Because 2 days is never enough.

Erik’s birthday was last week, and I stumbled upon the perfect “husband birthday” card a few months ago at the Hell’s Kitchen flea market. The card is from Dottie to her loving husband, dated 1947 or 1948. For some reason Dottie wasn’t sure what year it was. There’s gotta be a good story there. Maybe Dottie gave her husband the same card two years in a row to save money? Or maybe Dottie was a lush and could never remember what year it was? Either way, I’m happy to recycle Dottie’s birthday card for my husband in 2007. It’s 2007, right?

I made Erik the ice cream of his choice to go along with the celebration. He chose cherry, made with handfuls of cherries from the farmer’s market. I found a great almond cherry recipe in Michael Lebovitz’s ice cream book “Perfect Scoop.” This recipe was not for the faint of heart, though. The egg-based custard accompanied by an ice bath took my ice cream making skills to the next level, and the candied cherries were no joke either. Needless to say, I started the process 2 days in advance of Erik’s birthday so that it would be ready in time.

• Day 1 - Prepare and cook cherries, cool in fridge
• Day 2 - Prepare and cook egg and heavy cream custard, cool in fridge
• Day 3 - Combine ingredients in the ice cream maker and freeze

The ice cream was rich, creamy, and delicious (although next time I will add less almonds than suggested). And I’m no longer scared of the process for making an egg custard base. However, I think I’ll relegate this recipe to the “special occasion” category since I can’t usually wait two days to create yummy ice cream goodness. Luckily the ice cream has lasted well into this week so we’ve really gotten some mileage out of the batch. Gourmet recipes are great to eat, but the semi-instant gratification of an easy recipe can trump a fancy recipe any day, especially when ice cream is involved.