Valentine Ice Cream Sandwich

This has to be the most romantic ice cream sandwich you will ever see!

My friend Barbara Goodman is a professional cook and bakes all the cakes, cookies and pastries for her family-run coffee shop business. Barbara knows of my love of ice cream making and came up with this little ditty for Valentine's Day - just for me and my ice cream recipes readership.

What makes this Valentine ice cream sandwich special is that it is, in fact, 2 ice cream sandwiches. Why? Well, if you look closely at the message on the pink fondant icing you will see why. After all, Valentine's Day is for couples so no good just having 1 ice cream sandwich!

If you want to make your own version of this fabulous ice cream treat here are the constituent parts:

Homemade all butter shortbread cookies
Fondant icing
Raspberry ripple ice cream

Here is the video of this special ice cream sandwich for Valentine's Day

Ah, the romance of Valentine ice cream .... it knows no bounds :)

Valentine Ice Cream Has To Be Pink

Anyone who can resist a Valentine's Day ice cream has a will of iron! Let's face it most of us look for any excuse to eat ice cream and if there's a special occasion around the corner we will make the most of it. Valentine's Day is associated with love and the color most associated with love is pink.

Pink ice cream sandwiches for Valentine's Day
made by my friend Barbara

Pink ice cream on Valentine's Day is perfect. Giving a pink ice cream treat to a loved one helps get the message of love across loud and clear and even if you just want to give a Valentine's treat out of friendship or just a bit of fun, pink ice cream is still probably the best choice.

Pink ice cream of course usually strawberry but it doesn't have to be ... I made a fabulous pink rhubarb sorbet ice cream. Here is the recipe

If after all I've said you don't fancy pink ice cream then here are some fabulous ice cream flavors you can try making at home using my tried and tested recipes .....
Rhubarb & Custard
Rocky Road
Creme Brulee Ice Cream

My rocky road ice cream

Valentine's Day - Ice Cream or Nigella's Coca Cola Ham?

Well, Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I can't believe it's a year already since I wrote my last Valentine's Day Ice Cream blog post.

My suggestion then was to make Valentine's Day extra special by actually making something yourself for your Valentine as opposed to just buying something. Let's face it, showing that you're prepared to put in some personal effort has to be viewed as a genuine token of affection. Last year I suggested making some homemade ice cream based on your Valentine's favorite ice cream flavor such as strawberry ice cream or chocolate ice cream.

Whilst this still rings true as a great idea, for those of you looking for a culinary idea but perhaps a main course rather than a dessert, here's a recipe that a friend of mine, Elaine Rogerson, told me about recently and said was wonderful - Ham In Coca Cola. Sounds a little unusual? Well, that's what I thought but as you can see from the photograph this is a serious dish. (Thanks for the super photo Elaine) I also found other people on the Net raving about it. Elaine tells me it's a recipe by Nigella Lawson who is a British TV cook so I looked it up on the Net and here's the recipe along with some reviews. You can also find it in Nigella's book 'How To Eat, the pleasures and principles of good food'.

Any vegetarians reading this post might be a little disappointed if I didn't also quote a non-meat dish so here's one, again from Nigella Lawson - Double Potato & Halloumi Bake. Like the Coca Cola Ham, I haven't tried it but it sounds delicious. The truth is I have tried other recipes by Nigella and they've been so good that I trust pretty much everything she recommends. The hit of our Christmas Dinner in fact was her recipe for roast parsnips in maple syrup and that was fabulous and as my friend Elaine is a pretty smart, Scottish lady (she's involved with an international security systems company with things like Multisys Security), she knows a good thing when she sees it - so I know better than to ignore her advice about the Coca Cola Ham!

Now back to Valentine's Day ... of course you can still buy your Valentine a great Valentine's Day card. I looked around on the Net for some good Valentine's Day card ideas and here are a few:
Pop-up Valentine's Day Cards
Jumping Cracker Beans Valentine's Cards

One more thought ... never forget just how romantic ice cream can be. Be it on Valentine's Day or any other day, there's something special and very endearing about sharing an ice cream cone with the one you love. (Have to get my plug in for ice cream somewhere in this post!)

