Chocolate Cake and Ice cream

 I get my love of chocolate from my mother so for her 88th birthday last week I made her this special treat. Devil's Food Cake by Nigella. I used an entire 8 oz bag of TCHO 66% baking chips for the icing - wow! Wouldn't want to just serve this with a plain jane vanilla ice cream? I mean how often do you celebrate 88 years? So I made this Pistachio Ice cream adapted from Food and Wine.

Pistachio Ice Cream

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 oz cream cheese
1 and 1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup super fine sugar (dissolves really well, but if you can't find it, use regular)
1 and 1/2 tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 cup raw pistachios, toasted a bit in a pan then chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
pinch salt

Measure the milk and then in a small bowl pour out a couple tablespoons and mix with the cornstarch - set aside. Pour the rest of the milk, cream, sugar and syrup in a saucepan. Heat until boiling and then turn down and cook about 2 min until the sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and return to a boil for a couple more min, stirring until thickened. In another bowl beat up the cream cheese a bit then pour in the hot milk, whisking it all together. Add in the pistachios, extract and salt. Let this sit in the fridge overnight to let it steep. The next day (or at least 4 hours later) strain off the nuts and reserve. Put the cream mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze and churn. When done put into a container and stir in the reserved nuts. Let cure in the freezer about an hour. Eat within a couple days since it doesn't have the "stabilizers" that store bought ice cream has. Please don't add green food dye. Keep it subtle.