Vegas Day One – Part Two

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: December 14, 2022

Following our after dinner walk, my husband and I became hungry. We decided to try another restaurant at Aria. We chose Barmasa for some sushi. The entrance looked intimate and welcoming, but when we walked it was quite the opposite. The restaurant floor was huge and industrial looking. Not quite what we were looking for, but we were already being seated. Looking at the menu made our wallets cringe in pain. But we held our heads up high and ordered anyway. The husband ordered a beef sushi ( I don’t recall which one) as well as Creamy miso tofu with Avocado rolls.

I ordered three pieces if sushi. I remember one was salmon, the other two I don’t remember. I would have feasted on m

+ore, but the prices were ridiculous. I must say, though the sushi was absolutely divine. It was extremely fresh. I read that they fly the fish in from Japan on a daily basis. My husband wasn’t so keen on the beef. A little too rare for him, so I ate it. He did enjoy the tofu and avocado rolls. Overall, the food was great, but the prices were not so great.

Of course, the Sweet Chick that I am, I needed to have an after dinner sweet. Well wouldn’t you know, they have a Jean-Philippe Patisserie right inside our hotel. Fancy that. I love Jean-Philippe. We used to get some treats at the one in the Bellagio Resort/Casino. And they have a really cool chocolate fountain there. It is under glass, so I can’t jump in and go swimming, but pretty to look at and drool. Anyway, the husband was in the mood for gelato. I chose one scoop chocolate and one scoop oreo cookie. Mmmmmm. It was so creamy good.

The shop area of the patisserie was all decorated for fall. There were all sorts of Halloween goodies and the colors of the decorations were so bright and colorful. As I read the little sign, I found that most of the decorations were made of chocolate. I thought this was incredible. The details were phenomenal. This was a great end to our first evening in the City of Sin.

After a little bit of gambling, it was time to head

off to bed and catch up with some sleep. My body is not used to staying up so late and with the time difference, I was really exhausted. A big difference from our first few trips to Vegas when we stayed up all night and slept all day. That was pre-kids and when my body was a lot younger. Ta Ta for now.

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Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Cold Desserts

Christiana George

Updated Date:
June 8, 2023

In the last week, my outlook on life has improved, oh, about 1000%, and here’s why: we finally got an air conditioner! It’s such an important event that I feel our time here will forever be divided between the time before and after its arrival.

While it’s transformed just about every aspect of daily life—from being able to sleep through the night to actually feeling clean after a shower to feeling motivated once again to do things other than sit in front of the fan (not conducive to blogging, believe me), most importantly of all, I can now, once again, envision food being made. The cereal diet has been lifted and I will never again underestimate the value of HVAC.

This ice cream is one of the few things I could muster into being during the time B.A.C. (before A/C) and the reason is because it involved absolutely no stove time whatsoever. That’s right. Which makes it my first custard-less ice cream ever. And it’s delicious.

I’d originally been inspired by this awesome-looking strawberry sour cream ice cream that Katie had made awhile back. Except I balked at the number of egg yolks the recipe called for (Nine. Really? Are they really necessary? Does anyone know what the relation is between number of yolks and consistency/taste?). So after a quick web search, I found another recipe for sour cream ice cream that involved zero yolks, and little much of anything else. It was the simplest recipe ever: mix the ingredients, refrigerate, churn. Easy. Clean up consisted of one bowl and one immersion blender (as well as the usual assortment of measuring implements, but they don’t count).

The ice cream came out with just the right amount of tang, sort of similar to the plain-flavored fro-yo that’s so popular these days, but much creamier and smoother, like Cheesecake Lite. I also love how the blueberry sauce came out, streaks and pockets and bursts of lovely violet that taste delicately sweet against the sharpness of the sour cream.

I am a huge fan. And though I’m back in action in the kitchen, this is one easy recipe that I’ll be coming back to again and again.

One year ago: Apricot raspberry galette

BLUEBERRY SOUR CREAM ICE CREAM

Adapted from Gourmet
Makes about a quart

Ingredients:

For the blueberry sauce:

1-1/2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar

For the ice cream:

1 16-ounce container chilled sour cream
1 cup chilled whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chilled heavy cream
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch salt

Directions:

For the blueberry sauce:

Put the blueberries and sugar in a small saucepan, stir to mix, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the berries are very tender and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let cool. Refrigerate until cold before using.

For the ice cream:

Blend all the ingredients until mixture is smooth and sugar has dissolved. Chill until very cold, overnight if possible. Freeze mixture in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container, drizzling in the blueberry sauce intermittently. Place in freezer until firm.