{Recipe} Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato

For my Eat Pray Love book club get together I made gelato.  In case you haven't read the book, the writer eats a lot of gelato in Italy so I thought it would be an appropriate treat.

We had been trying out lots of different icecream flavors in our Cuisinart soft serve machine but I had never made gelato.

 I used this recipe from Giada DeLaurentis on Food Network.com.  Here are the ingredients (minus the vanilla extract and hazelnuts--I always forget something in my photo!)

Combine 1 cup of heavy cream, 2 cups of whole milk and 1/2 cup of sugar in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. (about 5 minutes)* I used a little less sugar because a few of the reviews said that it was too sweet.*

Meanwhile, mix up 4 egg yolks with an electric mixer until they become thick and creamy (and turn a pale yellow).

Pour a 1/2 cup of the warm milk mixture into the eggs and stir then pour the entire egg mixture into the saucepan and cook over very low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture become so thick that it will coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Place a strainer over a bowl and pour the mixture over the strainer.

Add in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella). Stir until the Nutella melts and it is all combined.  Chill mixture completely before putting it in your icecream maker.

We are loving this machine.  All you have to do is keep the freezer bowl in your freezer and then it's always ready to make icecream.  This was the first time we tried a custard-like icecream (cooking the eggs with the milk and cream).

I made it ahead of time to make sure it would work in our machine and it did!

I put the container of gelato in the freezer (after taste testing it to make sure it was ok).  When it was time to serve it up, we sprinkled it with a few hazelnuts (I forgot to toast them).  It was molto deliziosa!!

Linking up with:

                                                     

 http://www.bystephanielynn.com/

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/

http://pumpkinpatchdesigns.blogspot.com/

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Outdoor Spaces-The Deck

Meet our deck.  We can't take credit for designing or building it because it came with our house and the previous owners had proudly built it themselves.   It was definitely a selling feature when we were looking at the house. (pictured here when we first saw the house)

 Our deck has three zones. The upper deck which was the original builder's deck off of the family room.

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Then you step down to the lower deck where we have a cozy chiminea, another table and chairs and our hot tub.

This is the view from the lower deck to the upper deck.

I love my brick red umbrella with solar lighting.

Some of my flowers. The polka dot plant is my favorite.

This is the 'tree house' area of the deck.   You cross a little bridge from the lower deck to get there.I'm getting some new cushion covers made so the furniture is waiting for them to arrive.  We call it the tree house because you are literally up and out with the trees. It's elevated about 20 feet off of the ground.

This is the view out of the window (taken in early Spring).

Last week I hosted book club and got to decorate the deck for my guests. We moved our two square dining tables together on the upper portion of the deck.

I set up the lower hot tub area as the bar and used a candle chandy from our master bath.

I think it worked out nicely.

All ready for the group to come over!

Would you care to join us?

Here's our next book:

Linking up with:

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

http://makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com/

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

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Black and White Wednesday #6- Her Hands

We were riding home on the bus from this classtrip and she was tired.

 These photos are SOOC (Straight Out of the Camera).

One in B & W

And one in color (love the pink jeans!)

I like the ring on her finger and paint on her nails in this one.

Want to see more b & w shots?

Check out Lisa's gorgeous site

http://thelongroadtochina.blogspot.com/

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Chair Redo

These old Ikea wicker chairs were just languishing out on my never used back patio/wood pile area.  I thought they could use a spray paint makeover and a new home.

Here they are after one coat of satin black spray paint.

And all finished in our den.

Cost of makeover = 2 cans of spray paint $8.00 + chairs (free).

 

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