herbal ice cream & a good book

I hosted book club this month and we read a book I highly recommend,  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.  I loved this book, and wanted to highlight many passages throughout. I still think about certain aspects of the book, and I read it months ago. This was a departure from the type of book we typically read, but the content brought about a very thought-provoking discussion. I learned more about my friends and their relationships. We had a wonderful evening. I made Lemon Verbena ice cream with individual Lavender honey cakes w/ berries. This was my first attempt at infusing herbs into ice cream, and I was pretty thrilled with the end result. I found the recipe in The Herb Farm Cookbook, which is like a bible for using herbs in many different, and often unexpected, ways. The recipe has creme fraiche so the ice cream is a bit tart, which I love. I also served Cheddar Thyme Gougeres (cheese puffs) just to have a little something savory. 


This recipe used so much lemon verbena, I had to buy another plant.






Evan, and his brother and sisters, were very happy to see I made extra lavender cakes.