Sweet Potato Brown Sugar Ice Cream

The people have spoken. They wanted sweet potato brown sugar ice cream, and I have (finally) delivered. This is my very first Official Fall Flavor. I'm pretty sure that means the leaves will now change, the temperatures will drop, and I'll have to start wearing socks again. I have to confess summer is my great love, but if we have to say goodbye, autumn is a worthy rebound. After all, who wouldn't want to lock lips with this seasonal sweet treat?

If you like pumpkin pie, you'll like this recipe because it tastes awfully similar. Instead of using brown sugar in with the ice cream base, I decided to mix in candied brown sugar bits.  It's like finding the marshmallows in your Lucky Charms. 

Black Tea Orange Marmalade Ice Cream

This dessert may be frozen, but the flavor makes me think warm and fuzzy. Imagine curling up with a cup of English Breakfast or Earl Grey (heavy on the cream) and a muffin smeared with orange marmalade. Except, you know, it's ice cream. This frozen fix really does taste like tea with cream and sugar. It's swirled with the sweet citrus of orange jelly and the bitterness of bits of orange zest. The only question that remains: Is it best served in a mug or a bowl?

I have to give credit to a long lost high school friend for inventing this flavor. She mentioned it on Facebook, and I immediately knew I wanted to try it. Thanks for the inspiration, Lauren!

You Choose The Next Frozen Fix

I recently realized that readers have submitted 42 flavors on my Suggest a Flavor page, and I have not made a single one. I know, shame on me. To make up for it, I'm letting you decide what I make next. You can vote through Friday for your favorite flavor below, then check back next week to see the final result.

The Best Frozen Yogurt

The people of DC love frozen yogurt like Paula Deen loves butter, y'all. A flurry of fro-yo spots have emerged over the past couple years, and I've heard them debated more fiercely than the midterm elections (and this is Washington, DC). Personally, I'm partisan to Mr. Yogato. But the best frozen yogurt I've ever had? It came straight from my kitchen. And it's insanely simple too.

The secret to truly epic fro-yo is just the right balance of tangy and sweet.

Try My Ice Cream at the Mid-Atlantic Red Fruit Festival on Sept. 24

If you've ever dreamed about trying some of my freaky frozen fixes, now you have the chance! My green tomato marbled goat cheese ice cream (seen above) is a finalist in the Mid-Atlantic Red Fruit Festival's tomato recipe contest. Fifteen foodies have been selected to serve their winning dishes with the help of a local chef at the festival. I'm ecstatic to be paired with Executive Chef Mike Lund of Zynodoa Restaurant in Staunton, VA, who previously worked under Patrick O'Connell at the famous Inn at Little Washington. A few of my favorite food bloggers will also be there as well. Mary Cunningham of The Arugula Files is serving up a grilled heirloom tomato pizza, and Olga Berman of Mango & Tomato will present a roasted tomato and dark cherry balsamico soup. The event will be held from 6-8 pm Friday, September 24 in the Pavilion Room Woodrow Wilson Plaza at the Ronald Reagan Building. Tickets are $35. Attendees get to vote for their favorite dish, so come out, enjoy some food and wine, and help me win! Get more information here, and check out the full menu after the jump.

UPDATE: Chef Mike and I tied for the popular vote and won runner-up from the judges!

Junior Mint Ice Cream

On a recent trip home, I promised my 10-year-old brother that we would make any ice cream flavor he wanted. Of course, he chose a combination of gummy bears, Warheads, Snickers, M&M's, and what would otherwise have been the contents of a very large Trick-or-Treat bag. But no matter how cute the kid, sometimes you need to exercise veto power.  I asked for his second choice, expecting this one to include Fruit Roll-Ups and Butterfingers. Instead, he surprised me with a rather sophisticated selection...

If you like mint chocolate chip, you will love this ice cream.

Blackberry Sorbet

I've been off the grid on a Pacific Northwest getaway. (OK, semi-off the grid... I brought my iPhone.) Between a work trip to LA and a family visit to Colorado, I traded one Washington for the other. More precisely, Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle where I spent summers growing up. In true island fashion, my mom and I lived off the land (plus beer, wine, and baguettes from Central Market). We dug clams and geoduck from the beach, ate them steamed with butter and lemon, then tossed the empty shells from the deck back into the ocean. We slurped raw oysters grown by a neighbor. And of course, we picked ripe August blackberries.

I've been fantasizing about picking blackberries and making this sorbet all summer. Anyone who has ever had blackberries straight from the vine knows they taste nothing like the kind in the grocery store. They're bursting with juice like the orange roe you sometimes get on sushi, and they're so sweet they taste like they've been injected with powdered sugar.