Today is our 1 year anniversary - our Family Day! It is the day we brought our beautiful Haitian daughter home to Portland, so I thought I would do a special post featuring our precious girl. Be prepared, though, as it's going to be an Estere love fest showcasing adorable photos I took of her at the end of September. Back then the weather was still warm enough to be dreaming of ice cream. Of course I had meant to post this recipe shortly after I took the photos, but life happened, along with other recipes that took precedence over this one. I realize we are now in the midst of winter, but here in Portland our temperatures have been hovering around 50°F. Maybe ice cream in January is not too farfetched. And of course in some parts of the world it is hot all year round. So for those of you where the temperatures are a bit warmer, and you can imagine making a sweet frozen treat, this recipe is for you. For the rest of you with subzero temperatures, feel free to bookmark this recipe for that day when Jack Frost has officially taken his leave.
It's hard to believe this time last year we were arriving home - with a little girl in our arms! - from our whirlwind trip that took us to Haiti, then Chicago, St. Louis and finally back to Portland. Looking back, we have had an incredible year with Estere home and experienced so many firsts with her as newbie parents - celebrating her 4th birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day holidays! And the not always pleasant firsts like projectile vomiting, potty training, the flu, doctor's visits and the list goes on. Andy and I have learned so much - especially from our mistakes with handling a toddler - but despite those, we somehow have managed to keep our sweet girl healthy and happy.
In the last year Estere's personality has blossomed tremendously, and our bond has continued to grow stronger than ever. She also grew 5.5 inches and put on almost 10 pounds! Some highlights from this past year would be Estere sitting through a complete performance of Mahler's 2nd Symphony, attending her first ballet and opera as well as taking an outdoor Tinkergarten class! She continues to enjoy ballet and Music Together classes, too, and began preschool - which she absolutely adores! We've also met some wonderful parents with toddlers that we have shared some pretty amazing moments with on our play dates.
Estere received a chef's tower for her 4th birthday, and since then she loves cooking in the kitchen with Mama! So I dreamed up this recipe with Estere in mind, as she can't seem to get enough strawberry ice cream when we make it. We hope that you may j'adore this special treat as much as we do in our home!
(This is the song that was going through my head when I was writing this post, so I thought I would share, as it seems pertinent to the strawberry theme we have going on here. Now onto the recipe. . .)
The_beatles_strawberry_fields_forever
strawberry dream ice cream ingredients
makes 1 quart
2 cups homemade coconut milk or other milk of choice
1 1/2 cup cashews - soaked a minimum of 4 hours
10 ounces fresh or frozen strawberries or other fruit of choice
4 Medjool dates pitted
2 tablespoons raw honey or maple syrup
1 teaspoon raw vanilla bean powder or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon arrowroot powder
pinch of sea salt
If your ice cream maker uses a chiller bowl, make sure to put it in the freezer 24 hours prior to making this ice cream.
Place all of the ingredients listed above into a high speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover and place in the refrigerator for a minimum of an hour to chill. Remove the chiller bowl from the freezer and the mixture from the refrigerator.
Turn on your ice cream maker and pour the mixture into the chiller bowl. Let it run for 20 to 25 minutes until the ice cream thickens to the consistency you prefer.
Eat right away or transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and let chill until you are ready to indulge in your dreamy dessert. Note - because there are no preservatives in this ice cream, the longer it sits in the freezer the more ice crystals it will develop, so it will taste best if eaten within the first week of making this frozen treat.
"Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time."
The smile that lights up the world.
Posted by: Jeanne Cohen | 19 January 2018 at 08:33 PM