Sweet Date

While my mother-in-law was here earlier this week, she was more than willing to do some babysitting, which gave John and I the chance to have a sweet little date at Sweet Melissa in the neighborhoood.  We indulged a little (a lot, actually) on decadent sundaes.  I had the Apple Bread Pudding Sundae with rum raisin caramel sauce and John had the Peanut Butter Decadence Sundae.  It was a sweet little date!

Walking to the Grocery Store

I was walking to the grocery store the other day and noticed that these yellow flowers are everywhere.  It's our first spring in this neighborhood, so it's fun to see for the first time what flowers are blooming.

Shadows and Clouds

Strawberry Lavender Ice Cream

Strawberry Lavender Ice Cream

Lavender Simple Syrup:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp lavender buds

Combine sugar, water, and lavender in a saucepan and bring to boil.  Let boil for 1 minute and then remove fom heat.  Let stand for 10 minutes.  Strain syrup to remove the lavender buds and chill the syrup.

Strawberry Ice Cream:
3 cups strawberries, sliced
1 cup sugar, divided
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

Combine strawberries, 1/2 cup sugar, and lemon juice.  Allow strawberries to macerate in the juices for 2 hours.  Strain the berries, reserving the juices.  Mash or puree the strawberries (depending on how chuncky you want the ice cream.)  Add the lavender syrup to the reserved juice.

Combine the milk and remaining 1/2 cup sugar with a hand mixer on low speed for about 1 minute or until sugar is dissolved.  Stir in the heavy cream, reserved strawberry lavender juice, mashed strawberries, and vanilla.

Pour the mix into an ice cream maker and let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes.  Transfer the ice cream to an air tight container and freeze overnight before serving.

*I used the strawberry ice cream recipe that came with my ice cream machine.  I had the idea to add the lavender syrup which I used from another recipe.  The lavender flavor is very subtle and almost too subtle for me.  I think next time I make this, I'll use 1 tsp of lavender buds instead of 1/2 tsp to increase the flavor.

Signs of Spring

The New Love of Our Life

Hello Blogosphere!

I can't believe it's been nearly nine months since my last post!  I had just found out I was pregnant on my last post and as I write this now, I'm one day away from my due date.  We moved to Brooklyn over the summer and soon after our move, my old laptop finally died.  So I was unable to access my blog until recently when I purchased a new laptop.  Now I'm back in business!  We've had lots of snow in New York in the last few weeks, so I want to share some pictures from Prospect Park, which is really beautiful covered in snow.