Girl Scount in Action - NOT

Being that I am always prepared for 6 pm to roll around, I never need to dip in to those quickie recipe files.  I also have swampland in Florida for sale, in case you are interested.

I was vaguely prepared for this evening's first course.  I had brought some chicken out of the freezer. That counts, right?

I threw said chicken quarters with backs attached into my trusty cast iron dutch oven - the one that weighs a ton but never lets me down.  I gave my rosemary plant a hair cut and dropped that in the pot as well.  Then I hacked up and onion, threw in a few gobs of butter, a little salt, a little pepper, and bingo!  Main course.  I cooked it at 350 for about an hour and we were good to go.  I removed the lid for the last few minutes to give it a nice roasted skin.

The house smelled fantastic.

To finish this evening's main course with a real sense of flair, I thickened up the butter, onions, and rosemary that were left in the dutch oven and and I instantly looked like a rock star.  Or maybe that I played one on TV.  OK, OK, I pulled a meal together.  No one will ever confuse me with a rock star.  Trust me.

While I was spending too much time patting myself on my back for my ingenious endeavour, my lack of dessert suddenly hit me.  In some households, this might not be such a big deal.  Where I come from, meals did not end without dessert.  Homemade dessert.  Maybe you could get away without serving dessert at noon hour, but never at the supper hour.  Immediate action was required.

Ever pick up those little pamphlets in the grocery store and stick them in your purse, after having perused for coupons?  Then find them forgotten several days, weeks, or months later?  Well, I finally read one of those today and we are all glad I did.

One can of sweetened condensed milk.  One of my great-grandmothers used to use in her coffee.  Before the days of flavoured sweeteners, this was an unheard of luxury. 

The recipe booklet calls for 600 g of frozen strawberries.  The strawberry season was poor here last summer and I didn't get any in.  I did get in raspberries though.  I'm not exactly sure how many cups 600 g is, but I went with something like 2 cups.

And last but not least, citrus zest.  This is again where the handy dandy frozen zest was a life saver.  It calls for 2 tsp of lime, but I had lemon so lemon it is.

Plop it all in your nearest blender.  I'd imagine your local food processor would also work.

And this is what you get.  Freeze it for at least an hour.  It will scoop out softer than regular ice cream and is considerably richer.  The citrus zest is definitely needed to cut down on the sweetness.  Small scoops of this with cookies and tea and dessert is served. 1. 2.

Girl Scount in Action - NOT

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