Homemade Ice Cream, my new favorite thing

Ice Cream Made at Home
Regina received an ice cream maker from her brothers for her birthday. I didn't think it would be almost as fun making ice cream as it is eating it.

David Lebowitz is probably the one person who has the written the most about the subject. In just the past month he's done a very nice article in issue #99 of Fine Cooking about making flavor infusions, add ins, etc for ice cream.I also got the new Culture magazine and he had a recipe for tiramisu ice cream.

I actually used the Fine Cooking recipe to make vanilla infused strawberry ice cream with pound cake. I used the strawberries I bought Saturday morning at the Shaker Square market. It ended up tasting way better than I had expected. If I had bought this stuff at an ice cream parlor I would have been very happy.

We actually have some black walnuts from Muddy Fork, so I'm thinking there's some maple walnut in our future.

Bobby Flay Throwdown Challenge
Did anyone catch the Throwdown this past Sunday? They had a falafel challenge between Bobby and one of his former cooks. Einat Admony, who owns Taïm (tah-EEM) Falafel and Smoothie in New York City was going up against her former boss.

Making a long story short, Flay knew nothing about this chick pea delicacy. He was totally out of his element. He ends up winning the thing because there was some spicy sauce put on top of the falafel.

I was a bit put off because they had people that had never eaten the stuff judging the challenge. How stupid is that? I hate to see that stuff. You could tell he felt embarrassed because he was so outclassed, and knew it.

Regina swears that this is the absolute best falafel she's had in her life. If you make it into the city this is a do not miss.

Ko Missed
Speaking of missed. On the weekends I'll just screw around on the computer and basically wander around the internet.

David Chang of Momofoku fame has a cool reservation site for his 12 seater Momofoku Ko. It's basically a random selection site that you log into and if you're chosen you get an opportunity to book a reservation. There's no speed dial or third party booking services that can help you. The person that registers with their credit card has to have the matching license when they show up to eat.

So on Saturday I went on the website for shits and giggles. I entered my log in and all of a sudden this thing pops up and said I could have a ressie for this coming Friday at 1pm. I was gobsmacked! I've done this a bunch of times and have never gotten this screen.

What the hell do I do? I hit the "accept reservation" button and it took me to another screen where it has a timer that counts down from 180 seconds. You basically have to fill out the information and give your credit card number. All the while the timer ticks down, second... by.... second.

It pained me to turn it down. Normally I would have done it, but next week is our 10th anniversary and we'll be dropping major cash at The Refectory and G Michaels (not mention staying at The Lofts) down in Columbus.

It was the worst feeling waving bye bye to that reservation. On the plus side, if that's the worst thing that happens to me in times like these; I figure I'm doing okay.

Top Chef Magazine
Call me crazy, but I think that's one food magazine we could do without. I can see it now, the July feature is "How I Won the Truck Stop Challenge", by Applebee's Mike.

I am, however, starting the countdown for Top Chef Masters next week.

Mister Brisket
I scored some gorgeous King Salmon from Mister Brisket today. It is the prettiest piece of non-Atlantic salmon I've seen in about a year.

Curly Tail
We made a special trip out to Peninsula to grab the last six Berkshire chops the Snavely's had. They say they'll have some more in August. Curly Tail is hands down my favorite pork. I really wish they'd come to Shaker, especially in the winter.

An apology to Stuart
Sorry Stuart about the Bubbie's mochi false alarm. When they emailed us they said they had them in. Since we had given Whole Foods the phone number and contact information, I took them at their word.

When I went in today and saw that shitty Japanese brand (which sucks very badly) I talked to Demo Dave about the miscommunication.

I gave them the information again and he said they'd have them in three weeks. I promise I won't say anything until I have the box in my greedy hands. I am, however, very skeptical as they claimed the same company sold Bubbie's pickles (which is not true). I'm not holding my breath.