Bing Cherry Ice Cream with Pickled Cherries!

Cherry season is the Pacific NW is short but so very sweet. Growing up, I only had terrible experiences with cherries. My parents gave me one of those Hostess fruit pies with "real cherry filling" and after that, I had this idea that cherries tasted syrupy sweet, and overly processed. I immediately decided I hated cherries and banned them. This ban lasted for 15 years until I had entered the culinary world professionally, and was able to have access to some of the very best fruit that was in season from local farmers. Now, I can't get enough during this short time they are in season and I take full advantage of what I can make with them.

I had decided to pickle 12 oz. of Bing cherries in a mason jar, not totally sure of what I would use them for... but I always come up with something. A few days later, I had some inspiration! I had just bought the lovely Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream book with her chapters being categorized by seasons - love! One of the first ones I scanned over was for her flavor, Cherry Chocolate Chunk.

Whenever Kirk and I have a date night in Seattle, we somehow always seem to end up at a Molly Moon shop. Thankfully she has 4 locations + a truck so we are pretty much covered in whatever neighborhood we are in. Kirk is pretty good at experimenting with new flavors every time, but I'm a sucker for 1/2 scoop Salted Caramel & 1/2 scoop Stumptown Coffee with a waffle cone (EVERYTIME!)

Enough of my rambling - I ended up making Molly's Cherry ice cream (minus the chocolate) and added some of my pickled cherries chopped up for a topping. Here is the recipe, be prepared for the perfect summer sundae!

Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

By Molly Moon Neitzel & Christina Spittler

Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream

Makes 1 - 1 1/2 Quarts

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup whole milk

1 cup sugar

Pinch of kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups pitted and coarsely chopped cherries (I used Bing, but feel free to experiment)

1 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate (about 6 oz, I recommend using Theo's Dark 70%, its heavenly!)

Put the cream, milk, sugar, and salt into a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Just before the mixture comes to a boil, remove from the heat and add the cherries. Pour the mixture into a shallow pan or bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly, 1-2 hours. 

When the mixture is cold, stir in the vanilla. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. During the last minute of processing, add the chocolate. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the ice cream to an airtight glass or plastic freezer container. Cover tightly and freeze until the ice cream is firm, at least 4 hours.

NOW - if you want to step out of your comfort zone a little, make these pickled cherries! I pickle them whole (pit in) and then slice them up for my sundaes.

Pickled Cherries

12 oz mason jar (or glass container) filled with Bing Cherries

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup champagne vinegar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/2 teaspoon whole coriander

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Put all ingredients (besides cherries) into bowl, stir until combined. Pour over cherries into the mason jar. Shake a few times to make sure all ingredients are blended. I used these 72 hours after mixing, but you can use them after a couple hours - it all depends on your taste. This must stay refrigerated. Be cautious that when you try these little guys straight up, you might be thrown off, but put on this ice cream is AMAZING. You can also use them in salads, or as a garnish on a cheese plate.

My current pickling projects! I have green beans, cauliflower, and carrots in a traditional pickling brine. Bing cherries in the above recipe, and lastly these super tangy bits of awesome - pickled red onions! I have been having an excessive amount of tacos this past week that I have been topping with these!

 In quick other news, I have done my first post for my feature The Sweet House on the Girl Power Hour blog. Check it out!

We are headed out of town this weekend to Portland with a group of our friends for the Oregon Brewer's fest! I'm super stoked and plan on "foodie-ing" it up on Friday hitting up a few spots that have been on my list. Look out next week for oodles and oodles of some fun pictures :)

xo

Rosemary & Lavender

It is no secret that I love entertaining, and I love making any get together extra special by putting some home made touches and a lot of thought into what I make, and share with my family and friends. This weekend was no different :)

On Saturday, Kirk's family had come over for a casual dinner on the deck. We did a fancy burger night which seems to be an on-going trend for the Heinrichs. Erica has bought some nice burgers from Whole Foods, and I made grilled caesar salad, a fruit salad with rosemary simple syrup, rosemary lemonade (I had some extra rosemary in my garden) and a coconut cream pie for dessert.

Rosemary Lemonade! Recipe below...

