We all need alone time. Especially when the day is cloudy and rainy. Grab a seat by the window, eat some ice cream, and people watch. Clear you mind.
ice cream
Pie Crust Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
in Recipe
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade but what happens when a friend gives you a big bag of plums? This was my dilemma couple weeks ago. "Sure," I said to my friend while she handed me a giant ziplock bag of tiny plums. Her uncle had sent her lots and lots, which he grows in his backyard in California and she was happy to get rid of some.
You know what's not fun? Taking tiny pits out from tiny plums.
Facebook and Instagram were great help, with people giving me ideas for what to do with the plums. From jam to pies to cobblers to sangria to sorbet. Though I ended finding my inspiration from Tara O'Brady's plum sauce in her plum rippled ginger crunch ice cream recipe.
But what do I do with the plum sauce?
Use it in ice cream sandwiches!
Instead of making cookies, I decided to make pie crust cookies. I still haven't master the art of cookie making but I made the Four and Twenty Blackbirds pie crust once and it came out pretty good. Also there's less work in making pie crust dough, I think.
Plum Sauce: 2 lbs of plums sliced in half and pit removed 6 tablespoons 1 handful mint leaves Zest and juice of 1 lemon
I'm sorry about the amount of plums. I'm guessing it. I don't own a weight and wasn't able to find out how many pounds of plums my friend gave me. I just know that I stood in the kitchen for a long time and removed pits from 50 mini plums aka enough to fill a half sheet pan.
Place plums, sugar, and mint into a pan/pot over medium heat. Stir it occasionally. Lower the flame to low when the plums begin to soften. Mush them up a bit. When all the plums have soften, push them through a sieve over a bowl. Then pour the plum sauce back into the pan/pot over low flames. Add the lemon zest and juice and stir them into the sauce. Taste it now. Too tart? Add a little bit more sugar.
Simmer the sauce for a minute or two and then pour it into a jar. This yields about 8oz. Let it chill in the fridge.
Pie Crust Cookies: I used the Four and Twenty Blackbirds pie crust dough recipe for the cookies.
Roll out your dough and use whatever you like to cut the cookies out. Then brush them with an egg wash and top with a generous sprinkling of sugar. Bake till golden.
When your cookies are done, let them cool a bit before assembling the sandwiches.
Hhhmmmmm these came out pretty darn good. Buttery cookies, tart plum sauce with vanilla ice cream (store bought, sorry). Maybe my next step is to make my own ice cream?
Big Gay LA: Last Day
in Blabbering, Los Angeles, Trip
Here's the last and final photo recap of Big Gay Ice Cream's LA pop-up...with some very surprising special guests (photo above).
The day started off with brunch hours in front of Susan Feniger's Street and some guy bought everyone in front of him 1 cone so that he could cut the line short.
We had few hours to waste before heading to our final spot at Faultline Bar, so we took the truck around LA for some photo ops. And lucky for us, a Chick-fil-A was just blocks away from us. We just HAD to swing by for some photos. While we were plotting our next move, couple Chick-fil-A employees came out (I thought to kick us out) asking if we were open. HA! For them, yes.
Faultline Bar was the truck's very last LA stop. Did you know that even zombies like ice cream? Doug brought Mila Hermanovski onto the truck to critique Gen's fabulous outfit and later all of us chowed on bacon wrapped dog topped with onions, parsley, mayo and mustard from Rosie (the main reason why the truck was parked there).
Thank you everyone for coming out and supporting the Big Gay Ice Cream. Doug, Bryan, Gen and Martha really kicked ass during this weeklong pop-up and hopefully they'll be back soon!
Big Gay LA: Day 4 At Animal
in Blabbering, Los Angeles, Trip
Photo recap of Big Gay Ice Cream's fourth day on the streets of LA with a visit from Andy Richter and the LAPD.
Last night we parked at the parking lot diagonally across from the restaurant Animal and it was non-stop cones/sundaes/paletas serving for the fearless Bryan, Doug and Gen.
We had to close the line early so that we could actually leave on time. With a 2hr long line that stretched to the back of the parking lot, the school (they say they own the lot) had the LAPD come to kick us out. In the end, we worked everything out and was able to finish the night without having to leave.
Also Andy Richter tried to steal the truck.
Also if you're going to stand in line for 2hrs, you might as well just order the whole menu.
LA people! Today is their last day out. Be sure to check their schedule and of course their Twitter for any changes.
Power tip: COME EARLY. DON'T WAIT TILL THE LAST MINUTE! We're expecting Faultline Bar to get real crazy.