Relaxation

Today, I refused to stain the deck. We decided to take the day off since we've been staining for the last 5 days straight. Thankfully we are so close to being finished! We have everything covered in at least one coat of stain. We just have to do a final coat on a little bit. And second coats are much easier than the first coat. So, I would guess about 3 more hours of work and we will be done! At least until it's time to strip it off and do the whole thing all over again. Next time though, we will only be doing a little bit each summer. This is just too much for one summer.

Tonight I made a vodka sauce I found on Epicurious. It's one of my go-to sauces because it's so easy. I accidentally added whole milk instead of cream though. It was definitely missing the velvety consistency it usually has.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10 cloves garlic, peeled
Crushed hot red pepper
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or olive oil for finishing the sauce, if you like
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

Pour the tomatoes and their liquid into the work bowl of a food processor. Using quick on/off pulses, process the tomatoes just until they are finely chopped. (Longer processing will aerate the tomatoes, turning them pink.)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Whack the garlic cloves with the side of a knife and add them to the hot oil. Cook, shaking the skillet, until the garlic is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Lower the work bowl with the tomatoes close to the skillet and carefully — they will splatter — slide the tomatoes into the pan. Bring to a boil, season lightly with salt and generously with crushed red pepper, and boil 2 minutes. Pour in the vodka, lower the heat so the sauce is at a lively simmer, and simmer until the pasta is ready.

Just before the pasta is done, fish the garlic cloves out of the sauce and pour in the cream. Serve over cooked pasta (I use penne for this sauce)

I also made the base for chocolate ice cream. I've got to let it cool so I'll be making it sometime later this week. It smells so good though!

Chocolate Ice Cream

from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

2 1/4 cups heavy cream

6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli bittersweet because it's what I had in the cabinet)

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large saucepan, whisk the cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt together. Whisking frequently, heat until the mixture comes to a full, rolling boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate melts completely, then add the milk and vanilla. (If the chocolate doesn't melt completely, you can pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 30 seconds, until smooth. I skipped this step because my chocolate melted without a problem.)

Chill the mixture thoroughly and then churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.