Spice Dish

Pumpkin Ice Cream with Black Chocolate and Gingerbread

Mmmm pumpkiny

Somehow I got wrangled into cooking the Thanksgiving feast at my mother’s house this year. Turkey, stuffing, veggies… the whole shebang… plus dessert. Special request ice cream no less. My mom is not a big pumpkin pie fan, but she does love pumpkin ice cream. She wanted not just plain pumpkin either, but pumpkin with ginger snaps (which is something I’ve made a few times before). Since I wanted to switch it up and make it special I’ve given my mom just what she didn’t know she wanted… Pumpkin Ice Cream with Black Chocolate and Gingerbread. This recipe is for those of you who have been intimidated to make ice cream before or who don't like the idea of an egg custard base. It's extremely easy. Go ahead... give it a shot.

Pumpkin Ice Cream with Black Chocolate and Gingerbread

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream

• 1/2 cup whole milk

• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar

• 1 cup pumpkin puree

• 2 tsps pumpkin pie spice

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 pinch salt

• 1/2 cup chopped up gingerbread (the darker the better)

• ¼ cup  chopped 70+% percent cocoa chocolate

1. Whisk cream, milk, sugar, pumpkin, spices, vanilla and salt in a large bowl until blended.

2. Place a wire strainer over the ice cream maker bowl. Pour mixture through strainer into the ice cream maker bowl and freeze according to directions.

3. 5 minutes before completely finished add chocolate and gingerbread. Pour into freezer safe container and freeze for at least 5 hours.

 

That's it!

Happy Thanksgiving-

EB

Scoopalicious Saturday

They call them "SpiceDish Saturdays," I call them Scoopalicious Saturdays, either way head over to Bethany and Tina's site Scoopalicious to check out my guest posts. I'm so honored to be back there! First up, Salt & Pepper Ice Cream.

 

EB

Cheap Eats in the Summer of Love

Looove the logo!

Hardworking immigrants who operate small establishments, serving heartfelt food at living wage prices? That’s our favorite thing these days in San Francisco right? Really, there is some truth to the saying that there is nothing new under the sun. We've always been a food city.

In 1969 R. B. Bread was a writer for the Examiner-Chronicle and a little book called “The San Francisco Underground Gourmet: An Irreverant Guide to Dining in the Bay Area.” His specialty was finding “different and excellent eateries” that were “small and modest.” He championed the mom n' pop joints that were overlooked by most publications. At the time, “ethnic” foods were all over the city but not nearly in the numbers we think of as normal today. While now you see Bernal Hill three year olds chowing down on octopus at any given sushi joint, in 1969 Read had to spend half his time explaining what things were before he could tell you where you should eat them!

So why on earth did I pick up an ethnic food restaurant guide from 1969? There were two things that made me plunk down my four dollars for the book: one, Read proclaims that “San Franciscans need a restaurant guide” due to the fact that for all of San Franciscans “heady interest in the subject” there was very little exploring outside of certain comfort zones. Can you imagine? Us needing a restaurant guide? Two, Read includes “Gay” as an ethnic food category, right between Frisco and German! He acknowledges that most gays are not “glamorous theatrical personages” but “wage earners in humdrum and humble occupations” who needed a place to go be themselves, where they could be free from discrimination. In a sign of the times, while he only finds three Korean restaurants worth mention he lists almost three pages of “Gay” restaurants. Can you imagine his joy cruising the Richmond today? 

Very few of his haunts remain, but some like Lois the Pie Queen hold fast and have changed little. Others like Tadich Grill remain but are clearly out of the budget conscious realm that got them in the book.

While apparently Read was a “well-known San Francisco epicure and bon vivant,” a “world traveler, journalist and resource economist,” I haven’t been able to find much about him. But I think it’s pretty clear, with his ‘get out there and find good food in small places’ mentality he would undoubtedly be a food blogger if he were on the scene today.

EB