Boonville

All the Boons down in Boonville are right up my alley.  Part of the fun of going to Mendocino is our stop in Boonville on the way there and back.  We remembered it being at the halfway point, so we envisioned eating lunch there on the drive out.  Oops - it's almost all the way to Mendocino.  Who knew?  (Google Maps might, for instance.)

I had the freshest-tasting chicken salad sandwich I've ever tasted on the drive home, though.  John had a great ham and cheese.  All of the restaurants on their tiny strip focus on organic and local ingredients.  You can see why I love it there.

Last time we traveled to Boonville they were on the brink of opening up this ice cream place, but hadn't gotten there yet.

Paysanne Ice Cream was open this time, and needless to say, we got ice cream on the way there and the way back.

I'm a sucker for good ice cream, especially from a place that uses clips and ribbon to display the day's flavors.  I got lemon cookie ice cream on the trip out and vanilla on the way back.  Incredible.

I also had to try a cookie to make sure they were as good as they looked.  They are!

I didn't succumb to my newest weakness - chocolate coated sunflower seeds - that they had for sale.  Small victories, right?

I love the idea of hanging buckets from the wall with striped ribbon to hold fresh homemade candy.

In case you want to read while you're there, they have some magazines available.

Harper gave me the evil eye when I wouldn't share my ice cream.  Sorry, sweetie, even a mother's love has limits.  

Easiest Strawberry Ice Cream

It's ice cream season again, people.  This can't possibly make you as happy as it make me, because I am ecstatic.  Ice cream is one of my all-time favorite foods and it allows for almost endless possibilities in the kitchen with my handy-dandy ice cream machine.  John wishes I would stick to plain chocolate, but in the wonderful words of HIMYM..."No can dos-ville, babydoll!"

This year I decided to ease into ice cream making season by making a no-fuss ice cream recipe, probably one of my easiest ever.  There are no eggs, so no cooking is required - yippee!  There is no straining, because we just don't care enough to get the seeds out - hooray!  (Honestly the seeds aren't noticeable)  There are only five ingredients, and none of them are fancy - woohoo! 

We had this book growing up that my dad would read to me and my brother before bed - it was called Simple Pictures Are Best.  I can't remember the details of the book, but that saying has really resonated with me my whole life.  My mom and I would say it to each other when making posters for projects, hanging up frames on a wall, or drafting the family Christmas card letter.  Simple pictures are best, and that's why this ice cream is so perfect. 

There is a time and a place for fancy ice cream, but this classic recipe did the trick last weekend.  It tastes exactly like you want and imagine homemade strawberry ice cream to taste like.  Like summer.

So go buy the juiciest strawberries you can find and break out your ice cream maker that was collecting dust.  It's ice cream time!


Easiest Strawberry Ice Cream
From A Cozy Kitchen

1-1 1/4 pounds strawberries, leaves removed and halved if large
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups heavy cream

Place strawberries in a blender and puree until smooth.  Add sugar, lemon juice and salt to blender and mix a bit with a spatula.  Add the 2 cups cream to the blender and puree until smooth.  Cover and place blender bowl in fridge for 1-3 hours, until very cold.  Churn in ice cream machine according to instructions (~40 minutes on mine).  Place in freezer to firm and remove 10 minutes before scooping to allow it to soften.

Five Things

Spring has sprung in the Bay Area.  We're getting our last few days of rain until October and the highs are always 65 or warmer.  The farmers market has been full of the most amazing tulips and ranunculus and I picked up three bunches of the latter to file a large vase a few weeks back.  It's amazing how fresh flowers can brighten any room - something my mom always taught me.

There's nothing like gift baskets and cards from friends when you need them.  It reminds you how lucky you are to have them in your life.

I discovered that Whole Foods sells The Best Ice Cream Ever.  Three Twins is a local organic brand that we bought at the Berkeley farmers market once and have never forgotten.  Apparently they sell it at my favorite haunt, so we'll be digging into some Three Twins a lot this summer.  Cookies and Cream was just as good as their Madagascar Vanilla that we have previously scarfed enjoyed, so I'm sure we'll enjoy all their flavors.

