February 28, 2011

pomegranate ice cream or creepy curdle disaster?

  • pomegranate juice
  • sugar
  • milk (2% and/or whole)

mix together.
(taste it to see what's what.)



ice cream make it.


freeze.



eat.



ok, pause.
hear the back story before you make this.
or before you think this could be awesome.
'cause the jury is still out on this bad boy.


read on.



so,
i bought pomegranate juice
from the fancy new white people store down the block
with the express purpose of making pomegranate sorbet.

but turns out,
pomegranate juice smells weird.

and the organic milk i bought,
sucks.

(i seriously need to pull my life together 
and get more ronnybrook.
'cause ronnybrook doesn't suck. 
and my life isn't complete without milk. 
lots and lots of milk.)



so i thought,
what the hey?
mix it.
combine it.
get rid of both at the same time.


weird thing though,
can pomegranate juice mix with milk?
cause it looked kind of weird.

not quite a curdle,
but not quite right either.

whatever.

i still put it in the ice cream maker to see what happened.

and really,
both the juice and the milk suck big time,
so if i "waste" some,
no bigs.





but.
it's a creepy color too.
ugh. 



maybe it'll taste good??



 stress.

February 21, 2011

grapefruit sorbet

  • 3 cups grapefruit juice
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • less than 1/2 cup water
dissolve sugar in water on the stove. 
mix with the juice.

ice cream maker that bad boy. 

freeze. 


eat
delicious.


(ps. this is stupid easy to make. 
double awesome.)






so i really wish i made this ice cream today.
or any time recently for that matter.
it has been stupid gross out,
and it has been bumming me out.
hard.


and citrus is so happy.
so enjoy some citrus happiness.



and look forward to new recipes soon.
cause i need some new flavors in my freezer.
and now that i have my rockin' new book,
the ice cream calls to me.


besides i only have two flavors left.
how is having only two choices even remotely acceptable?

it's not.
at all.

February 14, 2011

chili pepper hot chocolate

ever since i saw chocolat 
with johnny depp and juliette binoche 
and the awesome chocolate treats,
i have been obsessed with spicy hot chocolate.
i get it everywhere it is offered. 

spicy chocolate is pretty rockstar too. 
i mean it is just too weird a combination. 
but also a crazy awesome combination. 

so i went to city bakery with av and mm

and we got some chili pepper hot chocolate. 
and (obviously) pretzel croissants. 

and as far as spicy hot chocolate goes, 
this was pretty good. 
although, i am always in search of spicier.

but it was good. 



and now i am regretting not getting their little hot chocolate to go boxes.
you can buy their hot chocolate in a box,
take it home,
heat and enjoy. 

rockstar. 



and as if that wasn't fatty enough, 
we went to momofuku milk bar.

and got the crack pie 
and a compost cookie.


hello, fatties.
nice to meet you. 






and then,
we went to good beer.

to get beer. 
and continue the fatness.





way to really rock the fatty train.
delicious.






ps. i'm sure dolcetto will do an actual review 
of at least 2 of these places in the near future 
so when she does i will be sure to link to it.

February 13, 2011

just because

don't you just love gifts that are "just because"?

i know i do. 

i mean, 
giving a gift on a holiday, 
fine. 

but giving 
(or getting)
a gift at some random time just because, 
awesome.

i am the queen at just because gifts. 

why shouldn't someone get a gift when it isn't their birthday?
why can't they get something cause it's wednesday?
or because i saw something awesome that they would like?



giving a just because gift is almost as good as getting one.

and the other day i got one. 


rockstar.

and now it is time to embrace the fatty 
and make some new fun i'scream.


February 11, 2011

space ice cream

space ice cream ---
the whole concept is creepy.

it's freeze dried.

and awesome on space travel
(i would imagine)
and hiking
(as evidenced by it being sold in a million different camping stores)
but it's still weird. 

i mean, 
it is ice cream,
sans water.

there are tons of flavors too.
neopolitan.
ice cream sandwich.
mint chocolate chip.
chocolate chip.


all i know is,
the stuff is rockstar. 

super, super rockstar.

and when tw asked me what i wanted for jesus' birthday,
i said space ice cream. 

"seriously?"
"yeah, the stuff's rockstar."
"um, ok. how much? i can get you a whole case, i guess."
"don't play with my emotions. that would be crazy awesome."
"seriously? i really will."
"do it. i would love it."

so what'd i get?
a smattering of space ice cream.
7 neoplitans
and 2 mint chocolate chip. 





















rockstar.




don't you just love when you get exactly what you wanted?
even if the present is totally ridiculous?
i do. 
for sure.


i'm super excited about this.


