Ginger Ice Cream

As the Northeast is in the grip of a 90+ degree heatwave (I think we're on day 5 of above 90 degree temps?), I decided it was a great time for an ice cream post.

Ginger ice cream, to be precise.

Remember the peach ice cream I made last summer? This is basically the same recipe from The Savannah Cookbook, except with ginger instead of peaches.

Because you can get the full recipe for making the custard from the peach ice cream post, I won't go through it here. Everything is done exactly the same until you get to the point where you add the flavors. After mixing the cooked custard with the whole milk, you just mix in a very generous 3/4 cup of chopped crystallized ginger and about  a tablespoon of grated fresh ginger. Tip: fresh ginger is easier to grate if you freeze it first. Mine wasn't quite frozen so I got a bit of a juicy mess. Still tasted good though.

Another tip I discovered this time around. The recipe in the cookbook says to scald the cream and vanilla in the top of your double boiler over direct heat. I never really like this step, I didn't feel it worked well.  But since you really do need to use a double boiler to get the custard to cook right, I just switched it up a bit. I scalded the cream in a regular 1-quart saucepan, stirred in the sugar, beat the egg yolks in the top of the double boiler (off heat). Then I beat a cup of the cream mixture into the eggs and put the double boiler top over simmering water to complete the process. Worked great. No pictures, unfortunately, since I was too busy whisking away.

Incidentally, this ice cream is a delightful accompaniment to raspberry pie. Just in case you wanted a pairing.

Mango Lassi

Holy smokes, it's almost the end of June already, isn't it?  Well, as usually happens, I've fallen a bit off the "maintain real life and also your interwebz presence" during these last couple weeks of school. But I do have a very easy recipe to share on this first day of summer - and my first official day of summer vacation!

I first tasted mango lassi when the hubs and I were on vacation over April break. We went to an Indian restaurant in Flagstaff, and I thought this would be an interesting drink to try. Absolutely awesome. After some searching, I found a recipe that, turns out, tastes almost exactly like the one I had in Arizona. There's probably some secret ingredient the folks in Flagstaff included, but this was darn close!

Mixed Berry Pie and Turnovers (OXO Product Review)

Wow, I've kind of fallen off the wagon with posts over the last couple weeks.  I apologize to my loyal readers.  To make it up to you, let me share a delicious new pie recipe and tell you about OXO's new cherry pitter design.

To make this pie...

...which involves delicious homegrown sweet cherries, blackberries, and blueberries...

...you need one of these.

But the design of the above pictured cherry pitter is awful.  I'd been using it for about three years now, and I never liked it.  The grip was too far apart to be comfortable for my hands, it wouldn't really come clean in the dishwasher and was a slight pain to wash by hand. Plus it splattered cherry juice everywhere - on my counter, down my arm, across my (apron-clad) front...

You get the idea.

But fresh cherry pies are so awesome, so you need a decent cherry pitter to make the pitting part easy.

I received OXO's newly designed cherry pitter recently and I have to say, it's pretty awesome.

For one thing, the distance between the hand grips is far, far smaller than on my old cherry pitter.  It's more ergonomically designed and thus more comfortable for pitting quart upon quart of cherries.  The overall design is a lot smarter too.

The prong (the thing that pushes through the cherry, I don't know if it has an actual name) is made of metal - probably stainless steel.  The little "cradle for the cherry is also a little more secure - I had no fears of the cherry falling out, which was a bit of a problem on my old pitter.  Plus, see that little plastic sleeve on the bottom there?  That's a splash guard.

So you don't spray yourself and your kitchen with cherry juice.

It works like a dream.

Plus, that little plastic guard comes off for easy cleaning - and like most OXO products, the whole thing is dishwasher safe.

And perhaps my favorite part (aside from the dishwasher safe thing) - there's a little locking mechanism that lets you lock the pitter closed for easy storage.  Takes up way less space in my drawer!

So, armed with this awesome OXO cherry pitter, what did I decide to make?

Well, that mixed berry pie, of course!

It was one of a dozen pies I made for a friend's wedding recently.

(This, by the way, is one of the reasons I haven't blogged much in the past couple weeks.  The other reason is getting my classroom ready.)

Anyway, the mixed berry pie was amazing, if I do say so myself.  Want to know how to make it?

Lemon Sponge

Ah, lemon sponge!  I never know if I should classify this as a dessert or a side dish.  It's a type of gelatin salad, the likes of which are usually served alongside a main course item.  But it's sweet enough for a light dessert.  It's a family picnic favorite. Whenever we're planning to fire up the grill for some serious summer festivities (okay, or turn on the stove for some serious winter festivities), the question always comes up - who is making lemon sponge!

I meant to post this earlier, so people would have time to acquire the ingredients and whip up this delightful dish for tomorrow's Independence Day festivities.  Because it's so easy and delicious, and screams summer. In fact, if you're willing to get up early and run to the store, you can get this made in plenty of time for your afternoon barbecues. As long as you have four hours between the time you finish assembling and the time you plan to eat, you're golden.

We always considered this a family recipe, but a few months back we were rifling through my nana's old recipe box and discovered a recipe for ORANGE sponge clipped from a newspaper.  Granted, said newspaper was likely from the thirties or forties.  Maybe the fifties if we're feeling generous.  But I think it's safe to say that this has now become a family secret.

And I'm sharing it with all the interwebz.

So the original recipe called for orange flavored gelatin, and we use lemon.  You could use any citrus flavor you like, really, but the lemon is particularly refreshing.  Your barbecue guests will rave and ask for the recipe, just like everybody at our choir picnic last week.