Rose In Bloom

One of the first people to start reading my blog, outside of my family, was a friend of my daughter's who I called the Kitchen Princess, as she was still living at home, learning about cooking. When the Kitchen Princess got married, I changed her name to Kitchen Queen, as she had her own kitchen to rule over. Recently the Kitchen Queen had a princess of her own, a darling baby girl named Rose who is adorable with lots of black hair and kissable, plump, pink cheeks.

In honor of Rose, I'm posting this lovely rose-tinted sorbet. The recipe is from the Kitchen Queen, so it's fitting. It's the perfect adult sorbet, with the tang of grapefruit and the zing of tequila. Grab a bag of grapefruit the next time you're at the store so you can try it, too!



Grapefruit Tequila Sorbet

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 cups ruby red grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed
Juice from 2 limes
5 Tbsp tequila*

1- Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar has all dissolved. Pour into a medium mixing bowl and put in the refrigerator to chill while you squeeze the citrus.

2- Juice the grapefruit and limes. Pour the juice through a sieve to remove seeds and pulp, then add it to the sugar-water bowl. Cover the bowl and chill completely.

3- When the juice is thoroughly chilled, remove it from the refrigerator, and stir in the tequila. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze, following manufacturer's directions.

4- Scoop the sorbet into a container with a lid and put it in the freezer for several hours to firm up.

* The tequila gives the sorbet a smoother consistency. It also imparts flavor, so be sure to use a tequila that you like.

2 Winners, A Break, and a Treat

First of all, the winners of the Gumzoobo giveaway are (drum roll, please) Hobby Baker and Scrambled Hen Fruit! Congratulations! Enjoy your game and be sure to tell all your friends how awesome it is!




I knew when summer started that it would be a very short summer. So much going on with kid activities, camps, chores, plus a new baby on the way, that I knew it wouldn't feel relaxing. I was right. And now I'm feeling fall breathing down my neck. Time to start on my school related chores - sorting through books, ordering new ones, trying to get life organized enough so I won't cry myself to sleep the first month of school. And I want a break. I want a vacation.

Right now I'm not inspired to blog. I still bake, I still eat, but my family looks at me strangely because I'm not compulsively taking pictures of everything before I serve it. I've got lots of recipes and photos in the queue, but my brain is strangely silent about them, so my time between posts is getting longer and longer. I think I need to take a break.

Because I don't generate income from my blog, it doesn't really matter if I go away for a while. Perhaps my two loyal readers might suffer withdrawal, but they can always email me. I'm going on a blog vacation. I'll be back in a while, when I feel like it. When blogging sounds fun again. When I'm bursting with new things to share with you. When taking the time to read other blogs is me time, rather than chore time.

So, to tide you over, I'll leave you with an ice cream recipe. It's wonderfully rich, creamy, and delicious. You'll be so busy enjoying the ice cream, you'll hardly notice I'm gone.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
- adapted from Taste of Home

Makes about 2 quarts

1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
4 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
4 oz. cream cheese, cubed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1-1/2 cups mashed fresh strawberries

1- In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, flour, and salt. Gradually add milk till smooth. Bring to boil over medium heat. Cook and stir 2 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

2- In a small bowl whisk the egg yolks. Pour a thin stream of the warm milk into the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly. Cook until the mixture coats a spatula.

3- Remove from heat and stir in the cream cheese until melted.

4- In a large bowl combine the vanilla and cream. Place a sieve over the bowl. Pour the custard through the sieve and stir well to combine. Cover the custard and chill overnight in the refrigerator.

5- Stir in the strawberries and freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's directions.

Note: My ice cream maker will only accommodate 1-1/2 quarts, so I poured the leftovers into popsicle molds.

Kid Stuff For Kids and Grown-Ups, Too (giveaway!)

Getting in touch with your inner child is easiest to do in summer. No one looks at you strangely if you go barefoot on the beach, play volleyball or badminton, or eat fried chicken with your fingers. It's as if the kid code-of-conduct is temporarily accepted as proper etiquette for adults.

Flying kites? Check.
Licking fingers after supper? Check.
Spraying others with the hose? Check.

And after all that fun, you can still sprint after the ice cream truck when you hear its siren call. Although in my house we don't do that. It's well known
by my older children that you might as well ask for a Porsche as ask for money to spend on the ice cream truck. My youngest son, though, hasn't quite caught on to that one.

The other day, hearing the tinny version of The Entertainer wending through the neighborhood, he asked his dad if he could get something from the truck. His dad, as cheap as me and twice as practical, said, "We don't need to buy anything from the ice cream truck. Your mom makes really good ice cream." He replied, "That's not the ice cream truck, Dad, that's the popsicle truck."

Well, was that a challenge, or what? I stepped up to the plate and hit a home run with these delicious treats that I modified from a Bon Appetite recipe. With fresh marionberries, local raw honey, and organic yogurt, I dare the popsicle truck guy to come up with anything as good!



Before I give you the recipe, I want to tell you about a giveaway I'm doing.

Way back in the mists of time, we bought an original Nintendo set. Yup, the old 8-bit dinosaur. The games weren't as smooth, sexy, or gory as they are now, but those were some of my very favorite games. My daughter is the Bubble Bobble queen, my son saved the princess, my husband got through all the levels of Tetris, and I ruled at Zelda.

