Heart a Day - Day 21

No pears were harmed in the making of this heart.  No, that's not true, but it didn't go to waste - it valiantly served as one of my daily fruit and fiber servings.

Heart a Day - Day 20 - Red Carpet Raspberry Swirl

I was concocting a recipe for Orange Cardamom gelato that Duff from JeanJeanVintage had tweeted about last week.  It sounded so amazing; I found an orange gelato recipe that seemed suitable, planned on substituting cardamom for the Grand Marnier, and then, at the grocery store these huge cartons of raspberries stuck their tongue out at me.

Change of plans, Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream it is - seems so decadent for February.  Raspberries have such a summer flavor.  Oh, and go check out her Etsy store, such gorgeous vintage jewelry and beaded clutches - she has exquisite taste.

Here's the recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz which is my Ice Cream Bible.  I substituted 1 Tbsp of lemon juice for the raspberry swirl instead of vodka, cause that's how I roll.

Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1.5 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (get good stuff from a spice store if you can, it's worth it!)

Raspberry Swirl

1.5 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vodka (or lemon juice)

Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan, stir until sugar dissolves.  Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks.  Slowly pour the warm (not hot) milk and sugar mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly.  Then scrape the warm egg yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over low-medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom.  Slow is better, take your time.  Be patient, just when you think it's not going to thicken up and consider turning up the heat, it will thicken, coating the back of the spatula.  You now have custard.

Pour the custard through the mesh strainer into the cream.  Add the vanilla extract and stir until cool over an ice bath.  Chill in the refrigerator.

To make the raspberry swirl, mash the raspberries with a fork or even a potato masher, together with the sugar and the lemon juice until they're juicy, but not completely pulverized.  Chill until you're ready to add to the ice cream.

Freeze the ice cream according to your ice cream maker's instructions.  I have a Cuisinart that my mom gave me and it's my most favorite appliance.  After freezing the ice cream, layer it with the raspberry swirl mixture in a container.  Or you can skip the fancy layering step and just add it to the ice cream at the end when it's just about done.   Put it back in the freezer to firm up and enjoy!

Heart a Day - Day 19

It's days are numbered, digging out the shamrock wreath today.

Heart a Day - Day 18

These paper garlands seem to be popping up everywhere - they're easy but a little tedious to make.  I used a heart paper cutter to cut out a bunch of hearts, sewed two together at a time, leaving a length of string in between each, then folded the hearts so they'd be three dimensional when done.  Just don't let them get tangled up!

Heart a Day - Day 17

Sprinkles - the original eye candy.

Heart a Day - Day 16

I have this little terrarium I'm putting together, it was just sitting there on my worktable looking green but kind of empty - needed some love.

Heart a Day - Day 15

Heart a Day 15, Butter Sandwich

This child eats at least one butter sandwich a day.  Not peanut butter, not jelly, just butter on bread.  I think I mentioned she is the pickiest eater the world has ever known.