Playing by Ear

These are my friends Mary Grace and Aaron.



They're fun. They have these two cute kittens.

Sweet Tea:

Molasses:


MG and Aaron invited me over for dinner and they fixed some of the most delicious fish and portabello mushrooms on the grill ever. EVER. I would have taken a picture but I was too distracted by eating and watching the kittens.

Did I mention they're cute?

This time I wanted to bring something with me. (MG and Aaron just fed me on Thursday night and I didn't bring anything to share--I'm a bad guest sometimes.) And Grace suggested dessert (YAY!) but said that Aaron doesn't much care for chocolate (boo.)

After thinking for a bit, I remembered a yummy concoction my friend, Shaun, made last year combining ice cream and cream cheese and making these ice cream balls with graham cracker around them. I didn't really want to take the time to make balls and roll them in graham crackers, so I changed things up a bit.

To start with I took my graham crackers and made a crust. I did it in the food processor...graham crackers, sugar and melted butter. Then I cooked it for about 10 minutes until it was crispy.





I made a little extra to put on top.


After that I sliced and diced up my strawberries. I put the lemon zest on the strawberries and stuck them in the fridge to stay cold. (I didn't want them to get too juicy because I didn't want my ice cream to turn pink.) This was a wrong move...the strawberries were too large and became ice cubes in the middle of the ice cream, maybe next time I'll just make it pink and then it'll be easier to eat.



In my mixer I put in softened cream cheese, vanilla bean ice cream, lemon juice and powdered sugar. After it was all combined I folded in the strawberries.

The ice cream mixture went on top of the cooled graham cracker crust and then the extra crust was crunched up on top. Then I put it in the freezer to get hard.

Since it was experimental my expectations weren't high, but it was pretty good if I do say so myself. Kind of like lemony-strawberry ice cream cheesecake.

I don't know what to call it, but it is tasty. ( : Here's the recipe with adjustments so that you have enough for a 9 x 9 pan.

Crust:
-12 graham crackers (these are the small square kind, half of the full rectangle)
-1/3 cup sugar
-1/2 cup butter, melted
Combine in food processor. Pat into 9 x 9 pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes, put any extra crust in a separate pan and bake at the same time.

Ice Cream Filling:
-One pint strawberries
-2 lemons
-5 oz. cream cheese
-1/2 tub vanilla ice cream
-1/3-2/3 cup powdered sugar

Slice strawberries and combine with zest from one lemon. Set aside. With mixer/blender combine softened cream cheese, vanilla ice cream and lemon juice. Depending on level of tartness add between 1/3 and 2/3 cups powdered sugar. Fold in strawberries. On cooled crust, pour ice cream filling. Top with extra crust. Freeze 2 or more hours.