Our neighbor's have a sweet Golden Doodle named Mochi and he and Harper are becoming the best of friends.  I'm in touch with Mochi's mom, Joyce, all the time and we get the dogs together several times a week.  John and I are just as fond of Mochi as Harper is, as evidenced above.

As long as you didn't give up chocolate for Lent, it's time to go to the store and stock up on Cadbury Mini Eggs.  These have a more adult taste than Cadbury Creme Eggs (less sweet), and are infinitely more addictive. I just opened a bag at work and it will be a miracle if they last more than two days.

Candy Cane Ice Cream

Because Christmas is all about memories and traditions, I will share another one of my family's favorite Christmas traditions: candy cane ice cream.  It's after Christmas, but if you've got leftover candy laying around like me, this ice cream might come in handy.

Perhaps lots of families do this, but if you've never experienced candy cane ice cream, I wanted to share this "recipe" with you.  

I say "recipe" because it requires two steps:   Step one: Crush up a bunch of candy canes in a Ziploc bag.  Step two: Mix those candy canes into some slightly softened vanilla ice cream.

I had a pint of ice cream and used three candy canes, but you can use whatever ratio you want.  I recommend buying good vanilla ice cream for the recipe (Three Twins if you're in the Bay Area - it's the best ice cream I've ever bought), but you can buy whatever dumpy candy canes you want.  If you're feeling really fancy you can make the vanilla ice cream yourself.  Since I had eight people in my house at the time, needless to say, I did not make the vanilla ice cream.

David got me some cool games for Christmas, so after some candy cane ice cream we hunkered down to build railroads across America.  Well, John did at least.  The stinker won every game.  At least I had some candy cane ice cream to comfort me.

Praline Ice Cream

My parents took my brother and I to New Orleans when I was in the fifth grade.  At the time this didn't seem weird, but as I grew up I realized that most people don't go the New Orleans with their fifth graders.  Instead they go for Mardi Gras and consume a fifth of bourbon while wandering down Bourbon Street.  My parents warned us about Bourbon Street, and when we walked down it - as a family - in the center of the street so as to be not to be too close to the bars and houses of lovely ladies.  I am serious.

Several things from the trip stick out in my mind, most of them related to food.  We downed beignets at Cafe du Monde almost daily, and when I wasn't covered with powdered sugar I was sticky from pralines.  Pralines aren't really something you find many places, and it's really heartbreaking for those of us who don't live in New Orleans.  When done right, they melt in your mouth to release a deep sweetness that goes perfectly with rich, crunchy nuts.

This recipe was supposed to be a normal butter pecan ice cream, but the moment I tasted it, I knew it was a praline ice cream in my book.  It isn't a vanilla ice cream with praline pieces (which I would also love), but instead the entire thing just tastes like a praline on it's own.  It's addictive.

To get started, whisk together 6 large egg yolks and set aside.

You will need two cups of heavy cream and two cups of milk - don't buy half-and-half though, because you need them separated.

One cup of brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt provide just the right balance of sweetness in this rich ice cream.

Fill a large bowl with ice water.  Place two cups of cream in a bowl on top of the ice water.  Place a large sieve on top of the cream.  This set-up will chill the custard immediately so that it stops cooking when you remove it from the heat.

In a medium saucepan heated to medium heat, melt six tablespoons of butter.

Mix the butter constantly and cook until it just begins to brown.

Add in 1 cup brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Stir until the sugar completely melts.  This will take several minutes.

Slowly pour in 2 cups of milk.  It will foam up, so make sure you pan can handle it.

The cold milk caused my caramel mixture to seize up and harden, but I just continued to heat the milk and stir until the "praline" melted back into the mixture.  Be sure to heat until all of the sugar melts into the milk.

Very slowly, pour half of the milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly so as not to scramble the eggs.  Add the warmed egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk mixture.  Heat the combined mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber/silicon spatula or a wooden spoon.  Be sure to scrape the bottom as you stir.  Heat for 5-7 minutes, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon.

Pour the custard into the chilled cream through the sieve to remove any unwanted bits.  Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and chill in the fridge for at least two hours.  Then churn in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Meanwhile, roast 1 cup of pecans (or pre-chopped pecans) in a 350 degree oven until lightly toasted.  Cool before adding to ice cream.  Cup pecans into small pieces.

