Have you ever heard of a dice game called 10,000? (click on this link if you want to learn the rules) My friend Irina’s husband taught Mike and me 6 years ago how to play it and since then we are hooked. Yesterday we had Beatrice and “The Irish” (we had to make up a nick name because tracking “two Mike” scores would be very confusing) over for BBQ and started playing 10,000 – at 2:30 am. in the morning this was the damage that was done:

As you can see our better half’s have the most exquisite beer taste and the ladies stuck with classic champagne. Beatrice – Master “B”, beat us 3 times in 10,000, so now Mike and I are expecting a re-match!

Unfortunately did this much alcohol not leave any room for dessert, so I ate my home made blueberry/strawberry ice cream I had planned to serve for dessert all by myself for breakfast this morning while Mike was fishing (yikes, he got up at 6:30 a.m. to go fishing, I call that dedication). Who can say no to antioxidants in such delicious form?

This is a really easy recipe and doesn’t use any eggs, so you don’t have to stir the entire time and wait until the mixture thickens and then accidentally ruin the batch because you did let it cook; this recipe is fool proof!

Ingredients for the Blueberry Ice cream:

•  1,5 cups heavy cream
• 2 packages (6 ounces or 1 1/4 cup each) Blueberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Optional: 3 ounces bar dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks (or 1/2 cup of mini semi-sweet morsels)

Directions:

1. Mix blueberries, sugar, and salt in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 20 minutes.
2. Puree in a blender. Stir puree together with heavy cream, milk and lemon juice. If you are using an ice cream maker, let the liquid cool out for an hour in the freezer or if you have time prepare the mixture a day ahead and then let cool out overnight.
3. Pour the liquid into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. If you like chocolate chunks in your ice cream, swirl in dark chocolate by pouring small chunks into machine during last 5 minutes of freezing.. My ice cream maker makes very “slushy” ice cream and I have to freeze it for another couple hours to achieve the right consistency. You don’t really have to use an ice cream maker and can just freeze the ice cream in a covered container over night.

Optional Dark Chocolate Sauce:

If you like your ice cream with chocolate sauce then try out this one:

Ingredients for chocolate sauce:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2/3 pounds (11 ounces) dark chocolate chips or bar chopped into small pieces
• 2 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions:

1. Bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate and corn syrup. Let sit until chocolate melts, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir until smooth.
2. For warm ice cream topping, allow sauce to cool 10 minutes before serving. Otherwise, allow sauce to cool to room temperature.

For Strawberry ice cream use the same ingredients and process, just switch out the blueberries for 1 box of strawberries (16 oz).

Guten Appetit!