My little herb garden, it is planted in 4 cinder blocks, is now the size of a large bush made up of mint, basil, oregano and garlic chives. I have made pesto, basil lemonade, mint lemonade and used all of it in various meals. I needed something that I could use a large amount of the mint for and went looking on the Internet. I found Fresh mint chip ice cream! This happens to be my favorite flavor of ice cream after chocolate so I was in. Friday night at 11pm I started the process. Don't ask me why because I really don't know why I started so late but I did. A short aside, as I set up for my minty adventure, Rodger came walking through the kitchen. He looked up at me as he passed through and went up the stairs. Of course, I had to follow him, he is a puppy after all. To my surprise he walked into his crate and went to sleep. Yea, Rodger! Max doesn't even do that.
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| Gratuitous puppy photo |
I took my kitchen shears out and hacked at the mint then removed the leaves from the stems and got all giddy because I got to use my mortar and pestle. Did I mention that my in-laws gave it to me? I beat the mint till it was bruised and then threw it into the cream and milk base that I had heated on the stove. When I was getting the cream base ready I discovered too late that I had no sugar, I scrounged through my cabinets and found agave. I started out with a little and added it till it tasted good to me. I will tell you that it is perfect! I really can't taste a difference. Anyway, the mint steeped in the cream and I kept tasting it to see how it was doing. It took 3 hours for the mint to give the cream base a really nice minty flavor. What I really loved about the flavor was that I could taste that it was made with leaves. I swear! You could easily taste the fresh mint versus a bottled extract. To the cream base that I had reheated I added 4 egg yolks and continued to heat it to 175 degrees then let it cool and refrigerated it overnight.The next day Max and Rodger made the ice cream for me.
They both did a wonderful job, don't you think? So we scraped out that batch and did one more in the ice cream ball. Did I mention that little boys and puppies are really great at making ice cream? I guess I did. Once our creamy concoction had been in the freezer for about 2 hours, it was nice and frozen. An FYI: I happen to like it when the ice cream is a bit melty so we did have some right out of the ball. If you don't let it freeze hard then it melts at hyper-speed but makes that puddle of goodness at the bottom of your bowl.
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| See the puddle? I think I need to sit down. |
If you happen to be overgrown in the mint department then this is the recipe you need so soothe your worried mind. Hate mint no more! Turn it into ice cream!!
Another new recipe I tried was instigated by too many over ripe bananas. I dug through my cabinets to see what I had....bananas, oranges, prunes, lemons and grapes. Hmmmmm? Banana prune bread was the final decision. Pretty yummy if I do say so myself.
I think it is the best banana bread I have ever made and I have made A LOT of banana bread. The prunes were perfect in it and the bread was really moist. If you are looking for a new twist on an old favorite look no further than this fabulous banana bread.
How did he get in there!? Please forgive me my transgressions but look at those eyes and floppy ears.
I am better now. Doesn't that bread look good? Well, that is it for now. Mostly because I have a certain someone nipping at my toes as I sit here trying to write. I am not going to mention any names though. Rodger and out!
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