Easy Elderflower Champagne

This is by far and away the easiest method for making this lovely drink

You will need a large plastic fermentation bucket
20  1 litre pastic bottles - I went to the supermarket and bought 20 bottles of water.  It was cheaper than buying empty bottles for bottling up your own concoctions.
Sieve and clean muslin for straining

20 large elderflower blossoms (large stems removed - keep the small stems)
10 lemons.  You will need the zest and juice
2 kilos of sugar
20 litres of water
5 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

In a huge fermenting tub put in 20 litres of water and dump in the sugar,  elderflower blossoms
Add in the zest and juice of the 10 lemons.
Give the bucket a stir to make sure the sugar is dissolved,
Pour in the vinegar

Give it one big stir and then cover it.  Leave it undisturbed for a three or four days.

After time has passed scoop out the flowers and lemon zest that are on the top. 

Get a bit jug and scoop out the elderflower juice and pour it through a sieve that has been lined with muslin into a bowl.   You are filtering out all the bits.   Pour the filtered juice from the bowl into the bottles.

When I pour the liquid into the bottles, I press a dent into the bottles at the top.  This dimple will pop out when the natural yeast starts to do its job and there is carbonation.

Leave the bottles in an out of the way place until the dimples have popped out. Once this has happened you have achieved natural carbonation with wild yeast!  Put the bottles in the refrigerator to chill.  Refrigeration stops the yeast.

Once it is chilled it is ready to drink!

I can't tell you how excited I was to have a naturally carbonated soft drink that I have made myself!

Blackcurrant Ice Cream

This is my favourite ice cream.  I'm sorry Dad, but it even beats out Butter Pecan.
It is not available commercially. If  you don't make it yourself or know somebody who makes it, you're missing out.

1 1/2 lbs of blackcurrants
10 oz water
10 oz sugar

Cook the blackcurrants, sugar and water in a big pot until the blackcurrants are soft.
Strain the juice through a sieve and set aside to cool.  When the juice is room temperature, put it in the refrigerator to cool.

You will be mixing this syrup with an ice cream base.

2 large eggs
2 cups or 600 ml of heavy cream
1 cup or 300 ml of milk
1/2 cup of sugar

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.  Whisk in the sugar a little at a time until it all combined.  I like to test it to make sure the sugar is dissolved.  Dip a clean finger in and rub between two fingers.  If you don't feel the grittiness, it's done. Whisk in the cream and milk until everything is all mixed.

At this point, I put the ice cream base in my ice cream maker.  I set the timer for 60 minutes.  At about 45 minutes, I pour some of the cooled blackcurrant juice in.  I can't put all of it in because it won't fit.  I usually manage to get about half in.