I didn’t want to leave Market Week without sharing this amazingly simple but oh so delicious treat!  But sadly, my writing mojo is seriously lacking today (okay, all of my mojo is lacking today…people, I wore TWO DIFFERENT shoes around my office for an hour today before noticing my mistake).  So instead, I will let my pictures do the talking! I want to thank Kelly over at eat make read for hosting this wonderful event! Check out her site for links to other bloggers who participated in Market Week or hop over to the Market Week Flickr page! 

Fresh milk from a local creamery!

Vanilla Ricotta Cheese from Blue Ridge Dairy: YUMMMMMMM!!!! You can eat it simply with fresh berries!

Place 8 ounces of the vanilla ricotta in a mixing bowl and get out your trusty whisk!

I honestly didn’t use cups to measure out the ingredients, so just add heavy cream and some milk (use more heavy cream then milk) to the ricotta.  Whisk until you have a yogurt like consistency.  Add only about 1/4 cup of sugar…taste to see if it’s sweet enough for you.  If it is, refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour.  Then follow your ice cream machine’s instructions!  For the blueberry sauce, I simply placed one cup of fresh blueberries in a saucepan with about a tablespoon of sugar (add more sugar if you like your sauces very sweet).  I then heated up the berries and sugar over medium high heat until the berries released some of their juices and it thickened to my liking.  Scoop, sauce and enjoy!  This is the perfect Summer treat and it was easy as pie to make.  Have a good weekend and check out a local farmers market!

I must start this post with a disclaimer: this entire ice cream recipe was the brain child of Joy the Baker. I take absolutely zero credit for this wonderful dish, so heap all the compliments on her. It all started when Joy read on my blog that I was in a funk. Being the wonderful person that she is, she immediately sent me a care package! Someone I have never actually met cared enough to take time out of her very busy day to send me something that she knew would make me smile. And it really, truly did…

To say I was touched was an understatement, so I very quickly sent her a thank you e-note. Her response? A lovely suggestion for coffee infused ice cream! I couldn’t resist making it and it turned out heavenly. I threw in the walnuts because let’s face it, everything tastes better with nuts (get your minds out of the gutter people). So this is my tribute to Joy, a very true and dear blogger friend…scratch that. A very true and dear friend.

1 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons coffee beans

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

Combine the milk and sugar in a saucepan and warm it up to a simmer. Remove from the heat and add the coffee beans. Allow the beans to steep for an hour and then drain out the whole beans. In a different bowl, separate out the egg yolks and temper them with a tablespoon of the milk mixture. Whisk the egg mixture and then add it to the milk. Add the heavy cream to the milk mixture and return it to the stove on low heat. Stir the custard like mixture until it thickens. Once it does, allow it to cool before pouring it into your ice cream maker. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the ice cream and add the walnuts five minutes before it is done!

I have only been a part of the food blogging community for about five months, but I have already met some amazing people. This is my 100th post and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate it than thanking one of the nicest, most supportive blogger friends I have ever met!

Yeah, it’s a long title but it tastes oh so good!

It was such a beautiful day yesterday that my thoughts immediately went to ice cream..and things to accompany said ice cream. Since I had been toying with the idea of making a biscotti for a while, I decided to see how hard it really was to make. When I googled “biscotti recipes”, I was amazed at the variation in methods for making the hard Italian cookie. But no one recipe really spoke to me (no, there are not voices in my head…just my gut instinct…whose name is Sylvia), so I decided to wing it (and cross my fingers that I wouldn’t burn down my kitchen).

I already knew I wanted to use chocolate and I also decided to throw in some pistachios I had left over from the weekend. But as I was getting out the chocolate bars and various other baking ingredients, I stumbled upon a small bottle of rosewater. I had forgotten I even had it, so I decided to throw it into the mix. The biscotti came out very well…the rosewater gave the chocolate more depth without being overpowering. And the cookie was crisp, but not hurt your jaw hard. It made for the perfect dipping stick for my Chocolate Chunk Walnut Ice Cream!

Biscotti:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

4 tablespoons butter, softened

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon rosewater

1/2 cup pistachios

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a large baking sheet.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and rosewater thoroughly. Slowly add in the flour mixture until a dense “dough” is made (don’t worry, it’s supposed to look like this…it freaked me out a bit too). Remove the mixing bowl from the stand and fold in the pistachios. Turn the dough out onto the baking sheet and make two piles of it. Form two 12 inch log shapes out of the dough. To flatten and smooth out the top of the dough, place a piece of parchment paper over the logs and smooth out the dough (making sure to retain the log shape).

Place the logs in the fire…I mean oven for 25 minutes. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and allow the logs to cool slightly. When they are cool to the touch, cut the dough into lengthwise pieces (the width of the pieces are totally up to you), return them to the baking sheet and bake them for another 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before digging in.

Chocolate Chunk Walnut Ice Cream

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups heavy cream

1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into chunks

1/2 cup to 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Mix together the milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add the heavy cream and the vanilla and stir until incorporated. Turn on your ice cream maker (follow the instructions for preparing the machine for use) and pour in the milk mixture. Allow the ingredients to churn for at least 25 minutes and then toss in the walnuts and the chocolate chunks. Churn for another 5 minutes (longer if you want a harder consistency of ice cream).

Scoop out the ice cream and garnish with a biscotti (or two…or three…no judgment here).

I was fairly tired after finally making it home (thanks to a 3 hour delay courtesy of my favorite airline), but there was also this strong craving for strawberries. So after making sure the Diva was happy (she pretends to miss me, but I’m pretty sure it’s all about the food for her) and unpacking a few things, I set my mind towards coming up with a good way to get my strawberry fix…

It just so happened that strawberries were included in my CSA box. But when I went to get my half of the share from Greyhound Celebrity, I realized the berries were a bit too small for a big dessert. But they would work nicely in an ice cream! With that in mind, I stopped by Whole Foods for some additional strawberries (to augment what I had gotten in the box), some cream and milk and some pistachios! Yup, I was going to throw some nuts in the mix and (hold on to your hats dear readers) marinate the strawberries in balsamic vinegar and a bit of sugar for an added punch.

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

3 egg yolks

1 cup sugar (and a tablespoon for the marinade)

1 pound of strawberries, sliced and diced

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pistachios

Remove the stems and cut the tops off of the strawberries, slicing them and placing them in a mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of the vinegar to the strawberries, tossing to make sure the berries are evenly coated. Set aside for at least 2 hours.

Place the pistachios in a separate bowl and pour boiling water completely over them. Allow them to sit for about a minute and then drain. In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, the milk, the pistachios and the remaining sugar, stirring to incorporate everything. Turn the heat to medium high, stirring frequently until the mixture comes to a near boil. Remove it before a full boil begins and pour it into a chilled bowl. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least three hours. You want the mixture to become almost custard like in its consistency.

Pour the mixture into the chilled bowl of an automatic ice cream maker. At this point you should follow the instructions for your particular ice cream maker model. For my Cuisinart model, I placed the churner (I have no idea what else to call the mixing “blade” that goes inside the bowl…so yes, I made up a word) in the chilled bowl, placed the plastic cover over the bowl and then poured the mixture into the bowl. I then turned on the machine and allowed it to churn for 25 minutes (I like my ice cream a bit soft, so if you like yours harder, let it churn for at least 35 minutes).

So while I should have probably unpacked all of my things and responded to the many emails in my inbox, I opted for some homemade ice cream and the latest episode of Top Chef. And I don’t regret it one bit…