When the ice cream is done churning, mix 1 cup of chopped pecans into the ice cream and freeze to harden.

The first words out of my mouth when I had my first spoonful were "oh my God."

This ice cream is so up my alley that it might be my if-you-could-only-have-one-flavor-for-the-rest-of-your-life-what-would-it-be choice.  It also really tastes straight out of a gourmet ice cream shop.  I love cookie dough ice cream as much as the next gal, but there is something to be said for this more unique and adult flavor.  New Orleans in my mouth - now time to figure out how to make beignet ice cream.  Hmm...

Praline Ice Cream
Adapted from Simply Recipes

6 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pecans

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together 6 egg yolks.  In a separate bowl, place 2 cups of heavy cream in a bowl over a large bowl of ice water.  Place a large sieve atop the cream.  In a saucepan with high sides, melt 6 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.  Stir the butter constantly and when it just begins to brown add 1 cup brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Continue cooking over medium heat until the sugar melts (this will take several minutes), keep stirring.  Slowly pour in 2 cups of milk - it will foam up and will potentially cause the sugar mixture to harden.  Cook the milk mixture until the sugar is fully incorporated/melted into it.  Do not boil.  Very slowly, pour half of the milk mixture into the 6 egg yolks, while whisking constantly.  (Tip: Using a small measuring cup to remove the warm milk mixture makes pouring it into the eggs easier when whisking.)  Add the warmed eggs back into the milk mixture and heat over medium heat, stirring with a rubber/silicon spatula or wooden spoon.  Be sure to scrape the bottom.  Wait for the mixture to thicken enough to coat the back of the spoon, 5-7 minutes.  Pour the custard into the sieve and mix with the cream.  Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours.  Meanwhile, roast 1 cup pecans in a 350 degree oven until fragrant, 6 minutes.  Chop and cool before adding to ice cream.  Churn ice cream according to ice cream maker's instructions.  When done, stir in 1 cup chopped pecans and freeze to harden.

Fruit Ice Cream Boycott

When John and I like an ice cream flavor I make, it doesn't even last a week.  Frankly, not a day goes by without us eating it.  Right now I have three tubs of ice cream in my freezer, barely touched.  I'm running out of Pyrex and room, yet I keep trying to make fruit ice cream worth eating.  So far it hasn't happened yet.  Pictured above is actually the best of the fruit ice cream I've made: apricot ice cream.  It wasn't bad, which is pretty faint praise for ice cream.  The flavors just weren't strong enough.

I grew up loving the peach milk shakes from Hardee's.  My mom and I would slurp them after a trip to the library in the summer, which just so happened to be across the street from Hardee's.  No wonder I was always requesting a new book.  I had high hopes for nectarine ice cream due to my peach milkshake days, but it fell flat.  The nectarine ice cream recipe called for sour cream and blech, it tasted like it had sour cream in there.  Not pleasant.  

I also made cherry frozen yogurt.  The cherries were super sweet, which I thought would make for great frozen yogurt.  Unfortunately, it made for a slightly bland initial flavor (the yogurt) followed by an aching sweetness from the cherries.  Not making that one again. 

I figured - okay, okay, if fruit ice creams and frozen yogurts aren't panning out, why not go back to sorbets?  I made a watermelon sorbet with thick pink watermelon hunks.  It tasted of watermelon, but not any better than watermelon is naturally.  That's the problem with all of the recipes I think.  I love fruit and eat a lot of it, but if I'm going to go through the trouble of making the fruit into something, and usually making it more unhealthy by adding fat and sugar, it better taste a lot better than the fruit.  None of these recipes were able to trump the plain pieces of fruit, which is why they were left to turn into icy blocks in my freezer.  Strawberry sorbet is so far the only fruit sorbet/ice cream/frozen yogurt I've made that I loved.  So for awhile I'm going to stick to strawberry sorbet and rich, creamy, and chocolatey non-fruit ice creams.  The fruit will find a way into my belly anyway.  

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

I love Red Mango and Pinkberry as much as the next 20-something woman, but sometimes it's just easier and tastier to make your own fro-yo at home.  This is by far the easiest thing I've whipped up in our ice cream maker, but John and I were both amazed by how great it tasted.  Who knew three ingredients could go so far?  This also makes you seriously reconsider whether your fro-yo habit is worth the $5 a pop.

