Sep 11, 2011 Uncategorized
Growing up, I was always the boring kid who only liked vanilla ice cream. I don’t think it was necessarily that I disliked the other flavors as much as it was that I just loved vanilla, and I didn’t see any reason to eat any other kind. I had a friend who gave me such a hard time about it. She and I played softball together, and often after practices or games we would go to get ice cream. She would order really fun flavors and I would ALWAYS order vanilla. Vanilla is so simple and perfect. It’s smooth and creamy, without swirls of goo or hard chunks of candy or nuts. I love it. She did get me to order peppermint once and I did enjoy that, but ordering something different was always short lived and I would find myself reverting back to vanilla time and time again. There’s really no beating it.
I’ve tried many different brands and love Edy’s, Haagen-Dazs and the other super smooth and thick varieties. I’ve never really been a big fan of home-made ice cream either. Something about the process seemed so… not worth it. If you are able to go to the store and pick up a tub of insanely delicious and smooth wonderfulness for $5.00, then why go through all the effort and end up with a vanilla flavored ice cup, which is more of a slushy consistency than you’d like? It just didn’t make sense to me. Of course, that was because I had never tried really good home-made ice cream.
That all changed when I met Brian’s family. Brian’s mom has made home-made ice cream on several occasions with great accomplishment. Recently though, Brian decided he wanted to learn how to make ice cream, and I was extremely skeptical that he would be able to pull it off. His mom is great at it though, and I thought maybe with a few tips from her he could, with time, generate something that would be semi-worth the effort. He read through some recipes and decided on Alton Brown’s Vanilla Ice Cream from the Good Eats 2 Cookbook. Honestly, I didn’t pay attention at all to how he did it. I don’t know if it’s hard to do or not, or what the steps look like as you do them, but I do know with certainty that the ice cream he made is one of my favorite vanilla ice creams on the planet. My view of home-made ice cream has changed forever.
In order to make ice cream you need an ice cream maker, which we don’t have. We do, however, have a KitchenAid Mixer and Brian’s mom let us borrow the ice cream maker attachment. I don’t know if the brand of ice cream maker affects the outcome, but whatever the KitchenAid ice cream attachment did was perfect.
Hurley really wanted some. He watched Brian the entire time he ate.
Here is the recipe from the Good Eats 2 Cookbook. The result is a mouthful of joy.
Vanilla Ice Cream- makes 1 1/2 quarts (enough for 8 people to eat it with pie and still have some left over)
Ingredients
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
9 ounces sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
1. Combine the half and half and cream in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2. Whisk the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl until they lighten in color. Gradually whisk the sugar into the yolks until smooth.
3. Slowly ladle one thrid or the hot dairy into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. (This is the tempering part.) Return this mixture to the pot containing the rest of the dairy. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until the custard thickens slightly, enough to coat the back of a spoon (170- 175 degrees F).
4. Wash the original mixing bowl. When the custard is ready, transfer it to the bowl, stir in the vanilla, and cool at room temp for 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate until the temperature drops below 40 degrees F. Best to let it chill overnight.
5. Pour into a prepped ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s directions. Within 25 to 30 minutes the ice cream will attain a classic soft-serve consistency. Enjoy it as is or move it to the freezer to harden for another 3-4 hours.
Sep 2, 2011 Crusts, Desserts, Peaches, Pies and Tarts
This year has been a slow year for the blog, and I’m really sorry about that. I hope that in the months to come I can remember to take pictures of the food I make and tell everyone about it, but it’s been hard. My job got busier (but I love it), and my dog is so dang cute and playful. It’s hard to stay in my chair when I sit down to write and he comes and looks up at me with a ball in his mouth. I’ve been really happy, but I do miss sharing things on here so hopefully I can get back into it.
I knew I couldn’t let summer pass without telling you about this peach pie though. This pie was amazing. I’ve said before that I’m a big fan of streusel, and pretty much any pie with streusel on top makes me extremely happy. This was really easy to make, and if you are in the market for a peach pie during the last days of summer I highly recommend this one.
