I’m a plan-everything-far-in-advance kind of person. Like, if I know I won’t have time to bake, I’ll make two recipes the week before. But sometimes, a whole weekend can work out perfectly with very little planning at all.

Take this weekend. The general plan was to hike on Saturday. And that was as far as we thought ahead. Turns out, Cambridge was a miserably hot and terrible place to be on Saturday, making it the perfect day to escape up to the White Mountains. On the way up the mountain, we stopped at a smaller lookout to see the view, which also was perfect because the peak ended up being in a cloud, making it impossible to see more than 10 feet in front of you (which was very cool in its own way).

Then, sitting outside today, we found not one, but SIX four-leaf clovers AND a five-leaf clover. In about 20 minutes. Usually I can look for hours and find zero. Those are the kinds of things that just bring me huge amounts of joy.

Finally, the recipe I made in advance for this week was ice cream, and today just happens to be National Ice Cream Day! As I said, sometimes things just work out perfectly with no planning to speak of. And those are the best kinds of weekends.

Another thing that’s awesome about this recipe (the first being the fact that it’s ice cream, in case that wasn’t clear) is that it only has four ingredients.

To start, whisk together the heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and espresso powder.Pour the batter into your ice cream maker according to its instructions, and churn for about 25 minutes. In the last 5 or 10 minutes, add the chocolate chips and continue churning until desired consistency. Scoop the ice cream into a tupperware container and freeze at least four hours before serving.Seriously, that’s it. So easy, it almost feels like cheating to use it as a recipe.So to make up for it, I’m also going to let you in on a secret: mugs are the best vessel for ice cream consumption.
I’m not sure why I never knew that growing up. But now that I do, I will refuse to eat ice cream out of a bowl.

Last thing to note about this ice cream is that it is much more coffee-flavored than the kind you’ll get at the ice cream shop. I think that’s for the better, but if you want a more subtle flavor, use one less tablespoon of espresso powder.

Enjoy!

Espresso Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 7 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons espresso powder
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Whisk together the heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and espresso powder in a medium bowl.
2. Pour batter into ice cream maker following manufacturer’s instructions.
3. Churn for about 25 to 30 minutes, adding chocolate chips in the last 5 minutes and continuing until desired consistency is reached.
4. Transfer to airtight container and freeze for at least four hours before serving.