Heavenly..

Unfortunately we didn't get to the pie for dessert, but Chloe (our niece) did grab some of my graham crackers...

Continuing on, we  invited a few friends over  to celebrate our fire pit! For the occasion I had made graham crackers, marshmallows, and had Katie pick up some milk and dark Theo Chocolate. Two words. Gourmet S'mores!

On Sunday, Kirk and I spent the day walking around Woodinville, exploring some of the side farms. We stumbled upon Woodinville Lavender, which I had heard about through a friend, and I was dying to go! It's a stunning property with so much lavender it warms my heart. Kirk and I did the U-Pick option, and went to the lavender fields to cut some. We also had each bought an ice cream bar.. I chose vanilla lavender, and Kirk had blackberry lavender.

A third of the field

Our lavender we picked. It was pretty fun to joke to Kirk about "man once you get married, you spend your Sunday's picking lavender :)"


RECIPE FOR ROSEMARY LEMONADE
Makes roughly 1 pitcher of lemonade

8 cups water
A handful of rosemary
1 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup agave nectar
A pinch of kosher salt
Rosemary simple syrup to taste (if you want it sweeter)

1. Bring the water, rosemary, and salt to boil. Turn off, let steep for 2-4 hours.
2. Strain the rosemary out of the water
3. Stir in lemon juice and agave nectar.

Voila! Super easy and delicious... however:

If you want it to be sweeter (which I personally did) you can add some rosemary simple syrup.
To make the rosemary simple syrup, I combined 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and a couple sprigs of rosemary. I boiled all three together until it reduced down to a thin syrupy condition. I probably added 1/3 cup of the simple syrup mix to my lemonade. You will have extra rosemary simple syrup left, but there are tons of things you can do with it. I threw some into my fruit salad, and it will also be a lovely addition to a gin cocktail. Endless possibilities people!

Dinner with Dinosaurs!

Dinner with Dinosaurs...what is that?

Kirk had gave me a couple hints on Sunday of a special date he had planned. The hints were dinosaurs, a picture of a farm, and a picture of my herb pots. I must admit dinosaurs threw me off, but the other clues helped give it away. We were going to the Herbfarm! We had gone once over a year ago for their mushroom dinner, and loved it, but for being so pricey it really is a special experience that you can't have regularly. Kirk follows the Herbfarm through Facebook, and they had a little contest where they posted a picture of a dinosaur, and whoever got it correct first won a free dinner, and well ladies and gentlemen, my husband knows his dinosaurs!

The Dinner with Dinosaurs was a play on a fantasia of modern fowl. I never usually order fowl at a restaurant, since it is so easy to overcook, so I was pretty excited to try some fancy AAA 5-Diamond version of modern fowl.

The Herbfarm and I share beliefs that no dish can be better than its ingredients, and the best ingredients are usually local. And that supporting local farmers, foragers, cheesemakers, wineries, and fishermen, it helps preserve local food.

 We were greeted with house made strawberry basil soda, than headed upstairs to get a preview of the dining room, and look around their chef's library. FILLED with amazing cook books. Someday I will have to figure out my own little library. I could seriously spend hours looking through the pages!

Pre-garden tour, Kirk and I spent some time cheesin' it up in their lovely wine cellar

Garden tour was so beautiful, and such an inspiration to new gardeners. Hmm.. maybe that's what gave me the final push to get the move on my garden..

We had front row seats! I was in heaven. In the background, that's Sous Chef, Ben Smart. Ben was a former geologist who ended up going to culinary school so he could make his passion his work. If that's not rad, than I don't know what is. Seriously - DO WHAT YOU LOVE!

First Course, The Early Bird: Dungeness Crab Salad with Dill and Deep-Fried Egg Yolk

First Course, The Early Bird: Mille-Feuille of Boletus, Egg, House-Cured Berkshire Pig Prosciutto, Fried Quail Egg, and Marjoram Bechamel

First Course, The Early Bird: This Morning's Eff Soft Scrambled, Whipped Big-Leaf Maple Creme Fraiche, Smoked Quinault Indian Steelhead Roe, and Chives

Second Course, Poached Poussin: Poached Breast of Bernie Nash Poussin, Artichoke Heart, Pearl Onions, Poached Leek, Crispy Artichoke Chips, Lemon Thyme Sauce & Chervil. This course was my favorite, the sauce was heavenly!

