Something you may not know about me? I wanted to be a chef when I first graduated college. Every day after class I would come home, flip on the cooking channel and soak up all the lessons that Ina, Giada and Tyler Florence were sharing, then I’d host dinner parties for my friends and practice all my newfound skills.
After graduating, Sunday dinners became a bit of a ritual with Rob and I since his job in investment banking left nearly zero time for us to hang out during the week. I’d spend my mornings researching recipes online, browsing through cookbooks and scribbling down ideas that popped into my brain. I have to admit, I cooked some pretty time-intensive, fancy stuff back in the day.
I was writing a cooking blog, My Culinary Quest, and finally decided to enroll in culinary school. Yup, you heard right. If you weren’t aware, culinary school is really freaking expensive, so instead of jumping in at Le Cordon Bleu or The Art Institute, I went with El Centro, the community college in downtown Dallas. I figured at $125 a class it’d be a good place to decide whether or not this was a career path I actually wanted to move forward with. One semester later, I had killer knife skills and had learned so much, but also realized that chef life wasn’t for me. Still, it was such an incredible experience and I’m so glad I did it!
So, why the hell am I telling you all this? Because as of late, my inventive, crazy creative meals have gone to the wayside. I still love to cook, but for the most part, the meals I cook now are a lot easier, don’t take as much time and aren’t nearly as inventive as my early days.
But lately, I’ve been feeling a little bit more creative in the kitchen. Remember last month when I made that delicious spicy coffee and chocolate chip ice cream? If you don’t, you should check that one out too and go ahead and whip up a batch. I had a blast doing it and right after that batch was done, I whipped up a more creative flavor that popped into my head while stirring coffee beans into heavy cream.
I immediately googled it and of course, it’s been done before, but oh my! Guys, this flavor is so good — sophisticated, flavorful, not overly sweet and simply gorgeous. Plus, I love purple.
I’m glad life has slowed down a bit so I can find joy in things like cooking again. It’s fun to get creative and create new things, isn’t it? If you’ve never tried your hand at making ice cream, it’s actually pretty easy, I promise! Just buy an ice cream maker, set aside the time and follow the instructions and before you know it you’ll be wondering if you should open your own ice cream shop.
On that note, it’s time for me to hit the yoga studio again, because ice cream is not health food— the one and only downside to this frozen treat.
[yumprint-recipe id=’3′]