Valentine's Day Ice Cream: Alcoholic Sorbet

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and there's no reason why you shouldn't celebrate the romance of the day with ice cream. Of course some people celebrate by getting married in a really romantic setting on Valentine's Day - one reason, apparently, why stately home weddings are becoming more popular!

Getting back to a slightly less expensive way of celebrating Valentine's Day :) let's look at homemade ice cream. Offering some specially made ice cream as a surprise to a loved one on Valentine's Day always goes down well. You could choose to make an alcoholic sorbet as a light dessert after a home-cooked meal or just go for your loved one's favorite ice cream and serve it as a surprise after dinner when you've sat down to listen to music or watch a movie together.

If you don't plan to stay home on Valentine's Day, you can still include ice cream as part of the romance. Just find a great ice cream parlor and order a fabulous ice cream sundae, grab 2 spoons and dig in to share! Romance and ice cream were meant for each other :)

Enjoy your Valentine's ice cream.

Valentine's Day Ice Cream

Valentine's Day is not an important day for everyone but, for some, it's very special - a day for romance and the opportunity for lovers to declare their love for one another. So it is that on February 14 every year, millions of Valentine's cards and gifts (flowers, chocolates, candy, rings etc) are exchanged as tokens of affection.

But how's this for an idea .... instead of buying something to give to your loved one, why not make something yourself?

It could be anything from a homemade Valentine's card to a photo that you've taken, printed and had specially framed, or, better still why not make your loved one's favorite ice cream and serve it as a surprise!

With an ice cream maker and a little forethought you can come up with a great Valentine's Day treat. Here's what to do ...

1. If you don't already know, then find out your Valentine's favorite ice cream flavor.



2. Also find out how they like it served - simple scoops or a sundae, what toppings, what sauce and whether they like wafers or not.



3. Search on the Net for a homemade ice cream recipe for that flavor and print/download the recipe so you know what ingredients to use.



4. Go shopping for all the ingredients you are going to need including toppings etc if you're going to present your homemade ice cream as a Valentine's sundae.

Don't worry if what you make doesn't turn out as perfect as you would like - the fact that you have gone to such trouble plus the fact that you've done it out of love will be far more important and hopefully have the impact you're looking for!

In need of ideas for ice cream recipes? 2 great favorites are strawberry ice cream and chocolate ice cream - both these recipes are made with a custard or cream base giving you a rich and creamy homemade ice cream.

Interested in history? Read about the history of Valentine's Day

Want to know if you're a true romantic? Take an online Romantic Personality Test

A Loving Cup Of Ice Cream For Valentine's Day

If romance is in the air for you this Valentine's Day, then you'll be looking for a way to impress your loved one. You might send a card, buy them a special present or take them out to the cinema or a restaurant.

For some, however, the preferred option will be to stay home and enjoy a romantic evening in with a home-cooked meal, a nice bottle of wine and an indulgent dessert. A creamy, rich, homemade ice cream is the answer - such as this sumptuous Butter Pecan ice cream. The taste can make you go weak at the knees but serve it in a single dish with two spoons and that's what I call sharing a 'loving cup'!

My ice cream blog has been going for 4 years now which makes this my fourth Valentine Ice Cream post. If you missed the other 3 posts here's the link - Valentine Ice Cream.

PS. Butter Pecan is reported to be Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan's favorite ice cream!

Thoughts of Love For Valentine's Day

The older I get the more I start to see the funny side of life. Strange really because when I was younger I was often tempted to think that older people were too serious and 'stuffy' - well it must have been the naivety of youth because I was wrong! Which brings me to the point of this blog entry .... as Valentine's Day approaches, I wondered what famous people have thought and said publicly about 'love'. I read up on this and, to be honest, it's the witty quotations that appeal to me most.

Here are some great examples:

• "Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love."
  Albert Einstein
  
  
• "I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known."
  Walt Disney
  
  
• "The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post."
  George Bernard Shaw

The one I like the most is by Baltimore-born satirist Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) and could be a contender for the ultimate Valentine's Day card ....

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence"

If you're interested in reading more great quotations, here are two top sites:

http://www.poemofquotes.com/
http://www.quotemountain.com/

Looking for ideas of what to give a loved one on Valentine's Day? Fancing making them some great homemade ice cream? Look up my previous Blog article about Valentine's Day ice cream.