Basil coconut Popsicles

My aunt Bobbie turned me on to these and I have made them a few times since.

The recipe is from the roasted root

http://www.theroastedroot.net/basil-coconut-ice-cream/

And is originally for ice cream. But you can just make the recipe and pour into Popsicle molds instead.

I usually make a half recipe, and instead of honey I have substituted sugar or Splenda.

Basil Coconut Ice Cream

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups fresh basil leaves (tightly packed)

2 cans full-fat coconut milk (13.6-ounce cans)

½ cup honey

¾ cup half & half

1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Heat coconut milk and cream on the stove over medium high in a saucepan until hot and barely bubbling (bring to a low boil). Add honey and salt; mix to dissolve. Add basil leaves, stir and allow them to wilt in the mixture; remove saucepan from heat. Pour mixture into a blender and emulsify until completely creamy and no chunks of basil are visible (if this is not possible in your blender you can strain out the basil pieces with a fine wire strainer/colander if you would like or you can leave the basil pieces in the mixture). Allow mixture to cool 20 minutes; this allows the flavors to infuse. Pour mixture in a large container and refrigerate a few hours until cool.

Minnesota fish fry

Zucchini pie

Art adventure in Mexico!

Saturday I went on an adventure in Tijuana visiting murals by the artist Panca. This tour was hosted by the tour company tourista libre!

Our first stop was the the central bus station.  She described the feeling of this work as being "Spat out into the world in an unknown place"

Here's some of the other artists murals on the bus station wall.

The next stop was a mural painted on the wall of a musician friend's house.  She said he is moving soon so this mural won't be here for too much longer

It was painted in 2012- which was a political year because of the elections going on and people selling their votes. The translation is "A real change comes from within."

Steve being grumpy 

Our bus about to take us to go get tacos! Did I mention the cooler on the bus full of ice cold Tecates and Mexican coca colas?

We went to Tacos los paisas, a taco shop once visited by Anthony Bourdain.

Some adobada tacos

The next mural was right by the border on the outside of a tattoo/screen printing shop.

On our next stop we walked through the oldest park in Tijuana. Across the street from the park is an apartment building from the 1940's where Panca lived for a while.

The building is now home to a community of young Tijuana writers and artists.  There's also murals inside the building, but no one was home to let us in.

The next mural was in an alley way near where all the mariachi musicians live.

From there we walked to a small brewery storefront located inside a covered alley way with other little art studios, cafés, used book and record stores.

The brewery is called Mamut- which means mammoth!

The last mural was finished just the day before we got to see it! It's located on the border wall near the casa del tunel art gallery. The building once housed the entrance to an underground tunnel that crossed into the US.

The gallery had some art by other artists outside. Here are some other artworks at the gallery: