A Tip Of The Hat To Elvis.

Banana ice cream with peanut butter squirts. Daniel D said he would be into a banana and peanut butter ice cream. He's a pretty cool guy, so I made him some. A standard custard with yolks, milk, and sugar. Blah blah blah. Earlier, I had whipped four ripe bananas into a smoothish liquid. There were still considerable lumps. I mixed the bananas, custard, and a bit of vanilla all together and stashed it in the fridgerator.


In an effort to make the peanut butter pipe better I whipped it up, and added a pinch of salt and some honey for good measure. The whipped peanut butter was put into a bag. The cooled custard was mixed with heavy cream and put into the machine. When the ice cream was frozen I squirted the peanut butter into the cups, alternating with scoops of the ice cream.


After last months garlic ice cream it was nice to see pints finished.

Roasted Garlic.

Another collaborative effort, this time the impetus and assistance was from Jen. I got a head start by throwing 5 heads of garlic into the oven on Wednesday as some squash was being roasted for thanksgivings soup. After about an hour I pulled the garlic out and, once they cooled, squirted the roasted cloves out of their skins and into a container to be fridgerated until it was time to make the custard.

As usual we made a pretty standard custard with milk, egg yolks, and sugar.With hopes to add a bit more flavor one 1/4 cup of the regular white sugar was substituted with brown sugar. After the custard had cooled we tossed the roasted garlic and approximately one cup of cream into the blender and tried to get it all as well pureed as possible before making garlic whiped cream. The puree was then passed through a strainer into the custard. More heavy cream was added until we had our 4 cups.


That shit was put into the machine and we listened to the first side of Season Of Glass as it did its thing.
I'm not sure if I like it. I noticed Jen only had a spoonful. It is a sweet, creamy, savory ice cream, it just tastes like garlic. Obviously I expected it to taste like garlic, in fact it tastes better than I expected. I'm just not sure I ever need to taste it again. I am very excited to share this ice cream with Blaine, she is one of the biggest garlic lovers I know. Hopefully I can get some to Cousin Brian as well, but DC is far away for a pint of ice cream.
Much love to these brave souls.




"Garlic has been regarded as a force for both good and evil. A Christian myth considers that after Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic arose in his left footprint and onion in the right"
-David Pickering

Gingerbread.

So, Autumn rules. The leaves change, I get to wear sweaters and flannel, girls wear sexy boots, novelty seasonal bullshit, slow food, etc....
I can't say I eat too much gingerbread, but it seemed like a fun thing to try. I assembled all the ingredients; milk, egg yolks, brown sugar, molasses, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, heavy cream, and candied ginger.


Kate helped out with this one and she grated the ginger root, while I separated the eggs and grated the nutmeg. The usual custard was made using brown sugar and molasses. Nutmeg, cinnamon, and strained ginger juice were added to the custard and the mixture was then strained and allowed to cool.


Hours later I added the cream to the chilled custard and poured the mixture into the machine. Once the custard had set up I added the candied ginger and allowed the machine to mix the pieces throughout.




"How could one be in this world without feeling dismayed by it? Even if one paints flowers and gingerbread."
-Gerhard Richter

Cherry Vanilla Coke Custard.

We started by reducing four cans of cherry coke over a medium heat.
The custard was then prepared with six egg yolks and one cup of milk. The milk was heated and the eggs tempered. We beat the yolks in an electric mixer before and during the tempering. We feel this adds a smooth and light, yet still rich, texture to the custard. The egg and milk mixture then went back onto the stove for a few minutes.

Two teaspoons of vanilla were added to the reduced soda, and subsequently mixed into the custard. Enough heavy cream was added to make about four cups of liquid, the mixture was then frozen.

A day later I shared it with some friends.

Honey Drippin' Beehive.

"Why was honey considered an aphrodisiac, anyway? Honey is rich in B vitamins needed for testosterone production, but could people have known that in ancient times? Could it be that the scent of honey resembled the smell of urine due to the presence of phenylacetic acid in both, and that smell of urine just so happened to bring to people's minds images of genitalia? Bois de Jasmin's Victoria writes: "Phenylacetic acid in extremely low concentrations has a luscious honey and animalic malt odour; however, in large doses, it becomes distinctly urinous" -pink manhattan

We kept it simple this time.
6 egg yolks, milk, vanilla, heavy cream, and honey.


The milk got heated and the honey disolved into it. That mixture went into the eggs and then back on the stove for a few minutes.
I put that shit through a strainer and stashed it in the fridge for a few hours, mixed in the heavy cream, got out the machine and froze the custard.

This custard came out pretty good. Ralph was really enthused about the texture, and enjoyed that it wasnt too sweet.
Personally, I was a little disappointed in how mild the honey flavor was. I guess I have to spend some time investigating more local honey before I try this one agin.

"flaming ruby heart
pee on my naked thigh
shiny wet behind
I get hard and I cry"
-G. Bataille

Tony Shrooms Lime Ice.

A few weeks ago I went to the local folk fest. A nice day of listening to pretty terrible music and people watching. Hanging out in the shade and just enjoying my friends and being outside. Anthony suggested we get some ices, and this was something I could totally get down with. The line was long, but there was nothing else to do. I don't remember the specific flavors but I know I got a lemon ice, Jen might have gotten lemon and cherry, Anthony got 2 lemons. There was probably chocolate and blue as well. Blue, I assume, is raspberry. So, while in line Anthony thought out loud about how good a lime ice would be. I thought this was a great idea, and a few weeks later I got around to making one.
The first step was to make a simple syrup. One cup of sugar and one cup of water get combined and heated until the sugar is all dissolved. In the meantime I zested four limes and juiced what I think was about ten limes. I tossed half the zest in to the syrup in hopes to infuse the syrup with some extra lime flavor. Then I stuck the syrup in the frigerator.



I gave the syrup a little longer to chill, and gave myself a nice afternoon nap. When I woke up a few hours later I mixed about two thirds of a cup of the syrup with the juice, added a bit more water, and the remaining lime zest. Then I poured it all into the ice cream machine. A few minutes before it looked ready I added a beaten egg white. Again, I dont know science but from what I understand the egg white stabilizes the mixture and keeps it from freezing into a huge solid ice cube in the freezer.
I couldn't get a nice looking picture of the finished ice, but hopefully I'll get around to taking a nice picture of Tony Shrooms enjoying it.

The All Seeing Eye Scream.

The plan was to make a kiwi custard for banana splits. I started with a dozen kiwis mashed them up, tossed two tablespoons of sugar on them, and stuck them in the fridgerator for an hour. I suppose some science goes to work at this point and breaks the fruit down a bit. I took the kiwi out and processed them to a liquid and tried my best to strain the seeds out.



Putting the fruit to the side, I made a standard custard with egg yolks, milk, and sugar. When the custard was finished I let it cool for a bit. Later on I mixed in the kiwi and some cream, then waited until the next day to freeze it.
I didn't find the time to freeze it for a few days and then when I did I forgot to put the mixing blade into my machine. A few minutes passed as I assembled the tools needed to store the finished custard. It had only been a few minutes, but it was already too late. The custard had started to freeze in a solid sheet to the bottom and sides of the machine. Trying in vain to scrape the sides and get the blade in there I realized I would have to save the unfrozen custard, clean and refreeze the frozen part of the ice cream machine and try again the next day. Sadly, I didn't get back to the custard for two or three days. By this time the custard smelled a little funny, so I poured it down the drain.
However, the day wasn't a total loss. I went to Louis st. without the custard, and got another tattoo from the cutest up and comming tattooer I know.