ice bowl, sorbet and triple-berry trifle

this is my first attempt at an ice bowl. they’re easy to make: use two mixing bowls, one that fits inside the other, and some objects (wads of foil, pieces of cardboard, whatever) to float the small bowl inside the large so there’s even space all around between the two. throw in some leaves, flowers, berries, slices of fruit or any other decorative edible, fill half the space with water and freeze, then take out the spacers, fill it up the rest of the way and freeze again. you can also create a layered look by freezing incrementally, adding more decorative items each time.

i wanted to try a small one first, so i used my littlest mixing bowls, put blueberries at the base and slices of lemon around the sides. i plan to go a lot larger and more artistic this summer, when i can use homegrown edible flowers and greens to make a big salad bowl. i might also try a large layered bowl using these rosehips i collected down by the river...i discovered i really don’t like the taste of rosehips at all, but they would be very pretty in ice.

the lemon blueberry bowl was perfect for holding a serving of my homemade smoothie/sorbet-type-thing. i pour about 1/3 cup soymilk into the food processor, add a scoop of green superfood powder and process for a few seconds, then pour a cup or so of frozen berries in through the chute (with the processor running) and process until smooth but firm and scoopable. it tasted extra delicious in the ice bowl--i don’t know if it was just my imagination but i felt like i could taste a hint of fresh lemon.

i’m not sure whether to call it a sorbet or a smoothie, it’s kind of neither and both. whatever it is it makes a very tasty breakfast. i always eat either my frozen berry blend or a mix of soygurt and grape nuts for breakfast...and one morning i was extra hungry so i combined the two for a trifle:

sorbet on the bottom, a layer of blueberries, a layer of vanilla soygurt, then grape nuts. it was intense.