Mocha Ice Cream & Tomato Sprouts

I searched for a while but failed to find a decent recipe for mocha ice cream anywhere...so I made one up! (a combination of coffee and chocolate ice cream recipes)

Mocha Ice Cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
3/4 C sugar
a dash of salt
1/4 medium-ground coffee
2 egg yolks
1/3 C cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C heavy cream

Heat the milk, sugar, and salt to a simmer. Add the coffee grounds, take off the heat, and let simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out the coffee and return to a simmer. While this is heating, mix egg yolks with cocoa powder. Slowly, add the hot milk mixture a 1/4 cup at a time to the egg/chocolate mix until they are about the same temperature. Mix this for about 10-15 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly, until a nice custard is formed. Take off heat, add vanilla & cream, and chill in the fridge overnight before churning.

I used decaf coffee since any caffeine consumption after 6pm keeps me up all night...but it was Equal Exchange coffee which makes it all ok!

As I mentioned briefly yesterday, the first sprout of my garden, a cherry tomato plant, popped up yesterday! Today it grew even more and a second cherry tom followed! The picture is kind of hard to see and was taken from my computer. But still...yay!!! SPRING TIME!!!