My son-in-law has developed a game just for people like me. Simple, fun, easy to play, yet still challenging (I'm talking about the game here, not me). It's called Gumzoobo. The zoo is being invaded by robots and to fight off the invaders, the zoo animals have to chew gum and blow bubbles to capture and contain them. You get to choose which animal you play (they all have different strengths) and the game gets increasingly difficult with each level.



Fun, cheerful graphics, original music, and smashing sound effects are all part of the package. And the best thing is, you have a chance to get it for free! The SIL has given me two codes to pass along to two lucky winners. Just add "Gumzoobo" to your comment, if you'd like to be entered to win. If you mention this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter, come back and put in another entry! The game plays on Xbox live, so all you'll need is the code to download the game.

You can check out the game on the Official Webpage and you can download a free Windows trial version here. Try it, you'll love it!

Now, back to the recipe. Make the pops, play the game, and you'll feel like a kid again. Or still.

Marionberry Honey Pops
- adapted from Bon Appetite

(The original recipe calls for blackberries. I had marionberries, so I used those. Raspberries would also work.)

2/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
18 oz fresh Marionberries (3-1/2 to 3-3/4 cups)
1 cup plain organic yogurt
5 tsp honey
4 tsp fresh lemon juice

1- In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the water and sugar to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Transfer to a small bowl and chill until cold, about 1 hour.

2- Place berries in a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Pour the puree into a strainer set over a medium bowl. Press on the puree with a rubber spatula to extract as much juice as possible. Discard the seeds left in the strainer.

3- Measure 2 cups of the puree and place in a medium bowl (reserve any remaining puree for another use). Add chilled simple syrup, yogurt, honey, and lemon juice to puree; whisk to blend.

3- Spoon the mixture into popsicle molds. (I have very small kid-sized Tupperware molds, so I filled 11 and stored the rest of the mixture in the refrigerator, refilling the molds as the pops got eaten.) This will make approximately 10 pops if your molds are 1/3 to 1/2 cup capacity.

4- Cover with the top of the mold or plastic wrap with a stick inserted. Freeze until firm, at least 8 hours or overnight.

5- To unmold, dip the bottom of the mold briefly into hot water to loosen the pops. Serve immediately.

She Who Kills Plants

When I went to summer camp, everyone got cool "camp names." The counselors would bestow a moniker based on a preference, an attribute, or just something weird. Then when you got home you could drive your family nuts going on and on about the great times you had with Poncho, Slipknot, Flames and Bubbles.

If I had a camp name today, it would probably be something like Black Thumb. I am one of the world's worst gardeners. Every winter the seed companies send catalogs which I thumb through imagining a beautiful, bountiful garden like those pictured. I think they must use some sort of hallucinogen-based ink, because I forget about my attempts at gardening that have ended in shriveled, withered, bug-infested pathetic bits of greenery and begin to think that this might be the year for me.

I've tried growing starts from seed, buying starts at the nursery, and have now graduated to buying and bringing home plants, which promptly die. Seriously, I just bought a lovely, big basil plant at Trader Joe's and in two days the leaves started turning black and curling up. It's now hanging on by a thread.

The only success I've experienced is with blueberries, my faithful friends that produce every year and require almost no maintenance. Also, a newcomer to my garden has surprised me. Rhubarb has come back two years running! I am so delighted to see the lovely, large fans of greenery waving to me from the back of the yard. They beckon to me, saying, "Hey, I'm here. I survived the winter and the weeds. Come pick me and enjoy a delicious treat!"

For my first rhubarb of the season I tried a new frozen dessert. Pairing rhubarb with strawberries is almost a cliche, but I can stand the sting of being unoriginal with a lovely bowl of strawberry-rhubarb sherbet in hand. Lighter than a custardy ice cream, it's lovely on its own, but also pairs beautifully with crispy sugar cookies, brownies, or a slice of strawberry rhubarb pie (just in case you can't get enough of the yummy flavor combo).



Strawberry-Rhubarb Sherbet
- adapted from Williams-Sonoma Ice Creams and Sorbets

2 Tbsp water
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
1 lb. (500 g) rhubarb, sliced
1 lb. (500 g) strawberries, sliced
1-1/2 cups (375 g) sugar
1-1/2 cups (375 g) whole milk
1/2 cup (125 ml) light corn syrup

1- In a small cup, sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let stand for 10 minutes to soften.

2- Meanwhile, in a large heavy saucepan, combine the rhubarb and strawberries with the sugar. Place over low heat and stir until the strawberries release their juice. Turn up the heat to medium and stir until the sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb is tender, about 5 minutes.

3- Add the gelatin mixture to the hot rhubarb mixture and stir until the gelatin dissolves, about 1 minute.

4- In a food processor fitted with the metal blade or in a blender, purée the rhubarb mixture until smooth. Pour the purée into a large bowl. Add the milk and corn syrup and stir to blend. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

5- Transfer the sherbet mixture to an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer the sherbet to a container; cover and freeze until firm.

