Sweet and Sour Chicken

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 boneless chicken breasts, sliced into strips
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped red pepper
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch, mixed with 4 teaspoons water
• 1 cup canned pineapple chunks, drained with 1/2 cup reserved juice
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper

I made this recipe once, Casey said it was a keeper. I made a couple of alterations: I used 1 whole green pepper and one small yellow onion. I also added about a tablespoon more vinegar because I didn't think it was quite tangy enough.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Season chicken strips and add to pan. Brown chicken and remove to plate. Add red and green peppers and cook for 1 minute. Stir in pineapple chunks, juice, sugar, vinegar and chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer until sauce begins to reduce. Stir in cornstarch mixture and bring liquid to a simmer. Stir in chicken strips and cook for 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Ice Cream

Here is my "famous" ice cream recipe. This is just the base, I'll also include some of my favorite variations.

Ice Cream Base

4 Large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

Slowly heat milk over a med/low heat in a sauce pan. While that is heating up, whisk together the eggs yolks and sugar. You'll want to whisk it until it is a light yellow in color and looks kind of "marshmallow..y". Slowly, spoonful by spoonful, add the hot/warm milk to the eggs, whisking all the while. Do it as slowly as you can possibly stand. This slowly heats up the eggs so they don't curdle. You don't want to make scrambled eggs. When you have about half to three quarters of the hot milk added to the eggs slowly pour the egg mixture back into the warm milk and continue to heat it, stirring continuously, until it just begins to thicken. When you see the first bubble from boiling, take it off the heat and stir for about another minute to keep it moving off the hot metal. Place this hot mixture in plastic container and place in the fridge to cool. When the mixture is cool you can combine the mixture and the cream in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturers directions.

My favorite combo's

1/2 cocoa
Add it to the hot egg/milk mixture while it's cooking to melt the cocoa fat in it.
To the cocoa you can add practically anything you want! My favorite is mint chips, sooo yummy. Though, I recommend chopping the mint chips so you have small chunks.

1 lb strawberries
Blend in the blender w/ about 1/4 c. sugar (the sugar keep the strawberries from harding like rocks)

1lb raspberries
prepare the same way as the strawberries

1 c. yellow cake mix
Just add it to the base and cream while it's mixing in the ice cream maker. YES, this is how the get that famous better batter flavor at your favorite Cold Stone or Maggie Moo's! (I haven't yet discovered the secret to dark chocolate)

1. c. chocolate cake mix
Or you can just make chocolate ice cream and add a yellow cake mix, another secret recipe!!!

HINT:
The most important thing, never forget this, you can forget everything else you know about making ice cream, EXCEPT this: make sure your base is as cold as it can get before freezing before you add it to the mixer. The colder the base, the smaller the ice crystals, the creamier the ice cream