Homemade Whipped Cream

Originally we weren't going to make whipped cream, since the key lime bars are plenty tasty all on their own, until I commented about how we weren't. Mom seemed to take this as an affront to her culinary dignity, since, as she pointed out, it's super-easy to make, and we had the powdered sugar and the heavy cream already. So we made some. Particularly for simpler desserts, it's worth taking the time to make homemade whipped cream; the key lime bars have enough punch to stand on their own, but strawberries and store bought whipped cream are simply tasty, whereas homemade whipped cream makes them an event. And it really doesn't take much time at all to make, unless you require truly stupendous quantities of the stuff.

Heavy cream
Powdered sugar
1 or 2 drops of vanilla

It's important not to use any more vanilla than that, but you can use pretty much whatever amount of cream you have on hand, and sugar to taste. You also need an electric mixer if you don't want making it to be two hours of pain. And you don't. With the mixer, though, it takes about five minutes.

The only thing I don't like about doing it off-the-cuff like this is that shortly after it gets properly smooth and fluffy, if you keep mixing it (if, for instance, you need to mix in more sugar, or if you're like me and you just really like mixing things) it gets kind of choppy and doesn't look quite as nice, but it still tastes fine. We also made way more than we needed, but somehow I'm sure we'll find a way to get rid of it all.