As we patiently await the arrival of spring, we're pretending in small ways - sitting in the car in the sun to pretend it's warm, cooking with canned tomatoes to try and create summer, and of course - eating ice cream. We've been frequenting a pan-asian coffee shop of sorts in Ft. Greene for Vietnamese coffee (my absolute smoky sweet favorite) and a pot of chai, and this visit we ordered ice cream sandwiches - one espresso with chocolate chip and two ginger with ginger. Amazing. The crunch of chocolate chips with espresso and the cool spice of ginger sent me beyond snow, snow and more snow and a bit closer to the sweaty nights in our building in the summer where I give in and turn the AC on all night. Almost.

Gourmet Ice Cream Truck

My transition back to the US was eased by the Van Leeuwen ice cream truck. I mentioned, when I first got to New York, that there was a truck parked a few blocks from the dorm I stayed in this summer, and that if I were awake and about after 8:30 pm, I would stop by for a cup of this hormone-free, organic, ice cream (mint chip or ginger or espresso) with homemade hot fudge and fresh whipped cream. All eaten with a biodegradable spoon.

I obsessed about it to Liam. He'd ask about the leadership institute I was attending, and I'd tell him about trying ginger after being on a mint chip binge for a week. He'd ask about my jet lag and culture shock, and I'd wax poetic about pre-bedtime sundaes. He'd ask how I liked the dorm food post-30, and I'd reply with my own culinary dilemma: should I continue along with the combination that I favored, or should I branch out and try each flavor while the yellow truck was parked just 5 blocks from me?

When Liam was here at the end of July, we found ourselves in SoHo trying to use a Crate and Barrel wedding gift card, and it occur ed to me: the truck was parked here in the day! We scoped street corners and intersections and found it. The teenagers working were perhaps confused by my glee, but I was thrilled to share it with Liam - at this point, afraid I'd built it up too much.

He took his first organic spoonful and smiled.

September at the market ...

This past weekend, I went to the market armed with a September list: Sungold cherry tomatoes for a pasta dish with fresh mozzarella, parsley to fry up for tacos with lemon, basil to add herbal essence to a lemon sherbet, and my weekly new-to-me-greens (this week? purslane).

The final item on my list was basil - for dessert.

I hadn't made any ice cream yet this summer and was interested in a lemon sherbet flavored with basil. I read her description of herbs best infusing liquids when cold, but wasn't quite convinced.

Then I had my first bite of sherbet.

There I was, holding the dasher in place since I'm missing the plastic ring that goes around the top and watching the ice cream freeze, bits of rind gathering around the bottom and I couldn't resist sticking my finger in to taste.

I often find myself adding Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips to most ice cream that even I make - but this one I didn't want to mar with anything else. I just wanted a bowl. And another. The only thing holding me back from finishing it after a dinner of parsley tacos and fried chickpeas or pasta with tomatoes, was trying to hold out until Liam gets here next week to share it.

Or, I can just head to the market this weekend and grab some more while it's still September.

Special thanks to Sara for sharing her great market photographs with me.

ice cream wars

Jasmine wanted to make salted caramel ice cream, and I had this Recchuiti cookbook from my sister, so I decided on burnt caramel. A week later, for a dinner club theme that I created - gussied up comfort food - and in response to pleasing Liam (he didn't ask, but I thought it was perfect), I also made cinnamon toast ice cream (picture to the left). There was something about both of these ice creams that made others adore them, and oddly enough, left them in my freezer for a week (this doesn't happen with meyer lemon ice cream). The burnt caramel, as forewarned by Recchiutti himself, was incredibly soft. Jasmine and I decided the texture was nice, but even after a full freeze and days in the freezer, the stuff stayed soft as cream almost. The cinnamon toast ice cream, which inspired oohs and ahhs at the dinner club table, was almost more work for me than I wanted. The flavor is simply incredible, that's for sure, with a deep toasty essence (due to the toasting of bread crumbs, soaking them in the 2x boiled cinnamon milk and then pressing them out to contribute to the base) and truly crunchy toasts throughout. The reviews said it took 2 hours, and it did, and it might be because I was on the phone for the first hour and had to go back to instructions multiple times because they were unfamiliar to me, but I wasn't sure I'd make it again.

Either way, I am almost comforted by my blase response to Rebecca saying, 'you should open up a restaurant' ... perhaps ice cream parlor is not my way to go, but once I conquer olive oil gelato I'm ready to be the fill in pastry chef at a restaurant ... and you think I'm kidding ....