Super late Mother's day post

Mother's day in my family is always celebrated with food. Since my mother moved to Florida we've used it as an excuse to eat extraordinarily well during her visits; Mother's day was no different. We went to her friend Diane's house where I was cooking with her boyfriend Philip. Philip grew up in the states on a farm that his super duper Italian grandparents, aka he might as well have grown up in Italy. His grandfather used to go mushrooming in the forest and bring back the freshest, most delectable mushrooms and his mother would cook absolutely brilliant food. As such, Philip is no slouch in the kitchen... he even inspired the change of the title of this blog (from 'Food Project' to "Will Work For Flavor"). A couple of days before the big day Philip called and we hashed out a plan for the meal. He'd be making the veggies and potatoes while I did steak and dessert.

Being Mother's day I wasn't willing to gamble with the main course. I sous vide some steaks and made Sri Racha hollandaise to go over them. Philp made green beans, oven roasted cauliflower, and hasselbeck potatoes grain. Everything was phenomenal, aside from it being pointed out that the hollandaise looked like Velveeta. Gross.

Where I did gamble was dessert. I had given up on making ice cream over a year ago but decided to give it another go, but not from the Ben & Jerry's ice cream cook book that I had used exclusively. This time I made a custard base, and boy oh boy did it open up a whole new world  for me.

My original foray into ice cream making failed because the ice cream was too grainy (ice crystals too big). While the texture wasn't perfect in this batch, it was completely smooth; the ice crystals were miniscule. Jackpot. I accompanied the ice cream with my browned butter chocolate chip cookies because my mother had never had them before. I barely remember her reaction to them, I was too busy in la la land dreaming of all of the ice cream I'd make.

Oh, and here's a pic of the fam. Grandpa looks so happy!