Pomegranate Ice Cream

It happened.  Yesterday morning it finally happened.  You don't know what?  It's absolutely terrible!  I walked outside yesterday morning, and it was dark.  DARK!  The sun was not awake yet, and I was going to work!  Arrrgghhhh!  DARK!

I was okay with waking up at 5:30 in the morning and heading out on the 6:00 train when it was sunny and warm.  I knew that this day was coming though, with the sun rising slower and slower in the morning.  The mornings have been getting cooler and that's okay.  I bought a really cute, asymmetric zippered, sweater.  The fall rains have been coming and I'm cool with that too.  I got my hair cut and it curls really nicely in the humid air.

But the sun coming up after I leave the house?  That is where I draw the line!  Come back sun!  I miss your bright shiny face in the morning, it keeps me from falling asleep on the train...  It's going to be a loooooong winter.  Can't wait until I leave work at night and it's dark out, that will be fun too.  Maybe I should move to Florida?

Peaches and Cream Popsicles

I had major plans this weekend to make you lots of candy.  Then what happened?  It poured down rain all day Sunday.  And I'm not just talking a little rain, or a light drizzle all day.  I'm talking torrential downpours broken up by constant, driving rain.  High humidity is no time to be tempering chocolate and trying to pull taffy, so it will have to wait until next weekend.

What I did, instead of making candy, is make popsicles!  If you hadn't noticed, popsicles are the new cupcake, at least for summer.  I can't imagine this popsicle trend lasting through winter, maybe in the Souther hemisphere?  Why not join the trend, and cool off a little, in the hot, last weeks of summer.

Please excuse the photograph, I had to run this morning!  I'll fix it later!

Update: my train is ten minutes late, I totally had time to give you a better picture! Nuts... Oh well, have a great Wednesday everyone!

Peanut butter and Chocolate Chip Ice cream

The summer of 2008 is fondly remembered as the lost summer, at least in my mind. 2008 was my last year of grad school and the summer of 2008 was the summer of my thesis. I defended my thesis in late august which meant that I spent the many weeks and months before writing.

My thesis is a collection of over 500 pages worth of text, images and data. Lots and lots of data. I'd say it's over half full of NMR spectra, experimental protocols and mass spec readouts. This massive collection of my brilliance was no easy feat to pull together. I would spend all day working tirelessly in the lab, trying to finish my project before my D-day. I would then head home and take up residence at the kitchen table. I would write introduction chapters, edit Chemdraw slides and resize NMR files. Images would suddenly jump to the next page and I would try to keep data next to the relevant text. The sun would rise and set and I would be there at my computer.

The summer of 2008 was lost in a blur of thesis writing and chemistry doing.  Of course it was all worth it, in the end.  I'm now Dr. Wilde in the Kitchen and my PhD has allowed me to become gainfully employed.  So, while the summer of 2008 may have passed me by, the summer of 2011 is going to be mine.  Here I come weekends, get the beaches ready, release the summer blockbusters, fill my calendar with festivals.  I'm so ready!

Strawberry Gelato

I’m not a terribly lucky person. I’ve never won the Mega Millions (you might have already figured that out, knowing that I live in a 300 square foot apartment). No one has ever showed up at my door with a big check and a bunch of balloons (though, boyfriend did send me a GIANT birthday card one year). I’ve never won a March Madness pool (yes, this is a game of luck, not skill).


However, recently the tides have been turning on my luck. I might just be a lotto ticket away from moving into a larger apartment! I’ll have to buy some more furniture. Let me give you a few examples of my changing fortune…


What's in there???

While getting milkshakes at Brgr last weekend, I got the bigger milkshake. Boyfriends was ever so much smaller. Who’s the winner? Me! (Brgr makes delicious milkshakes. Delicious, expensive milkshakes!)

On a recent walk to dinner with boyfriend, we passed by a series of discarded scratch-off lottery tickets. Most of them we left on the ground, until we came to the crossword scratch-off. (I love the crossword scratch-off!) Boyfriend picked it up and we stopped, was this a winner? Whoever threw the ticket on the ground failed to realize that they had won! We took it to the gas station on the corner and cashed it in for ten dollars! Winner? The piggy bank!

