Sour Cream Ice Cream

How is it Thursday already? The days are flying by this week. Upside: The weekend is almost here. Downside: i don’t have anything to show for all this time that has slipped away.
I meant to post this recipe after the Cheesemaking class that Rob and I did, but I’m only getting around to it now. I made the recipe with quark, which is a soft-ripened cheese that is whipped. It tastes a lot like sour cream, so I instantly thought of this recipe that was passed on to me by one of the chefs that I work with – shout out to Neil! Since it very unlikely that I will have quark in my home again, I’ll make this next time with sour cream.  It is the richest ice cream and it tastes like ice cream and cheesecake got together and made a heavenly cheesecake ice cream baby.

Sour Cream (or Quark) Ice Cream

• 5.25 oz sugar
• 4 yolks
• 12 oz heavy cream
• ½ t salt
• 12 oz sour cream (or quark)
• 1 t vanilla or 1 vanilla bean

1. Bring salt and cream to simmer. Meanwhile, whisk yolks and sugar in a separate bowl.
2. Remove the cream and salt from the stove and pour a small amount (about 1/4 cup) of hot cream into the eggs, whisking vigorously.  Once this is all incorporated, do it again with another 1/4 cup or so.  The idea here is to warm up the eggs, without cooking them.  Add the rest of the hot cream and whisk.
3. Pour the cream and egg mixture back into the pot and turn the heat back on to low.  Continue cooking while stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until it begins to thicken, about 5 minutes.  Run your finger along the back of the spoon and if the mixture is thick enough to hold the line you traced, it’s thick enough to pull of the heat.  Don’t overcook it!
4. Stir in sour cream and vanilla until combined.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1-2 hours.  Or if you’re in a hurry (and who isn’t when it comes to ice cream), pour it into a large ziplock bag, squish out the air and submerge into ice water until it is cold, about 20 minutes.
6. Spin your ice cream according to the directions for your ice cream maker.  Mine requires that I freeze the base for 24 hours and recommends spinning for 25 minutes.  Freeze overnight.

Yield: 1-1 ½ quarts

Since it tasted so much like cheesecake, I paired it up with a graham cracker crust and some raspberry sauce.  Heavenly… 

In other news, our living room went from this: 

To this: 

It still needs a little styling but I’m in love!  They are so comfy and much more modern than our old couches.  Much more my style.

Will Winter Ever End? and Grilled Vegetable Dip

Broken record alert.  I am so sick of winter.  We have had so much snow this year.  And then it gets nice.  And then it snows.  Rinse and repeat.  Ugh!!  I’m over it.

So this happened on Monday. 

And like I have done for nearly every snow day this year (and there have been many), I decided to dive in and bake and cook.  Except almost everything was a failure.  First I made macaroons.  They came out so ugly that I had to eat them all before Rob came home.  Luckily the dogs were more than willing to help. 

Then I made mayonnaise and broke it a record 3 times!  I finally got it right but I was so pissed by the end that I couldn’t even appreciate it.  I turned it into one of my favorite paleo lunches – tuna and peppers. 

And then I struck gold!  Grilled Vegetable Dip.  It’s almost like a cross between hummus and baba ghanoush but better because it used up things I had in my refrigerator.  Here’s what I did:

Grilled Vegetable Dip

• ~1 lb. mixed vegetables – I used zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant and portabella mushrooms
• oil – my choice, 100% olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 T tahini
• misc. chopped herbs – parsley, chives, thyme, dill, rosemary
• extra virgin olive oil
• bonus points: 1 oz. goat cheese

1. Slice the eggplant and squash into 1/4″ thick slices.  Remove the stem and gills from the mushrooms.

2. Drizzle the vegetables with oil on both sides and season with salt and pepper.  Grill on each side until cooked but not falling apart.  Truth be told, my vegetables were the leftovers from dinner the night before.  Veggies shrink down quite a bit when they are cooked, but I started my dip-making with about 2 cups of grilled veggies.

3. Put the cooled veggies, lemon juice (start with half and add more as needed), tahini and herbs into a food processor and pulse a few times until it is consistently chopped.  If you’re adding the goat cheese, do it now.

4. Turn the food processor on to run consistently and stream in a few tablespoons of evoo until it comes together into an emulsified dip.

