Panforte Ice Cream: California Seasonal Seasonings

I left Thanksgiving under the impression that the complete work-free break would be re-energizing for med school. And it was. For like, 4 hours on day 1. And then.....it was like, wow. I have a lot of things to memorize and I just don't care anymore. So I curled up in a fetal position and learned about the gastrointestinal system while drinking diet dr. pepper and eating twizzlers and jelly belly beans to survive to a much more real 2 weeks of winter break. So here I am, writing about ice cream I made over the teaser Thanksgiving break because real winter break has been filled with skiing and snow rather than lazy house baking.

Despite the abundance of fruit in California, I don't think fruit cake is a particularly common California holiday treat, or like anytime treat. Probably because we actually have fresh fruit to eat and thus do not need to suffer through dried fruit laden desserts to survive winter and plagues and wars. That being said, I'm not actually California born and raised, and California is large enough where fruit cake traditions may vary by regions. Looking at you in a super judgemental way Nor-Cal. Like seriously, if there were to be a part of California that enjoyed fruit cake, it would totally be Nor-Cal.

Fruit cake hating aside, Panforte (aka italian fruitcake) Ice Cream? Totally something I can get behind. This was a surprise find in my favorite David Lebovitz ice cream book. The first time I made this back in June, my brother finished off the entire batch within the span of two days before I could take proper pictures. Panforte ice cream doesn't actually involve dried fruit, but rather deliciously soft candied fresh citrus peels and lots of your favorite holiday spices and California almonds. While you could be lame or efficient and just buy candied citrus peels, they are fun to make in that vaguely mindless way of peeling citrus' and slicing them into the size of toothpicks. If you're into that. But so delicious!!

Given that this will be my last post of 2015, its only reasonable to do some reflecting, even though I think forced gratitude/reflection/affection due to holidays is silly. Well, for one thing, I never reflected last year so I can't go back and go hmm, did I fulfill what I reflected on last year? (You can thank interview season for that).

But anyways, my approach to New Year's (Day) is usually to think about what was old and what was new in the past year. So, new things- starting medical school, wonderful new friends/classmates for life, and taking the next steps to being the bitter uber science doctor nerd that was always within me (or will be forced into me). And old things- returning to california dreamin' and saying goodbyes to the labs that defined and shaped where I am today. But also, good riddance to east coast humidity.

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but I guess I have 2 for 2016. 1) Run 201.6 miles because Michelle is making me do it. 2) Keep remembering to find small things to be happy about even on the roughest days of med school.




Recipe via David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, also found on the internet here.