Odd Bird

Our dear friends Odd Bird are (finally!!) having their album release party! We are so excited they invited us to be a part of the celebration.

We will have waffles and ice cream AND vegan waffle and sorbet available!

This event is not to be missed. You can buy advance tickets at The Last Record Store, or just show up Saturday. The North Bay Bohemian put it this way:

Odd Bird: Indigo children birth crystalline thought-poems and utopian hymns to godself.
Most high rock and rollers John Courage & the Great Plains, brilliant recluse Painted Animals and organ-jamming expatriates You Are Plural open minds; Born & Raised opens mouths.
Sep 3 at 7. $8-$10. 99 Sixth St, Santa Rosa. 707.528.3009.

See you Saturday!

For Our Next Trick

Thanksgiving was lovely, we finally digested. We are back to the grind, and looking forward to the weekend. It is true we always look forward to the weekend, but this weekend is really something to look forward to.

 Nick and I are participating in our friends Meredith and Olivia's second Shop Party.
Shop Party if a craft bazaar, there will be over twenty vendors, from local business to crafty people who make incredible stuff. Two bands will be playing, there will even be cocktails! We will be there with our now much requested banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich)

We will also be scooping up some cà phê sữa đá ice cream (Vietnamese coffee ice cream).
To take home with you we will have a variety of preserves for you to try and purchase.

Apple Rosemary Jelly, Pear Fennel Butter, Sweet Roasted Beet Relish, and the amazing Tomato Jam

We are busy, busy, busy until then and really hope you come on down. You can get all your holiday purchasing done in one fell swoop, and have lunch, and hear local music, AND support local business and the local arts and crafts community. It seems like money well spent to me!
See you Sunday!

Descry Presents

I've been busy making ice cream and shaking jars or hooch.
Chelsea is hosting Descry Magazine's second issue release party, and she asked us to make sure everyone had something sweet to eat and/or drink.
Gladly I agreed.

I've been roasting pumpkin for pumpkin ice cream and crushing up cardamom for a batch of cardamom saffron.

To drink I've put together a peach vanilla brandy that has been infusing for a month now.
For the last week or so vodka has been infusing with honey and oats.
The finished product should be something quite special.
I suggest you taste for yourself!

CATALOGUE OF THE NIGHT

3641 Main Street Gallery, Occidental CA

October 22, 7-11pm

 Issue No.2 Release

Art Exhibit

And Silent Auction Featuring Work By:

Kristoffer Axén

Gregory Bartlett

Randi Berez

Chelsea Rae Klein

Kati Mennett

Jordan Reznick

Ursula Sokolowska

Elena Zavala

And Chris Weller Presents:

A Magnificent Microcosm- The Smallest Circus in Western Territories

Performance By: Odd Bird

Homemade Ice Cream and Infused Beverages By: Born & Raised 

With Toppings By: Produce to the People

Hope to see you Friday!

We All Scream For Ice Cream

It's SO hot.
Last week when we had some colder days, even a little rain, I started canning. Now of course it feels like winter will never come and what should I do with those cans of caramelized pears?
Dollop them next to ice cream of course.

To make a simple vanilla ice cream pour 1 cup cream in a sauce pan with 1/2 sugar, a pinch of salt, and one vanilla pod sliced open and scraped into the pan. Heat until the sugar has dissolved, then remove from heat, add two more cups cream and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Thoroughly chill before freezing in ice cream maker.
Simple and delicious.

Caramelizing pears was fun, and a bit more complicated. I used this recipe. I'm not sure how to tweak it, as I don't know enough about pH when canning, and these pears are delicious but a bit too sweet for my taste. They taste like candy!

Try to stay cool!

Screaming Ice Cream

As I mentioned in the last post- we were asked to make food for an event, which took place last night. I made two kinds of ice cream, lemon and apricot pistachio, as well as two sorbets, plum and chocolate coconut. The ice cream was amazing, the venue unfortunately was not.

The show was primarily made up of high schoolers and early twenty-somethings, young folks who spent their money on the cover and had some left over to buy cheap beer or cigarettes (god bless 'em, we were there once too). We are looking for folks who would gladly shell out to watch their friends’ band play with some money left over for a locally sourced, handmade snack.

We are torn between doing every gig we are asked to be at in order to have a presence, or only do gigs we want to do, where we will be received by our target audience.

Nick and I decided at this point we simply can’t afford to work every gig. We certainly don’t expect to make money on our little ventures, but we would like to break even, and most importantly be well received.
On that note, the friends who did buy scoops were very pleased and impressed, which I suppose means our night was a success.

Until next time!

It's It... Fresh Mint!

I've been experimenting with ice cream lately. My KitchenAid ice cream attachment and I have so far produced several flavors, some so-so (strawberry-rose), others revelatory (fresh lemon ice cream!) .

Like most things we create in our kitchen, I went to the garden in the backyard for inspiration. The first thing to catch my eye was our herb barrel overflowing with electric-green mint.

I steeped two cups of fresh mint leaves in cream for an hour and was delighted to find a beautiful emerald infusion. The rest was simple*.

After tasting this mint ice cream, I don't think I have ever had fresh mint ice cream. It's an amazing grassy mint flavor. It tastes like it's growing.



I chopped some good dark chocolate and added it to the ice cream, and then decided to go one further and make chocolate ice cream sandwiches.




We are off to Sea View for four days and the sandwiches will be a good way to transport the ice cream, and share something special with our guests.





*If you're looking for an excellent book on making ice cream, I recommend David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.