Makes about 5 cups (1.25 l)

Use Your Noggin

I'm the odd man out in my family when it comes to egg nog. My family jubilantly celebrates the return of egg nog to the dairy case at the store as if it were the swallows at Capistrano. Me? Not so much. But because I love my family, I will do a lot to make them happy. Like making egg nog ice cream.

There are two schools of thought about egg nog. One school is that it comes from a carton at the grocery store and is a rich, nutmeg and egg flavored beverage. The other school says it's all about the booze. I should have guessed, when I chose to try the egg nog ice cream recipe from The Perfect Scoop, in which school David Lebovitz is enrolled. While my kids attend school #1, Mr. Lebovitz is the principal at school #2.

I had made gingerbread cookies and I loved the idea of pairing the gingerbread with eggnog. Ice cream sandwich cookies, of course! There were a few glitches with the pairing, though. Because of the alcohol in the ice cream, it was very soft. I wanted to spread a thin layer on waxed paper, freeze it, then use the cookie cutter to get the precise cookie shape to layer with the cookies. Excellent thought, but the ice cream wouldn't cooperate. It kept getting softer and meltier until I ended up just spreading it on the cookie and quickly tossing it into the freezer to firm up enough to have its picture taken.

The flavor combination was good, but I'll give you the recipe as I'll make it next Christmas, with less booze and more nutmeg. Why don't I just wait and post it next Christmas, you ask? Well, because I'm unlikely to remember it that long. So I'll give you the recipe and the onus will be on you to pull it out of bookmark purgatory to serve up at your 2010 Christmas party.



Gingerbread and Eggnog Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

Your favorite gingerbread cookie recipe, cookies cut out in mirror-image shapes (stars, trees, snowmen), baked and cooled
Eggnog Ice Cream (recipe, the way I'll make it next time, follows)

You can either spread the cookies with freshly churned, but still soft, ice cream, or for more Martha-like cookies, spread the ice cream on waxed paper on a cookie sheet in a thing layer. Pop the sheet into the freezer to firm up. When it's firm, use the same cookie cutter to cut out ice cream shapes and a spatula to move the ice cream shape to top the wrong side of a cookie shape. Put another cookie, right side up, on top of it. Wrap quickly in plastic wrap and pop into the freezer.

Eggnog Ice Cream
- adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
2/3 cup (130 g) sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 Tbsp brandy
1 Tbsp dark rum
2 tsp vanilla extract

1- In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, and salt. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

2- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the warmed egg yolk mixture back into the saucpan and set it over medium high heat.

3- With a heatproof spatula, stir the mixture until it thickens and coats the spatula, scraping the bottom of the pan as you stir.

4- Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream. Stir. Mix in the nutmeg, brandy, run, and vanilla and stir until cool over an ice bath.

5- Pour the custard into a container with a lid and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours, preferably overnight.

6- Once the mixture is cold, taste it and add more nutmeg if you wish. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Note - Because I know you'll ask, the lovely dish is from World Market.

Recipes Piled a Mile High

My husband and I have been caught up in a flurry of home repair, renovation, and basically doing chores we've been putting off for the last decade or so. Inevitably, when such projects are underway, tempers flare, arguments escalate, and harsh words are tossed around. It came up - the harshest word of all - "packrat."

What? Me? A packrat? Just because we have more bookshelves than chairs, just because we have books in boxes and books in drawers? That doesn't make me a packrat. I neeeeeed those books. The same for all my sewing supplies, fabric stash, unfinished craft projects, kids' kindergarten art work, and, oh, no, not another chocolate stash! Well, I can declutter with the best of them. I'll toss the.....kids' art work. They won't care.

I must confess, though, that I do have a wee bit of a tendency to hoarding when it comes to recipes. Why is it so hard to toss a recipe? Even if I ripped it out of a magazine ten years ago and have never made it. I might make it someday, so I'd better save it, right? Especially if it's got luscious, tempting pictures to go with the recipe.

In the spirit of purge that's flowing in our house right now, I decided to go through my folder of ripped-out-of-a-magazine recipes and do some culling. Calls for a box of pudding? Toss. I'd never get my family to eat it? Toss. I own the cookbook that has that recipe in it? Toss. But then I came to one that had a full page picture of ice cream and blueberries nestled in between halves of a biscuit with a lovely sauce drizzling down over the top. Rather than toss, I'd make it, blog it, and then be able to toss with a free conscience. Plus I still had more blueberries to play with!

The only downside to this excellent plan was that when I looked at the recipe accompanying the gorgeous photo, it was basically a biscuit recipe and you bought ice cream to put in there. Waaaaah! I wanted a blueberry ice cream recipe! So I had to sort of invent my own. And now that I've taken my own pictures I'm totally going to toss that other recipe. Even though their pictures were better. Maybe I'd better hang onto it, just in case I want to try for a redo later....

Blueberry Tallcakes

Your favorite biscuits or shortcakes
Blueberry Ice cream (recipe follows)
Fresh berries
Berry syrup or liquor for drizzling


Blueberry Ice cream

2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
2-3 Tbsp Blueberry or blackberry liquor*

1- Toss the blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl. Cover and refrigerate, stirring every 30 minutes.

2- Place the blueberry mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.

