SpiceDish Saturday {April}: Lemon-Rose Petal Ice Cream

It's time for April's SpiceDish Saturday. I'm particularly excited for this one. It's an exotic flavor and just so beautiful looking. It reminds me of those Brach's Jelly Nougats I used to LOVE when I was a kid. I recently rediscovered them at Chutter's (home of the longest candy counter) in Littleton, New Hampshire. But, I digress. Back to the subject at hand -- SpiceDish's amazing looking ice cream...

The world is thawing, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and new fresh flavors are everywhere. I was gifted with a large stash of lemons so perfect, they looked like plastic. Their fragrant, oil packed skin called out to be blended with rich cream an a little something special. I found the perfect something special at Bi-Rite the other day. Candied rose petals! This recipe would work fantastically with candied violets too.

Lemon-Rose Petal Ice Cream

3 Large lemons (zested & juiced)
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups ½ & ½
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
4 tbs candied rose petals

Warm the ½ & ½, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a saucepan until just simmering. Remove from heat and let sit for1 hour. Re-warm mixture. While it warms, whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Add several tablespoons of the cream mixture into the yolk mixture and whisk. Repeat procedure until the two mixtures are completely blended together. Return mixture to the saucepan and heat on medium, stirring constantly. The custard is cooked when it thickens and coats the spoon.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into your mixing bowl. Chill the mixture in the freezer for 20 minutes. Stir thoroughly and put into mixer. While the ice cream churns, crush 2 tbs of the rose petals (or lavender, or violet). 5 minutes before the mixture is finished churning add both the crushed and whole candied rose petals.

Bonus...FREE ice cream on Tax Day

So there's nine more days til tax day and I still don't have a tax guy, my expenses are not itemized, and for once I might actually get something back from good old Uncle Sammy but seriously FREE ice cream is way more exciting to think about!

Head on down to a MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream & Treatery on Tax Day, April 15th, and take advantage of another great“E-CONE-omic” Stimulus Package for upcoming Tax Day. Maggie Moo's will offer free ice cream to ALL its customers across the country to well, just make it a happy, non-stressful day. I am not lucky enough to have a local spot to run to and would love to hear what you think. Leave us a note if you've been to Maggie Moos and better yet if you were lucky enough to make it on the 15th for this great deal.

Enjoy!

Become a BFF at Friendly's for Free Ice Cream!

Friendly's has changed their Birthday Club to the Best Friends of Friendly's Club. Join now and get a free three scoop sundae. What could be better than that? I think the coupon is good for a month once you join.

Taste testing: Mrs. Fields Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

When I was in middle school and I actually liked to shop, my mom used to drop friends and I at Westfarms Mall. Among the new found freedoms of being away from my parents, I found this sweet treat in Mrs. Field's Cookie Cups that I could buy with my own money. What an addiction, those frosting filled chocolate chip cookies! I loved the frosting filled cookies. In fact, I even bought Mrs. Field's Cookie Book in hopes of making the same recipe. To my dismay, the recipe wasn't in the book...but there were some other pretty good recipes in it that made it worth keeping!

Fast forward almost twenty years. I haven't had a Cookie Cup in ages. I'm dangerously wandering down the ice cream aisle at Hannaford's and a red box shouts out at me "Pick me! Pick me!" What's this? Mrs. Fields cookies and Breyer's Ice Cream? What a treat. My arm, still sore from my yoga class (oh the irony) reaches into the freezer...

Later that night, Husband ask for dessert. I send him down to the chest freezer for the sandwiches, silently hoping he won't look too far and find his birthday present. If he did, he says nothing. He emerges from the basement, cookie in hand, and complains to me that he should have known how small they would be, the box being so light.

Later on, I bring up my own cookie sandwich. He's right. It is small. But it's actually refreshing -- in a world of supersizing, it's nice to see that Breyer's and Mrs. Fields know that this works well as a "good things come in small packages" kind of treat. If it were bigger, I'm sure I would have finished it. But truth be told, I was really truly satisfied with the three-ounce sandwich one serving had to offer.

The only thing that struck me as strange was the number of servings per container: five. Yeah, that's right. Five. I have never gotten anything in an odd number. I have gotten four, or six, or eight, but never five. Five doesn't fit neatly in a box. Why five? It does make me think of growing up in a family of five -- six ice cream treats? Who got the last one? Four cupcakes? How do you divide that? But then again, five causes those same problems for the family of four or the family of six.

Overall, I was happy with my purchase. Husband, if you have complaints, don't eat 'em! I'll gladly eat your remaining one and a half sandwiches!

1 can gets ya 1 scoop for 1 buck @ Ben & Jerrys...Tues, 3/24

Sort of last minute but if you have a Ben & Jerry's nearby swing on in Tuesday, March 24th and donate one (or more is accepted of course) non-perishable food item and receive a scoop for $1! What's better than that, getting a scoop for a buck and doing good for others.

All donations will be supplied to your community's local food bank.