Honey.Lavender.Vanilla.Bean.Ice.Cream.

Yes, yes, that’s what I said. Honey Lavender Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. We first tried it at our favorite restaurant, Hibiscus, but I was always intimidated to use lavender to cook with. Well, this Christmas, I made lavender sachets and lavender bath scrubs for my mom and Lane’s mom and had some of the lovely flower left over. I had no excuse to not try the ice cream!  It was made easy by my mom’s ice cream maker.

I will definitely have one of these babies on my wish list as summer rolls around. Speaking of summer….Can it come soon, please?

Anyway, I’ve only made one ice cream before and it was really easy. This one seemed a little bit more laborious, but still relatively easy.

As far as taste goes, it was definitely lavender-y. I think next time, I would use less lavender and more honey. It was a little bitter because of the lavender. Maybe I let it steep for too long. Not sure. We served it, however, with the Sour Cream Apple Pie which is plenty sweet and it worked really well with that. It’s not an ice cream that you would sit in front of the TV and have a bowl of, but served with the right thing, it works well.

The mixture in the saucepan ready to steep.

Honey Lavender Vanilla Bean Ice Cream adapted from Martha Stewart

2 cups whole milk

1/4 cup dried lavender (I purchased in the Bulk section of my Central Market)

1 whole vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/3 cup honey

5 large egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1. In a medium saucepan, combine milk, lavender, vanilla bean and honey. Bring to a gentle boil, cover, and remove from heat. Let steep for 5 minutes. Strain mixture, reserving milk and discarding lavender.
2. Combine egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until very thick and pale yellow, 3 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, return milk to a medium saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat.
3. Add half the milk to egg-yolk mixture, and whisk until blended. Stir mixture into remaining milk, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
4. Remove from heat, and immediately stir in cream. Strain mixture into a medium mixing bowl set in an ice-water bath, and let stand until chilled, stirring from time to time. Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Store in an airtight plastic container up to 2 weeks.

Christmas Dinner with Sheriff John, the Mrs. and, of course, Jax

This Christmas I was able to spend 10 days with my parents. Most people might grumble about that, but I absolutely loved it! I have amazing parents who are fun and thoughtful and loving and oh so very generous. Lane joined us for 5 of the 10 days, and we had a wonderful time filled with lots of food, wine and laughter. My mom and I planned out a menu the weekend before Christmas and wanted something special for Christmas eve dinner. We almost always do beef tenderloin on special occasions, so we wanted to try something different, and prime rib fit the bill! Of course, we made Lane cook it. He often gets volun-told to cook, but I think he likes it! We found a basic prime rib recipe online and added our own little touches. It was delicious and really so easy. The meal was fabulous, as always!

Prime Rib slightly adapted from Simply Recipes
(The link has GREAT pictures to go with the recipe)
Ingredients

• One standing rib roast, 3 to 7 ribs (estimate serving 2 people per rib), bones cut away from the roast and tied back to the roast with kitchen string (ask your butcher to prepare the roast this way)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Rosemary springs

Directions

Remove roast from the refrigerator, loosely wrapped, 3 hours before cooking. Roasts should always be brought close to room temperature first, before they go in the oven.

Cookbooks often call for the excess fat to be removed. By "excess" fat they mean any fat more than an inch thick. The fat is what provides the flavor and what you are paying for with prime rib, so you want to leave it on. Your butcher should have removed any excess fat.

If your butcher hasn't already done so, cut the bones away from the roast and tie them back on to the roast with kitchen string. This will make it much easier to carve the roast, while still allowing you to stand the roast on the rib bones while cooking. Basically, you cut the ribs away then tie them right back on. It helps provide the flavor, but makes it easier to carve when you’re ready to serve.

Preheat your oven to 500°F, or the highest it will go (our oven goes up to 700°F, which is too hot). Generously sprinkle salt, garlic powder and pepper all over the roast. Cut slits in the top of the roast and insert small springs of rosemary.

Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast, making sure it doesn't touch a bone. (Some meat thermometers require that you poke a hole first with a skewer, and then insert the thermometer.) Place the roast, fat side up, rib side down in a roasting pan in the oven.

After 15 minutes on 500°F, reduce the heat to 325°F. To figure out the total cooking time, allow about 13-15 minutes per pound for rare and 15-17 minutes per pound for medium rare. The actual cooking time will depend on the shape of the roast and your particular oven. A flatter roast will cook more quickly than a thicker one. So make sure to use a meat thermometer. This is not a roast to "wing it". Error on the rare side.

Roast in oven until thermometer registers 115°-120°F for rare or 125°-130°F for medium.
Check the temperature of the roast using a meat thermometer a half hour before you expect the roast to be done. For example, with a 10 pound roast, you would expect 2 1/2 hours of total cooking time (15 minutes at 500° and 2 1/4 hours at 325°). In this case, check after 2 hours of total cooking time, or 1 hour 45 minutes after you lowered the oven temp to 325°.

