My two latest ice cream experiments have come straight out of the Ben & Jerry Ice Cream & Dessert Book. They've been great!

Saturday I made strawberry ice cream for my birthday party. I made it "chunky" by adding the strawberries in the last five minutes and put some cookie/chocolate crumbs for good measure. Everyone liked it, some people thought it tasted like strawberry short cake. I'll certainly make it again this summer.

Just now I finished a batch of kiwi ice cream. The description in the book "exotic, subtle flavor for the true connoisseur" wasn't too encouraging but I bought a bunch of kiwis at the farmer's market and I wanted to give it a try. It is delicious! I find it very refreshing. I made it with half-sugar/half esplenda. The one minus is that it hurts my tongue when I eat it - but I think I may have a minor allergy to kiwi (I have similar experiences when eating some nuts).

Anyway, here are the recipes as I made them. You will need an ice cream maker with at least a 1.5 qt. bowl.

=Strawberry Ice Cream

1 basket fresh strawberries, hulled & sliced
1/3 cup sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 cup milk.

Mix strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice and let stand in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Whisk the eggs until light and fluffly, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and whisk in until well combined. Add the cream and milk and mix well. Add the juice from the strawberries and whisk.

Mash the strawberries into a pure and set aside.

Transfer the mixture into the ice-cream make and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. A couple of minutes before it's done, add the mashed strawberries. Make sure they combine well. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until hard.

=Kiwi Ice Cream

6 kiwis
2 tbsp. sugar

2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup esplenda
2 cups heavy or whipping cream

Mash the kiwis, mix with 2 tbsp. of sugar and let stand in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Whisk the eggs until light and fluffly, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and splenda and whisk in until well combined. Add the cream and mix well. Add the mashed kiwis and mix well.

Transfer the mixture into the ice-cream make and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When done, transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until hard.

I haven't posted anything to this blog, or my other one, because I've been gone for the last week. Mike and I went down to Southern California, left Mika with my parents and took a 4-day cruise. It was relaxing and the food decent, though not actually good :) I hope to write more about the cruise and the food I've had lately, we'll see if I can manage the time.

Anyway, I just posted two reviews of San Leandro restaurants that I wrote before I left.

The Blue Dish is a small deli-like restaurant serving light American, Middle Eastern and Mexican menus. We tried the Middle Eastern stuff (prepared by a Latino cook) and our experience was mixed: Mike like his salad while I felt my shawerma was overwhelmed by the tahini sauce.

The Sandwitchery is, as it name suggests, a sandwich joint. They offer a large variety of sandwiches which are better, and more expensive, than those at the chains (there is a Subway and a Quiznos nearby) but otherwise not remarkable.

On a final note, I've heard that Cafe Zula closed. I'm not surprised given its out-of-the-way location and a menu that did not justify its prices. Unfortunately it isn't going to be replaced by another (better) restaurant, Trader Sports has expanded into that space.

I made these for an impromptu Memorial Day BBQ today. They are quite good. As I learned, make sure to not overstuff them. I use ground buffalo as a healthier alternative to ground beef but you can use ground beef just as well. I made them with Stilton cheese, it was the first time I tried it and I was very pleased with it, it's less intense and yet creamier than other blue cheeses. You can substitute with your favorite blue cheese, of course.

-1 lb ground buffalo
-1/2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
-1/2 tsp. dried mustard
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
-a dash of Tabasco
-2 oz Stilton blue cheese

Mix the ground buffalo with the Worcestershire sauce, the dried mustard, the salt, pepper and Tabasco. Hand-form 8 equal size patties. Put 1/2 oz of cheese in the middle of a patty, cover it with another patty, press the sides until the cheese is completely covered and flatten with a spatula. Repeat making 3 more patties. Grill for about 5 minutes on each side. Serve on a burger bun with your favorite fixings.

I love cheese and, like with almost everything else, my taste for cheese has expanded as I've aged. I'm almost to the point where I'd be willing to try those stinky cheeses my father loves so much. Michaella is a dairy-fiend herself and she is extremely fond of cheeses. She likes almost all of them, though I recently found out she is not fond of chevre. Her dad didn't use to like it either, and I think Mika has inheritted Mike's taste in food as well as his looks and personality.

I don't know very much about cheese, however, so I figured I'd start writing about different cheeses I tried so that I could remember which ones I liked and disliked and why. I'm starting with Stilton, even though I wrote a little bit about that cheese in my posting below, as it's a new cheese I tried today.

Stilton is a blue cheese from England. I found it at Safeway (Clawson brand) for $13 a lb. I really like it. It's quite creamy for a blue cheese, though it can crumble, and has an intense flavor that is still less pungent and bitter than other blue cheeses (like Roquefort or Gorgonzola). Indeed, it doesn't taste completely as a blue cheese - it even reminded me a little of gruyere. It was good in the blue cheese burgers I made, but it's actually one blue cheese I'd eat by itself. Indeed, it's recommended that you enjoy it alone with a glass of port, though I think it would also go great with the cherry preserves we had at Piperade. This is definitely a cheese I could serve as part of a cheese course or, as the British (used to?) do, as a finish to a meal.

Here is some more info I found on the web about it: