I’m so excited, I don’t even know where to begin. After a couple of months – and in particular the last couple of weeks – of craziness at work, I’m finally done with the project I’ve been working on for the last few months. Furthermore, it’s Memorial Day weekend and I’m taking a couple of days off to visit family in DC. Goodbye migraines, hello summer sunshine, family, and friends!

On top of all of that, I also have a wonderful new ice cream recipe to share with you AND just in case you need an ice cream maker so that you can make said recipe, we have a giveaway for a brand new Cuisinart ICE-21 ice cream machine courtesy of BigKitchen! BigKitchen is a kitchenware retailer located in Tampa, FL with tons of great stuff for the kitchen and they’re currently constructing a state-of-the-art test kitchen where they’ll film demonstration videos. Pretty cool, huh?

Ok, on to the recipe, because seriously, you need to try this. I had the hardest time deciding on a recipe because frankly, armed with David Lebovitz’ Perfect Scoop and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, it is so hard to choose! I would have to make ice cream at least once a week just to get to my top picks before the end of the summer. But because strawberries are looking so perfect at the store these days that I just had to try strawberry ice cream.

My sister and brother-in-law introduced me to Jeni’s ice cream nearly a year ago when I visited them in Ohio and I was instantly hooked. But before now, the only recipe I had made from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream was the bourbon baked apple sorbet. It was phenomenal and I’ve been wanting to try out her method which uses a corn starch mixture and cream cheese rather than the more traditional egg yolk custard base. For this recipe, Jeni has you roast the strawberries first which reduces the water content (no ice in my strawberry ice cream, thank you very much!) and deepens the strawberry flavor. Buttermilk further enhances the berry, while the rest of the dairy makes this one of the creamiest, smoothest ice creams I’ve ever had.

So what is stracciatella, you ask? Well, remember the raspberry swirl brownie ice cream? I just can’t seem to make ice cream without chocolate and I was especially interested in trying out the stracciatella technique. Stracciatella (derived from stracciato, or “torn apart” in Italian) is made by drizzling melted chocolate into ice cream (or more traditionally, gelato) in the very last stages of churning. When the chocolate hits the cold ice cream, it freezes and hardens. And because it’s added in such a thin stream, the chocolate breaks up and becomes incorporated throughout the ice cream. If the idea of speckling your ice cream with wonderful little flecks of chocolate appeals to you, then you will love this ice cream. Not your thing? Just skip the stracciatella step and have plain (and delicious) roasted strawberry ice cream!

Now, we already have a Cusinart ice cream maker and I kind of figured this new one would be just the same as our model from three years ago the ICE-20), so I was really pleasantly surprised when I found that this one works even better than the old one! The only complaint I really had with the old ice cream maker was that the ice cream built up a thick layer around the sides of the freezer bowl. It made it hard to scrape the ice cream out at the end, plus that part didn’t really get churned properly. The new Cuisinart ice cream maker has a new – and apparently much improved – paddle. We didn’t have any ice cream stick to the bowl at all! The perfectly churned ice cream came out quickly and easily and nothing was wasted. This is the very same model that Jeni used to develop her recipes for Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, so you know it’s got to be good. Plus, this new one is fun turquoise color perfect for summer (or just feeling summery!).

So you want one of your very own? Well you’re in luck, because one lucky Pixelated Crumb reader will win a free Cuisinart ice cream maker courtesy of the wonderful folks at BigKitchen!

Giveaway Details

This giveaway is open to USA residents and will be open until Saturday, June 2nd at 11:59 pm ET. The winner will be selected on random.org on June 3rd. The winner will be announced on Pixelated Crumb and I will send her/him an e-mail.

To enter the Cuisinart ICE-21 Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker Giveaway:

Head over to BigKitchen.com and leave a comment below about something you found there that you’d like in your kitchen.

For Additional Entries 

For more chances to win, complete one or more of the following steps and write a separate comment below for each extra entry (e.g. “I follow @pixelatedcrumb on Twitter”). If you already do any of the following, just leave a comment letting me know. You get an extra chance to win with each entry!

• Follow @pixelatedcrumb on Twitter
• Follow @BigKitchenStore on Twitter
• Tweet about the giveaway (be sure to include @pixelatedcrumb and @BigKitchenStore in the tweet)
• “Like” Pixelated Crumb on Facebook
• “Like” BigKitchen on Facebook
• Subscribe to Pixelated Crumb via RSS or e-mail

Spring is in the air! And with Memorial Day just a week away, summer is just around the corner. We had a truly perfect weekend here in Boston, with crystal blue skies and temperatures in the mid-seventies. If I had to pick the weather for all the weekends for the rest of my life, this would be it. It was the perfect weekend for a barbecue, so I couldn’t have been more excited to go to a friend’s house to see their new Big Green Egg in action.

I had never heard of the Big Green Egg, but it’s apparently quite the craze in the BBQ world. It’s a big, green, egg-shaped ceramic charcoal grill and from what I’ve seen so far, everything that goes into it comes out impeccably. We had chicken, ribs, sausages, salmon, veggies, and pineapple all cooked to perfection. It was an afternoon of feasting and the food was as spectacular as the weather.

Have I mentioned how much I love barbecue? Because I truly do. It all begins with my love of barbecue sauce and ribs that fall right off the bone. And you know what goes perfectly with a nice summer barbecue? A cool refreshing lime pecan bar. The crunch of the pecan crust, the gooey topping bursting with fresh lime – this is the stuff of summer refreshment. My mouth waters just thinking about them.

