margarita ice cream sandwiches

make some time on saturday to get these made! they are definitely worth it! another result of our girls weekend was patti's creation of these margarita ice cream sandwiches...more tips below on what i found useful when making them myself...

margarita ice cream sandwiches
what you need: 
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
5 tsp grated lime zest (i used 4 limes)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 1/2 cups all puprose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp raw sugar
1/2 tsp coursly grated salt
2 cups reduced fat vanilla ice cream
2 cups lime sherbet

what to do...
for the "sandwich" aka shortbread cookies...
place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat for approx. 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.  add egg, 1 TBSP lime zest and the lime juice. beat for 2 minutes, until well combined.  combine flour, baking powder & salt in seperate bowl and whisk together. add mixutre to the butter mixture and beat just until combined (don't over mix). divide dough into 2 equal portions and shape into a 6" long log. wrap the logs in plastic wrap individually and chill for 3 hours, or until firm in fridge (i did mine for almost 2 hours).

now to get cooking...
after you've waited for the dough to chill, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. cut each log into slices about 1/3 inch thick and place apart on baking sheets lined with parchment or wax paper. sprinkle cookies evenly with salt, remaining lime zest, and raw sugar. bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. cool for 2 minutes on pan, then remove from pan and allow to fully cool on baking sheet.

now the best part...
after the cookies have cooled, take out the ice cream and sherbet--let this thaw a little bit on the counter to be soft enough to mix. take the 2 cups of lime sherbet and 2 cups of vanilla ice cream and mix it together in a separate bowl. make the ice cream sandwiches and immediately freeze for 4 hours or until firm.

**TIP** I lined my silicone muffin pans with small pieces of wax paper and placed the bottom of each sandwich in the hole, then, i put in the ice cream and top cookie and froze the pan with the sandwiches individually done this way. this was great because my first batch started slipping and sliding all over the place by the time i got to the last cookie and they made a mess.

patti's chimichurri sauce

after a great girls weekend and week without ac, its now officially back to blogging time! there is a great sauce that we had with some venison at the bass family farm that patti whipped up, however we've had it on chicken and pork--all equally amazing! spring for the fresh herbs though--definitely wont work with anything dried.


chimichurri sauce
what you need:
1 cup cilantro (chopped)
1 cup parsley (chopped)
1/2 cup mint (chopped)
3-4 garlic cloves
1 shallot (chopped)
1 heaping tablespoon capers
dash of red pepper flakes
salt & pepper
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
3/4-1 cup olive oil

what you do:
mix it all together :) i put mine in the food processor and gave it a few pulses to get it really blended together well


enjoy!