Ice Cream and Multi Colored Peppercorns!

If you look at those great chefs on television, they sometimes mix things together and in your head it just doesn’t make ANY sense…

Well, this is a post AND a recipe about Ice Cream that just does not makes sense! But the food  (Ice Cream) will taste as if a little angel pied over your tongue…. (Yes, this is a Dutch quote but somehow it doesn’t sound as good in English as it does in Dutch…but i like it anyway)!

A couple of weeks ago I promised you another Ice Cream story if we would make it into round 3 of the Progressive Dairyman Flavor Face off 2011!!! Sooooo, guess what!?! We made it into round 3, and a promise is a promise so here is the story!

When I was about 20 years old, after working at several jobs in agriculture I decided that it was time to do something different. My school was taking up a lot of time and so I tried to find a job in the weekends and in the evenings. My little sister worked at a restaurant/party place/cafe/bar a couple of towns over and she had to change jobs because of her school. Because of her change of plans, I had the opportunity to take over her job. And so I became a waitress/bartender/ amateur cook (sounds pretty good, right?!)/ kitchen help…

The Viersprong (the restaurant’s name) was a the most perfect workplace I could of asked for. Being a waitress in Holland is a little different then here in the US or Canada. They don’t pay minimum wage, you get full pay but the waitresses don’t get tips in Holland. Also another HUGE difference is, there are NOT so many waitresses. Truly sometimes I just wonder why on earth there are some many waitresses in a single restaurant. We had to take care of 50 people all by ourselves and in the same time they do here! But this could be a great subject for one of our “Crazy Americans” series…

I would work there every Saturday and Sunday and at days that I didn’t have to go to school. I had the best coworkers you can think of and Gerard & Lieke (the bosses) were fantastic teachers! On how to deal with customers, on how to plan your day or hour as efficient as possible. On how too never walk or do more than necessary to get the job done as best as you possible could and how to look… As in REALLY look!

Before I worked at The Viersprong my mom would tell me to go into our basement and find something like a can of beans, and I could not find it! No matter how long, how hard or how good i checked every inch of the basement (and my mom had the best basement ever! Clean, good light and super organized!)! After some good lessons on LOOKING from Gerard and some extra lessons from my mom, I never have troubles anymore in finding things! I also learned to think and plan ahead. This is something that I am still grateful for everyday, because I use that a lot now that we have 21 employees ourselves at the dairy!

While working at the restaurant Lieke and Gerard started to make their own Ice Cream desserts. I was all “soft ijs” (the kind of Ice Cream that you get at Mc Donalds in a cone, “yes the soft, oh so good, yummy stuff!!!” With different kind of fruits, liquors (yes booze!), whipped cream, chocolate or other goodies! And people just loved them!

So for this special post I’m gonna give you a special taste of my home country and you can try it out. Of course AFTER you have voted for Vanilla Bean on the Progressive Dairyman Website…. Hehe…

Drive to the closest liquor store and get yourself a nice, little, bottle of Anisette… Then you hop over to Walmart, Krogers, or your local grocery store or farmers market and get some lovely strawberries. I assume you have some pepper in your house at all times but if not, grab some red/black and white pepper powder. Or just get the little "balls" and grind it in your pepper mill later. And last but not least you have to go to Mickey D’s and get yourself a large bowl of the soft Ice-cream, you can toss the cones! Maybe you have to take a cooler, because otherwise it melts before you get home being as hot as it is!

Ok, so when you are home you have, for 2 people:
- Ice cream
- Strawberries 4 or 5 per person depending on the size!
- Pepper
- Anisette

And yes if you want to fancy it up you can even get some heavy whipping cream to put on top of your Ice Cream.... But you need to do the whipping yourself no fake stuff here!

The steps of making a fabulous bowl of Ice Cream:
You divide the ice cream over 2 large bowls, cut the strawberries and divide them over the two bowls. Sprinkle a little bit of the Anisette over the Ice Cream and strawberries. Don’t throw a bus load over it, just a little to bring out the flavors. And then you grind some of the pepper over your bowl. Again not too much but enough to actual taste the pepper but it can’t be overpowering!

I know it sounds strange, Ice Cream, pepper, strawberries and LIQUOR but trust me it works! If you forget the liquor or the pepper it is not the same (and all of this coming from a NON alcoholic person, so it must be AWESOME) and yes it really, really is something GREAT!!!

I hope you give it a try and tell me if it was as good for you as it was for all those crazy Dutchies! And please, please, pretty please vote for Vanilla Bean in the Flavor Face Off!

If you want to see Gerard and Lieke’s gorgeous restaurant you can click on this link: The Viersprong, in Dutch but with great pictures (like the ones above!), or their BEAUTIFUL "Pluk de dag" (Seize the Day) website, yes this one is in English!!!

Have a wonderful rest of the week and THANK YOU for voting!!!



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