Lemongrass Ginger Ice Cream

I bought lemongrass at the store last week on a whim. I know you don't usually bake with it but I really wanted to try. While making the blackberry pie it hit me- lemongrass ice cream would really compliment the berry flavors in the pie and add an extra bit of sweetness.

I googled it and lo and behold lemongrass ice cream is a thing. And for very good reasons it's a creamy light flavored ice cream that compliments this pie perfectly!!! I mean it really takes it up a few notches paired with the pie. It would also be amazing in a trio of ice creams like blackberry, lavender, and lemongrass ginger all on a dessert plate, Mmmm! (may have to get on that)

Lemongrass Ginger Ice Cream
from here

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 stalks lemongrass; cut into 1" pieces & bruised
3" piece ginger; peeled & sliced in 1/4" thick circles
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt

1   in a saucepan heat cream and milk over low heat
2   place in lemongrass and ginger and steep over low heat for 20 minutes
3   in a bowl beat together egg yolks and sugar until it is light yellow and forms ribbons
4   mix in 1/2 cup cream mixture into eggs to temper them
5   pour egg mixture into cream saucepan and heat over medium low
6   stir continuously until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon
7   pour into a bowl and cover well with plastic wrap
8   place in fridge overnight and then make according to ice cream manufacturer's instructions
9   place in freezer to harden up for a few hours before serving

Ah this stuff is so addicting!

Home Again, Home Again

This past weekend Joshua and I flew home to Cincy to celebrate my siblings 21st birthday and our friend's wedding. It was a really great trip and I'm so glad we got to spend quality time with people (hard to do at Christmas) Also can't believe my little babies are 21! Haven't wrapped my head around it yet.


We're so glad we went home! We fit a lot in so I've given you a picture timeline to fill you in :)

My mom and I picked Erika up from school.
I'd never seen her college before so she showed me around.
I wore my shirt and jumped from our van screaming and waving my
arms after her down the walkway to her dorm (geez I'm embarrassing)

While Joshua went to see Nate and apparently
 they ate Larosas and cut down trees.

The next day the ladies went shopping and Josh
and Colton went to have fancy hot dogs

That night we cooked pizzas over the fire and avoided
the rain by moving the party into the garage.

My mom being goofy

photo by my madre

 

 

The next morning Joshua got up early to run a 14K
with Nick which ended with free beer.

They ran through downtown

We borrowed a giant Connect 4 from our neighbors and gave it a go

 

Then headed to our friend's wedding reception

Where some game involving Frisbees, points, drinking beer from a
tube, knocking a bottle off were all involved, no one understood

We hung out with family to celebrate the twin's birthdays
with cake, steaks, & badmitton

 

Then headed to Oktoberfest downtown to feast
on some brats with sauerkraut & beer

o and of course food items that include goetta (goetta mac!!)

hehe

 

Portugal!!

Joshua was in Portugal the last few weeks installing one of his machines. He went a few days early and took a day at the end to explore a little and headed to Lisbon and took a train to another nearby town. He checked out a few castles and palaces as well as a cool maritime museum. Also he totally brought home a box of wine! (a few bottles too) and nabbed me some cute cork sandals.

Also he promises to take me back there, ahh I accept!

Here are some (a lot) of his sweet trip photos:

their "thing" is cork

While he was out

Hubs was in Portugal for 2.5 weeks recently (sad faces)
I'm not awesome at being alone, extrovert over here, but luckily I had lots of friends willing to let me crash their weeknights. The last week I even unexpectedly had dinner plans every night with different friends. Got to try some new restaurants and by the time I'd get home I was to pooped to realize I felt lonely. They were all such blessings to me while he was gone.

Also the weekend before he was back I took the Boltbus (west coast version of megabus) to Portland to hang out with my friend Kayla. Mostly we ate and shopped and had a relaxing weekend. It was fun to spend time with her and also the perfect reason to not spend the time sitting on my couch all weekend counting the hours until Joshua was home.

My neighbor even let me borrow her car to go pick him up from the airport. Super duper happy he's back but also was able to use up every ounce of time to hang out with other people I love!

Just a few photos from Portland:

 

we also watched Magic School Bus!

Swimming in Seattle

 

 

We live near Greenlake which has an awesome 3 mile path around it,
coffee shops nearby, cute docks jutting out into it and also swimming
areas with diving boards (high ones)

We've never swam in Greenlake. We've been there so so many times but only ever dipped our toes in. A few Sundays ago after our training ride (35 miles with some big hills ugh!) we put on our suits and set out to conquer swimming in Greenlake. It was a little cold and I may have squealed loud enough that a man next to us started laughing at me but we did it! We were very proud of ourselves for finally getting around to it, we said we're really Seattleites now. We even swam out to the dock in the middle and I jumped off of the high board. I looked over the edge and freaked out momentarily but finally went for it (Joshua can't put his head under water without an ear thing, long story, so that's why he didn't jump off)

hubs water wallet

 

We laid in the sand and attempted to get tan lines and felt like we were on a beach vacation all day. It was really lovely. We topped it all off with face size margaritas and rode our bikes home feeling very accomplished :)

 

photos taken on my dad's film camera that I've stolen and will never give back
Also this was a few weeks ago I was lazy getting my film developed (didn't scan in as well as I'd hoped)