This Week's Ice Creams (and Cake)

Collaboration is a wonderful thing.

My brother-in-law, among others, is in town visiting for Christmas. We started off the celebratory week by turning a cocktail he's perfected into an ice cream: Black Pepper Ice Cream with Tequila Infused Pear and Fresh Ginger. Delicious!

Later in the week for a family and friends seafood gumbo gathering I churned up three ice creams:

Egg Nog with Rum Soaked Raisins - The brandy was replaced with bourbon and at the last minute I soaked some raisins in rum and added them to the mix.

Lemon and Dried Cherries - This one may be my favorite. It's super lemony and the late addition of dried cherries gives it an extra shot of chewy tanginess.

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip - All of the recipes I came across either use mint extract (too artificial) or require steeping lots of mint in hot milk (too herbaceous). I kind of split the difference and pulverized about a ¾ cup of mint leaves in the food processor with ¾ cup of sugar then added about tbsp of mint extract. It's just as I like it, very minty.

And at the request of a lovely young girl from Sweden, for Christmas a Strawberries and Cream Cheesecake found it's way from the mixer and to the table.

P.S. The pics aren't mine.