Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

I promised you I would do something delicious with those cookies.  And here it is.  Creamy, delicious homemade vanilla ice cream studded with chocolate cookies that would give any other cookies and cream ice cream a run for it's money.  I made this while Dave was away on a business trip.  It was the first day of a week-long trip.  I emailed him to tell him that while I made ice cream and it was freakin' awesome, there may not be any when he got home because I might need to eat it all (I was good--there was plenty left to share with him by the end of the week).  The custard for this ice cream cooked up beautifully and the ingredients were so simple.  This is the kind of recipe that convinces you to buy an ice cream maker if you don't already have one or to go hunting for the one you own but haven't used in ages.

When the World Peace Cookies failed on me, I knew the only thing they'd be good for was cookies and cream ice cream, but I was uninspired and couldn't bring myself to make it a priority.  And then Michelle at Brown Eyed Baker slapped me in the face with this gorgeous recipe and practically forced me to make it immediately if not sooner.  Seriously, I think she posted the recipe at the beginning of the week and by the end of the week I had this wonderful treat.  Rarely am I inspired by a recipe to make.it.right.now.  But resistance was futile.  And I had ingredients in my fridge and cookies in my freezer that called out to be crumbled into a delicious frozen dessert to counter the hot summer weather.  Although my ingredients were light cream and skim milk, I still used them and would you believe the results were still undeniably creamy and just as good as I imagine their heavy and whole counterparts would be?  Another slight change is that when I added the cookies, I took about 2-3 cookies and crushed them to finer crumbs rather than chunks.  I stirred these crumbs into the ice cream base before layering them in my container alternating with the bigger chunks.  I just love that speckled look of cookie crumbs taking over the lovely vanilla ice cream.  If you haven't made homemade ice cream yet, start with this recipe.  It's easy and the results are magical.  You'll never buy store-bought cookies and cream ice cream again.

Watermelon Lime Sorbet

The heat of summer has even the most dedicated cook swearing off the kitchen.  If it can't be prepared without turning on the oven or stove, it's quite possibly not worth eating (at least at the moment).  So what's a blogger to do when she wants to create a post to share but doesn't want to start a battle between the oven and the air-conditioner?  Make a frozen treat!  Even if it does require a little stove top cooking, these fruity, sweet treat is totally worth making.  And possibly worth a little brain freeze to enjoy.  The lime flavor gently cuts the sweetness of the watermelon, but still lets the fruity flavor shine through.  And a frosty dessert is always a win in the July heat.

I got into the habit of picking up a watermelon whenever they were on sale this summer.  I'm so glad I did because they've been exceptionally sweet.  While I haven't grown tired of munching on chunks of fruit, when this recipe came into my Pinterest arena, I knew I'd be making it right away.  Shaina from Food for My Family did an adorable thing by scooping out the pulp of the watermelon and freezing the sorbet in the rind so that she could create sorbet slices.  While cute, it looked like a lot of work for just us to enjoy at home.  Although I may try it for a party in the future.  Shaina's recipe is great and  I did adjust the sugar a touch since the watermelon was plenty sweet, but otherwise it's straightforward.  It you're looking to cool off, look no further than this tasty, fruity sorbet.