Kerner.net

Moving to Springfield, MO

Moving day is fast approaching. The bar exam is next week and we'll be moving on Friday, July 30th. Even though posting is generally sparse it may be more so for the next few weeks.

While I absolutely HATE moving, I'm actually quite excited about the move. It means that there will be a lot of new restaurants to try, a new kitchen, a patio (we don't have one in the current duplex).

Our lease on the house started on the 15th so we took a load of fragile items down last weekend. Unfortunately the house wasn't ready yet -- new carpet had been installed and it wasn't cleaned up, the cleaning people hadn't been through the bathrooms, etc. We were completely horrified by it and decided to take our stuff to one of Sarah's uncle's garages. Luckily she has several uncles who live in Springfield. The rental folk apologized for the inconvenience and are taking a week off our August rent because it wasn't ready. This weekend I'm taking down more fragile stuff and enough to have a functional office on moving day. I'm hoping to also get the surround sound set up and all of the other boxes unpacked. Sarah will be studying for the bar, ugh.

On a side note I got a new car about a month ago and it's great. It's a Chevy Malibu MAXX. It's a hatchback version of the Malibu (similar in looks to the Saab 9-3). It's very fun to drive and amazing for packing as all but the driver's seat fold down. Last night I was able to get an 6' folding table into the car without any trouble at all. With two car loads (one including Sarah and the dog) we've been able to move all of our fragile stuff (dishes, decorations, pictures, etc). It's also very fun to drive.

The Weber Pizza Oven

I'm a huge fan of pizza of just about all types. Not necessarily toppings, but crust/cooking styles. I like New York style pizza, deep dish Chicago style pizza, even thin St. Louis style pizza. My favorite by far though is the wonderfully crispy pizza that you can get in the pizzarias all over Europe that advertise their wood fired ovens. Some of you may tell me there are pizza places in the US that have wood ovens, but I've never been to one that didn't make a chewey crust pizza.

Whenever I've felt the need for this type of pizza I've always settled for grilled pizza. It's good, but like the chewey wood oven pizzas not really what I'm craving. The solution is to use a pizza stone on the grill. We've got a 16" round stone which fits perfectly in the 22" Weber kettle.

Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato

In the frenzy of summer foods nothing is quite as good as fresh, homemade ice cream. Earlier this week we broke out the ice cream maker for the first time this year. The freezer portion will now remain in the freezer until sometime this fall in order to have ice cream on demand.

The first ice cream of the year was a fresh mint gelato with mini chocolate chips. It's easy to make, and captures the joy of fresh mint.

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato

• 4 cups whole milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 bunch fresh mint leaves roughly chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine milk, mint and vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and allow to steep covered for 5 minutes. Mix sugar and egg yolks until light in color. Slowly add the milk to the egg mixture being careful to temper the yolks. Chill the mixture thoroughly (you could allow it to age overnight) then strain into the freezer bowl of your ice cream freezer. Freeze according to your freezer's instructions. Fold in chocolate chips during the last 5 minutes of freezing. Harden in the freezer for at least two hours.

Note: This ice cream will not be green, it will be a custardy yellow. It will be very minty though. If you must have green mint ice cream feel free to add food color to your heart's content.