These bars are easier to make than some lemon or lime bars; the custard topping is made using whole eggs so you don’t need to bother separating eggs and you’re not left wondering what to do with your leftover egg whites. As someone who hates separating eggs – it was my very least favorite task back when I worked at Cake Love – this is a definite bonus. No, the hardest thing about this recipe is just squeezing all that lime juice, which I don’t mind at all. The sweet reward are these little bites of exhilarating lime with their perfectly contrasting rich, buttery, nutty base.

Remember when I said I was going to be cooking a lot more quinoa? I wasn’t kidding. I’m obsessed. After making the quinoa salad with spinach, feta, and dill several times over the last few weeks, I figured maybe it was time for a new recipe. There are several recipes for quinoa that are more of a side dish and as great as that is, well, I love a dish that comes together as one harmonious and nutritious meal, all in one bowl.

This quinoa shrimp salad from Chef Laura at Home fits that bill perfectly. Succulent shrimp, juicy tomatoes, salty ricotta salata, and nutty quinoa decked out with zucchini, beans, tomatoes, and lemon easily make a wonderful and complete meal. It’s healthy, it’s relatively easy to throw together, and it’s perfect for lunch, dinner, or even a summer party on the patio. 

A quick word on shrimp. Did you know that frozen shrimp is likely to be better than the shrimp you find at the seafood counter of your grocery store? And that it’s probably less expensive? The thing about the shrimp at the counter is that it is almost always frozen shrimp that has been thawed. Sometimes, depending on the turnover at the store, that shrimp may actually be somewhat on the old side. You’re much better off getting frozen shrimp and thawing it yourself: you’ll save money and get better quality shrimp. We preferred frozen shrimp with the shell still on.

I still love that quinoa salad with spinach, feta, and dill – it really is my favorite dish this spring – but it’s nice to have another quinoa dish in the rotation. I’m also really looking forward to trying this kale and quinoa bake from A Cambridge Story and these quinoa potato cakes florentine with mustard-yogurt sauce from the Wimpy Vegetarian. I’ve got plenty of quinoa from the bulk section, so let me know what your favorite quinoa recipe is!

I don’t think I had ever paid any attention to the Kentucky Derby until maybe five years ago when Joseph and I just happened to be in Brooklyn the same weekend as the Derby. We were staying with Mark and Jordan, my brother-in-law and his wife, and they didn’t yet have their two beautiful little girls. Some of Jordan’s family comes from Kentucky and the Derby is a pretty big deal for her – I would guess sort of akin to St. Patrick’s day for my family. They were throwing a small party in its honor and I’m sure they had some really great food, but to be honest, I don’t remember it. What I do remember are the mint juleps.

Just as I had never watched the Kentucky Derby, I had never had a mint julep. The idea of mint and bourbon seemed just a little strange to me (who knows what I was thinking because I do like mojitos), but one sip and I was completely sold. And one minute of watching all the hats and hoopla of the Kentucky Derby and I was sold on that too. And so a tradition was born. Now every year I sit with my mint julep and watch the hats, um, I meant the horses.

I actually took these pictures last year, before Joseph got me my great Boston double old fashioned glasses. I was excited to share my love of mint juleps, but then I realized that there was really no point in sharing a recipe for mint juleps after the Kentucky Derby. This year I’m just barely getting it in in time, but hopefully you can still grab some mint and bourbon and enjoy!

Growing up, my family had several traditions varying from reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve to eating pizza and renting a movie every Friday night. Now that my sister and I have grown up and moved out, the big tradition is going to one of our two favorite Mexican restaurants (they’re actually owned by the same people and have the exact same menu) and getting a pitcher of frozen margaritas. It’s pretty much a given that if my sister and I are both in DC at the same time (which frankly, doesn’t happen nearly enough), we will all go out to Cactus Cantina or Lauriol Plaza and enjoy a nice salt-rimmed glass or two of ice cold margaritas.

My brother-in-law gave me his super simple and tasty recipe for margaritas and up until a few months ago, it was my go-to recipe for when I was craving a margarita. But I’ve always wondered: what would a margarita made completely from scratch taste like? Well, when I saw that Cook’s Illustrated had a recipe for fresh margaritas, I didn’t have to wonder any more. If the fine folks at Cook’s Illustrated had a recipe they were going to stand behind, well, I had to try it.

Their recipe uses fresh lemon and lime juice, zest, sugar, salt, triple sec, and of course tequila, and that’s it. Completely natural. And so totally delicious. To make sure the drink is packed with enough citrus flavor, they have you steep the lemon and lime juice with both lemon and lime zest for up to 24 hours.

Now, I have to admit, sometimes the need for a margarita strikes before you have time to steep the juices for a full 24 hours. It’s ok, you don’t have to. Honestly, I have yet to have enough foresight to start it that early, but I look forward to the day that I do. Letting it steep for even just a few hours, this recipe makes an extremely satisfying and refreshing margarita. Even if you decide you need to have margaritas right now or else, you can still enjoy these margaritas and just skip the steeping step altogether.

Trust me, these are worth the extra effort. And as an added bonus, since they’re made with a smaller amount of crushed ice, no brain freeze to temper your margarita bliss. So save some money this Cinco de Mayo and just make a few pitchers of margaritas at home, invite some friends over and impress them with your mad margarita skills. Just be forewarned – they may start inviting themselves over more often.