Peanut Butter Ice Cream

February in Texas is so glorious. It’s Baby Bear Weather – - not too cold, not too hot. Juuuuuust right.

The birds are singing and building nests. The irises and lilies have emerged. Little seedlings are spreading their hopeful little green wings in tiny pots on our window sills. It’s heady stuff this springing… we can hardly keep our minds on anything at all past digging, and humming, and feeling the damp earth under bare feet.

But…. well… as a born and raised Texan, I know, deep in my soul, how very precious and short lived this loveliness is.

Soon, too too soon, we will descend into the depths of triple digit temperature hell. There will be long stretches of breath-sucking oven heat, car seats that are too hot to sit on without dancing a bit, groceries that wither and melt no matter how quickly you rush home, burn bans and water restrictions, depressingly low lake levels and smashed garden dreams.

Call me a pessimist if you will, but this isn’t my first rodeo. It is what it is. Hot.

And so, while I will strive to cherish every ounce of this lovely spring before it vanishes, I will also be making ready to endure the trial ahead. Like a marathoner trains, like  a squirrel hoards nuts, like a sailor carefully  takes on supplies for the long journey ahead, I will prepare to survive another Texas summer without losing my ever-loving mind and winding up under the table, stripped down to my skivvies with a frozen margarita intravenous drip.

Step one: Acquire ice cream maker. Done. I got this one. Yes, in turquoise. A nice coooool color, don’t you think?

Step two: Commence to dabbling in the culinary arts of ice cream recipe creation.

Less than 24 hours after procuring the machine, I give you:

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2 cups 2% Milk

2/3 cup Heavy Cream

1/2 cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix. Freeze. Enjoy.

We sprinkled a few chocolate and peanut butter chips over ours, because we’re overachievers where sweets are concerned. Really though, I think that it was perfect without any add-ins at all. Perfect, like lick the bowl clean perfect.

And now, Step 3 of my summer survival plan …. figure out how I’m going to eat all this ice cream and still manage to wear a swim suit.