And here we are again. I took such a long hiatus from posting in this little section of my blog due to crazy busy wedding seasons but also because of being pregnant, buying a house, moving and well you guessed it, having a baby. Just a few slight life events I suppose. My camera was placed on hold, along with my personal images. An Iphone took precedence and time flew right on by. Shame shame. So I am extremely happy to pick it back up again, to capture and create, with my main reason being to document my sweet baby girl’s days. I’ll hopefully be posting once a month (setting some low standards so I don’t totally bomb on keeping up with this) with our favorite snippets of our days together. And of course, Castella. Always Castella.

With summer being my favorite time of year (Ok, soooo fall might actually be my REAL favorite) I figured it would only be suitable to post what we’ve been up to the last few months. Strawberry picking, strawberry ice cream making (recipe below!) tending to our garden, sunny beach days and breezy boardwalk nights, dinners with friends under twinkle lights, brunching (why is brunch so GOOD) play dates with cute babes, watching new flowers bloom all over the yard, hammocking, sun porch hanging and lots and lots of snuggling. And why is the simple stuff, the BEST stuff? This tiny human is growing by the second, and watching her turn into this extremely sweet and wondrous soul has my heart bursting at the seams. Our new life in a new home with a new babe has been quite the wild ride, but we have been soaking in every second.

Here’s to many more Sundays.

Cheers.

Ingredients

22 ounces strawberries, stems removed, sliced
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup evaporated cane juice
4 large organic egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups organic heavy cream
1 1/2 cups organic whole milk
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

Directions

Add the strawberries to a bowl along with the lemon juice and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Toss until the sugar begins to dissolve. Let sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes while you prepare the custard.

Whisk together the egg yolks, remaining 3/4 cup sugar and salt together in a large bowl until the eggs look pale yellow and are well combined with the sugar.

In a large saucepan, add the cream, milk, vanilla bean and seeds and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add a few ladles of the hot milk mixture into the eggs and sugar while whisking constantly. Add the tempered eggs and milk mixture back into the saucepan while also constantly whisking. Turn the heat to low and continue stirring and cooking until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, 4 to 6 minutes. Strain the mixture into a bowl and set over another large bowl filled with ice water. Stir to cool the mixture down. You want the custard to be ice cold before churning.

Roughly pulse the berries and their juices in a food processor. Stir the chunky puree into the chilling custard to chill. Place in the refrigerator to continue to chill for 2 hours.

Freeze in the ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Run until it looks like thick soft serve. Place in an airtight container and place in the freezer to harden.

Recipe courtesy of Jamie Deen