Real Homemade Whipped Cream

A dollop of homemade whipped cream on pumpkin bread pudding.

During the holiday season, I usually make whipped cream to garnish various desserts.  Homemade whipped cream is so easy to make, and it has only three ingredients: cream, sugar, vanilla.  If you read the labels on canned whipped creams you will see that there are a number of added ingredients that don't sound so appealing.

Get your ingredients together:  1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (the heavy has more butterfat and is easier and quicker to whip), 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.

Three ingredients: heavy whipping cream, sugar, vanilla extract.

Make sure that your bowl and beaters are cold.  I put them in the freezer for about 10 or 15 minutes before I start making the whipped cream, and of course have the whipping cream cold.  You could use a hand whisk, but I prefer to use an electric hand mixer. I like to use a two cup measuring cup for beating the cream. 

Cold measuring cup and cold beaters for hand mixer.

Beat on medium speed until soft peaks begin to form, add sugar and vanilla, and continue beating until soft peaks reappear.

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream.

Beat until soft peaks form.

Caution:  If you beat too long, the cream will turn to butter.  After I remove the whipped cream and place it in a serving bowl,  I often leave a bit of the cream in the bowl and continue whipping it until it turns to butter.  I add a tablespoon of maple syrup and continuing beating to blend it in and I have maple butter that will be good on toast.

Whipping cream whipped so long it turns to butter.

A dollop of whipped cream on pumpkin bread pudding.

I used the whipped cream to garnish our pumpkin bread pudding.  The bread pudding is from Trader Joe's and is quite delicious.  It can be defrosted in the fridge and then heated in the microwave or in the oven.  I prefer heating it in the oven. 

Pumpkin bread pudding from Trader Joe's/

Whenever I do use ready made whipped cream, I use the Cabot's whipped cream from Trader Joe's.  It tastes much like homemade, but still has added preservatives. 

Cabot Whipped Cream.

As you can see it is very easy to make homemade whipped cream.

Holiday Tournament Broughton vs. Apex 2014

Holiday Invitational Tournament

The Holiday Invitational Tournament is well underway here in Raleigh with Broughton High School the venue for the boys' tournament.  Broughton played Apex for the right to advance to the final championship game of the Summit Hospitality Bracket.   It was a close game, tip and tuck the whole way.  Here are a few of the photos captured by the photographer for WRAL. 

Jerome hits a three pointer. (Photo by WRAL).

Austin lays one in. (Photo by WRAL).

Brooks for two. (Photo by WRAL).

Roy dunks for two. (Photo by WRAL).

Tharon heads down the court. (Photo by WRAL).

Which Number 22 drew a foul on this one? (Photo by WRAL).

Brooks looks pretty desperate here. (Photo by WRAL).

I believe Brooks may be holding. (Photo by WRAL).

In the end the Broughton Capitals won 63 to 62, but they will now face Millbrook a formidable opponent who has already beat them once this season.  This will be an exciting game. Good luck CAPS. 

Sunny Side Up Breakfast

Sunny Side Up Egg for Breakfast

In Trader Joe's the other day, I bought these ready to eat avocados and for breakfast this morning I thought why not incorporate avocados into breakfast.  With four simple ingredients I created a delicious, healthy and quick-to-fix breakfast. 

Two slices of whole grain bread, ripe avocado, two eggs and butter.  Ingredients for breakfast for two.

Peel and mash the avocado.

Avocado peeled......

.....and mashed.

Bread in toaster while eggs are cooking.

Toast the bread.

Melt butter, cook eggs sunny side up.

Cook eggs slowly in melted butter.

Spread toast with mashed avocado and top with sunny side up egg.

Spread toast liberally with mashed avocado.

Add sunny side up eggs and sprinkle with pepper. 

Now how simple is that!

The "Eyes" Have It

When Dan fell the other day he was lucky not to break anything---even his eyeglasses.  He did lose one of the nose pads though, and the other day we popped into an optician's nearby to get it replaced.  While they were working on Dan's glasses I noticed how nicely decorated the shop was and proceeded to take a few photos. 

First I noticed a great poster of Willie Nelson, a favorite of mine.

A second poster caught my eye.

The lovely flower in the silver colored urn matched a poster of orchids in the background.

They certainly have cute eye glasses for kids these days.

And look at all the colorful eye glass cases.

There was even a touch of the holidays with one of the arrangements.

In short order, the optician had replaced the nose pads, had touched up the frame in a few places where the coating had scraped off and presented them as good as new.

Dan's specs as good as new. 

While browsing around I saw a beautiful pair of polarized sunglasses that have my name on them.  Are you listening Santa?

Sunglasses by Cocoon.

I never knew when I went into this little shop that I would find something to blog about.  But here it is.

We got splendid service in a lovely setting.  Thanks!!
 Bob Morris Opticians

 

An early present from Santa.  What could that be?????

 Oh look what I found under the Christmas tree this morning.  An early present from Santa!!!  I wonder what that can be?

Lane and Hamilton Antiques and Collectibles

Logo designed by Ava Barlow.

Thanks to my friend Ava Barlow who has been helping me set up an online shop for selling antiques and collectibles, the site is finally launched.  Ava did the photography and designed the site.   Here are some of the items I have listed for sale:

Alladin's lamp by Waymon Cole. (Photo by Ava Barlow.)

And early Westmoore Pottery salt-glazed jug with cobalt decoration. (Photo by Ava Barlow.)

Westmoore Pottery teapot and cups.

Assorted glassware.

Pottery and other items.

Assorted Wolf animal collection. (Photo by Ava Barlow.)

Beautiful vintage quilt made of wool scraps.  Probably kept someone warm long ago.(Photo by Ava Barlow.)

 Why don't you check out my new online store at Lane and Hamilton Antiques and Collectibles.  And perhaps you can share this site with your friends. 

Not My Mother's Rolling Pin

Not my Mother's rolling pin.

When I was making a pumpkin pie the other morning using my mother's rolling pin, I thought about all the different kind of rolling pins that are available now.  I've seen quite a few of these myself.  So I thought why not post a blog on "rolling pins".  My husband will think I'm desperate for something to blog about.  But no.

Here's a variety of rolling pins I saw online at The Chopping Board

A melange of rolling pins.

When we were in Italy, we saw pasta being made using a very long and very heavy rolling pin, something like this:

The kind of rolling pin we saw used in making pasta in Italy.

I was in Pier One Import's on Black Friday and saw this pretty rolling pin.  It's pretty, but I don't know how functional it would be.

Pretty black and white polka dot rolling pin at Pier One.

Here's a unique use for an antique rolling pin.  The cup hooks could be used to hang pot holders.

Here's a pretty antique Delft rolling pin.

Delft rolling pin. (Photo from HiloAcres in Etsy)

Here's a unique rolling pin with built-in flour sifter.

Silicon rolling pin with built-in flour sifter. (Photo from the green head.)

And here's my Mama's rolling pin that I used to make the pumpkin pie.

My Mama's vintage rolling pin from the late 1930s or early 1940s. 

This is my favorite of all the rolling pins.  My Mama made many pie crusts using this rolling pin and now I am doing the same.