Basil (yes, Basil) Ice Cream
I’m gonna get right to it. This is delicious. 10 yrs ago my wine mentor and dear friend took me to a Cuban place for lunch and he knew that the chef there had an off-the-menu basil ice cream. I can taste it as if it were yesterday. Well, I finally snapped. I worked up a 2-step process to infuse the rich sweetness of fresh basil into heavy cream and I swear it’s a dead match. Most people that have tasted this have been blown away (much like my family). Only a few are tripped up by the juxtaposition of an herb normally found prominent in tomato bisques and...
Kale & Fennel Salad with Miso Dress...
I know, I know… Kale is so 2010. But you know what? Most people I run across still have a fairly quick hesitation to these toothsome bitter yet, glorious leaves. I don’t blame them. It was a tough nut for me to crack as well. I thought I would simply sauté it like I did Swiss chard. Except that it was wretched. I gave up. I didn’t want to. There was far too much foodie chatter waxing poetic about its superfood awesomeness. Then one day I had a small bowl of raw kale salad imposed on me at a local sandwich shop, and it suddenly made sense. The freshness took care of...
Pop’s Ginger Snappy Cookies
I have a confession to make. I don’t really like cookies. I mean really – how excited can you get over a little disk of sweetened stale bread? So before I start getting hate comments, let me say that, yes, every now and then I’ll eat one and think “damn!” But it’s really pretty rare… and they’re always homemade (but you knew that). A well crafted white chocolate macadamia nut cookie, for example, can stop me in my tracks. My dear friend’s mom makes an ice box cookie that has no equal. She needs to have her own show. The...
