Mint Julep Ice Cream

I recently checked a book out of the library called Crescent City Cooking by Susan Spicer, a restauranteer in New Orleans. I thought I didn't care much for Creole cuisine, but this book intrigued me, and I was pleasantly surprised. So far I've tried two recipes, both of which I've been happy with. This is called Mint Julep Ice Cream, and I decided to make it in honor of the (rather depressing) Kentucky Derby this past weekend.


First, we start with fresh mint from the porch. This is already an improvement on the Fresh Mint Ice Cream recipe I tried before, because it doesn't call for stemming the leaves, which saves a LOT of time. Plus, I didn't have to steam and cool multiple times - only once. I must say that there was slightly less mint taste to this recipe than the other one

While the mint and cream/half-and-half mixture is cooling, I whisked the sugar and egg yolks together.

Here's the mint and cream mixture, ready to be strained and have the sugar concontion added.

Now the hardest part: you have to cook the custard until it coats the back of a wooden spoon, watching it carefully to make sure you don't overcook and wind up with minty scrambled eggs.

Ready to go in the ice cream freezer...almost there!

The finished product, with shaved semi-sweet chocolate mixed in the last few minutes.

The recipe description states, "My rule of thumb is, 'If something tastes good, it will taste even beter if you turn it into ice cream.'" I tend to agree! Homemade ice cream tends to get even better as it ripens in the freezer, but I'm afraid it will disappear before it reaches its' peak! The bourbon gives it a wonderful flavor and keeps the ice cream soft, but next time I may reduce it just a bit to make it firm up a little more. And I should also mention that I halved this recipe to make 1 quart, because I don't know anyone who has a home ice cream maker that makes 2 quarts. Mmmmmm...

Bourbon-Glazed Ham

I managed to clear off enough space on the dining room table for us to eat on it, so we had our first REAL dinner in our new house tonight! It was so nice to have a homemade meal. On my trip to Kentucky, my family visited the Jim Bean distillery, and my mom bought a cookbook featuring bourbon recipes. I decided to try this bourbon-glazed ham tonight, with mashed potatoes and a spinach salad. I used a chive-cream cheese dip I bought that I didn't really like for fresh veggies to make the potatoes, and the bourbon glaze features honey, orange juice, molasses, Dijon mustard, and of course, a healthy dose of Jim!

The verdict
Mike loves anything involving ham, and he said he liked the glaze. I served the remaining glaze on the table, and he enjoyed brushing that on. He said he could make an awesome sandwich, thanks to Jim! The mashed potatoes were good, although not as fluffy as I usually like them to be. I give this meal 4 out of 5 stars for taste and 3 stars for health.



I also thought you might enjoy looking at some food pictures from my recent vacation to Kentucky. We went to a place called Lily's Paradise Cafe , the kind of irreverent place you can only find in a non-chain. This restaurant was also featured on Oprah, because she thinks they have the best macaroni and cheese in the world.Very interesting decor!


The legs on the wall were a little creepy...



I had the pecan-crusted chicken with a cream sauce on top. Quite tasty. I never did figure out what the thingy-do on top of the chicken was, though. Of course, I HAD to try the mac and cheese. It was good, but I say, Oprah, forget the mac and cheese, try the lima beans! They were the best I've ever had. I hardly ever make lima beans because they take longer than most vegetables, but I should make them more often, because it's one of the few veggies Mike and I can agree on.