I think it's readily apparent that I am a citizen of the Western World. When given pistachios, the first thing I do with them is put them into desserts. Had I been raised in India or other areas of Central Asia, I'd be putting the nuts into rice, or adding to meat dishes.

But alas, I'm cursed to suffer the fates of homemade ice cream. You can sympathize with that, right?

So I made pistachio ice cream. Please note the light green coloration (if you can...it's admittedly not the best of pictures). Please also note that the green coloration is no where the bright green color often seen in commercial pistachio ice cream. After making pistachio pudding and ice cream, I have come to the conclusion that the massive political corporate machine that is the green food coloring industry fully has the pudding and ice cream companies in their pocket.

Okay, maybe not. Enjoy this recipe. It'll blow any commercial pistachio ice cream off the shelf.

• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup half & half
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 2 Tablespoons pistachio paste
• 3/4 cups shelled pistachios

In a mixing bowl, combine cream and half & half. Mix in sugar and cardamom until sugar is incorporated into cream mixture. Add pistachio paste, and whisk slowly until paste is fully dissolved. Pour in pistachio nuts and combine. Refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes to an hour.

Pour pistachio cream mixture into ice cream machine and run until ice cream is thickened (this will differ from machine to machine). For soft serve, serve immediately. For hardened ice cream, pour into a plastic container and freeze for four hours.

Makes 1 quart