Cooking all over the World: IDEAS IN FOOD - Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home

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Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home

I never knew how hectic a third birthday could be. The party was over the weekend, there were cupcakes for playschool today and a birthday dinner tonight. We did a strawberry birthday cake on Saturday for the party, with a center layer of icebox cake. For that we layered strawberry macaron shells and Meyer lemon curd lightened with whipped cream. For this morning's cupcakes I made strawberry-Meyer lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting. Tonight for the birthday dinner there will be an ice cream cake. Unsurprisingly Amaya chose strawberry and lemon-ginger as her two ice cream flavors with a chocolate brownie center. Not from Carvel, this cake is from a local ice cream place, O Wow Cow. They make really delicious ice cream with unusual flavors like torrone, chartreuse, cranberry-blood orange, mango-habanero, and whatever else happens to strike them on any given day. O Wow Cow uses locally sourced ingredients when possible and there are only two stores. We love that in addition to eating yummy ice cream we are also supporting a local business when we shop there. This will be our first taste of their cakes and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

In honor of our love of ice cream, today we are talking about Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home, by Jeni Britton Bauer. We actually got to try Jeni's ice creams this summer when we were in Rhode Island. The local gourmet grocery carried them and although we winced a little at the prices we had to try it. Needless to say after the first pint we went back and bought more. It was creamy and wonderfully delicious. When we got back we tried to get our local Whole Foods to carry it to no avail. So instead we had to comfort ourselves with her book. This was not a hardship because the book is equally easy to love. Jeni brings a unique approach to her ice cream making, eschewing eggs for cornstarch and corn syrup. This brings a clarity to her flavors and creates a great, smooth texture that we enjoy. It's a well written tome and the stories and the recipes will have you happily turning the pages until the very end. She has space in each recipe for you to write your personal tasting notes so that you can tweak them to your heart's content. There's a lot of great background information and I think you'll find the book to be both inspirational and educational. It will make you think about what you can do with a bowl of ice cream and how you can incorporate all of your favorite flavor memories.

For this week's giveaway we are asking you to share a memorable ice cream experience. It could be any kind of ice cream from down home to high end and it could be about eating it, sharing it, making it, as long as it makes you happy when you think of it. We will be giving away one copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home to a winner who will be chosen randomly from among the commenters. One entry per person please, comments are moderated and will not appear immediately. Please make sure there is an email attached to the comment. Winner will be chosen on Friday, December 9, 2011 at 9am EST.

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