Pink?  I like pink things!

A few weeks ago I commented on Mardi’s blog, because I love her blog, and was entered to win a giveaway. Low and behold, a few days later I was informed that I was the winner of a whole bunch of strawberries! Mmmm, spring fruit. I never win giveaways! A week or so later I got an e-mail from my apartment telling me that I received a package and that I should come get it before they eat it. I was so confused, eat it?

When I got home I was given an enormous box of California Giant strawberries, the whole box smelling like springtime. Eight containers of strawberries were hulled and frozen, just waiting to be turned into something delicious. Here is the first of many upcoming strawberry recipes. And it is so good…


Oooooo, dinner...



Thin Mint Ice Cream

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for one very special time of year. And depending on where you live will determine when you get to revel in this delicious recipe. Now I’m not talking about the first local apples, picked ripe off the tree. I’m not talking about thanksgiving, with all of the tasty foods and family moments. I’m not even talking about when the first bulbs begin to pop up from under the snow covered ground, signifying the beginning of spring. I am talking about Girl Scout Cookie time.

When I first see those sash-clad girls in the mall, or in front of the grocery store, or haunting the entrance of Wal-mart, I get so excited! Once upon a time, I was a girl scout. I was one of those over-achieving, OCD girl scouts. I had a sash full of badges. At camp I had a hat full of pins. During cookie season, I sold cookies like a Keebler Elf.

These days, I don’t sell Girl Scout cookies. I consider having lots of little girls, just so I can have easy access to cookies. If you live near me, and your little girl sells cookies, give me a call.  I’m a cookie gold mine. Last year I wound up with eleven boxes of cookies. Eleven. And remember this, I lived by myself. I like to stock up, because who knows when this time of year will roll around again! I need my cookies!!!

Now I know that depending on where you live, makes a difference with the names of the cookies. Growing up, I sold Samoas. In Wisconsin, I bought Caramel DeLites. My favorite as a kid? Tagalongs. You might know them as Peanut Butter Patties. Apparently there are two factories that produce Girl Scout cookies, thus the differing names. I believe my childhood factory had way more awesome names for the cookies.

Luckily for us all, a Thin Mint is a Thin Mint, and a Thin Mint is delicious. With the year whittling down, I am down to one last box of Thin Mint cookies. To celebrate this last box of cookies I decided to make some ice cream. Hopefully there will be little girls in sashes popping up soon, because I need me some cookies.

Oreo Cheesecake Ice Cream

It has to be said, I love ice cream. Luckily I have a morsel of self control when it comes to eating my ice cream. I can bring home a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and it will last a number of days in the freezer. Usually day one and two are pretty good. Once you get to that third day, and there is half a container left, that it gets a little tricky. Leaving just a bit in the bottom seems silly, so day three I eat it all.

The same cannot be said about all ice creams. If I buy a pint of Blue Bunny ice cream, it is difficult to only eat a single portion. The reason behind this must be the quality of the ice cream! Ben & Jerry’s is so rich, just a bit will do. Blue Bunny is what, a dollar for a half gallon? Cheap ice cream requires more to satisfy!

Homemade ice cream is the most satisfying of all. Not only do you control the quality of the ingredients, but you get that satisfaction that you made it! You invite people over and serve them some ice cream, proudly saying “I made this!” You tell your coworkers that you made ice cream this weekend. Ooo’s and Ahhh’s follow, pride fills your body.

So dust off your ice cream maker and whip up a batch of rich, delicious Oreo cheesecake ice cream. Enjoy it with some friends and feel all warm and fuzzy when they compliment your churning skills.

Oreo Cheesecake Ice Cream

1 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup milk
1 ½ cup heavy cream
1 cup crushed Oreos

- Beat sugar, cream cheese and egg together
- Bring the milk to a boil on the stovetop then slowly beat into the cream cheese mixture
- Return to the stovetop and cook on low, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened
- Remove from heat and pour through a mesh sieve into a clean bowl
- Add cream
- Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight
- Freeze in your favorite ice cream maker, adding the Oreos when the ice cream is semi-frozen, then transfer to a container and freeze solid