Day Fifteen ~ Ice Cream, a New Farmer's Market, and a Summer Classic

Yes, you read right - 100% local ice cream! Since you can't buy this kind of thing, (all the local ice cream brands contain sugar), we had to do it ourselves.

Toward the beginning of the challenge, Stanley ordered this ice cream maker on Ebay. It's an older model, but made with real wood, which is a plus. We decided to give it a whirl last night.

We found a no-cook recipe since it was already late and neither of us wanted to go to the trouble of cooking egg yolks into a custard. Instant gratification was the name of the game. So we mixed 2 cups of half and half with a bunch of diced peaches, about a half cup of honey, and a teaspoon of salt, poured it in the ice cream maker, layered rock salt and ice around the outside, and turned the sucker on.

My goodness was it loud! The machine whined away in the kitchen for about a half hour and then stopped, signifying that it was done.

Perfect peach honey ice cream! My only criticism is that the honey flavor was a little overpowering - I could have used a little less. Other than that it was just like ice cream should be - creamy, sweet, delicious.

The next morning I checked out the North Side Farmer's Market, which I'm embarrassed to say I had never been to. It's really friendly, a little larger than the East Side Market, but so much more laid back than the downtown market. It will probably become a weekly routine.

I have so much in the garden, I didn't really need any veggies, but I couldn't help buying the stuff in the picture above: a pretty stripey eggplant, a bunch of carrots, a bunch of jicama (I had no idea what jicima greens look like, now I do!), two red bell peppers, and a bunch of fresh mint to make sun tea.

After coming home from market I had my regular breakfast: yogurt, peaches, hickory nuts, flax, and maple syrup. It was pretty hot today, and I've managed to catch a weird summer cold, so I wasn't feeling much like eating at lunch time - lunch was a yellow doll watermelon, that's it.

Here's dinner - a classic Caprese, Wisconsin style. Garden basil, two big hunks of fresh Mozzarella, and two tomatoes, all drizzled with sunflower oil and sprinkled with salt. I also added the one leftover potato from last night's dinner to add a few carbs to the day. The tomatoes aren't mine - the neighbor brought them over. It was nice to eat someone else's tomatoes for once. The candystripes that I've been eating are really sweet, and I enjoyed the acidic tang of the red tomato.

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