Ice Cream Disaster!

I haven't had much time to cook lately because of my terrible schedule at work and let me tell you it is really depressing. I think im going through withdrawal. Its gotten so bad that it is the only thing I think about. I been thinking about all the different things i can make and when i can make the time to actually make them. Unfortunately the making time part hasnt really been possible because I haven't even had the time to go shopping for the groceries i need to make them. :(

I've been thinking about making ice cream for a while now but there was only one problem, I don't have an ice cream maker... How hard can it be to make it without an ice cream maker? I thought. Haha I was definetly optimistic but as I said... withdrawal; blame it on that. I needed to make something. I was working late every night and staying up until four in the morning because of it. I wouldn't be tired when i got home and had nothing to do, so that was the last straw, I was gonna make ice cream. I found a recipe that seemed easy enough on allrecipes.com, had pizza get some ingredient for me and went for it making a couple of substitutions of course.

Vanilla Ice Cream-ish Stuff

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 can evaporated milk
1 vanilla bean,split lengthwise and seeds scraped
1 pinch of salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups whole milk

Directions:

1. Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, salt, sugar and vanilla bean in a bowl. Heat somewhat in microwave to disolve sugar.
2. Pour into freezer safe container (I used plastic), add milk. Let cool.
3. Freeze for about 2 hours, mix with whisk or spatula to break up the ice crystals, return to freezer.
4. Check mixture periodically, every 30-45 mins, stirring while it freezes.

Wow... well all i can say is that this didn't turn out like I expected. Dont get me wrong, this stuff taste slendid but i SoOoOoOo NEED an ice cream maker. When I saw the recipe I switched out the white sugar for brown sugar because I like the flavor of it more and thought it would give the ice cream a richer, deeper flavor. I was right. I also decided that instead of vanilla extract I would use real vanilla bean so you could see those wonderfirous little black specks all throughout it. Another amazing choice on behalf of le me. When I took out the whole vanilla bean it made my entire apartment smell of heavenly vanilla. The experience was to die for. Its really too bad too that it didnt turn out but no matter how much i mixed (and believe me I did it alot... it took a long time to freeze) there was still a lot of ice crystals in it.

And that is why, even though Im dirt poor, I had to buy a cheapy little ice cream maker off eBay. I should be receiving it soon and believe you me, I will trying this again but with a more interesting flavour. I had to start off with something easy since it was my first time making ice cream. Ooo I can't wait to get it ^_^