3- Pour 1 cup of the cream into a large mixing bowl. Set a fine mesh strainer on top of it. Have an ice bath prepared in a larger bowl (several inches of ice + water) to cool off the custard.

4- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks.

5- In a medium saucepan, mix 1 cup of the cream with the milk, sugar, and pinch of salt. Set the saucepan over medium-high heat and warm the cream mixture, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and little bubbles begin to form around the edge of the pan.

6- Pour the warmed cream in a steady stream into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan and set it over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heatproof rubber spatula until the custard thickens slightly and coats the spatula ( drawing a finger through it should leave a line).

7- Immediately pour the custard through the strainer into the cold cream. Set the bowl into the ice bath and stir. Pour in the pureed blueberry mixture and stir till thoroughly mixed and cooled. Cover and refrigerate the custard at least 4 hours or overnight.

8- Stir in the liquor and freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

* I used Creme de Cassis and it did impart a very distinct blackberry flavor to the ice cream. My next quest - making blueberry liquor from my leftover Blueberry Lighter Fluid!

Motivational Carrot Ice Cream

Homeschooling has many challenges. I won't name names, to protect the innocent, but one of my children lives in his/her own world, sings his/her own theme song, and has the attention of a butterfly on crack. It's tough to get this child to settle down, focus, stop humming the Duel of the Fates, and finish an assigned page of work.

I know there are many different strategies for dealing with a child like this. I'm a firm believer in a combination of threats and bribery - the carrot and the stick. If this child knows there's no playing with toys, no TV time, and most importantly, no ice cream until the work is finished, he/she is much more likely to finish his work in 2 hours, rather than 12 hours.

Obviously, a key to my homeschooling success is to have a freezer well-stocked with ice cream. My most recent churning is heavenly. It's a luscious dark chocolate, sprinkled with cacao nibs. The base for the ice cream is so thick it's like pouring pudding into the ice cream freezer. Make sure you have a heavy duty ice cream maker for this one. I made it once in my Donvier and I broke the handle trying to turn it!




The Depths of Chocolate Ice Cream
- adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream
3 Tbsp (21 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 oz (140 g) bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), chopped*
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cacao nibs*

1- Warm 1 cup (250 ml) of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Stir in the remaining 1 cup (250 ml) cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top fo the bowl.

2- Without washing the pan, warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Set the bowl on a rubber glove or silicone hot pad to keep it from skittering over the counter. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

3- Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

4- Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, several hours or overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

* I used Amano Jembrana 70% dark chocolate and Amano Madagascar Cacao nibs in this. Fabulous!

Overdue Birthday

24 years ago, it was a very hot summer and I was very pregnant. And overdue. Everyday stretched into a eternity of sweaty discomfort. I prayed daily that this might be the day the baby would come. It didn't. On my birthday I said that the only gift I wanted was to have the baby come. It didn't. A week, exactly, after my birthday, she finally came. She's always had her own ideas about the right way to do things.

We had a birthday dinner for my daughter last week and, as tradition dictates, she got to pick out her cake. True to herself, she picked out something with berries. And ice cream. And pound cake. It was delicious - Good call, Sarah!

I used the pound cake recipe from Baking. Even though Dorie clearly stated that the loaf pan was to go onto a cookie sheet, I forgot. The cake burbled over and dribbled onto the floor of the oven, producing a bit of smoky flavor to the cake.


I forgot to clean up the spillage, and when I preheated the oven for the birthday dinner pizza, I started smelling smoke. Clouds of smoke. Well, for pizza that's a good thing. We enjoyed the taste of a smokey, wood-stove pizza with only the minor annoyance of smarting eyes and fans going full bore to clear out the smoke.

I adapted a recipe I found on the internet to make the cake. It called for pre-made ice cream, sherbet and pound cake. For a birthday cake, it needed a smidge more lovin' than that, so I made all the parts. I'm only giving the recipe for the sherbet as you probably have Baking or can find a bazillion copies of the pound cake recipe on food blogs.



Frozen Raspberry Birthday Cake

1 batch of Raspberry Sherbet (recipe to follow)
1 batch of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (The Perfect Scoop)
1 9 x 5-inch loaf of pound cake (recipe in Baking)
1 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed and picked over
3 Tbsp Chambord

1- Prepare Raspberry Sherbet and place in the freezer. This can be done days ahead of time.

2- Make the Vanilla Bean Ice Cream custard a day ahead of time and refrigerate.

3- Bake the pound cake according to the directions in Baking.

4- While the pound cake is cooling, put the Vanilla Bean Ice Cream in your ice cream machine to freeze.

5- Place a 9-inch circle of parchment paper in the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Cut a 3 x 27-inch strip of parchment paper and fit it around the inside edge of the pan. Tape to secure the ends.

6- Remove the crusts from the pound cake and slice it into 1/4-inch thick slices. Cover the bottom of the prepared pan with a single layer of slices.

7- Spread a thick layer of the fresh Vanilla Bean Ice Cream over the cake and place the pan in the freezer to harden, about 25 minutes. Put the ice cream in the freezer, as well.

8- Measure 2 cups of the sherbet into a bowl and allow that to soften for the last 5 minutes or so of the freezing time (depending on the temp of your kitchen). Spread the softened sherbet over the frozen cake. Add another layer of pound cake slices and return to the freezer for another 10 minutes.

