Strawberry Ice Cream

This is most likely my last strawberry creation (at least this week). Strawberry season will last a little longer and I may be further inspired to try something else....a tart perhaps. After three batches of strawberry freezer jam, cookies and several fresh eaten strawberries, I decided to preserve the final few quarts of strawberries with cream, milk, sugar and pure vanilla in the form of some homemade strawberry ice cream.

I soaked the strawberries in sugar and fresh lemon juice all morning and mashed the strawberries to get some good juice to color the ice cream. I mixed the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla with the fresh strawberry juice and crushed strawberries and put it in my Cuisinart ice cream maker.

When it first comes out of the ice cream machine after about 25 minutes, it has a nice soft gelato like texture.

We sampled some and it was AMAZING and the rest went in a freezer safe container to freeze more to enjoy later.

A (Pretty) Good Latte

I went to Mary Ann's Chocolates today in East Grand Rapids to pick up a few treats. I was delighted when they handed me my vanilla latte to see it had this pretty fern design they put on the top. Most places just froth the milk, pour it in and hand it over, but they actually took the time to finish it off with flair. It's not only pretty, but it's the best latte I've had in a while. Now that I'm back home and Audrey is napping, I'm going to sit in front of the fire with my book, enjoy my chocolate truffle I got there and finish my latte.