Medium: Ink on Clayboard (Scratchboard).

Size: 8″ x 10″

Date Completed: October 2010.

Other Information: After over a year of neglect I finally finished this piece of a female Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus). Three summers ago I happened upon her and her chicks in the North Cascades National Park. I snapped a few photos while she examined me warily. They continued on their way and I knew I wanted to tackle the detail and the attitude of that beautiful feathered mother.

(As a side note, my friends and I got onto a biological discussion about coconut anatomy and what part of it was the seed specifically and what the heck was coconut milk anyhow. Maybe you and your scientifically-minded friends were wondering, too? Wikipedia is actually quite useful for answering this question and it turns out that coconut “milk” is actually pureed/liquified coconut meat.)

I used some decadently dark bing cherries for this recipe but any kind works. Since this was an experiment I did only a half recipe, this can easily be doubled for a full quart of dairy free ice cream.

Cherry Coconut Sorbet
(Makes 1 pint of sorbet)

Ingredients

• 2 cups frozen or fresh cherries
• 1/2 cups of water
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1 cup coconut milk

Directions

1. Remove stems and pits from cherries. If you’re using frozen cherries, half-thawed cherries are easier to pit than completely thawed ones, and once they’ve completely thawed, then the juice gets everywhere.
2. Mix cherries with water, sugar, coconut milk and lemon juice.
3. Puree mixture in a food processor.
4. Churn and freeze in your ice cream machine according to its directions.

Sadly, I don’t have access to black raspberries or blue raspberries, whatever you want to call them. But I do have a ton of blueberries in my freezer and raspberries, too. So, I decided to make them into a blue raspberry sorbet.

This recipe has an additional, healthy, twist: replacing white sugar with agave nectar. Agave nectar is great stuff, but it is expensive, so I’ve included information for making this without it, as well.

The sorbet turned out to be nicely blue and red. My friends really enjoyed trying to guess what kinds of berries I had used.

Blue Raspberry Sorbet
(Makes 1 quart of sorbet)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of water (increase to 1 ¼ cups if using sugar)
• 1/2 cup agave nectar (Or 2/3rd a cup of sugar)
• 3 cups of berries (Approx. 1 ½ cups each of raspberries and blueberries)

Directions

1. Puree raspberries and blueberries separately, keeping them from mixing.
2. In a large measuring cup, mix agave nectar (or sugar) and water, stir to combine.
3. Pour agave(or sugar)-water mixture in with the raspberries and puree further to thoroughly mix them.
4. Churn raspberry mixture in your ice cream machine. At about 15-20 minutes (depending on your ice cream machine) the sorbet will become mostly firm and mixed.
5. At this point, pour in the pureed blueberries, slowly. This will create blueberry swirls evenly distributed throughout the sorbet. It is tricky to make it look like a fancy swirl as in store-bought ice cream but it still looks fun. And tastes fantastic.

This ice cream was a bit hit, it was gone almost instantly when my classmates and coworkers heard that it was available. It didn’t even have time to melt. I am a huge fan of any ice cream that involves mint so I adored it.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
(Makes 1 quart of ice cream)

Ingredients

• 2 cups of “lightly packed” mint (peppermint or spearmint, either works)
• 2 cups of Half&Half
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1/8th teaspoon of peppermint extract
• A generous 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
• Food coloring (completely optional)

Directions

1. Heat Half&Half, sugar and salt in a saucepan at medium heat for a few minutes until it is slightly warm. Make sure you don’t heat it too much or the cream will curdle.
2. Add in the mint leaves and stir them so they are completely covered by liquid. Cover the saucepan and remove it from the heat.
3. Steep the mint at room temperature for 2 hours.
4. Strain the mint and cream mixture to remove the leaves.
5. Add in the peppermint extract and mix thoroughly.
6. Churn mixture in your ice cream machine, if you want to add in the food coloring, this is a good time to do it. I only added in a few (3) drops but it isn’t a necessary addition.
7. About 20-25 minutes into the churning process (the exact timing depends on your ice cream machine but you want the ice cream to be mostly firm but not quite done yet) add in the chocolate chips.

Pistachio Ice Cream
(Makes 1 quart of ice cream)

I was searching around for a good pistachio ice cream recipe in my cookbooks and online. Most involved pistachio paste, which I didn’t have (and couldn’t get any since I was living way out in the mountains at the time). Then I found this amazing recipe for pistachio paste! I was incredibly excited. I still couldn’t make it with the ingredients I had at hand (I am very grateful that I now live in civilization where one doesn’t have to drive 2 hours to a halfway decent grocery store) but it got me thinking.

Since I couldn’t use amazing homemade pistachio paste, I improvised. This ice cream is probably not as impressive (nor as green) as one that involves pistachio paste but it was still absolutely delicious! If you’re in a pinch and wanting some pistachio ice cream, this does the trick really well.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of shelled pistachios
• 2 cups of Half&Half
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions

1. Spend a long time shelling pistachios, discover that your fingers are now kinda green.
2. Using a mortar and pestle, grind up the pistachios.
3. Heat Half&Half and sugar at medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. As always, make sure you don’t let the cream curdle or scorch.
4. Pour cream mixture in a bowl with the pistachios and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly.
5. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to its instructions.
6. A fun addition if you like chunks of things in your ice cream, is to throw in some coarsely chopped pistachios as the end of the churning time so your ice cream has extra pistachios.

Today I made the coveted, impressive, fan favorite: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.

I cobbled together this perfect recipe for eggless cookie dough and this recipe for “Ben&Jerry’s” Cookie Dough Ice cream. I thought the cookie dough recipe wouldn’t be enough and so I made extra but it ended up being unnecessary (oh darn, I have extra cookie dough that has to be eaten). For the “Ben&Jerry’s” recipe (I don’t know how legit that title is) I actually used half&half, only used egg yolks (egg white aren’t needed with ice cream) and reduced the sugar to a half cup instead of 3/4ths. These are my personal preferences, I’m sure it would’ve worked well without.

I’m not 100% pleased with the cream base but, honestly, that is me being a picky perfectionist. It tastes fantastic! :)

This makes me sad as I’d really liked some of the flavors I’d created … oh well, I guess I’ll just have to experiment with more ice cream flavors. :)

Tomorrow I’m going to try making a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. I shall report on its success once it is made!

Throughout the day I’ll update this post with the images I draw. Enjoy!

Today’s day of balance on the way to warmer months is also my graduation day! I am now a Master (of Environmental Education)!

After today the sky is the limit and I’m going to be doing a lot of pondering and soul searching and crossing my fingers. I’ll have a lot of time, finally, it’s been in short supply the last two years.

Time to breathe, time to think, and time to create.

I’ll be working more on my artwork, giving it the time I couldn’t spare during my graduate work. I’ll also be working on improving the content on this website. Be prepared to see more art and sketches posted, and likely more fun ice cream recipes.

I’ll catch you on the flip side, I have to go put my mortar-board and plastic gown on.

Apparently, this holiday was actually decreed by Reagan in 1984. Personally, I think July is perfect for ice cream so I’m glad someone got around to it.

When I have more time in my busy schedule I will post a list (and recipes!) of what I’ve been making during National Ice Cream Month. Tonight, in celebration of National Ice Cream Day I’m going to make another huckleberry ice cream (I swear they are multiplying in the freezer) and perhaps some kind of sorbet! :)