guest post with Hot Polka Dot: vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream

What can I say about my blogger pal, Lindsey? Well, for starters, her blog, Hot Polka Dot, is fantastic. She's always coming up with new and exciting recipes with amazing pictures and stories to go along with them. But she's not only baking and cooking. Oh, no. She posts great tutorials, how-tos, kitchen tips, fashion inspiration, and DIYs. You'll just have to click on over to her blog to see all of the inspiring things she's got going on. I swear you won't be disappointed.

I won't keep you from this dessert any longer (although I suspect you've probably skipped all of this upon reading it was about ice cream). Here's Lindsey with the most delicious and refreshing vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream recipe:

I'd like to tell you that this lovely mint came from my own personal garden. I'd like to tell you that I whispered sweet nothings to it as I lovingly raised it from a seedling to glorious maturity. I'd like to tell you that my backyard looks like something out of a Barefoot Contessa with a lush jungle of waist high rosemary, basil, and thyme. I'd like to tell you that when planting my herbs this spring, I had the forethought to include mint. But I can't. I won't lie to you.

The truth is my sad little herb garden -- which consists of six dollar store terracotta pots with the wrong potting soil -- is infested with aphids and hasn't been watered in three days. It's dry, brown and rather piddly. It's not pretty.

So no, I will not be making fresh pesto from my own basil. And no, I will not be garnishing my pasta with chopped parsley. And no, I will not be stirring chives into my sour cream to make baked potatoes extra special. And I will most certainly not be making creamy potato salad with my own sprigs of dill.

Let's just be real here. I buy my herbs from little containers at the supermarket. Frequently they're wilted and often smushed. I buy hot house tomatoes because they're cheaper than the vine ripened tomatoes. I am a dirty dirty herb killer.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about ice cream. I've always wanted to make vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream with fresh mint and real vanilla bean and, I've got to tell you, I wasn't disappointed. The mint leaves create a cool mint flavour with a bright fresh from the garden taste that just can't be replicated with all the extracts in the world. The unexpected bonus of using fresh mint was the subtle hint of green that tinted the custard. The vanilla bean sweetens and deepens the flavour while adding yet another layer to the experience. Of course, it couldn't be complete without chocolate! I promise you'll never want that grocery store mint ice cream again!

{vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream}

makes about 10 servings

source: adapted from KitchenAid's French Vanilla Ice Cream

printer friendly

2 1/2 cup half and half cream

1 vanilla bean

3 cup mint leaves, packed

8 egg yolks

1 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chunks

In a medium sauce pan, heat the half and half cream, whole vanilla bean, and mint leaves on medium heat until it starts steaming. Take it off the heat, cover it, and set it aside for an hour to allow the mint flavour time to infuse.

Reheat the cream mixture on medium heat until it's very hot but not boiling. Strain out the mint leaves and set aside the vanilla bean.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar on low speed until they're blended and slightly thick, about 30 seconds. Pour the hot cream gradually into the egg yolk mixture while it's mixing on low.

Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds with the edge of your knife. Stir in the vanilla seeds, whipping cream, and salt then refrigerate it for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Once it's sufficiently chilled, mix it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. In the last few minutes of mixing, add the chocolate chunks.

Serve it with a garnish of fresh mint leaves. Enjoy!

how to idly clean jewelry

Grab your tarnished piece and try it on in every possible combination cuz obviously you haven't worn it in a while. (Please choose only your cheapy-fakey pieces for this method.)

Then take it off your finger, dummy. It's easier to clean that way.

Grab the toothpaste you used to brush your teeth this morning (or at least I hope you used it this morning).

Plop some on your ring.

Smear it around and really rub it in. If you have an old toothbrush, that'd be handy, too.

Depending on whether you're cleaning one piece really quick or all your pieces at once, you may or may not end up with super cool mint hands.

Rinse off the toothpaste and check it out. This is after one rubbing. You might have to go through the steps a few times to get what you want.

This is after two scrubbings. Good enough for me!

Supa clean!

friday fixations

{a handy tip for the easily distracted} Do this then get stuff done.

{cute junk} I'm not really a dog person, but I think chickapugs are the bee's knees! (Also, saying "bee's knees!" I'm bringing it back.) And I want to take a hundred photos of these super cute donuts! I might've squealed when I saw them. Cat donuts: The new macaron.

{internet access CAPTCHAs} Um this should've been installed, like, yesterday.

