Product Review: Coleman Thermoelectric Cooler

Coleman 40-Quart Thermoelectric Cooler - PowerChill

This weekend, we will be headed out for our first camping trip of the season. It got me thinking about my favorite camping item. The Coleman Thermoelectric Cooler has been wonderful for our family. It works great for both camping and road trips! It has paid for itself many times over because we have lunch from the cooler instead of a restaurant when we're on the road.

This cooler fits just right in the back end of our Dodge Grand Caravan and plugs into the van's nearby power supply. We keep it horizontal (with the door opening on top), but it also works vertically, if you want it that way. At the campground, we leave generally leave it in the van but plug it into the campground electricity. When we're staying in a motel, it's easy enough to carry into our room to plug in.

You will want to make sure you get the optional power supply so that you can plug it into a standard electric outlet. It comes with an removable/adjustable shelf, but I always leave that at home. This cooler doesn't hold as much as our old Coleman Green Steel Belted Cooler, but we can pack just as much (maybe more!) since we don't need to have room for ice. And, there is no more yucky water in the bottom of the cooler making our lunch meat and Hershey bars soggy!

The cooler keeps the food about 40 degrees below the ambient temperature. So, most of the time that is plenty cool enough. Once in awhile, if we are camping when it is really hot (above 90 degrees), I take a little extra care with the cooler. By mid-morning, when it is really starting to get warm, we put the cooler in the shade and cover it with a couple of towels. Also, if I know it is going to be a hot weekend, I start out with some things frozen (like hot dogs, scrambled eggs, water bottles). They help keep the cooler chilled, and they're thawed by the time we're ready for them.

It is so great not to have to worry about keeping enough ice and dealing with the water mess. We've owned our cooler for more than 5 years, and it is still going strong.

Book Review: The Prince of Darkness

The Prince of Darkness
By Robert D. Novak

Just last night I finished reading through the 600+ pages of the memoir of Robert D. Novak. Novak is a fellow Illinoisan and U of I alum. He has been one of my favorite political writers. If you are a political junkie, and you have an avid interest in the politics of the last half century, this is a great read. If you have only a mild interest in politics, this book will bore you to tears.

Robert Novak has been a figure on the national stage since the early 1960's. He has had contact with all the presidents and other national political figures since that time. Although he is known as a solid conservative today, he hasn't always been a conservative. This book chronicles in parallel his journey to conservatism along with the nation's political realignment.

My political memory begins with the Republican National Convention in 1976. At the height of the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, I was in sixth grade and hooked on politics. My sixth grade teacher required each student to have a subscription to U.S. News and World Report, and I actually read mine. It was fascinating for me to get Novak's behind-the-scenes look at the political world I have been watching from the outside for the past 30 years.

Being in his late seventies, Robert Novak's political memory goes back much further than my own. He personally knew John and Robert Kennedy. His wedding reception was hosted by Lyndon B. Johnson. Talk about having an inside track. I found it strange that he gave only passing mention to the assassination of JFK. With all that has been written and speculated about that event, I expected him to given his take on the matter. It made me wonder whether he knows some really interesting details that are not public knowledge.

The politics of the 1950's and 1960's have always been somewhat murky to me. It is hard for me to imagine a Republican party that was not conservative. I learned a lot of the history of that time period.

Novak is a newspaperman and a television pundit. He gave a great many details about newspaper and television colleagues over the years. A major theme of the book was the political realignment of the country, culminating in the historic 1994 elections. However, I noted another strange omission from his memoirs. There was not one word about talk radio in general or Rush Limbaugh in particular.

He was strikingly honest about his personal life. He lived in a world so different from my own. He notes his regret at being absent a great deal while his children were growing up. He entertained sources on a lavish expense account, consumed vast amounts of alcohol, and traveled all over the world for weeks at a time.

