Honey Roasted Fig and Mascarpone Ice Cream

It's National Ice Cream Day!

Every third Sunday of July we get to celebrate the best holiday ever invented... National Ice Cream Day.  In 1984, President Reagan declared the holiday and also named July National Ice Cream Month.

Because I work for an ice cream company, I have been known to substitute whole meals with ice cream when short on time during my lunch break.  So I do enjoy me some ice cream.  But more than anything I love to experiment and play with flavors of ice cream at home. 

I have been playing around with homemade ice cream a lot lately, Roasted Strawberry, Fresh Peach with Brown Sugar Butter Pecans, and the classic Vanilla Bean.  I am all about very simple recipes and so all of the ice creams that I have been making lately have been based off of a No Cook Ice Cream Base that uses sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, whole milk and some sugar.  That's it! Today I wanted to get a little bit fancier with a Honey Roasted Fig and Mascarpone Ice Cream, made with a cooked custard.

Handmade Gifts- Body Scrub

Lavender and Rose Salt Scrub and Orange Dreamsicle Sugar Scrub.

Lots of new things going on around here lately! Mother's Day weekend was over 100 degrees and what did we decide to do?  Sod our front yard and go on a walking tour of old homes in Monrovia, of course!  We survived and as you can see from my photo I just HAD to use our new grass as a backdrop for my homemade body scrubs, which were my gift to my Momma on her special day. 

Each Mother's Day, the town I live in has a tour of old or historical homes.  It was something we used to do with my Grandma many, many years ago we decided to go again this year.  It's really amazing how much pocket windows, crown moulding, roll-up screens, built-in cabinets and picture rails can get me excited.  I guess I was destined to own an older home, and I was excited to see the potential beauty my 1917 Craftsman style house can have in a few years. 

As far as the body scrubs are concerned, they make one of the easiest homemade gifts and most of the ingredients some straight from your pantry at home.  I've made body scrubs with salt, sugar, or coffee.  I've heard that the coffee is good for cellulite, but I cannot atest to any such claims 1 ;) I've made scrubs with coconut oil, almond oil, and olive oil.  Use mild smelling oils and try to avoid mineral oil, as it is not good for your skin and can clog your pores.  When it comes to the scents, one of the easiest ways to get great smelling, good for you scrubs is with essential oils.  Whole Foods and other specialty grocery stores carry essential oils, I especially like peppermint essential oil.  I even grabbed some lavender from the spice and tea man at the Farmer's Market and picked some rose petals from my bush outside to create this salt scrub.