Jeni's Ice Cream

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream is one of my favorite places in Columbus. I hadn't been there in months, and Kirk took me last weekend. It's a local business who purchases most of their ingredients locally. They have some amazing flavors that aren't too sweet. (I got salted caramel with smoked almonds, aka gravel road, and black currant yogurt). They also have these amazing looking ice cream sandwiches...and everything from their logo to the layout of their shop is really nicely designed.

I will really miss this place when we leave Columbus. I judge all ice cream against Jeni's now....and not much of it measures up.

The Birthday Feast

Sorry for those of you who missed out on Mom and Aaron's Indian birthday feast. It was delish. Lucky for you, I had my little camera in my purse.

Here's my plate:

Clockwise from the top: Naan (Aaron), jasmine rice (Mom) with potato tiki (yummy spicy, and coconut - me), yellow dal (me and mom), saag (spinach curry - Aaron). Oh, and limeade.

We were in a hurry, so Aaron made the Naan from our bread dough in the fridge - from the Artisan Bread book. It is partly wheat. It was really soft and yummy.


Not pictured: brownies (Mom) and homemade vanilla bean ice cream (Aaron).

YUM.

Now what have you all been eating? Seriously, let's get more posts up here!

Dal

Aaron bought the book Six Spices recently:




It's all Indian food. Yum. He's only tried a couple of recipes, but they were really good, and the other day I was seriously craving some lentils. So I made the dal recipe that Aaron had tried: brown dal (except made with yellow lentils instead) and rice with cumin seed.



I love this stuff. It may look like yellow mush, but it's delicious.

And I'm learning that ghee makes everything taste better.

the last supper

This is the last meal I'll be cooking in our Kerman home. Eggplants, tomatoes, and basil from our garden, plus carrots, garlic, green pepper, olive oil, and spices.

All the kitchen stuff is packed except a few essentials. It's sad to leave our friends here, and our still productive garden, but we're excited to be in La Jolla and for a new adventure.

The trip to Utah and elsewhere was fantastic, so thanks to all of you Jorgies for making it wonderful. Kris has been sick for the past 3 days so I've been packing on my own and with a little help from some wonderful ladies in the ward.

Sam has been having a rough time post-trip with all the traveling and now all the packing and big changes. Oh, and the fact that he's getting 2 molars and a very painful front, top tooth. Despite this he has figured out how to do the sign for milk, say cookie (cah-koo), and incorporate a few more dance moves into his repertoire.

Zucchini Quesadillas

Guess what! I made something. Me. Not Aaron.

I saw this yummy recipe and made it since we have zucchini from our garden. I didn't have corn, so I put in some green pepper, and I added a can of black beans. I used a combo of jack and cheddar cheese.
The garlic makes it.

Delish.

On Homemade Ice Cream

We have three ice cream makers. One (a small one that you stick in the freezer and then use a hand-crank) I got for Aaron on Father's Day when our oldest was a baby. Number two was one of those traditional ones that makes a lot - loud, with the wood exterior - remember? Three, we just got.

We've used it twice now, both times vanilla (once vanilla bean - which is amazing), both times for Mom and Dad. Both times the ice cream was eaten too quickly for (good) photos.

Something that's interesting that we've learned about making ice cream (from Alton Brown) is that you can substitute fruit preserves (not jam, preserves) for part of the sugar in equal amounts. The pectin is supposed to help the ice cream set up, too. So we take out about 2T of sugar and add 2T peach preserves. It adds just a really subtle flavor - not even a flavor, more like a layer of taste or something. It's definitely still vanilla.



But it's extra delicious. Especially when served with warm chocolate chip cookies (or, when forced, lesser white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies from dough you were suckered into buying for a fundraiser from a neighbor kid).

pie for breakfast

This was the best pie I've ever made (now that I have 3 years of pie making experience, thanks to Kris's love of it). I made it for a 4th of July party and came across the picture the other day. This was before the top crust was put on and it was cooked. Fresh, local blackberries and strawberries, sugar, butter, and flour. It was amazing--and that's from me, Jenn, and I am not much of a pie enthusiast. Of course it was served with vanilla ice cream. Oh, and the title is such because pie is probably Kris's favorite breakfast food.