags and let steep for a few minutes, stir in sugar honey, vanilla paste and cardamom. let sit on the counter till cooled to room temperature. Refrigerate at least 1 hour until really cold.

Set up ice cream maker. Remove the tea bags from the tea and milk mixture and discard them. Poor in the cup of heavy cream and the tea mixture into the ice cream maker and churn per the ice cream makers instructions. [My ice cream maker is kept in a chest freezer with a temperature of -20f, churning the ice cream to the correct constancy took about 15 minutes, but I would imagine if your ice cream maker is at zero degrees f (which is what most freezers attached to refrigerators are set at) it may take a bit longer.] You can serve it at this consistency right away, which is just slightly thicker than soft serve, or pack it in a plastic or glass airtight container and freeze until hard.  Makes 1 Pint.

This ice cream has a very mellow chai and honey flavor, it would go very well with ginger snaps, brandy snaps or candied pecans or almonds.

Enjoy

This guest post was submitted by Kyra from Kyra of the moment.

November is National Novel Writing Month and if you have never heard of Nanowrimo and have always had the urge to write a novel, this is a great opportunity (excuse?) to give it a try with all kinds of kindred spirits to cheer you on. As of now (3:38pm Pacific Time, Friday, October 23, 2009), 70,186 authors world-wide (including yours truly) have signed up for the 10th year of “30 days and nights of literary abandon.”

It’s simple, fun, and the prize is the joy of accomplishment. And, it’s free. It begins at midnight on Nov. 1 and ends at midnight on Nov. 30. To win, you simply write 50,000 words (175 pages) in that period. The goal, is to write without worrying about plot development, grammar, spelling, continuity, or whether you really know anything about the technical aspects relating to some plot feature.

Each day, you simply cut and paste your days product to nanowrimo and a bot counts your words and deletes it (nobody reads it, evaluates it, critiques it, or keeps it - in fact, if you’re concerned about your “baby” they even give you instruction about scrambling your novel before posting to ensure your security. Your total word count is then tracked and if you reach the 50,000 word goal within the allotted time, then you win!

Your prize? The satisfaction of achieving a goal. And yes, if you want to cut and paste Wikipedia, you can. But what’s the point? Why cheat? There’s no “winner.” If everyone that joins completes the goal, then everyone wins.

As far as the quality of your novel? You can always go back later and fix those problems, but how often have you started a project and stopped because it was too daunting? Or shuffled it aside never actually quitting, just meaning to get to it “later” when you had more time? Or maybe you’ve done all the research, have tons of notes (have you ever heard the story about how J.K. Rowlings wrote the Harry Potter books?) but never had the nerve to actually start.

Writing a novel is an overwhelming prospect to many of us. Just the thought of writing a short story is enough to make us decide that writing is too hard. But wait! Look at how many of us are bloggers? What are we doing? What are we? We’re writers. To take it further, to write a novel or other kind of book or even to just write for a living, as a professional writer once said, you have to write.

Forget writer’s block. Forget procrastination. Forget what you feel like doing, or not doing. You have to sit down at your computer and go. Put the fingers on the keys, have a general idea of what you want to say, and start. And that is what nanowrimo is all about. To make it easier, there are forums, writing buddies to buddy up with, mentors, and write-ins if you’re so inclined.

The website has lots of helpful hints, ideas, and many cheerleaders. Full disclosure, this is my first year. My sister who is a writer has been a long time participant and as I am (still) unemployed but now writing almost full-time (blogging, etc.), she has talked me into nano’ing this year.

So, if interested, pop on over to nanowrimo and sign up. My user name at nanowrimo is Kyra, so if you decide to join and want a writing buddy, let me know!

We, here at I Heart Mudflats, love our readers and contributers, in fact that is what we are here for, so please send in your submissions with or without pictures and let us post to the world how much you love mudflats or your five favorite websites and blogs or most anything else that is important to you.

You can click here to find all the ways you can contribute.

Picture from AKM, of Brian from last winter.

From Mudpuppy SMR:

I’ve been AWOL from the Mudflats as a commenter for some time now. Never fear, though – I remain a dedicated Mudflats.net and I Heart Mudflats reader & lurker. Our move from Alaska to Calgary feels, in some ways, as though it is still a work in progress. The unfinished basement of our Kensington home (a sweet little neighborhood near the river & downtown) is filled with unpacked boxes as we try to shoehorn our family into a home less than half the size of the one that we left. Calgary is a beautiful, exciting city, there is much to do and I am enjoying & embracing our new life.