Source: jungjung.jp via Idle on Pinterest

{crochet and all things knitted} This is definitely a huge obsession for me right now. I have to learn more... (also this artist is amazeballs.)

{wild rose detox} I just finished this and I'm feeling a lot better. A lot a lot. Aside from adding back some natural sugars like honey and dried fruit (and bananas!), I probably won't stray too far from this routine now. It was that great. (Also, things I used to love don't taste as delicious anymore. For example, bread tastes like cooked paste. It's kind of unnerving.)

{breakfast rules} Speaking of eating, one thing that majorly changed was my breakfasts. I became a big fan of the green smoothie and muesli. They were both really good without sweeteners (aside from fruit), so I can't wait to taste them with honey! I thought this breakfast flow chart would be kind of helpful if you felt stuck in a breakfast rut. And I used this chart to compose my green smoothie (my first was green tea, a handful of spinach, flax seed oil, wheat germ, blueberries, and an apple). Worked like a charm.

Source: freshhomeblog.com via Idle on Pinterest

{designs in concrete} when wet! I would LOVE to have these as a patio in the backyard. And as a walkway to the garage. And steps up to the house. And on sidewalks. And on roads...

{poolga} Screen wallpapers again. Sorry to keep slapping you in the face with it, but I just stumbled on Poolga and had to share. It's a great website for amazingly artistic (and free!) iPhone, iPod, and iPad wallpapers. It'd be a pretty hard task not to find at least one design to like in their huge collection. I downloaded way too many a bunch already.

preserving herbs

I probably mentioned this trick in passing, but one great way to keep your fresh herbs fresh is to treat them like flowers. Trim the ends and pop them in a cup of fresh water. As long as you keep the water fresh, they'll keep like this for a little while longer than if you were to just store them in the fridge in a bag.

Now I have to share another trick I recently learned for keeping herbs around even longer.

All you have to do is freeze them.

Wash them, chop them, stick them in a freezer bag or a bowl covered with plastic wrap, and keep them in the freezer. Whenever you need a pinch while cooking, reach in and grab some. No chopping or washing or thawing required.

I was told this would work for everything except oregano. Don't ask me why not oregano. It may be because the Greeks have a special place in their hearts for oregano (and feta and tzatziki and olive oil) and they would never ever dream of freezing it. I don't know.

Since the oregano I planted twice refuses to grow, I couldn't test it for you. I did, however, test three herbs I do have growing right now. Basil, curly-leafed parsley, and chives. Plus I've already got a bowl of flat-leafed parsley in the freezer (that's it in the pictures above).

After freezing, I wouldn't use these herbs in anything requiring fresh crispness like a salad. But in sauces, on baked potatoes, hamburger mixes, soups, anything of the cooked variety they're perfect. The freezing process just makes them a little wilty once they've been unthawed. It's not that bad, but I don't think it would be very pleasant in a fresh salad. (Potato salad might be the exception since the texture is all pretty much one note and no one's really expecting crisp greens in that one.)

I don't know how long they'll last, but the bowl of flat-leafed parsley has been in my freezer for almost a month now. I keep meaning to transfer it to a bag because I feel like that's a better option for keeping it fresh, but despite the loose covering, it doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects.

Freezing is a great alternative to drying herbs for the winter and, when added to cooked meals, it really looks and tastes as though you chopped up something fresh. Come fall, I'll be chopping and freezing the bulk of the herbs I grew this summer (which wasn't very much due to all the excess rain). I'm sure I'll be able to make them last well into the winter without having to purchase more. It's going to be really nice grabbing fresh-ish home-grown herbs out of the freezer for meals during the winter months as a bright little reminder of summer.

july recap

I think I'm going to start something a little different for my monthly recaps. From now on, I'm going to offer you some desktop/iPod/iPhone/iPad wallpapers for the new month based on favourite pictures from last month.

Personally, I'm always looking for new desktop wallpapers. I find it more interesting if I've got something new to look at in the background, and I usually change it every week. With the help of Idle Husband (oh! poor math skills!), I finally learned how to turn my own photographs into wallpapers.

This month, I chose a weed bouquet photo as a simple sunny desktop. And then I was having so much fun, I decided to stop having fun and get super frustrated by creating a calendar to go on top of it. It was my first attempt at getting handwriting on a photo! How exciting! (grumble grumble blast you, photoshop) (Thanks to Idle Husband again and again for showing me how!)

I hope you like it!

(choose your screen and click to download over at flickr)

1920x1080

1920x1200

1680x1050

iPad

iPod/iPhone

For personal use only, please!