A Festive Labor Day With Cherry Red Wine Ice Cream {And & WGN TV Appearance}

It’s a lovely Labor Day Monday in DC and while I’m not hosting any outdoor shindigs today, I thought maybe you are and still have time to impress your guests with some plain (and adult-appropriate) awesomeness! And since it’s still hot as Africa as they say, ice cream is the sure way to keep things (and your body) extra cool. A creamy and somewhat cherry red wine ice cream to make you scream. Literally. Why not?! Kids have started going back to school and you’re probably driving yourself mad. So let’s eat away that stress.

If you’ve been keeping up with me this summer,  you know it’s been spectacularly exciting and refreshingly delicious working with Madria Sangria! Between developing savory, dessert, and cocktail recipes, demo’ing them, and traveling between Chicago, Miami, NY, and Tampa most recently to appear on TV showing off all the goodness we’ve been sharing with you all. Most of the TV segments have been focused on great and super doable tips for entertaining at home. The most favorite and most requested demo is my piña salsa which is the most perfect thing to pair with sangria. I’ve been enjoying it on its own with chips but it’s even more amazing as a vibrant relish over grilled chicken, even steak if you’re not a purist.

But, even with the festive tips and salsa which has made it’s round in 6 markets, landing me some humbling emails from viewers and even NBC producers letting me know they’ve made it…. the other recipes I developed were just as sexy. Especially the red wine cherry ice cream.

I’ve toyed a lot with ice cream, barely sharing here out of sheer greediness not giving myself enough time to sit still for a day to photograph and write up a post. But finally! A valid reason to share one of my creations!

The inspiration to make a wine ice cream was obviously very natural. With all the glorious fruits a perfect house-made sangria holds, I thought cherries would be a perfect match for this one. Plus, and truthfully, I have a subtle addiction to cherries and custards. I made this cherry flan not too long ago and am now playing with a different version of it. You know, make it sexier. There’s always room for sexier food.

The key thing with this recipe is that the sangria is ready made, so need to labor over making a a huge pitcher of red splash! It’s done for you. Literally. All you do is chill the bad girl. And if you think a $6 bottle of sangria couldn’t possibly render any integrity or authenticity, think again. And then go buy a bottle. It has everything you would make at home, ‘cept the fruit of course, but you can chop— so just add the bitty goods you prefer.

So you see why it was easy to come up with this divine and really pretty ice cream?

My father, whom we’ve all come to know, is a purist at heart, always begging me to stay to the classics, even likes Madria (though he doctors it to the max for his fancy palate, you know, all the fruits he can think of… because my recommended three is too skim to for him; imagine that), and thoroughly enjoyed the ice cream. Now he thinks he can make a better version.

Yeah, we’ll see.

It’s a labor of love. And I’m not too convinced he’s got all that love for ice cream.

While you ponder making this ice cream before summer wraps, here I am last week in Chicago doing the best part of my job on WGN (Can I tell you how much I fell in LOVE with that city, where I was accepted to law school and hadn’t been ahem years?!).

Appropriately so, we filmed live outdoors and chatted about how to entertain this weekend specifically,  lighting up your place with mason jars you can paint and decorate however you’d like. But the highlight was the pineapple salsa.

Here, watch and enjoy! Sorry for the poor video quality. It’s how I got it…. so meh. Life goes on.

Especially when we’ve got cooking to do and guests coming over!

For your next soirée, try all of these tips. I guarantee a great time. And  you’ll  save you some coins.

And, if you’re in Miami, catch me on Telemundo doing a similar segment! I’ll Tweet and Facebook the exact day and time. It’s so fun to see how each segment, tho themed the same, turns out so differently, especially since some are in English and others in Spanish. See some fun Instagram pics I’ve been taking on each set.

I’ll have two more to share: NBC Miami which already aired but will upload under my media player channel; and ABC Tampa News which will air later this month! Busy Bee is definitely making the edible rounds! I hope you enjoy, friends!

Happy and beautiful Labor Day.

Eat well, love unapologetically, pray with true intention, and take care of yourself.

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Enjoy

CHERRY & RED WINE ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 bottle Madria Sangria
• ¾ pint cherries
• 1 cup milk
• ¾ cup sugar, divided
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• water

Method:

In a medium-sized saucepan add ¼ cup of sugar, blackberries and 3 tablespoons of water and simmer over low-medium heat. Cook the cherries, stirring with rubber spatula, until they have slightly broken down and released most of the juice. Seed will separate. Strain to separate juice and berries. Refrigerate cherries for 4 hours or until they are completely chilled. Add juice back to the saucepan and cook over medium heat until it thickens to a rich syrup, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate the syrup until cool.

In a heatproof bowl, mix the egg yolks. In a saucepan, combine the cream, milk and remaining sugar and bring to a simmer over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and vanilla, about 4 minutes. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the eggs yolks; return the mixture to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes; do not let the custard boil or it will curdle.

Strain the custard into a bowl. Stir in the red wine and cherries.  Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Cover and store in the freezer until serving time. Serve in pretty class ice cream bowls. Drizzle cherry sauce onto each serving.

En Español: 

Rinde 4-6 personas

Ingredientes:

•  6 yemas grandes
•  2 tazas de crema para batir
•  1 taza de Madria Sangría Tradicional
•  ¾ pinta de cerezas
•  1 taza de leche
•  ¾ taza de azúcar, dividida
•  ½ cucharadita de extracto de vainilla
• Agua

Preparación:

En una sartén mediana, agrega el ¼ de taza de azúcar, las cerezas y 3 cucharadas de agua. Hierve a fuego lento-medio. Cocina las cerezas revolviéndolas con una espátula de goma, hasta que hayan comenzado a deshacerse y liberen su jugo (las semillas se separarán solas). Cuélalas para separar la pulpa del jugo. Refrigera las cerezas durante 30 minutos, o hasta que queden totalmente frías. Añade el jugo nuevamente en la sartén y cocínalo a fuego medio durante unos 2 minutos, hasta que se condense formando un jarabe denso. Refrigéralo hasta que se enfríe.

En un recipiente térmico, mezcla las yemas. En la sartén, agrega la crema, la leche y el resto del azúcar, y llévalo a hervor a fuego moderado, revolviendo para que el azúcar y la vainilla se disuelvan bien, durante unos 4 minutos. Bate gradualmente la crema caliente con las yemas. Luego, devuelve la mezcla a la sartén. Cocina a fuego medio unos 5 minutos, revolviendo constantemente, hasta que la crema quede lo suficientemente densa como para cubrir el reverso de la cuchara. Cuidado: si la dejas hervir, se cortará.

Vierte la crema en un recipiente. Añádele el vino tinto y las cerezas. Cúbrelo y refrigéralo hasta que esté totalmente helado (alrededor de una hora). Congélalo en una máquina para hacer helado, según las instrucciones del fabricante. Cúbrelo y guárdalo en el congelador hasta el momento de servir. Sírvelo en copas de helado, decorando cada porción con salsa de cerezas.