Table for one please.

So summer is here again, and that means I have the time to actually post new recipes. So my brother in law has a cookoff every year, and this year was Italian food. So I made nutella gelato with hazelnut praline topping and tangerine mint sorbet. And guess who won the grand prize?

My prize: Tiki Trophy and a bottle of Chianti. What else could you ask for? Oh and lets not forget bragging rights.

So lets get to it: My AWARD WINNING Nutella Gelato.

Seriously, who could go wrong with a whole jar of nutella?

3 cups milk
4 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
Vanilla extract
one jar of nutella

Heat milk in double boiler. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together until pale yellow and creamy. Add 1/2 cup warm milk to eggs and combine, then add to double boiler. Cook until thick and can coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and add an entire jar of nutella until it melts. Add vanilla extract. Let cool until completely cold in the fridge.

Meanwhile I made my hazelnut praline.

12oz hazelnuts
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

The hardest part about this is to leave it alone. Over medium heat, combine water and sugar and then DO NOT TOUCH IT. Leave it alone. Seriously. Go do something else. If you try to stir it then it will promote crystallization and not come out right. So just leave it. It will boil down and then start becoming a light light brown. Keep going. Let it boil until it becomes the perfect caramel color and then have a lined baking sheet in handy, then dump in the hazelnuts and stir and quickly pour and spread onto your baking sheet. When completely cooled and hardened have at it with a kitchen knife and chop into little pieces.

Transfer gelato base into ice cream maker and top with praline. Take it to your next cookoff. Everyone will hate you.

Next: Tangerine Mint Sorbet (VEGAN)

1 cup sugar (I used raw sugar)
1/2 cup water
1 pound tangerines
1 cup mint leaves

Over medium heat, combine sugar, water and mint leaves until all sugar is dissolved, then remove from heat. Juice your tangerines and add a little zest for extra flavor if you want. I strained the pulp but you don’t have to, I just have some pulp haters as my taste testers… Strain the mint leaves from the syrup and add to tangerine juice. Let cool completely and then churn in ice cream/sorbet maker. AH-mazing. Even my 5 year old niece loved it.

BONUS RECIPE:

I promised my sister’s boyfriend I would make him coconut ice cream when I got back from DC so here it is, complete with dark chocolate shavings:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup cream
1 cup milk
4 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 cans (about 13 oz each) coconut milk (not lite!)
1 cup coconut flakes
dark chocolate

Heat cream and milk in double boiler. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together until pale yellow and creamy. Add 1/2 cup warm milk/cream mixture to eggs and combine, then add to double boiler. Cook until thick and can coat the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in coconut milk. Let mixture cool completely in fridge then mix in coconut flakes and add to ice cream maker and churn. Shave some dark chocolate to go on top and voila!

Now go get fat!

funniest10k:

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This is actually what I think about whenever I see this scene.

ASSvengers. How it should rightfully be.

life:

A half-century ago, on a spring night in New York City, 35-year-old Marilyn Monroe — literally sewn into a sparkling, jaw-droppingly tight dress — stood in a spotlight on a dark stage. She took a breath, began to sing — and 15,000 men and women who filled the old Madison Square Garden that night knew, simply knew, that they were seeing and hearing something that they would never, ever forget.

The song, of course, was “Happy Birthday,” and Marilyn’s breathy, intimate rendition — sung, as if the two of them were utterly alone, to President John F. Kennedy — has been celebrated, analyzed and lovingly parodied countless times in the five decades since that indelible performance.

LIFE’s Bill Ray was there — and now, we present a set of unpublished from that unforgettable night.