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Aug 8, 2011 Appetizers, Beef, Chicken, Dips and Spreads, Mexican, Salads, Snacks
Well, it’s officially been the hottest summer in Oklahoma since before I was born. Brian, Hurley and I are surviving, thankful for a working air conditioner and lots of iced tea. Hurley runs around outside after the sun goes down, and sometimes spends half the night outside playing. Brian’s routine hasn’t changed much, and since the grass hasn’t been growing because of the drought he hasn’t had to go outside and mow the lawn. I’ve pretty much given up on running with Hurley until the weather gets back down to highs in the 90′s, but other than those things the main thing that the heat as been affecting is dinner.
The stove and oven put off enough heat in 30 minutes to make life miserable for the evening. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this problem. I should have posted this a few weeks ago at the beginning of this long, hot string, but I’m sure there are still plenty of hot days ahead.
Here are some of my favorite recipes for when it’s too hot to cook. These recipes require no grilling, stove, or oven. Now you should have no excuse to go out to eat every night.
1. Sandwiches are a great choice, and this one is one of my favorites. This is a Roast Beef Sandwich with Cranberries that I wrote about a few years ago, but you can easily substitute the roast beef for turkey and it works very well. All ingredients are cold and refreshing.
(photo courtesy of Bon Appetit)
2. This Wild Arugula Salad looks amazing, and if you use store bought croutons you don’t have to use your oven at all.
3. The third recipe I have is Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook. These are presented as an appetizer in restaurants, but I think you’ll find that a few of these are quite substantial as a meal, and they are so good for you. Sorry I don’t have a picture, but just read the recipe and you’ll see how wonderful these are.
4. This might be my favorite recipe from this last year, and even though I’ve made it at least 8 times I don’t have a single picture of it anywhere. There could be two reasons for this. #1, I generally am so excited to eat it once it’s done that I forget to take a picture before it’s gone, or #2, I decide not to take a picture because it’s sort of ugly. I can’t ever get it to bring a good presentation, but the combination of flavors is so amazing that I promise you won’t be disappointed. This recipe uses a slow-cooker, which doesn’t generate a lot of heat but produces a wonderful meal.
Slow Cooked Chicken with Tomatillos, Potatoes, Jalapenos, and Fresh Herbs from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Everyday
Ingredients:
1 medium white onion, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds
salt
4 medium (about 1 pound) red-skinned or Yukon gold potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (1.5-2 lbs)
1 cup (loosely packed) cilantro leaves or 1/3 cup (loosely packed) fresh epazote leaves
1 1/4 pounds tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup slicked canned pickled jalapenos
2 tbs jalapeno pickling juice
Directions
Spread the onion over the bottom of a slow-cooker. Sprinkle with salt. Continue with layers of the potato slices, chicken thighs, cilantro, and then tomatillos, sprinkling salt evenly over each layer before moving on to the next. Scatter the jalapeno slickes over everything, then drizzle with the picking juice. Cover and slow-cook on high for 6 hours. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with cilantro.
5. Guacamole is probably my favorite no-cook food. I know it’s an appetizer, but use it as the base on tostadas and you’re on your way to a delicious no-cook meal. Tostadas are a great way to clean out the fridge of any leftover taco meat, chorizo, or baked chicken. Sprinkle on some cheese, sour cream, salas, and guacamole, or whatever else you have in your fridge. I generally like tostadas with a base of black beans, and you can microwave those for a minute or two and spread them on the tostada before topping.
I hope everyone stays cool, whether you’re in Oklahoma or somewhere else fantastic. For now, I’ll keep drinking lots of iced tea and dreaming about moving to Alaska.
May 16, 2011 Cakes, Desserts
I’ve decided to join Team Coconut.
There are definitely two teams in this world. Team Coconut and Team Won’t-touch-coconut-with-a-ten-foot-pole. I’ve only recently begun to like coconut. After years of turning down wonderful looking desserts and granola because they contained shredded coconut I asked myself why I was saying no. I realized I didn’t really have a reason. I hadn’t even tried anything with coconut since I was little, and maybe my taste buds had changed. I decided that I was going to try it again with an open mind. The result was delicious.
My mom likes coconut, and this year for Mother’s Day I made her this cake. It is a simple cake to make, and the result is extremely moist and delicious. I was a little reluctant to make a cake that sounded so easy for Mother’s Day. I felt like I was cheating using a cake mix and pudding mix in the same cake, but Tyler Florence recommended it and I trust him completely. You should too. This is a fabulous cake.
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