Third Course, Squab Goes Round & Round: Wood Grill Rotisserie Squab with Chili, Garlic, Clove, and Basil, English Peas, Pickled Red Onion, and San Juan Island Spot Prawn Sauce. This was Kirk's favorite dish.

Fourth Course, Poulet a la Presse: Crown S Ranch Pastured Chicken Presse, Wild Morels, Lardons, Roasted Radish, Just-Dug New Poatoes, English Thyme, Whole Bird Broth (poured table side)

Fifth Course, A Moulard: Pan-Roasted Moulard Duck Breast with Greek Oregano Crust, Cracked Grain, Caramelized Kohlrabi, Cavolo Nero, Sorrel Drops, Black Currant Sauce

Sixth Course, Fat of the Land: Terrine of Puyallup Duck Foie Gras with Black Pepper Shortbread, Rhubarb, Ripe & Green Pickled Strawberries, Rosemary Balsamico *I will side note this and say I am not, and will never be a foie gras fan, I HATE the mouth feel. However, the rosemary balsamico was amazing :)

Seventh Course, Raspberry Flattery: Sorbet of Dinkum Raspberries, English Lavender Gelee, Spearminted White Chocolate, Raspberry Cream, Raspberry Pearls

Eighth Course, Back to the Nest: Ancient Heritage Camembert Panna Cotta Eff with Apricot-Anise Hyssop Yolk, Phyllo Nest, Duck Fat Crumble, and Bing, Montmorency, & Rainer Cherries

The menu was awesome, and we had a really great time, and our taste buds and palettes were pretty darn happy.

Oh man, one last picture. These are the Herbfarm's two little pigs named Borage and Basil. Anytime during dinner you can let your server know you want to feed them, and they will prep a fun little veggie basket. They are darling, and Kirk almost convinced me we should get a pig..almost.

The Herbfarm is an incredible experience. If you make the commitment to go, go for a menu with some pizzazz! They do a potato menu that I am sure is delicious, but if you are going to spend the dollars, you might want to go for a very unique menu to get the entire Herbfarm experience!

xo

DIY Home Updates

Oh goodness.. we have indeed been quite busy since we've moved in our new home! We started jotting down a whole bunch of things we wanted to update around the house that we could easily do ourselves, at a much lower cost.

The first project we did was paint our cabinets with a $75 kit from Home Depot by Rust Oleum. I was super paranoid about doing anything to our cabinets ourselves, since I have seen some really sloppy home projects, but after researching the kit, looking at reviews, and seeing pictures, I got super excited as I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen, and wanted it to feel complete. The kit gives you two options to either just paint your cabinets and leave it (looking like a flat paint color), or to do a final glaze over the color, which changes the color slightly, and gives it the wood grain texture. We had five of us working on the cabinets, and it took us four days. I estimated two, but this is definitely a project that we didn't want to rush. I must say, for $75, I was ECSTATIC with how they turned out!

At this point, we had already removed the doors/drawers, but this will give you a clear idea about the color. It made the floors look really red, and the back splash of chocolate tiles didn't match with the light oak

Voila! We used the color "cocoa" + glaze, and it made the kitchen all come together! If you are looking to update your kitchen cabinets without investing in new ones, I could not recommend this enough, but make sure to not rush the process. Oh, and of course, please don't mind the kitchen counter messiness pre-move ;) 

A few other things we have been working on:

My herb pots!  I bought pots for the herbs I use most frequently, and used some Martha Stewart stencils, and painted them with a simple design with their name. My garden itself needs some more TLC, but I have faith it will all come together soon enough.

Kirk had built this fire pit over this past weekend. In our backyard we have some stairs that lead us down to this little area where there was just wasted space. We thought it'd be perfect to build a fire pit, and it is just lovely and totally adds to the whimsy of our backyard! After tax, all the materials cost $82. Home made s'mores anyone?!

Here's to new adventures! xo