Raspberry ripple ice cream...

I have fond memories of growing up eating raspberry ripple ice cream. The sweetness of the vanilla infused with the tartness of raspberries...ah! Heavenly! So to keep my memories alive, I had to make myself a quart of ripple ice cream. I know that's a lot, but with the heat wave that swept in for all of last week, this was a wonderful treat! Didn't take too many pictures of the ice cream, however, you'll see it in another post of mine soon. I used up the ice cream with another treat that I grew up eating - Swiss rolls! Watch out for that post...

Ingredients:

2  cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk (next I'm trying a low fat version)

2 tbsp vanilla extract or seeds from vanilla bean (I'm a little more generous with this and I added the latter, makes a lot of difference)
2/3 cup sugar

Directions:
Combine cream, milk, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator overnight before making it in an ice cream maker.

Raspberry Sauce:

2 cups of fresh or frozen raspberries

2 tsp of Grand Marnier liqueur

1 tsp of vanilla

2 tbsp water

4 tbsp agave syrup

Combine water, berries and syrup in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring until the syrup melts and the mixture comes to a boil.

Lower heat slightly and continue to cook the sauce for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Stir in the 2 tablespoons of bourbon and vanilla and remove from heat.
Transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

Now you can pull out the mixture for the ice cream and freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Once ready, put a layer of ice cream at the bottom and then swirl the raspberry sauce on top. Repeat this step till all of the ice cream has been transferred, leave a little bit of the syrup for later. Store in an air tight container and freeze for an additional 2 hours.

Triple berry cobbler

I love berries, their tartness combined with a slight sweetness and the fact that they are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants. This pushed me to come up with a healthy cobbler recipe in spite of the fact that I am trying to stay away from the oven in this heat. You can either eat it cold or serve it hot with a nicely flavored vanilla bean ice cream. And it's healthy enough to be had for breakfast, for those with a sweet tooth! Apologize for the blurry pictures...

Triple berry cobbler
(adapted from Eating well)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean split lengthwise or vanilla bean extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen triple berries (blueberries, raspberries and marionberries) (this can be replaced by any berry or fruit such as peach/plum) 

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add milk, sugar and vanilla; stir to combine.
3. Add oil to the batter and stir to combine. Pour the batter into the pan. Spoon  the berries evenly over the batter.
4. I used a small terracotta pan, just liked the rustic feel of it. But any pan can be used in it's place. Place the pan in the oven and bake until the top of the cobbler is browned and the batter around the fruit is completely set, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Farfalle with roasted eggplant in arugula basil pesto sauce

Hola! Sorry about the long title of the post, but I have to share this wonderful easy to make pasta recipe.

Saute onions. Once cooked, add chopped chinese eggplant (sorry no pictures available) to it and cook it till it all caramelizes. Add salt and pepper to taste, nothing fancy. The key to this recipe is the pesto sauce that you'll find below.

Boil pasta according to directions (I don't follow them, I just throw pasta into boiling water with a pinch of salt and pepper and some olive oil). Drain once cooked.

Chop some arugula leaves and basil from my garden. You're always welcome here!

Make pesto sauce with arugula, basil, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, 4 pods of garlic, walnuts (this is not you're usual pesto sauce recipe, they use pine nuts instead). Give it a good pulse and see how wonderfully creamy and green it is. Love it, you can use this as a dip as well.

Tada, now mix the pasta with the onions and eggplant mixture. And then ad the pesto sauce to it, you'll realize that you don't need a lot. And garnish it with an arugula stem with flowers, not mandatory.