Organic??!!?!?

I think school must be bogging down my photographer, so no photos today.

I found this recipe and can't wait to try it, minus all the "organic" fanfare. Long ago, I threw out the need for "organic" in my life. Surprise to all of you in blogland, not EVERY Californian is an organic junkie. When my kids were little, I went through the "organic" phase for many, MANY years. As soon as we moved back to the US from 5 years overseas, I started buying organic milk for the girls. As a fairly new mom, I read all the stuff out there about the hormones injected into cow's milk and how it impacts premature development in girls. Overseas, the milk we had was gaggalicious. We lived on a fairly remote island, an extension of Japan that did NOT have real cow's milk brought in. One of the dairy plants there would mix powder and water and walllllah, disgusting milk. I'm not sure how they called themselves a dairy plant, but, I digress. So, we set to buying carton milk off the shelf. You know, the kind the supermarkets sell for "emergencies?" A little better, but it needed to be SUPER cold.

So, I tried to get my girls to love Silk. Only one of them did and then it had to be of the chocolate variety! So off to the Nugget Market, I would buy the Horizon Farms Organic Milk in the glass bottles. GOOD GOSH, what was I thinking?? In the end, it didn't prolong premature development at all. A few years ago and after countless hundreds of extra dollars wasted, we are back to Costco non organic milk. I wish I would have saved some of those glass bottles, though, they are cute.

My organic days are over. Don't get me wrong, I love to go to the farm stands near my house and buy local homegrown tomatoes and veggies. I still buy organic sometimes when I feel like throwing money out the window, ha! Anyway, here is what I'm going to do with all of that chocolate mint I have in a huge pot in my garden:

Chocolate Mint Organic (if you want) Ice Cream:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole organic milk
3 1/2 cups fresh organic chocolate mint
5 large organic egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup organic heavy cream

Method:

In a medium saucepan, combine milk and fresh chocolate mint. Bring mixture to a gentle boil, cover and remove pan from heat. Steep mixture for 30 minutes. Strain mixture, reserve milk and discard solids.

Combine egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until very thick and pale yellow, for about 3-5 minutes. Return milk to a simmer.

Prep an ice water bath. Place ice cubes in a bowl and fill half with water.

Temper the egg yolks by slowly adding half of the warm milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture while stirring constantly until blended. Add new mixture to sauce pan with remaining milk. Stir consistently over low heat until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove saucepan from heat and immediately stir in cream. Place an empty bowl over the ice water bath. Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into empty bowl and chill for at least 3 hours to overnight in the refrigerator.

Freeze custard in ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Store in an airtight container in freezer until ready to eat.

As always, use as many organic ingredients as possible for optimum flavor! (WHATEVER!)