Here are your three ingredients - the best plain whole milk yogurt you can find (this organic yogurt was $2.99, quite the splurge), sugar, and vanilla extract.

Mix three cups of yogurt with 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until the sugar dissolves completely.  Put in the fridge for an hour and then churn according to the instructions of your ice cream maker.  If you like especially tart yogurt, add little or no sugar and make your treat even healthier (from the mound of sugar pictured above, you can tell I like my yogurt sweet).

Once frozen in your freezer, the yogurt will need to soften on the counter for about 10 minutes before scooping.

My favorite Red Mango toppings are raspberries and dark chocolate chips, so naturally I went the same route at home.  This frozen yogurt has a lot more flavor than the yogurt you buy from the trendy shops and makes for the perfect summer dessert on a hot day.  Especially the days when it's too hot to drag yourself to Pinkberry.  

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
From David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

3 cups (720 g) plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together 3 cups plain whole-milk yogurt, 1 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until the sugar dissolves.  Refrigerate for an hour.  Churn the yogurt in your ice cream maker according to the machine's directions.  Store in the freezer and be sure to remove 10 minutes prior to scooping.  Top with your favorite healthy or not-so-healthy toppings.

Cookie Dough Ice Cream Failure

If there are two things I love, it's ice cream and cookie dough.  Clearly this is a rare love that no one shares - I am so unique!  When I saw a recipe that made the actual ice cream taste like cookie dough itself, I knew this was one I had to try.  Unfortunately, the ice cream turned out terrible.  It had no flavor, which is especially pathetic considering it had dark brown sugar and BUTTER.

The most tragic part was that I used almost a whole bar of Valrhona chocolate on this ice cream.

What a waste.

I'm throwing the rest of the ice cream out, but I might do some picking around in that bland chunk of ice for some pieces of chocolate to salvage before I dump it.

I've learned my lesson though - I need to stick to my man, David Lebovitz, when it comes to ice cream recipes.  Can't wait to try the nectarine ice cream cooling in my fridge.

Strawberry Sorbet

Our farmers market carries strawberries about 6 months out of the year, so it's high time that I figured out some recipes to use them.  I find that it's hard to improve upon fresh strawberries, but sorbet is one way to make a good thing great.  Strawberry sorbet is one flavor everyone can agree on and was an easy choice for my first sorbet - cherry and nectarine hopefully will be just around the corner.

Fresh sorbet has so much flavor that you won't even miss the fat.  John and I were both amazed by how "creamy" the sorbet actually tasted, which I attribute to its freshness and to straining out the seeds.  If you leave in the seeds your job will be easier, but it obviously won't have the same texture.

Start with one pound of strawberries.  I bought half a "box," and that turns out to be about 4 pounds.  Oops.

Chop off the tops of the strawberries and then slice them thinly.

Toss the strawberries with 3/4 cup of sugar until the sugar starts to dissolve.  Cover and let sit for an hour, stirring occasionally.

Add the strawberry mixture to a blender and toss in 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

Blend the mixture thoroughly until it is smooth.

If you want, strain out the seeds using a mesh strainer.

You will need to physically force the mixture through the strainer.  I was expecting it to be quick and easy - like draining out pasta water, but that is most definitely not the case.  Once you get a pure unadulterated liquid, put it in the fridge for a few hours to chill thoroughly.  When cold, mix it in your ice cream maker according to the machine's directions.   

Your first spoonful will be unlike any sorbet you've ever had - so creamy you will think it must have a secret ingredient.

So here's to a dessert you can make with minimal effort and eat with minimal guilt.  Make sure you use sweet and ripe strawberries.  Unless you live in California, that means you probably only have a two-month window, so hop to it!

Strawberry Sorbet
From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 pound (450 g) fresh strawberries
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Remove the stems from the strawberries and slice.  Toss the strawberries with 3/4 cup sugar until the sugar begins to dissolve.  Cover and let stand for an hour, stirring occasionally.

Pour the strawberry mixture into a blender and add in 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice and a pinch of salt.  Blend until smooth.  If you want extra smooth sorbet, press the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds.  Chill the mixture in the fridge and then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the machine's directions.