Easy Ice Cream and Happiness

Roasted Turnip Ice Cream (No Churn) and thoughts on happiness.

Motherhood and happiness. “Am I happy?” is the most frequent question I am asked as a new mother. Motherhood is a roller coaster, I am mostly happy, always exhausted and frequently terrified. More importantly I am obsessed with this question. How we define and experience happiness has always interested me, as someones whose origin story involves poverty and trauma. What I know of magic, joy, beauty and happiness is what I create. What I am able to create is the result of so many chance encounters with wonderful people and places that shared their love with me. Because I can create, I know these things are “real” and “in the world”. Still it’s so ephemeral, it takes effort, and sometimes feels like your brain is working against you with ruminating on the past and worrying about the future. I stumbled upon Plain English with Derek Thompson, specifically the episode on “How to Be Happy and the Science of Cognitive Time Travel”. I think everyone should listen to it. It was such a fresh perspective, blending many social sciences with actionable ways to make ourselves happier.

With summer closing out, I feel very introspective and retrospective. My birthday is at the end of the month, so it always feels like a time to reflect. This year I will turn 40, a fact my inner 27 year old is still trying to understand. I love being a carefree child of the summer, at home barefoot and wild. Chasing fireflies in the night, drive in theaters with classic movies, inner tubes down lazy rivers strapped together with your best friends, sleepovers in backyard tents, pool parties, baseball, fireworks for no reason, late night confessionals in camp bunk beds, beach days and first kiss energy.

I want to keep all these feelings deep into the next decades of my life.

I love how the past few years there have been names to match the inherent freak of summer babies, especially girls. For some time now every summer has been the summer of the IT GIRL. Hot Girl Summer, Barbie Summer, Tomato Girl Summer, BRAT Summer. Summer seems to squarely belong to the GIRL, and I am here for it. It’s my personal ICE CREAM GIRL SUMMER as I survive Los Angeles heat and the impressive arsenal of postpartum hormones. No churn has been my go to - because it’s always easy, endlessly riffable and I am all about energy saving these days. Original IT GIRL and Instant Ice Cream OG lover - none other than BABS agrees with me. Miss Barbara Streisand, broadway and film legend loved her cold treats. I recently came across her recipe for Instant Coffee Ice Cream featured by the Jewish Food Society.

I’ve been making no churn ice cream from a master base since 2017 when I ran the pastry program at Rustic Canyon with Jeremy Fox. We shared a love for vegetables and this was one of the first things I put on the menu that he fell hard for. Before we worked together, I had read rocky road was his favorite ice cream in an old interview. Months after this ice cream went on the menu, I asked him if rocky road was indeed his favorite one day he said “no, my favorite is roasted turnip ice cream.”

The idea came from the incredible milky and sharp taste of Hakurei Turnips or White Tokyo Turnips. They are smaller, milder and all white. They are juicy, slightly sweet and very earthy. Roasting them hard concentrates the sugars and infusing into cream allows the flavor to bloom in the fat. When whipped into ice cream the result is bright milky flavor that tastes like fresh raw dairy. We served it scooped with extra virgin olive oil and cracked Maldon sea salt. Recipe for Paid subscribers at the end of post.

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Obsessed with: More food inspired homewares! Ceramics with produce hand painted on. Like Yasmin Falahat fruit ceramics, the melon bowls are captivating. Or the deeply illustrated pasta plates from Gulumova, I want to collect all of them! And OMG, all these light switches from Mackenzie Becker. I NEED the Broccoli!

Listening to: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is my guilty pleasure, and I am indulging in all of mine right now. I know this ages me beyond my millennial years, but I love a solid radio show. Don’t get me started how much I love a Prairie Home Companion. Public radio forever. And just so you don’t think I have my AARP card at the ready, may I also recommend the incredible Hemlock Springs. Her music is a dizzying dream. She’s worth making space in your #ChapelleRoanSummer, even our queen thinks so.

Inspired by: Seeing everyone continue to bake from Bread and Roses all year has been beyond my wildest dreams. This October the book that took me 15 years to dream up, 2 years to write and a season of fun sharing with you will turn ONE. Thank you for making it everything it has been and with every one of your bakes giving it a special place in your home. And most importantly on your table. I love seeing your tags, and most of all how you make the recipes yours. Please keep making beauty with grains, the world needs your magic. If you don’t have the book, it’s a great gift for your lovers of fall baking. Use code BOOK10 for $10 off a signed copy from my website.

Recent Podcast: Kitchen Tape Podcast wrapped up the San Diego month with previous Just for Fun highlight Holly Haines and her food journey.

And we also caught up with Aubrey Nueman about the nitty gritty of becoming a food stylist working in film and television media. Aubrey was the food stylist on my Tastemade special Wilde Flour. Watch for some BONUS Recipes.

Just for Fun: I just found explore.org, a website that allows you to livestream animals in the wild around the world. All the streams are organized by animal with pictures. It’s so easy to navigate a two year old could manage. You can peek in on walrus sunbathing, puffins flying to their rocky perches, orcas swimming in their bay, panda bears crashing down bamboo covered hills….I still haven’t caught much of the wild cats of Africa because of the time difference but it makes me look forward to a night of insomnia.

Necessary Poetry: A roundup of things that you (and I) may need to hear.

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Roasted Turnip No Churn Ice Cream