minty fresh

today i learned how to make a mint chocolate milkshake using fresh mint.

let me preface this by saying: SO YUMMMMMMMMY.

when sam first moved in to our house back in august, we knew immediately that one of our first spring projects would be to tear up our back garden and re-plant some nice looking things in it. the rusty old tiki torches, the poorly kept easter lilies, and the beat up flag on a run down iron rod were not exactly our taste. so about a month or so ago, my wonderful father come over with his roto-tiller in tow and tore it up old school. it was beautiful. all the yucky nasties were gone, and we were left with a beautiful blank canvas of rich dark earth.

unfortunately, we were so indecisive on what to plant that by the time we had a general idea of what would look nice, we had already spent our garden fund on other things around the house. oops.

what's interesting is that where a perfectly empty flower bed once stood, there is now a big dug-up section of our yard that is overrun by- get this- mint. i wouldn't have known what it was either except that on one of our walk throughs before we bought the house, my mother in law spotted the little herb growing in a corner of the garden and asked if she could take some once we moved in. i wish she would take all of it. correction- i wish she COULD take all of it. this stuff multiplies faster than bunnies in the springtime. we tilled up that entire garden, and the only thing that survived the purge was the mint. it's like the cockroach of the weed world. i have no idea how it does it. but i knew i couldn't just let it go to waste.

so today, i bought some vanilla and chocolate ice cream to make my own mint chocolate milkshake. i plucked a big handful of the overzealous mint and threw it in my magic bullet (which i am so over, by the way. the thing wouldn't blend if you held a gun to it's head) and (attempted) to blend it to a mushy juicy pulp. then i threw in some milk and a bunch of ice cream and let loose. the result was a fresh, creamy, minty treat that was so yummy i'm thinking about going to make another one when i'm done typing this. there's just something about using things that you've "grown" yourself that makes everything taste that much better. i think sometime in the near future i'll be planting basil out there.

pesto, anyone?