more asparagus + homemade icecream!!!

Last night I whipped up this savory asparagus bread pudding that I saw on 101 cookbooks. It was fairly simple. I prepped all the veggies and everything before going out for an evening jog, and when I came back I just threw everything together and stuck in the oven. With asparagus being in season, I can't get enough. This recipe also involved Gruyere cheese, just like the tarts from a couple posts ago. Gruyere and Asparagus make a good pair. they should get married or sumthin! I bought the processed Gruyere this time just to see what the difference is. For one thing it's cheaper. But it's also a more...plastic-y texture...similar to Velveeta (but nowhere near as disgusting!), Which is why it looks kinda scary on top of my bread pudding. It tasted pretty good, though. I'll be sticking with the natural stuff from now on, though. The pudding was lovely. Kind of comforting without being too rich. It would be great for a brunch, but who does brunches? Anybody? Invite me if you have on, will ya? :) I'll bring this:



For dessert I had some Kulfi I had put together the night before. Kulfi is an Indian ice cream with pistachios and cardamom. And using this recipe from CHOW, it's super-easy to make! I don't have an ice cream maker or anything, and for this you don't need one. I did have the problem one of the commenter's had, with the cardamom sinking to the bottom and the pistachios floating, but the flavor of both was still good throughout. I just bite of the cardamom top (as seen in the photo below) and spit it out, then enjoy the rest of the kulfi-pop. And I do mean enjoy. These are delicious!! Rich, flavorful, unique. Mmmmmm...I want another. The photos do not do it justice, but anyway:


here you can see all the cardamom bits. I obviously did not do a very good job grinding it up in my little mortar and pestle, but those pods are hard! Next time I'm buying ground cardamom, darn it...although these make things really tasty.