A Prelude to Summer

For some reason, the things that remind me of the start of summer (besides fresh produce) are barbecues and ice cream.  Now, summer may be a ways off, but some of the things that I've been fixing lately would say otherwise.

My parents gave me an ice cream maker for christmas, but I hadn't used it much because of the cold weather. It has been very nice lately, so I decided to give it a second try.  I used the cookies and cream recipe from here. In the process of making this, I learned two very import things: 

1. Do use the chocolate creme filled cookies from Trader Joe's.

2. Don't use French vanilla soy creamer. The vanilla flavor will overpower just about everything else and make it have a very fake aftertaste.

The recipe did give a great texture, though not initially after mixing in the machine. I had to freeze it for several hours before it looked like how it is seen below.

Another thing that I associate with summer is barbecue.  As a vegan, I usually would have to stick to roasted vegetables, homemade potato salad (done by me), or other such things.  But this may now be a thing of the past. When I was in Seattle, I picked up a bag of soy curls because I had heard so many good things. What I did with them was pretty simple, and I smothered them in the bbq sauce from Veganomicon. (This bbq sauce is amazing and has quite a small kick that takes you by surprise!) I'm not sure how I feel about the soy curls, but the texture isn't too meaty or anything like that. What is great is how there are no preservatives in them, so I don't feel like it is a true mock meat at all. Here, the soy curls and bbq sauce are served on homemade whole grain bread.  I have a feeling that this is a dish that will improve with being in the fridge overnight. I can't wait until I make this again because I'll probably take it a step further and make my own buns as well!