Sunday, July 27, 2025

Vanilla Bean No Churn Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

Creamy and sweet, this vanilla bean no churn ice cream is so easy and delicious! Since it’s strawberry season, add some fresh strawberry sauce. So good! 

Food Lust People Love: Creamy and sweet, this vanilla bean no churn ice cream is so easy and delicious! Since it’s strawberry season, add some fresh strawberry sauce. So good!

Years and years ago, we were living in a small oilfield town in Brazil, about three hours up the coast from Rio de Janeiro. Shopping was a challenge but I managed to find most things we loved or I figured out how to make them myself. (Looking at you, bagels, for one!) 

Ice cream was readily available but it was ridiculously expensive so I asked my sister to bring me an ice cream maker the next time she visited. This was before the days of fancy ice cream makers you just plugged in. The one she brought was a modern electric version of the old hand-cranked kind that needed rock salt. 

I was so excited when she and the machine arrived! My bubble was burst when I discovered that rock salt was hard to come by and the cost of cream was the reason ice cream was so expensive! It would cost me more to make my own than to buy the overpriced supermarket stuff. Deep sigh. 

It was the very early days of the internet so I didn’t know about no churn ice cream. Now I’m delighted by the plethora of no churn recipes and I live where cream is affordable. Good times! 

Vanilla Bean No Churn Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

Can you serve this ice cream plain or with another sauce? Absolutely! I include the fresh strawberry sauce recipe because it complements the sweet ice cream beautifully but it’s also lovely for strawberry shortcake. Maybe it should get its own post for that. 

Ingredients
For the vanilla bean ice cream:
I vanilla bean
1 can (14 oz or 397g) sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups or 480ml heavy cream

For the strawberry sauce:
14oz or 397g fresh strawberries
⅓ cup or 66g sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Split and use a spoon to scrape the tiny bits from inside your vanilla bean.


Add them to the condensed milk in a mixing bowl allong with the vanilla extract and stir well.  


Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. 


Gently fold the condensed milk into the whipped cream. 


Line a loaf pan with cling film and spoon the mixture into it. Put a spoon or two in each corner first so you can straighten out the cling film.


Then pour the rest in and smooth the top. 


Cover loosely with more cling film then freeze your vanilla bean ice cream in the loaf pan for at least 6 hours.

To make the strawberry topping, hull the strawberries. 


Rinse the strawberries well with cool water and spin them dry. 


Cut the large ones in quarters, the medium ones in half and leave any smaller ones whole. Please don't skip this step. Strawberries have little hairs (called styles) that need to be cleaned off, not to mention the potential chemicals that might have been used.


Combine the strawberries and sugar in a medium pot. 


Cook over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring often. This takes just a few minutes.


In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, vanilla extract and cornstarch.


Pour the mixture over the strawberries and stir well.


Bring to a boil once over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium heat and simmer sauce until berries are soft and juices have thickened slightly, about 5 minutes for a chunky topping. 


Decant to a bowl and refrigerate, covered with cling film, until ready to serve.


When the vanilla bean ice cream is sufficiently frozen, remove the pan from the freezer. 


Use the cling film lining to remove the ice cream from the pan to a cutting board. Warm your knife in hot water and cut slices of the ice cream to serve. 


Top each slice of ice cream with chilled fresh strawberry sauce. Rewrap any leftover ice cream and pop it back in the freezer. 

Food Lust People Love: Creamy and sweet, this vanilla bean no churn ice cream is so easy and delicious! Since it’s strawberry season, add some fresh strawberry sauce. So good!

Enjoy! 

Food Lust People Love: Creamy and sweet, this vanilla bean no churn ice cream is so easy and delicious! Since it’s strawberry season, add some fresh strawberry sauce. So good!

It’s Sunday FunDay. I’m hosting and today we are celebrating National Ice Cream Month! Check out all the ice cream recipes we are sharing below.

 
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.



Pin this Vanilla Bean No Churn Ice Cream
with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

Food Lust People Love: Creamy and sweet, this vanilla bean no churn ice cream is so easy and delicious! Since it’s strawberry season, add some fresh strawberry sauce. So good!

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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers

These Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers are crunchy, spicy and totally more-ish! When you cannot simply buy a favorite snack food, sometimes you just gotta make them yourself. 

Food Lust People Love: These Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers are crunchy, spicy and totally more-ish! When you cannot simply buy a favorite snack food, sometimes you just gotta make them yourself.

A couple of years ago I invited a friend to join us for Sunday lunch and she arrived with hot boudin and Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers to serve as an appetizer. The boudin - a Louisiana sausage made with cooked pork, rice, onions, peppers, and seasonings, all stuffed into a casing - was tasty but it was the spicy crackers that stole my heart. They were HOT.

I immediately asked where she had bought them and added Hobi’s Bites to the shopping list. I discovered that they come in many flavors but the original hot are the best, very spicy with a lovely crunch. I don’t buy them very often because they are that addictive, high in sodium and calories, and they disappear quickly. 

When our Sunday FunDay host proposed celebrating National Junk Food Day which is July 21st, I was excited to make my favorite spicy crackers, as a special treat. A little research revealed that some people call them fire crackers and recipes abound. 

Another thing I learned was that in the UK, they don’t have saltines! That ubiquitous cracker of my childhood, which, along with a glass of 7-Up, could cure any stomach bug. I guess they eat water crackers but those seemed too bland. I chose to use two different crackers, one French, the other from the Philippines. Both turned out great. 


