Truth time: I grew my herb garden for two basic reasons: cocktails and ice cream. And ice cream like this reminds me that it's allll worth it.
I've made mint chip ice cream before, and loved it. I kinda wanted to make it again, but kinda also wanted to try something new, and kinda really needed to use as much herbage as possible. So - I decided to add basil to the mix. I followed this recipe pretty closely, except I probably used 1/3 basil and 2/3 mint, increased the steeping time to about an hour, and added a pinch of vanilla and salt. Micah and I have also informally pledged to buy as much local dairy / eggs / meat as possible - so I just want to proudly mention that this batch of ice cream was made possible by the lovely animals at Latta's Egg Ranch and Homeland Creamery.
The basil isn't as overt as I thought / worried it might be - it just gives a bit of an anise kick at the end, and makes the mint taste all elegant and grown-up and complex. It's basically classy mint chip ice cream, which I will, of course, take any day of the week. Which reminds me!: I recently had an amazing scoop of rosemary ice cream at G2B (where Micah and I celebrated our last anniversary with this amazing beer dinner), and it's got my wheels turning on other possible herbal ice creams...