9- In a small bowl, combine the fresh raspberries with the Chambord. Allow them to sit for 10 minutes. Take the Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and the sherbet out of the freezer to soften for about 3-5 minutes.

10- Remove the cake from the freezer and spread the berries evenly over the cake. Place dollops of the softened Vanilla Bean Ice Cream over the raspberries and use a rubber spatula to spread it smooth.

11- Place a final layer of pound cake slices over the cake. Spread the remaining sherbet over the top and smooth it out. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and freeze till firm - about 4 hours.

12- For presentation, remove the sides of the springform pan and slide the cake onto a platter. Garnish with additional raspberries, if desired. Allow the cake to soften slightly to make it easier to slice. Tightly wrap any remaining cake and put it back into the freezer.

Raspberry Sherbet
- adapted from The Perfect Scoop

4 cups fresh raspberries
2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Place the first 3 ingredients into a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Strain the mixture to remove the seeds, then add the lemon juice. Freeze in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Cleopatra's Sorbet

As a small child I had an every-so-often friend. She was the granddaughter of our next-door neighbors and I only saw her when she came to visit, usually once a summer. We'd play hide and seek, running around the adjoining yards, getting grubby in the dirt, and playing wildly imaginative games.

The neighbors had a patch of large rhubarb growing and whenever the granddaughter visited, we'd play Queen of the Nile with the rhubarb. With her grandmother's permission we could pick the largest stalks and leaves of rhubarb and one of us would be the queen and the other would be the slave girl, using the enormous rhubarb leaves to fan the queen.

When we'd exhausted the play potential of the rhubarb and the leaves were looking a bit wilty, we'd take our fans into the kitchen and her grandmother would chop up the stalks, throw them into a pot with some water and sugar, and cook them into a disgusting looking stew. Disgusting looking, but divine tasting. That dish of stewed rhubarb was the highlight of the visit, something I looked forward to every year and mourned when the granddaughter stopped coming to visit.

This spring I was tremendously excited because the rhubarb that my daughter's father-in-law (shouldn't there be a shorter way of saying that - parent in law?) gave me last year survived the cold winter and was actually producing! My first year to cook with homegrown rhubarb. Yeah! What to make first? My list is larger than my rhubarb patch, so I'll have to save some of the projects for next year.

For starters, though, I settled on Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet from The Perfect Scoop (of course). It was a good choice. The sweetness of strawberries, the tang of rhubarb, and the delicious smoothness of the sorbet make this recipe go straight to the "keeper" file. So easy, refreshing, and delectable. Plus you can use those gigantic leaves to keep cool while you're cooking up the rhubarb.


Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet
- adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

12 oz (325 g) rhubarb
2/3 cup (160 ml) water
3/4 cup sugar
10 oz (280 g) fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1- Cut off the rhubarb leaves and trim off the ends of the stalk. Wash the stalk and then cut into 1/2-inch (2 cm) pieces.

2- Place the rhubarb, water, and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the rhubarb is tender and cooked through. It will fall apart into stringy bits. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

3- Slice the strawberries and puree them with the cooked rhubarb mixture and lemon juice in a blender or food processor until smooth.

4- Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, 4 hours or overnight. Freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Cinco de My Oh My!

I used to think Cinco de Mayo was Mexican Independence Day or something really major. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it sounds like it's about a regional battle and is celebrated much more in the United States than in Mexico. I know the reason for this. Around here, Cinco de Mayo is loosely translated as "excuse to go out for Mexican food and drink Tequila." Not a bad little holiday, when you look at it that way.

When I got out to our local Mexican restaurant I always order the same thing. It's a messy plate of beans, rice, tomatoes, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, and pounds of oozy, melted cheese. Probably not authentic in the least, but amazingly good. And what goes better with all that than a margarita?

Since my life motto is "Eat Dessert First," I thought I'd put dessert into the margarita. Or is it the margarita into the dessert? Either way, it's fabulous. You don't even need an ice cream maker to whip up a batch of this amazing treat. Just stir the ingredients together in a bowl, whip briefly with an electric mixer, then put in the freezer overnight. The alcohol content keeps the ice cream smooth.



Although this presentation of the ice cream was fun, I'd recommend serving scoops in small bowls, then sprinkling the top with your favorite coarse salt. The salt combined with the tequila and the cream is amazing. Really! If you eat dessert first, you might not even want to make it to the main meal.

Margarita Ice Cream
- adapted from Nigella Express

1/2 cup lime juice
3 Tbsp Cointreau or triple sec
2 Tbsp tequila
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups heavy cream
Coarse salt for garnishing

1- Pour the lime juice, Cointreau (or triple sec), and tequila into a bowl and sti in the sugar to dissolve.

2- Add the cream and stir to blend. Softly whip with a handheld mixer or whisk until thick and smooth but not stiff.

3- Spoon into an airtight container to freeze overnight. Serve directly from the freezer; the alcohol keeps if from freezing too hard and it will melt quickly.

Makes about 1-1/2 quarts.

Health Food For Lazy People

In my married life I've progressed from barely being able to cook, to cooking almost everything my family eats. We've never been big on fast food restaurants, but I have bought pre-made foods to put in the freezer, either because I didn't know how to make the item, or because I wanted something on hand for when I was too rushed or too lazy to cook.