February 10, 2011

necco

new england confectionery company
makes wafers and sweethearts. 

and every february,
even though i despise valentine's day,
(hello hallmark, it's nice to meet you. vomit.)
i always haul my cookies down to the nearest drug store 
and pick up bags and bags of necco sweethearts. 
 
i love necco sweethearts.

but, 
necco has decided, 
after 100 years or so, 
that they should change the super delicious awesome sweetheart recipe.

lame.

now the sweethearts are brighter, 
and have lamer flavors.
(who wants strawberry, grape, green apple, lemon, orange or blue raspberry, 
when they could have cherry, banana, orange, lemon, grape and wintergreen? 
those flavors are so much cooler.)

and they have all sorts of new gimmicks:
twilight sweethearts.
(gross)
tart sweethearts.
chocolate sweethearts.
sparkly sweethearts.

but these new sweethearts suck.
big time. 

i mean you open the bag and they smell.
bad.

and the flavors suck.
a lot. 



i miss the old necco sweethearts. 
so much so that i have been looking at the necco website,
and sending not so cryptic emails 
about how upset i am about the new sweethearts,
and how i want large amounts of necco wafers to ease the pain. 


less than a week later, 
and this was sitting on my desk.



thanks jb. 
you are a rockstar.


and it will take me 75 years to eat these all.
awesome.



February 9, 2011

caramel hot chocolate

if you live any where on this planet
you must know by now that it has been a crazy stupid winter this year.

i mean,
new york has gotten something like 50+".

what?!?!?!?!?
ridiculous.

it is the beginning of february,
for god's sake.



how are we supposed to survive this?
how does mother nature think i am going to get through this?

i can't handle it.


there is a long road ahead before the warm summertime happiness is upon us.
and i am not pleased.


in fact,
i have been mentally packing for my summer vacation already.
but thinking about fun in the sun can only go so far.


enter city bakery and their annual hot chocolate festival.

rockstar.


and their pretzel croissant is supposed to be bang-a-rang.
(dolcetto's review and drooling can convince almost anyone, i'm sure.)



so i went with ap and got the caramel hot chocolate.
in a tiny shot cup.
adorable.
except that a tiny shot costs an astronomical $3.25.
???!?!?!??!

i am baffled and appalled.


(and it wasn't even that caramelly,
bummer city.)



but
the pretzel croissant was,
as promised,
a rockstar.



check out the calendar--
there are many other delicious flavors to try.



i'll be back on the 13th.
cause i am incapable of passing up spicy hot chocolate.
cause,
duh,
it's (normally) awesome.


February 8, 2011

basil ice cream

  • 2 cup whole milk
  • 3 tbsp basil - chopped. and fresh. duh.
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

put milk, basil, half of the sugar, and a pinch of salt in a pot. 
boil it.

take it off the heat.
let steep for 30 minutes.

blend it -- i use an immersion blender for this.

mix egg yolks and other half of the sugar.

add basil milk mixture in a stream.

cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly. 
pull it off when it reaches 175 degrees. 
(good idea to have a thermometer for this part.)

put mixture through a sieve. 

put bowl in fridge. 
(you can also put the small bowl filled with the basil milky egg mixture 
into a larger bowl that is filled with ice water 
that way the whole she-bang cools down faster.)

once cold, mix in cream. 

throw that puppy into the ice cream maker. 

freeze.


eat. 
delicious times a million. 




ps. this can totally be halved. 
cause this recipe makes a ton. 
and as a rule i try not to make too too much or else i can never try new flavors. 
although, for this ice cream i always make an exception. 
this stuff is super rockstar. 



i mean, super super rockstar.






pps. i wish i was making this right now,
unfortunately i am not.
(basil is not really in season now.)
lame.
but it is such a happy summer time thing
that i thought it would help me deal with the winter time heinousness.

February 4, 2011

orange juice sorbet

  • juice oranges

juice those oranges. 
as many as you want.

obviously, 
the more oranges,
the more juice, 
the more ice cream.

put juice in ice cream maker. 
turn that puppy on.

freeze juicey sorbet mix. 

eat. 








this is a totally lame post. 

but the ice cream is not.



crap.
not ice cream.
sorbet.

when will i learn?