Once the roast has reached the desired internal temperature, remove it from oven and let rest 20 minutes, covered with aluminum foil, before carving. The roast will continue to cook while it is resting.  (I think we let it rest a little too long, so just watch your temp. We prefer it to be on the more rare side.)

With a knife or scissors, cut the strings which attach the meat to the bones. Remove the bones (save for making stock for soup. Then, using a sharp carving knife, slice meat across the grain for serving, making the slices about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.

DELICIOUSO and oh so easy. It takes some advance thought, but the actual preparation is really easy. Just make sure you have a great (and accurate) meat thermometer that you can constantly watch the temperature on.

Here’s Jax wondering what happened to his portion of prime rib, but then settling with a bowl of bacon bits. (No, we didn’t actually give him the bacon.)

We served the prime rib with a wedge salad, baked potato and sourdough bread. For dessert, we had apple pie and honey lavender vanilla bean ice cream (recipe to come).

Oh, and the wine. Let’s not forget the wine. Several years ago, my dad said to my mom and me, “Well, if I die, you can sell all of the wine.” Mom and I looked at each other, paused, and at the same time said, “We won’t sell it…we’re going to drink it!!!”

So, from then on, my dad realized that if he wanted in on his own wine, then he should start opening it now! We’ve convinced him to open even more by saying that we’ll just have to go back to Napa to get more. Whatever the thought is behind the decision to open more wine makes no difference to me…I’m just glad I get to partake!

On Christmas eve, we opened two bottles…A 2003 Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet and a 2004 Sullivan Vineyards Cabernet. These are my two FAVORITE wines. Not only are they wonderful to taste, but since I’ve been to both vineyards, drinking them brings back such wonderful memories.

Silver Oak has been a long time favorite of my parents and, therefore has become a favorite of me and Lane. The last time we went, part of their property had burned and we tasted in a portable building. They were in the process of rebuilding so I can’t wait to go back and see their new facility.

Sullivan is actually right across the street from Silver Oak and we first went in on a whim because my dad had a good friend whose last name is Sullivan. We thought it would be fun to get him a bottle of it, not knowing what we were tasting. That was in 2001. When we walked up to the barn (because there was no tasting room) Mr. Sullivan, with his handlebar mustache, greeted us and immediately treated us like family….and the wine, well it just happened to be FANTASTIC. I’ve never forgotten that experience. When we went back in 2008, Mr. Sullivan had since passed away and they had an official tasting room, but we still had the same experience…greeted by the old, white faced golden retriever and Mr. Sullivan’s son inviting us into their family home. Can’t wait to go back.

It was a wonderful Christmas and I’m so thankful for my parents. They have created an amazing example of what marriage should be and we are forever grateful to them for that.

And, just because I promised and I know you’re on pins and needles waiting for pictures of cute puppies…here you go!

Jax in his monster sweater.


Sleepy Lane and Jax on Christmas day. (Jax now sporting his cable knit fisherman’s sweater)



Reindeer Knox


Poor baby Jax had a toenail ripped off and had to have a little bandage put on. It also couldn’t get wet so we had to wrap a baggie around it when he went outside. I told him I wouldn’t put the picture on the internet, but oh well. Sorry King! Don’t banish me!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes and Cocktails!

(So, I have so many things to post about from Christmas, but I’m waiting on some pictures taken with my mom’s camera. So, stay tuned for vanilla bean lavender ice cream, chocolate icebox pie, prime rib and, of course, pictures of dogs wearing clothes!!)

We had our monthly (well, sometimes it goes more than a month) Cupcakes and Cocktails at Melanie’s house last week. We were just planning to have a laid back party, so I thought these cupcakes would be perfect. They were easy to make and who doesn’t love cookies and cream?

I think I over-baked them because they were pretty dense, which is not my preference when it comes to cupcakes. I just couldn’t get the center to set enough to get a toothpick to come out clean. I ended up baking them for about 22 minutes. They weren’t my favorite that I’ve made, but everyone really seemed to like them. I might try again, but I will reduce the baking time to 18 minutes and go from there.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes from Annie’s Eats

Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached (I used an entire box of Oreos for the whole recipe)
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I just put them in a bag and beat them with the handle of a knife to get large chunks.)

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used 8T. butter)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. heavy cream (I would cut this down to 1T. next time. The icing was a tid bit runny, even after refrigerating for a while.)

For garnish:
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves (I, for the life of me, couldn’t cut the Oreos in half and make them not crack. I tried everything. Hence, some of them looking really gnarly!)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.  Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up. (I would not do this next time. It was just kind of weird to me, but again, everyone else loved them.) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.  Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

And, I can’t talk about a C&C and not post pics!

Caroline joined in the fun!

My favorite girls! (Erin, we miss you!!)