I have learned that there is a high price to pay for my laziness, though. Not only is the pre-made food more costly, it also usually comes stuffed with sodium, high-fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated fats, and assorted multi-syllabic preservatives. Although it might seem like treat food, that's really no way to treat my family.



When I was approached by POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and asked if I'd like to try their product, I was cautiously optimistic. I'd heard good things about it, but had never experienced it for myself. I was amazed. It tasted just like eating a pomegranate, but without the mess. I looked at the label, bracing myself for the ever-present high-fructose corn syrup. It wasn't there. The ingredients list says: 100% pomegranate juice from concentrate. Woo hoo! Healthy food for a lazy girl!



Not only is it pure juice, but they have done millions of dollars of research to learn all the health benefits of their juice. Tasty, convenient, and good for you. Better and better.

As I rolled the flavor around on my tongue, I tried to figure out how I wanted to play with this juice. Their website has lots of recipes to try, but what I really wanted to make was a sorbet, something that just said a loud and emphatic Pomegranate! This is what I came up with. It's awesome. Incredibly easy to make. Sweet, tart, tangy, and oh so refreshing. Plus you can feel good about eating it, because you know every single thing that went into it.

POM Sorbet

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 cup POM Wonderful juice

1- In a small saucepan combine the sugar and water. Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Take the pan off the heat and set it aside to cool.

2- Combine the cooled sugar syrup with the lime juice and the POM juice in a bowl. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours.

3- Freeze the juice in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

One Track Mind

I don't know if I'll ever learn. Really, the number of times I've blown it in the kitchen because I'm trying to juggle too many things at once is beyond counting. You would think I would know by now and refrain from tackling more than one, or at a maximum, two projects at the same time. But no.

Case in point - my daughter had a couple of friends coming over for a quick dinner before we headed out to a movie. I decided to make chili since I had the ingredients on hand and it is a quick, easy meal I could throw together in a coma. Once I got going on that, though, I realized that chili needs cornbread to go with it. No problem. I make chili and cornbread together all the time. Then I realized that we couldn't have friends over for dinner and not have dessert! I figured I'd make my easy, trusty brownie recipe. No problem, right? Well, a small problem. When I'm rushed for time, and juggling three recipes, I don't always read as carefully as I should. I added twice the amount of melted chocolate to the batter as I should.

So how was the meal? The chili was good, the cornbread was underbaked, so it was kind of cornbread pudding, but tasty cornbread pudding. And the brownies? Well, they just weren't right. A little dry. The texture and taste were off and I was saddened to have spend all that time and chocolate making a pan of brownies that no one wanted to eat.


After staring at that pathetic pan of wrong brownies for two days, fearing I'd have to chuck the whole thing in the garbage just to get it off my counter, I had a brilliant idea. Brownies and ice cream together are delicious. How about brownies in ice cream? The ice cream hid the dryness problem of the brownies and the brownies provided a delicious textural counterpoint for the ice cream. Fabulous!

Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream

- adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

8 oz (230 g) milk chocolate with at least 30% cocoa solids, finely chopped
1-1/2 cups (375 ml) heavy cream
1-1/2 cups (375 ml) whole milk
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
Big pinch of kosher salt
4 large egg yolks
2 tsp Cognac
Brownies with walnuts (about 1/2 of a 9 x 9-inch pan)

Combine the milk chocolate and cream in a large, heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted, then remove the bowl from the saucepan. Set it aside with a mesh strainer over the top.

In a medium saucepan warm the milk, sugar, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer into the milk chocolate mixture, add the Cognac, and mix together. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator 4 hours or overnight. Freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. During the last few minutes of churning, crumble in the brownies.

Predictable Peppermint

When I was a small child, one of the biggest treats we would receive was being taken out for an ice cream cone. I loved to press my nose against the glass display case at the ice cream shop, peering into the variously hued tubs, weighing the advantage of chocolate chocolate chip against strawberry, or raspberry sorbet versus vanilla bean. My sister was not one to get bogged down in the decision making process. As far as I remember, every time it was available, she'd pick peppermint.

Just before Christmas this past year we were discussing plans for Christmas Eve and she told me that her family has a tradition of inviting a big group over for a pot of soup and homemade peppermint ice cream with hot fudge sauce. Some people just don't change much.


Having that discussion lodged the idea of peppermint ice cream in my brain and when Christmas was done and it was time to clean up, I found myself with several candy canes on hand. I could have let my kids eat them, I suppose. But all that sugar, right after the holidays....that wouldn't be good parenting, would it? No, it would be much better parenting to put the candy canes into ice cream and give us something we could all enjoy!

Peppermint Ice Cream
- adapted from Williams-Sonoma Ice Cream & Sorbets

3 cups (750 ml) half-and-half
1/4 cup (60 ml) light corn syrup
6 egg yolks
1/3 cup (155 g) sugar
1/2 cup (60 g) lightly crushed candy canes

1- In a medium-sized, heavy saucepan bring 2 cups (500 ml) of the half-and-half and the corn syrup to a simmer over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat.

