Home-Made Cinnamon Ice Cream

I love that when I bake a cake at home the aroma of the cake can be smelled from the garage when someone comes home. It can be smelled even from the street. Imagine this – an aroma of freshly baked cakes coming out of each house on your street. Wouldn’t it be absolutely wonderful?

But I have to travel out of town, so no time to bake a cake for the weekend this weekend.
My little guy expressed his concern for the lack of cake. He asked me if he can bake a cake with his dad. I said: “sure”. Mind you, this is the same boy who always chooses gummy bears over freshly baked cake!

There’s something about a homemade cake that, for me, turns a “place to live” into a “home”. My aunt always baked on Fridays, 2 cakes! And her home always seemed to me to be so… a place of family.

If I can’t, for any reason, bake a cake on Friday, it makes me go bananas. It’s like an addiction. I gotta to have cake. I don’t always eat it, but I’ve got to make it.
So I made a fresh batch of cinnamon ice cream instead.

You might have missed the recipe in my long post - 5 stars dinner at home, so I give it to you here, in a separate post, to make sure you have it.
So what if it snowed again when we have totally not expected it (‘cause we thought we have already had enough snow for this year)? It’s nice and warm in the house. The fireplace is on. It's ice cream time!

Cinnamon Ice Cream
Make this at least 1 day ahead just to be of the safe side that the ice cream has the right consistency.
Slightly adapted from Suzanne Goin, “Sunday Suppers at Lucques”
Makes 1 quart

2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 cinnamon sticks
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 extra-large egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
My additions:
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon hazelnuts extract
Pinch of ground cinnamon for serving

Place the milk, cream, cinnamon sticks, and ground cinnamon in a medium pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat, cover, and let the flavors infuse about 30 minutes.
Bring mixture back to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Whisk a ¼ cup of warm cream mixture into the yolks to temper them. Slowly, add another ¼ cup of the warm cream, whisking to incorporate. At this point, you can add the rest of the cream mixture in a slow steady stream, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pot and return to the stove.

Cook the custard over medium heat 6 to 8 minute, stirring with a rubber spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan. The custard will thicken, and when it’s done will coat the back of the spatula. Off the heat, add the vanilla and hazelnut extracts.

Strain in a fine mesh sieve and chill at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. The base should be very cold before you churn it. Process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Serve with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

If you want to bake a cake, click Cake for the weekend
This one seems to be a great hit - Whiskey-Soaked Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake

Holiday (or Birthday) Party Food – Appetizers

Holidays season means… party time, and if you’re lucky, then it’s parties. Here are a few ideas to make your party stress free.
What you see in the pictures is what I served for my birthday party in August. That was outside in the backyard… But, regardless of the weather, all the ingredients I used then are available year round. This menu was easy to make, quick, and offered different types of food to serve every guest’s taste.

First, a nice platter of cheeses with seasonal fruits and nuts is classic, as it is elegant and casual at the same time. Served with different types of crackers it is loved by most people.


For the cheese platter:
Start with a nice platter, of course
Buy different kinds of cheese: yellow, white, blue, soft, hard, cubes, log, rounds, simple, sophisticated, etc
Add seasonal fruits and toasted nuts
Decorate with fresh herbs or edible flowers. Mint is a beautiful herb and always available, and you can also use it to make Warm Winter Herbal Tea, which I’m sure your guests will appreciate in this weather.
Accompany the cheese platter with some nice olives and more crackers with sesame, poppy, spices, etc, or small slices of bread.

Next, open-faced sandwich/crostini/bruschetta/tartine/whatever you want to name it, is a perfect finger food for a cocktail party, or any party.
The idea it to take bread and slice it thinly, then toast or grill it, usually brushed with olive oil, or butter. If you are short on time and your bread is fresh, just serve it as is without toasting.
Slice a baguette crosswise on a bias. Brush slices with olive oil or spread some butter, if you want. Toast it in a 350 F oven or grill it if you dare go outside in this weather (see Grilling in the Rain), until it is crispy or lightly browned (but not totally dry and don’t burn it like my husband did.) I prepared two kinds:

Eggplant Crostini – with eggplant marinated in herbs (recipe here), with feta/goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, and basil on top.

Blue cheese, walnuts and honey Crostini – spread the bread with fig jam and top with crumbled blue cheese, toasted and chopped nuts (smoosh/press those firmly onto the bread with your hands),and a drizzle of honey (add the honey just before serving, if you can. If not ,don’t worry about it and do it ahead.)

For the guests who like simple or more familiar food, I served Guacamole and corn chips and Hummus with sliced veggies, like cucumber, peppers, with pita triangles (warm those in the oven).
I also served assorted nuts and more types of crackers, fruit and vegetables.

As for drinks, those depend on your crowd, do they like a nice wine, a cocktail, hot coffee, tea or spiced cider?

For additional ideas, visit my World Flavor web site and check out the “What’s cooking?” page for more menus I have catered to different parties and events.

Have a great party!
Nurit

More holiday food ideas:

Easy dinner party - Work & Cook: How to cook a dinner party for 6+5+2 on a conference day?
Season flavors - Thanksgiving-y Chicken Dinner

Love-ly Heirloom tomatoes salad

Eating heirloom tomatoes is a summer must-do thing. It is a real treat.

I saw heirloom tomatoes at the grocery store this week. They were $5.99/lb. (Yep. Ouch.). But today we went to a farm that is located 15 minutes drive from our house – how cool is that?! – for $3.99/lb.

Lesson learned: shopping at a farm stand cost less than shopping at the grocery store.

These tomatoes are so delicious, so sweet, and worth every cent. Try it and you will never look at a tomato the same way again.

I am not going to give you an exact recipe but a list of ingredients. Use whatever you like.
My husband prepared the salad in the photo and made it all pretty for posing in a picture.

Love-ly Heirloom tomatoes salad

Heirloom tomatoes – red, green, yellow, funny looking ones, fat ones, squishy ones, striped, etc
Salt*
Toasted pine nuts**
Crumbled goat cheese (and/or feta)
Herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, cilantro)
Black pepper
Splash of extra virgin olive oil
Squeeze of lemon juice

* my mom says that my grandma first salted the tomatoes and then let them sit for a while before she went on to take care of the other ingredients. That is the secret to very tasty tomatoes. (What an excellent cook she was, a magician, using only salt and maybe some oil, in her cooking. That was a time when herbs, spices, and fancy vinegars and oils weren’t used so frequently and freely like today)

** best way in to toast pine nuts is in a 350 F degrees oven. Second best it to toast them in a skillet over very low heat.

Isn’t it lovely?!
Nurit