Slow down to taste the custard

The last week has been a lovely change of pace with less obligations on the calendar and more time to just be after the workday is done. The library has been keeping me extra busy these days with presentations and creating an exhibit from scratch on top of my usual duties around these here parts. So at home we're trying to do better about stretching ourselves too thin, and this was a delicious taste of that freedom.

Much of that down time has been spent savoring the sheer pleasure of actually being at home. We've been able to enjoy the antics of the chicks and delight in watching our home garden grow day-by-day. Our onions and garlic are nearly ready and we got our first harvest of rhubarb! We also ventured out on date night to Paris Mountain to stroll along Lake Placid as the sun set. It is so delightfully quiet on a weekday night.

As happens every few years, my dad's birthday fell on mother's day so we doubly celebrated the weekend. Friday evening we had my parents over for a cookout complete with homemade strawberry rhubarb pie and freshly churned vanilla ice cream. It was too delicious to photograph. So you'll just have to take my word for it. ;-) On Sunday we ventured up to Black Mountain for a lunchtime feast with my grandmommy and mother. We brought some cute miniature yellow squash that tickled the fancy of my grandmother. She held onto one and giggled over the novelty of it for a good while. We oven roasted them along with bell peppers, onions, and zucchini, and those squash turned out to taste way better than any other crooked neck squash I've ever had before! I've never loved the watery, mushy texture of summer squash, but this was actually crunchy with more flavor. Super impressed!

Sunday also brought the first taste of gluten in a little over 15 weeks! Sister-in-law gave us some crusty loaf bread and we made real-deal french toast for breakfast. Delish! Unfortunately, I think gluten did mess with gut. Womp womp. I was expecting it to do so. I'm on a few day break from it and then going to reintroduce it again to see if it was indeed the gluten. To be determined!

On the food front through, we made our first ever frozen custard this week. It churned out way better than we imagined. It was the same basic recipe from our vanilla ice cream, but the addition of one egg made all the difference in texture. I make a quick ganache in the microwave for drizzling on top. Next time we are scheming about how we could get it to swirl into the custard as it churns. Now we just need more excuses to make custard and ice creams in the coming weeks!