In fact, I shared a bag of my copycats with my neighbors because I know they are fond of spicy food. I was hanging out the laundry yesterday when he popped over to tell me how addictively delicious they were and could he please put in an order for more! So you can bet I’ll be making these again! You know, just for them, because they are such good neighbors. 

Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers

This recipe is adapted from one on the Southern Living website. Use whatever plain crackers you can find and as I mention below, buy some 2 or 2 1/2 gallon Ziploc bags, the better to coat the crackers evenly with the spicy oil.

Ingredients
1 cup or 240ml olive oil
1/4 cup or 60ml hot sauce (I used a mix of Louisiana Habanero and Dunn’s River Jamaican-style hot sauce.)
2 tablespoons ranch dressing mix
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
16 oz or 450g saltine or similar crackers




Method
Place oil, hot sauce, ranch dressing powder, crushed red pepper, cayenne, smoked paprika and salt in a small mixing bowl. 


Whisk to combine.


Add the crackers to a 2-gallon size Ziploc bag. (*See note below.) Pour the seasonings over them. 


Seal and gently turn the bag over several times to coat the crackers with the spice mixture. The more times you do, this the better the coating. 


*Note: As already mentioned but let me reiterate, when I make these again, I will use a bigger bag because I found that the crackers stuck together in the 1-gallon bag so it was hard to coat all sides. With more room in the bag, they’d be easier to shift around. I recommend using a 2- or 2 1/2-gallon Ziploc bag. 

Let crackers soak at room temperature at least 1 hour turning the bag over every 10 to 15 minutes. Be gently with them to keep the crackers mostly intact. 


Preheat your oven to 300°F or 149°C with racks in the upper third and lower third positions. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil.

Transfer the crackers to prepared baking pans, arranging cracker in a single layer. 


Bake in the preheated oven until dry, crisp, and golden, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating baking pans between top and bottom racks halfway through bake time.

Remove from oven. Carefully remove the crackers to wire racks to cool. 

Repeat the process to bake the remaining crackers. 

Let the baked crackers cool completely, about 30 minutes. 

Food Lust People Love: These Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers are crunchy, spicy and totally more-ish! When you cannot simply buy a favorite snack food, sometimes you just gotta make them yourself.

Serve immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature. 

Food Lust People Love: These Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers are crunchy, spicy and totally more-ish! When you cannot simply buy a favorite snack food, sometimes you just gotta make them yourself.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are celebrating National Junk Food Day! Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Cam. Check out the links below.


 
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.




Pin these Copycat Hobi’s Bites
Original Hot Crackers!

Food Lust People Love: These Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers are crunchy, spicy and totally more-ish! When you cannot simply buy a favorite snack food, sometimes you just gotta make them yourself.



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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Jersey Octopus Ceviche

Made with octopus caught in Channel Islands waters, this tender Jersey Octopus Ceviche is the perfect tart and spicy dish for a bright hot summer day. 

Food Lust People Lust: Made with octopus caught in Channel Islands waters, this tender Jersey Octopus Ceviche is the perfect tart and spicy dish for a bright hot summer day.

If you read my grilled octopus post a couple of weeks ago, you’ll know that our favorite eight-legged sea creatures have become quite a menace for folks in these islands that capture crabs and lobsters to sell as their livelihood. An octopus can easily get inside the cages and eat the entire catch! 

So, as suggested by our local newspaper, we are trying to eat more octopus! It’s great in a risotto but frankly, we just love it grilled with a squeeze of lemon.

I actually made this ceviche with leftover grilled octopus from that previous recipe but you can use cooked octopus bought vacuum-packed in a grocery store. If you are stateside or live in the UK, Costco carries it as well in the refrigerated section near the meat counter.

Jersey Octopus Ceviche

My three limes were fat and juicy so they yielded about 1/2 cup or 120ml of juice, which nicely covered the sliced onions and chopped chili pepper. Use more if your limes aren’t as productive, juice-wise. This recipe serves two generously.

Ingredients
1/2 medium purple onion
1 red chili pepper
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 limes (or more if your limes aren’t juicy)
small bunch cilantro plus extra for garnish, if desired
7 oz or 200g cooked octopus

Method
Peel and finely slice the onion, finely chop the chili pepper and cut the octopus in bite-sized pieces. 


Put the onion, chili pepper and salt in a bowl that will eventually hold all of your ingredients. Cover and refrigerate the octopus. 


Pick the hard stems off of the cilantro and discard them. Tender stems are fine. 

Rinse the cilantro with cool water and spin to dry. Don’t skip this crucial step. No one wants grit in their ceviche. 


Chop it finely and set aside. 


Juice the limes into a separate bowl and discard any seeds.


Pour the juice into the onion bowl. Give it a little stir then cover and leave to macerate until you are about half an hour from serving. If it’s longer than a couple of hours, you can refrigerate the mixture. 


About half an hour before serving, stir the octopus and cilantro into the onion bowl, making sure the octopus is well coated with the marinade. 


Set aside to marinate for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir again to serve and garnish with a little more cilantro, if desired. 


Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 15th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter O. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the O recipes below:




Pin this Jersey Octopus Ceviche!

Food Lust People Lust: Made with octopus caught in Channel Islands waters, this tender Jersey Octopus Ceviche is the perfect tart and spicy dish for a bright hot summer day.

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