2- In a metal bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until blended. Place the bowl on a rubber glove to keep it from skittering around . Gradually pour the hot half-and-half mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly.

3- Return the mixture to the same saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring slowly and continuously with a rubber spatula, until the custard thickens and drawing a finger across it leaves a trail, about 5 minutes. Do not allow it to boil!

4-Set a sieve over a clean bowl. Pour the custard through the sieve. Add half of the crushed candy canes and stir until melted. Add the remaining 1 cup (250 ml) half-and-half and stir to combine. Chill thoroughly, 4 hours, or overnight.

5- Pour the custard into your ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. Add the remaining crushed candy cane during the final minutes of processing. Transfer the ice cream to a container; cover and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Makes about 4-1/2 cups (1.1 l)

A Blondie By Any Other Name

Today's post is a special request. I made this outside of my regular baking schedule because 1) it gave me and excuse to try another dessert, and 2) the special request came from Veggie Girl, and I think she's awesome.

Veggie Girl is one of the happiest faces in food blogging. When I go to my favorite sites to read and comment she's already been there. And she always finds something positive to say, even if the recipe is just a plate full of meat. Veggie Girl is a vegan and is super creative about veganizing baked goods and giving old recipes a vegan twist. So when she put in a request for blondies, how could I say no? This is not a vegan recipe, so she'll have some experimenting to come up with a vegan cousin to it.


I made these for my daughter's Bible study group. When she was living at home I used to provide a dessert for them almost every week. Sarah makes wonderful meals to take, but she says the dessert end of things has been sadly lacking. When I heard that the bachelor men in the group were bringing packaged grocery store cookies for dessert, my heart was smote. How could I leave this wonderful group of people who'd come and weeded our whole yard before the wedding with no decent dessert?

I took the special request in hand and adapted a couple of recipes to fit the occasion. But there was a problem. Here's the script as related by Sarah:

Group: What's this?

Sarah: It's blondies.

Group: What's a blondie?

Sarah: It's a brownie without the chocolate.

Group (pouting): Oh, no chocolate?

Sarah: It's really good. It's just something different. Just try it. You have a piece with the ice cream on top.

Group: (takes a piece, nibbles indifferently)

Sarah: It's meant to have the ice cream on it.

Group: That's ice cream? I thought it was yogurt. (Takes a scoop of ice cream on a different plate)

Sarah:(getting frantically frustrated) It's ice cream and it's meant to go on top. It's a topping for the blondie. Put the scoop on top of the blondie and eat them together!

Group (gets the idea and eats it as prescribed. Eats more. Clutches stomach and moans): Oh, that was so good. I ate too much.

To avoid further such episodes of confusion, I'm renaming these:



Walnut Bars with Maple Walnut Ice Cream
- adapted from Taste of Home

3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

Maple Walnut Ice Cream with Wet Walnuts from The Perfect Scoop
Salted Caramel Sauce from The Perfect Scoop (optional)

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan. If you want to have very tidy squares, line the pan with parchment paper so that it hangs over the edges of the sides. You can use this to lift the bar out of the pan after baking.

2 - In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

4- Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Stir in the toasted walnuts.

5 - Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. It might look a bit underdone in the middle, but that's OK. Cool on a wire rack.

6 - When cool, cut into 20 squares. If you put parchment in the pan, lift the blondies out, peel off the paper, and place on a cutting board before cutting.

7 - Serve with a generous scoop of ice cream. You can, of course, use a store bought ice cream, but this ice cream is so amazingly good, you'll be missing out. Drizzling with sauce is a delightful option, but not necessary for enjoyment of this treat. Due to the timing of things, mine was served without.


Note: Even though the pictures bear my watermark, they were taken by my super-talented daughter. Isn't she great?

Serendipity Sherbet

I started my food blog as a way to practice my writing and as an excuse to try new recipes. Since that time I've gotten multiple other, unexpected benefits. Food bloggers are an amazing bunch and I've been blessed to get to know some of you and call you friends. I've expanded my own baking skills and repertoire, but I've also learned a lot from reading other food bloggers and have picked up some outstanding recipes from other blogs. But the most unexpected, out of the blue benefit of having a food blog is getting free stuff.

One day I opened my email and there was a letter from Hola Fruta! asking me if I'd like to sample some free fruit sherbet products. Are you kidding me? Bring it on! Shortly thereafter on my doorstep arrived a styrofoam cooler packed with dry ice, 3 flavors of fruit sherbet, and 2 flavors of fruit sherbet bars. Well, this obviously called for a party.

I invited over two families to help us taste test. They were eager to help. My friends are really good that way, always willing to lend a hand.



We dished up scoops of the sherbets so everyone could try each flavor and then waited for the reactions.

Mango: "Wow, this tastes so good I don't want to put anything else in my mouth. I just want this flavor to last."

Pomegranate: "Oh my gosh, this is amazing! It's delicious, so smooth and creamy."

Margarita : "Really lime-like. Refreshing! It's great." But the comments got even better when my husband poured some tequila over the scoops for the adults. "Oh, wow, it's like the easiest, best-ever margarita! I need to keep a tub of this in my freezer!"

