Last night, I pulled out the ice cream maker for the first time this spring. It’s time!

Now, there’s a little more of this story I might tell you another time…I *will* tell you another time…but I’ve been planning on making toffee bacon ice cream all winter, and then yesterday I came up with an idea that was either inspired genius or gross! So I had to try it!

Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt Ice Cream

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup half & half
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup piloncillo sugar
4 egg yolks
2 Tbs honey
1 Tb vanilla bean paste
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Instructions
Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar together until frothy and pasty.
Mix the milk and half & half together in a saucepan, cook just until boiling, remove from heat, wait until it stops bubbling.
Add 1 Tb of the hot milk to the sugar and egg mixture, whisk quickly to keep the eggs from cooking.
Keep adding the hot milk to the sugar and eggs in small increments, whisking and pausing between additions, until 3/4 of the hot milk has been added.
Pour the milk/egg/sugar mixture back into the saucepan, and add honey and vanilla, heat over medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and chill for at least four hours.
Once chilled, add heavy cream and stir until well mixed. Stir in salt and pepper.
Put entire mixture in ice cream mixer and follow instructions for your ice cream mixer until frozen. Put finished ice cream in freezer.
Chill for at least two hours in freezer.
Serve with cracked pepper and additional shavings of piloncillo on top.

I can’t even tell you how awesome this was. It is so lovely. I really wasn’t sure if it would even be edible, but holy wow, I want to eat it all the time. I am making another batch of it up here at the barn for my parents.

Story number 2: In which Tea actually makes a drink with vodka that isn’t something for her dad.

You know how sometimes things all come together in funny ways so that weeks have themes? Well, here’s how my week went as far as my libation imbibement for the week.

trouserminnow posted something about vodka earlier this week, and pretty much the question of what cocktail there might be that is actually better with vodka than with any other spirit, where the vodka is actually tasteable as the centerpiece of the drink (many vodka cocktails are all about covering up the flavor of the vodka). Which I’ve been thinking about now on and off, because I can’t *not* take that as a challenge. And I have a theory which I will be trying out later this week at home.

Then, I was over at Astor, and apart from getting an excellent little daiquiri-style drink, I discovered Boyd and Blair, which is very possibly the greatest vodka I have ever tasted. Seriously, this thing has a depth to it that I’ve been starting to see in some newer vodkas, but it just goes beyond anything else I’ve ever had.

Then, tonight, my mom bought a bottle of Comb, which is distilled from honey. I love their gin, Comb 9, and the Comb was ostensibly a “We need a good vodka for guests who hate gin” purchase. Because pretty much anytime my parents have friends up to the house, they want vodka, and we have barely any (at least compared to anything else in our cabinets).

Also, today, I sent karnythia a drink recipe, and I know she’s a vodka drinker, so I was messing around with vodka in my headspace to begin with, and then I wanted to try a variation on what I gave her. So, karnythia, this drink is also for you!

Split Hive

Ingredients
2.5 oz Comb vodka
.5 oz rhubarb-honey-white balsamic syrup (recipe below)
10 blueberries
1 4 inch narrow piece of rhubarb stalk.

Instructions
Add everything but the piece of rhubarb to a glass or pitcher, muddle until blueberries are well-crushed.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, add stalk for garnish.

Ingredients for syrup
4 small rhubarb stalks
2 Tbs honey
2 tsps white balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water

Instructions
Chop rhubarb into very small pieces.
Add to small saucepan, add water to cover.
Add honey and vinegar, heat until boiling.
Once boiling, stir intermittently to keep rhubarb from sticking to pan
When liquid becomes syrupy and rhubarb has cooked down completely, remove from heat. Strain into a bottle.

And finally, for the most exciting news of the day!

I went out to Long Island after work, and met my mom to drive up to Connecticut, with a stop at Suburban Wines on the way (which was incredibly disappointing; this place used to have an amazing selection. I don’t know if it’s a reflection of the clientele or staff turnover or what, but while their bourbon selection is still pretty okay, that’s pretty much the ONLY selection that wasn’t completely decimated. It was sad! But I digress. Anyway, I get into the car, and when we stop at a light, my mom tells me to be quiet and listen.

I hear this sound. It goes, peep peep peep.

PEEP PEEP PEEP.

It takes me a second.

“Holy shit, is that in the car?!” I ask.

“It’s in the car,” my mom answers.

So then when we stop the car at Suburban, the first thing I do is open the back door to see the new babies.

PEEP PEEP. They peeped all the way home! It is the most joyous noise in the universe, all the little peepings! So cute! So exciting! Chickens! I do not even know where to begin with how awesome this acquisition is!

I HAVE CHICKENS, PEOPLE. CHICKENS.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.