Rhubarb Ice Cream with Caramel Swirl

Since I'm a sucker for rhubarb, I couldn't resist trying this recipe from the New York Times. It was great! The sour cream gives a unique richness and creamy texture, the rhubarb is tart and awesome, and the caramel adds extra sweetness and something toothsome. The chunks of rhubarb are great, too. It's a little bit of a labor of love, but if you love rhubarb, ice cream, and time consuming weekend cooking projects (guilty), then this is perfect!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 3/4 cup plus 6 tbsp granulated sugar
pinch kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 pounds rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/2 cup heavy cream

Garden Week 10 - Memorial Day

Hope you all had a good Memorial Day! Jamie was down in Nashville with friends for his bachelor party and I was out in Southampton biking around with my mom, gardening, walking on the beach, and enjoying the first weekend of summer. Isn't it amazing?

The garden is now looking like a real, thriving garden! Everything is green and growing. On Monday, suddenly the peas were flowering - so we should have some little snap pea pods next weekend!

Spicy Beet Green and Arugula Pasta

I had beet greens and arugula from the garden, so I thought I'd saute them up for an easy weeknight pasta dinner. Just to make it a little special, I made my own pappardelle at Jamie's request. Yum!

(Yes, that's a Missoni for Target towel - it's easier to just lay a big towel down)

The sauteed greens were super tasty, and the little bit of sugar offset the bitterness perfectly. You could definitely eat them on their own as a side, but great tossed with pasta. (I made a few too many noodles so we were a little light on the sauce, but it was still good.)

Arugula and White Bean Dip

After a very successful weekend in the garden, I had lots of arugula to take back to the city. Now I'm just wondering what I'm going to be making all summer with this excess of the peppery plant. Last night when we got back to the city we knew we were having a light dinner of this awesome pizza and salad, so I wanted a little dip while we caught up on Thursday night TV.

I mashed up a garlic clove with some kosher salt and put it in a food processor with about a cup of arugula and a little olive oil and ground it down. Then added about 1.5 tbsp grated Pecorino and pulsed. Then added 1 can of white beans, drained, and about 2 tbsp water and 1 tbsp olive oil and pureed. I added salt, pepper, honey (only a drizzle to fight the bitterness), and cayenne to taste and blended it until smooth. It was super tasty! Really light with that peppery bite of fresh arugula. Jamie loved it. We ate it with carrots before our pizza course and an evening of Game of Thrones and Mad Men. Haven't Sunday nights gotten so great with that TV line up? Makes looking forward to Monday a little less sad.

Vegetable Garden Week 9

The garden is looking awesome! Everything is growing and blooming and looking healthy and green. It's really looking like a thriving summer garden. The tomatoes etc that were a little stunted by the cold snap are coming back and getting greener - though it's still amazing the difference between those in the wall o waters and those outside of them. Look at this - two of the Super Sweet 100s I planted from seeds. The one in the wall o water is double the size! Next year I really need to order like 20 of them.

The peas have gotten to be almost 3 feet tall and are grabbing onto everything, yay.

Veggie Plan

Here's my veggie garden layout! Just thought it would be good to post a little map. I think it's missing the cilantro, but it's the general gist!

Bourgeois Pig

I met up with my friend Lara last night for dinner and we went to Bourgeois Pig. I'd walked by it several times and always wanted to try it. It was very cute! And Wednesday is a great night to go because they have $6 mussels all night! It's really Gothic in there (decor-wise) and eclectic with lots of reds and blacks and velvets and mismatched chairs, but super cute and fun. We got a champagne punch bowl, which I loved! So perfect for dinner with girls, or later at night for a romantic date dinner. It's fun to ladle your own punch into the little glass mugs they give you.