I drive once a week, for the long trek to the southwest corner of Calgary for riding lessons for my daughter & myself. Groceries, the dry-cleaners, Starbucks, drugstore – all of those errands are accomplished, rain or shine, walking with a 4-yr-old and a chariot jogger-cum-shopping-cart. Some days we walk 5 or 6 miles to get all of our errands done, leaving the house at 9 a.m. (say for an appointment downtown), meeting up with my husband at his downtown office to have a leisurely lunch, wandering around the shops, back up the bike trail and home, arriving back at the house around 3 or 4 p.m. In many ways it feels idyllic, and yet I remain drawn to the chaos of the political sites, addicted to reading about the drama of the Palin resignation, the health-care debate, the continued marginalization of the GOP as it descends into the insanity of Kristol, Limbaugh, DeMint, Gingrich, Bachmann, Coulter, Cheney (father and daughter), and of course the divisive Former-Governor Grifter.

Which brings me to the point of this post, why I’m breaking my silence and submitting a piece for this lovely site… A couple of weeks ago I found a new magazine, Body + Soul, a magazine impulse buy. It has a great piece titled “Feel Your Best! The 17 Most Trusted Names In Integrative Health Give Their Top Advice For Preventing Illness, Revving Up Energy, Easing Stress – and More.” The 14th piece of advice in the article really resonated with me. It is entitled “Change the Channel.” I am linking the piece here, so won’t go into the whole thing (I hope that you will be drawn to it on your own), but here’s the money quote for me: The networks cycle through the same bad news over and over again, they hook you in by turning everything into a crisis… The problem is that the body doesn’t differentiate between real problems and sensationalized ones. The stress response is exactly the same – as are the potential health consequences. Pay close attention to how you’re feeling while watching the news, it might feel good for a while, but when it starts to feel bad, change the channel or shut off the TV.

I know that I am not the only Mudflats reader who is infuriated by Palin’s continued victim-behavior, her hiding behind the Troops, God & her Bible (which seems to advocate some strange behavior, if you ask me – is she reading a different one?). I know that I am not the only one frustrated by the hate-mongering of the GOP, the demonizing of public health plans, Obama, and any other perceived “liberal” cause or politician. However, I have made a concerted effort to engage in (read: comment) issues that are personal to me, those that I feel strongly about minus the knee-jerk-emotional-component. As an example, in the days leading up to Palin’s July 3rd resignation speech, I emailed Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Dish) several times with links that I’d stumbled across (thanks, Mom, for bringing one to my attention), along with a little message about its importance (in my mind, anyway). I was quite proud to have been in his blog twice in one week! I feel comfortable talking about most things energy/oil/gas, and as a born & raised Alaskan, I think that I am in a fairly good position to offer some perspective and rational discussion about the adverse effect of the Palin administration’s policies. But I will not, and do not, get drawn into the highly emotional discussions; it’s not conducive to my peace of mind or a peaceful life. As my wonderful husband says, it harshes my mellow. Can I feel my blood pressure going up? Yes. Do I feel rage? Yes. As the piece says, your body does not differentiate between real and perceived stress – so why allow myself to feel anger over the drivel spouted by idiots? Long ago, during a very difficult time in my life, a friend asked how I could stay sane through the challenges. I told them that I did not get angry about anything that I could not do anything about, or was not willing to do something about. I forget that sometimes during these difficult political days, and #14 reminded me to get back to that place.

Case in point: the disastrous, hypocritical & uninformed Palin op-ed piece on Cap & Trade. There was much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth on the Mudflats comment thread. My contribution was, more or less verbatim, that any statement by Palin regarding any issue is sure to be so fact-challenged & inflammatory that it could only be a positive for those on the other side of the issue; her piece was sure to be challenged by those interested in intelligent & informed debate of the issue, would encourage further debate and dissemination of facts & ideas. Sure enough, several intelligent people wrote pieces pointing out that she was for it before she was against it, that it was completely erroneous, likely written by someone with a better grasp of the English language than Palin herself, and of course the main purpose of Palin’s piece seemed to be to align herself with the anti-Obama far-right-wingnuttery-bunch. As a bonus, she is now the star or MoveOn.org’s latest cap & trade commercial. Score!

Alaska will have a lot of cleaning up to do. I challenge you all to continue to meet, on-line & in person if you are fortunate enough to do so, our fellow Mudflats friends, but also to find positive ways to challenge the status quo, direct ways to effect positive change. Now that the Iquitarod is over let’s take our yellow wellies to the street, agitate and work for those causes that we feel strongly about. Healthcare reform could use some support. Cap and trade could use some support. Local elections, the closest homeless shelter, clean-up opportunities – they all stand in dire need of volunteers. Do it for others, yes, but also do it for yourself.

And now, after you read the piece that I linked to, so long ago, at the beginning of this, turn off the computer and give yourself a few mud-free hours.