If you are interested in more of what Novak writes, here are some links:
Novak's newspaper columns (the Sunday column is my favorite with its political tidbits)
The Evans-Novak Political Report (weekly)

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The CommonSenseMom's Homemade Ice Cream

I've been making homemade ice cream for the past several months. In this post, I've put together what I've learned. You can see my current best recipe, some flavor variations, my upcoming recipe tweaks, etc.


The CommonSenseMom's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

¼ c. cold water
2 T. unflavored gelatin
3 c. whole milk
1 c. sugar
¼ t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 c. heavy whipping cream

Put cold water in small shallow bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let sit. Put the milk in a glass mixing bowl. Microwave until it reaches 160 degrees. In my microwave, it takes 7 minutes. Add the softened gelatin, sugar, and salt to the hot milk and whisk for 2 full minutes. Add vanilla and cream to milk mixture. Whisk until thoroughly combined.

Chill mixture in refrigerator until cold. Put mix into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes about 13 half cup servings. Each serving has approximately 158 calories, 72 calories from fat, 8 g. total fat, 5.4 g. saturated fat, 33 g. cholesterol, 20 g. carbohydrate, and 20 g. sugars. This is relatively close to the nutritional data for Edy's Grand Vanilla Ice Cream.


Variations

Chocolate: Add 2/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips to milk before heating. Slightly increase heating time.

Chocolate/Fudge Swirl: When putting the ice cream into its storage container, alternate layers of ice cream and fudge topping.

Chocolate Chip: Add 2/3 c. miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips during the last minute of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the chips are evenly distributed.

Cookies & Cream: Crush about 20 Oreos. Add during the last minute of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the cookies are evenly distributed.

Mint Chocolate Chip: Replace vanilla extract with ½ t. vanilla extract, ½ t. peppermint extract, and 3 drops green food coloring. Add 2/3 c. miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips during the last minute of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the chips are evenly distributed. Note that you want peppermint extract, not mint extract.

Chocolate Marshmallow: Use the chocolate variation above. When putting the ice cream into its storage container, alternate layers of chocolate ice cream and marshmallow topping.

Strawberry: Thaw 8 ounces of frozen, sweetened strawberries. (They come in a 16-ounce tub in the freezer section of WalMart). Mash the strawberries with their juice. Add to the ice cream during the last 2 minutes of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the strawberries are evenly distributed.

Cinnamon: Add 1 t. cinnamon along with the vanilla. Serve over apple pie.

Custard: Beat 2 eggs well. Add the eggs to the milk prior to heating. Whisk together thoroughly. You may have to slightly increase the heating time. Increase sugar by 2 T.


Upcoming tests

I will try replacing ¼ c. of the sugar with ¼ c. honey. I want to see if that will keep it from freezing so hard.

I am going to experiment with adding non-fat dry milk powder to increase the creaminess.


Some of my related posts

Homemade Ice Cream is Too Hard
Making Ice Cream: Some Useful Tools
Product Review: KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment
A Good Basic Ice Cream Recipe to Start With

A Good, Basic Ice Cream Recipe to Start With

This is the basic vanilla ice cream recipe that I started out with. Excellent.

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk, well chilled
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 - 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, to taste

In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer or a whisk to combine the milk and granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 - 2 minutes on low speed. Stir in heavy cream and add vanilla to taste. Turn machine on, pour mixture into freezer bowl through ingredient spout and let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Here are some of my related posts:

Homemade Ice Cream is Too Hard
Making Ice Cream: Some Useful Tools
Product Review: KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The CommonSenseMom's Homemade Ice Cream

Classic Blogger Expandable Post Summaries

Please bear with me while I get a little bit geeky on you here. I've spent my afternoon trying to figure out how to create a simple expandable post summary in non-Beta (old, classic) Blogger. It's easy enough to do if you don't mind having "Read more..." at the bottom of every post whether you need it or not. The tricky part is preventing "Read more..." when you just want to make a short post.

Finally I have met with success!!!

A full explanation of this simple Blogger hack is found here. It is very well written and documented. The solution worked for me the first time. Nicely done.