Okay, but let's go back. She is such a talented actress, and I have loved so many of her roles. She is so amazing. She was Anna in Frozen, so you've heard her sing. She's the voice of Gossip Girl if you've ever watched that show, or even watched the very beginning or end of any episode. She played a super sleuth on Veronica Mars which is what I first saw her in. She's been in so many movies. You Again is so funny. When In Rome is one of my absolute favorites of both her and Josh Duhamel. If you haven't watched it, you definitely need to see it! It's so funny! And her real life husband, Dax Shepherd is in it as well. He is also hilarious.
About a year ago, I took a class in college about the Rhetoric of Superheroes. I can't remember the exact title, but I took it because A. I love Superheroes and 2. It was being taught by my favorite teacher, Dr. Pepper (not a joke, that is his name.) For my final project for this class, I wrote a full length Superhero movie titled Iridium. You can read an excerpt of it HERE. But, the entire time I wrote it, I just thought how great Kristen Bell would be as the villian, called Killowat. She can control electricity and has a bad habit of killing people. There's a huge fight on a college campus at the end as our girl Iridium fights her. I really want Anna Kendrick to be Iridium. Who wouldn't want to see a superhero fight go down between Kristen Bell and Anna Kendrick?! I think it would be EPIC. Let's hope that this happens. Like, soon.
Speaking of her family, she is married to Dax Shepherd, as I just mentioned, and has two little girls. I think they are the most adorable family. For her 31st birthday, Dax had a sloth come to their house. She LOVES sloths. Like, LOVES them. Here's the video of her talking to Ellen DeGeneres about it:
I have seen that video a few times and I laugh so hard every single time. So great. You can see her entire filmography HERE on iMDB.
In honor of her birthday, I made homemade ice cream and chocolate chip cookie bowls!! I used the same recipe for the chocolate chip cookie bowls as I did for the cookies I made for Chris Evans' birthday that can be found HERE.
For the ice cream, I just made a simple Vanilla Custard that I found on Pinterest because I have an unhealthy addiction that I'm not ashamed of...maybe I should be. Haha. HERE is a link to the original recipe. She answers SO MANY questions and has a billion ideas of other ways to use this, so I HIGHLY recommend checking out the original blog post at the above link!!
I've tweaked it a bit because I do that, but that is where it originally came from!! Also, I did use an ice cream maker to make this. If you don't have one but still want homemade ice cream, search on Pinterest! They've got, like, a BILLION recipes for it!!
Vanilla Ice Cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk (I mean, you can use half and half or a lower fat content milk, BUT THIS IS ICE CREAM. Go big or go home, you know?)
1 cup heavy cream or whipping cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Mix the egg yolks and sugar and set them aside. They will look like a delicious lemon treat, but it's not. Don't eat it. It will taste gross at this stage.
Simmer the milk in a saucepan. JUST the milk. DO NOT add the heavy cream yet. Take it off the heat just as it heats up and little bubbles form on the edges. DO NOT let it boil. (These are all mistakes I have made previously! haha.) Remove from heat and gradually add the milk to the egg yolks and sugar. It is important to take your time with this step. Otherwise you get scrambled egg yolks which would be gross in your ice cream.
Once the milk and yolk mixture is incorporated, add it back to the pan and cook it on a low heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon with a thin film. You want this to reach 165-180 degrees Fahrenheit. This will take about 10ish minutes. Once it hits that temprature, you're going to remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. After it's cooled, throw it in the fridge for 4-24 hours. The longer you let it sit, the creamier your ice cream is.
After you've let it sit, you're ready to make the ice cream!!! YAY!!!! Now add the heavy cream and vanilla to the custard base, and then add it to your ice cream maker! Each ice cream maker is different, so follow the instructions for yours! After it gets all churned up, BOOM. You have AMAZING ice cream. It's the best. And soooo good. Enjoy!!