Raspberry & Rosemary Sorbet

Three years ago my best friend and I went to Italy, and one of the places that we visited was San Gimignano's "Gelateria de Piazza" who do exciting flavours like Lavender & Blackberry and Ricotta & Bilberry . Each time we visited I had the same thing, Raspberry and Rosemary ice cream.
Sadly I can't find anywhere that sells it back in the UK, so I've made my own.

To make one bowlful:

3 ramekins of raspberries (I used 2 ramekins of frozen and 1 fresh from the garden)
75ml almond milk (alternatives: orange juice or water)
1 sprig of rosemary (stalk removed, finely chopped)
Honey (optional)

Pop your raspberries into a blender, and whizz them about until it stays the same consistency.

Slowly pour in your almond milk whilst blending, so that the mixture starts to come together, you might not need all of it, so do it slowly.

Add your finely chopped rosemary, give it a blend, and if you're adding honey, taste it now, add your honey and give it a final whizz.

If you used fresh raspberries, pour into a tupperware box and put in the freezer to firm up slightly for a while.
If you used frozen raspberries, you can gorge straight away!

Not only is this super low on the calorie front, but the raspberries are rich in Vitamin C, rumoured to fight cancer and help you lose weight, plus, the almond milk has magnesium, potassium and Vitamin E!
A septuple threat!

You might see a couple more of these posts because the "Gelateria de Piazza" website has given me lots of ideas!

Summery Picnic

 

Today my lessons finished at 11.00 and to take advantage of the beautiful weather, I met J at his school and walked down to the river for a picnic in the local park.

I've mentioned the Suffolk Food Hall in a couple of posts, and I stopped off there to get our picnic.

 

Whenever I go their deli tempts me in with their tartlets, they tend to change every time I go, varying from chili beef tartlets to salmon with cream cheese and broccoli.
This time I went for spinach, nutmeg and ricotta.

And roasted vegetables with mascarpone.

Tartlets are probably one of my favourite things and both of them were delicious, the nutmeg and ricotta added an essential kick but the roasted vegetable tartlet was perfect if lacking a little seasoning.

 

 

 

I also grabbed a sausage roll, remembering how much J likes them.

 



 

 

The food hall also sell lots of unusual (unusual to me, anyway) treats, I found two "flavours" of these crisps, tangy and sweet, as you can see I went for tangy and they were really good! It isn't often that healthy treats taste great!

The obligatory dried mango.

In their bakery section not only do they have the most delicious smelling baguettes, loaves and rolls, but they also do pastries, which often change as well, bar their staple scones and brownies.

J has a certain penchant for caramel, so when I saw this, not only was I rather excited (I lead a simple life) but I had to get it too.

On a side note, all their tasty treats in the deli or tea time goodies come in these little cardboard parcels.
Just be me that gets excited by things like this?

 

Anyway, I had got J a caramel and popcorn tart.

It was almost a bowl made out of sugar encrusted pastry, piled high with caramel topped with toffee popcorn and drizzled with more caramel.

 



Now, when I bought this I had expected the caramel to taste like boiled condensed milk, or dulche de leche, but in fact, it was quite odd and almost tasted alcoholic, I don't know if it was just because it wasn't what I was expecting but I was a little disappointed.
Someone managed to put it away though!

We attempted to walk off some of our lunch with a stroll along the Deben.

But that idea was halted when we spied a huge park and an ice cream stall, J got mint, and I got toffee.

Writing this has given me a real hankering for one of those tarts, I might have to stop off on the way to school tomorrow!

i-scream

My sixth-form is relatively small, meaning three classes of ten in each year, I've been very lucky and for the past two years I have been in a form that all get on really well.
Everybody has been turning the big 1-8 this year and as I.K was the second member of the form to reach this milestone and also kind enough to invite the whole class to her house in Greece this summer, we thought we ought to do something special.

Now, our class have one thing in common, a love of food, most of the other forms have gone out clubbing in the evening for eachother's birthdays, but as you can probably guess, we went out eating.

i-scream is an ice cream shop in Ipswich, basically a kind of "pimp an i-scream sundae". You choose your base (always go for marshmallows), sauce, 3 scoops or more of icecream, whipped cream, sprinkles or nuts and a topping.
It also can be hired for weddings and events and we had seen that they offered a 10 scoop challenge and seeing as I.K is the biggest eater out of all of us, she decided that was what she wanted to do for her birthday.




Next time: 45 scoop sundae



10 scoops complete with toffee and chocolate sauce, whipped cream, strawbs, stars,
 jazzies, jelly beans and turtles.



There are a huge variety of flavours, from bubblegum to tooty fruity to pistachio to rum and raisin, all depending on how mature you're feeling.

I didn't actually have an ice cream this time, last time I came I had marshmallows, raspberry sauce, pistachio, strawberry and crunchy caramel with whipped cream, chopped nuts and strawbs!

 

(For anybody wondering, I.K took an hour to finish, although, after a Nandos, cake and this, throwing up ensued.)