Equally delightful were the Pomegranate-Blueberry and the Pina Colada sherbet bars. My kids thought they were the best frozen bars they'd ever had. Plus they're only 100 calories each!

It was all delicious, creamy, and naturally low in fat with anti-oxidant fruit purees used. Mmmm.

So, you say, that's nice that you had a party. Where's my party? Well, the good news is that you can enter to win a party of your own (in the USA). Hola Fruta is giving away three Fiesta Friday party packs until the end of September. Check it out and you could be the next lucky one trying to decide whether you prefer the cool, sweet Pomegranate, the tingly Margarita, or the creamy, dreamy Mango!

Frozen Birthday Bliss

Another birthday come and gone. It was a good one as my birthday stretched into a birthday week. It started off with a surprise package from my almost-twin in England, who sent me a gorgeous necklace. Thank you, Melinda! I get so many compliments when I wear it, which is most of the time.

Then another friend took me out for lunch, French pastries, antique shopping, and visiting Fran's chocolates. Can a day get any better than that? Merci, Erin!

My actual birthday I got hugs and presents (cookbooks) from my family, plus a Happy Birthday balloon that my son enjoys using as a punching bag. Another bonus.

Then we wrapped up the week having friends over to help taste test some treats (stay tuned for that post) and to help me eat up my birthday cake.

Usually I'm all over a rich chocolate cake with mounds of chocolate frosting for my birthday. I'm not sure why, but this year it didn't appeal to me. Maybe it's the heat or all the cakes I've made in the past few months with mounds of buttercream frosting, but I couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to make a traditional cake loaded with frosting.

Also, there was the side issue of the the mini-bundt cake pan. It's stoneware. And I'd made dainty lemon cakes in it, and they would have graced the blog, except they refused to come out of the pan. My kids enjoyed eating the pile of cake morsels, but it made me cross. The pan needed more seasoning. What's my greasiest recipe that I could make in that pan to help season it? Peanut butter cookies. I made the dough and then carefully pressed it into all the tiny nooks and crannies of the pan. I baked it and it seemed to work beautifully. The pan was seasoned and I had a mound of peanut butter cookie crumbs to deal with.

They sat in a sealed container on the counter as I pondered what to do with them. Finally I hit upon the perfect solution to both what to do with the cookies and what to do for my birthday cake.


I lined a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with aluminum foil, leaving extra hanging over the edges, and pressed the cookie crumbs into the bottom of it. I made a quart of vanilla ice cream, Philadelphia-stye, from The Perfect Scoop and scooped it straight from the ice cream maker into the pan, spreading it over the crumbs and smoothing out the top. The pan went into the freezer for several hours. When the ice cream was firm I took the pan out and spread peanut butter over the ice cream. I didn't measure - it was about a cup - enough to cover the whole surface. Then the pan went back into the freezer.

I made a batch of chocolate ice cream, again from The Perfect Scoop. The custard base for this was so rich and voluptuous I had a hard time restraining myself from diving into it face first. After chilling it was thick and beautiful, like a dessert cart's dream pudding. It was so thick that it broke the handle on my Donvier. The plastic snapped off at the lid. Aaaahhhh! I grabbed a spatula and tried scooping and folding to get the right consistency. Because it didn't have as much air added into it as machine done ice cream, it ended up being dense, but I like that in a chocolate product.


The chocolate ice cream, when as close to being frozen as it was going to get, was smoothed over the peanut butter layer, then the dish was popped back into the freezer. While it chilled I made a recipe of The World's Best Hot Fudge Sauce and let it cool. When all the way cooled, I spread it over the top of the chocolate layer and (you guessed it) put it back in the freezer.

About 10 minutes before serving, I took the pan out and, using the foil as handles, lifted the whole brick out of the baking dish. After softening on the counter for about 10 minutes, I cut the "cake" into squares (small, as it's incredibly rich) and put each square on a cake, topped it with whipped cream and garnished it with butter brickle chips. Chopped peanuts would also be good.

It was tremendously good and got thumbs up of appreciation from the guests (their mouths were too full to politely give commentary). I send them home with pieces for later, but still have some in my freezer to take out and savor as the summer heat lingers.

Obviously you could make this entire recipe with store-bought ingredients. I just prefer to have it all homemade. I'm weird that way. If you want to make it, you can also change up the flavors to suit your tastes. If you don't care for peanut butter (strange sister of mine), you could do a layer of caramel sauce there and substitute butter brickle ice cream for the chocolate. Play with it and have fun, but remember to share because it makes enough for a party!

Peanut Butter Cookies
adapted from the Cookie book

1/2 cup (4 oz) butter at room temperature, diced
3/4 cup (4-1/2 oz) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (8 oz) smooth or crunchy peanut butter
1 cup (8 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

1- With an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2- In a separate bowl, stir together the egg and vanilla, then gradually beat into the butter mixture.

3- Add the peanut butter and blend thoroughly. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and stir into the mixture to form a soft dough. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes, until firm.

4- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Lightly grease two baking sheets.

5- Spoon out rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough and roll into balls.

6- Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet and press flat with a fork into round shapes about 2-1/2 inches in diameter, making a criss-cross pattern. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, or until lightly colored. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Or, to season a stoneware pan, press the dough into it, bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, then find a delicious use for the crumbs.