5.  Taste it and adjust the salt and pepper.  Try not to eat it out of the food processor directly.  Honestly, this got better the second day, so I’m really just trying to help you out here.

This dip is awesome with all sorts of raw veggies.  You could spread it on a sandwich if you were a sandwich eating type person.  I bet it would be good in a salad.  Mostly I’ve been eating mine off of a spoon, straight out of the fridge.

Running into Spring and Cheesemaking

It’s Thursday… wait, what?!?  This week has flown by (again).  Why is it that the older I get, the faster time seems to go?  I don’t know but it seems like every time I blink lately a day, a week, a year has passed without me noticing.

We had a very brief period of Spring weather over the weekend and I managed to run outside.  It was freaking ahh-mazing!  I have been having some very successful treadmill runs lately that I chalk up to my increased fitness from Crossfit, but I was a little nervous about running outside.  History has taught me that my comfort on the treadmill does not always translate when there are elements to contend with outside – wind, cold, heat, hills, sidewalk cracks, you get the idea.  I purposefully chose to wait until the weather was gorgeous before venturing out.  That way, at least the weather wouldn’t be crapping on me.  Turns out, I didn’t need to worry at all.  The run was fantastic.  I actually found myself able to do little bursts where I picked up the pace for a minute or two, generally until I got distracted and forgot that I was trying to run faster.  Speaking of distraction, I actually managed to zone out and “lose” a few blocks of running, which is completely my favorite way of running.  I actually zoned back in and was like “Woah, how did I get to the turn around point already?”  Now that is what I call a good run.

On Sunday, Rob and I went to a cheesemaking class.  Even though Rob basically has zero interest in learning to cook, he is endlessly interested in producing food items.  He wants to learn to make cheese and beer and liquor and things like that.  I find his interest confusing but I’m never one to discourage any interest he has in food, so for Christmas, I bought him a cheesemaking kit and then I signed him up for this class at the school where I work.  The cheesmakers are literally the sweetest people on earth.  They come twice a year from Three Shepherds Farm in Vermont to teach these classes.  Every time they come I look forward to it.

We made tons of cheese and we ended up taking home more than most because we were the last ones there (I had to lock up).  Our mozzarella balls turned into margherita pizza.  That is the thing I crave more than anything else when I am trying to eat grain free.  And man, did it hit the spot!

We also have a cup or so of quark that I’m planning on making into ice cream.  There are 5 (!) rounds of soft-ripened cheese rolled in herbs.  I plan on giving some of these away because as much as I love it (tastes a lot like chevre but it’s made out of cow’s milk) I know I can’t eat that much before it goes bad.  But a little part of me is sad to part with it.  My garage is now home to 3 rounds of feta that are brining.  They take 1-2 months, so we’ll see how that turns out.

 

Crossfit Goals

A funny thing happened this morning.  I have a friend that I workout with at Crossfit.  I met her there and we are usually pretty well matched both in pace and ability.  She is an amazing motivator because she is within reach.  This morning I realized she has blown by me in a couple of key areas.  Two things that are very challenging for me – pull-ups and double-unders – she has turned into a pro on (seemingly) overnight.  I am so excited for her!  And it’s putting a little giddy-up in my step.  I can’t be lacsidaisical about this anymore!

The time has come for me to officially put into writing my Crossfit goals.  I have been at this for about 6 months and there have been some amazing strides, but some things are not coming along as fast as I would like.  Hopefully this will give me the benchmark I need to see some serious results.  I’ve even included some non-Crossfit goals that are just general fitness things I would like to do in the next year.  I will do:

• 1 Double Under on command (not by accident)
• A string (5 or more) of Double Unders
• Rx Workout with Double Unders in it
• 1 unassisted Pull Up
• Rx Workout with unassisted Pull Ups
• A full-depth handstand Push Up
• Run a 5k in under 30 minutes
• Complete an Olympic distance triathlon
• Back Squat 1.5 times my body weight
• Bench Press 100 lbs.
• Deadlift 1.5 times my body weight
• Front Squat my body weight
• Fran unassisted
• A true Filthy Fifty, Rx
• Ground to Shoulder with the 115# Atlas Stone
• A Muscle Up on the bar
• Learn to Climb the Rope
• A 30″ Box jump
• An unassisted Ring Dip
• Compete in the 2015 Crossfit Open

Somehow just putting all of these down already makes me feel more motivated!  I’m ready to get going!!