It Use To Be So Simple

by Chewy

Remember the days when your go to flavors of ice cream revolved around strawberry or chocolate ripple? Then Baskin Robbins came along with their 31 flavors and the villagers went insane over the idea. Not satisfied with the original 31, some were retired or replaced with ever surprising infusions of flavor. Even with all this diversity, flavors still followed a traditional trail. Sweet things go with sweet things, savory with savory and never the twain shall meet. Even Ben and Jerry usually followed this scenario.

That whole idea has been kicked to the curb and it’s no longer cool to use the mundane in your frozen treats. While bacon didn’t start it, it certainly has helped to perpetuate and inspire ever more challenging combination, although, even this ingredient is bordering on the blasé at this point. Yet, I’m positively piggish about pork still!

There’s no doubt that around the world there are some pretty scary traditional ice cream flavors that fall along cultural divides (this will be dealt with in a future blog), but today I will keep this relatively indigenous.

Ruth and Phils, lauding from Chicago, take advantage of fresh summer fruits and vegetables to concoct Summer Sweet Corn ice cream, Cantaloupe Avocado Jalapeno sorbet (you know how I feel about avocados!) and Cucumber Blueberry Lime sorbet. Presently only available in limited locales, it may soon be coming to your local Whole Foods store.

© Sax | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

New York is no new comer to food fads and il laboratorio del gelato is no exception. For the adventurous palate they provide Fresh Brown Turkey, Sweet Potato and Tarragon Pink Pepper.  They are proud to hand make all the flavors in small batches and I think I grasp the reasoning behind limited production. I don’t imagine a huge rush for Turkey, even seasonally. Sweet Potato is igniting my curiosity.

Another New York establishment, Max and Mina’s Ice Cream has heated things up with sweet and spicy combos. Sugar tempers the fire in their Spicy Peanut Butter which culminates in a warm glow due to the added red peppers and chilies. Following in the same genre are Black  Pepper and Corn Horseradish.  Traditional Italian flavors in an egg yolk base make up their Pizza ice cream and  what goes best with that? A cup of their Beer ice cream!

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Columbus, OH, follows the “It’s cold! It’s hot!” theme with Queen City Cheyenne and Bangkok Peanut (secret ingredient, Cheyenne pepper, of course). Apparently, pepper has become the new “salt” in savory/sweet pairings. While I have often seen people salt fruits to bring out the sweet, my roommate in college was the only person I knew who peppered hers. She was obviously decades ahead of her time!

© Sloth92 | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

One last nod to the porcine premise goes to Humphry Slocombe of San Francisco and their Boccalone Prosciutto. And not sure which way to go, they covered all the bases by adding both salt and pepper.

The following flavors are honorable mentions, only because they come from Europe and can not be obtained locally. Cigar Smoked Caramel, combining two after dinner pastimes and perhaps an age limit and required ID, has increased sales by 60% for one establishment. Others have followed a theme with grass, strawberry and hay for Wimbledon. Another nod of creativity goes to parsnip and wasabi, and smoked olive oil and black pepper.

These examples have definitely had their effect on my creative senses and with my little  Cuisinart ice cream maker ever ready to serve, the sky’s  the limit on ingredients. If I ever come up with anything palatable, you can be assured you’ll read about it here first!

Fruit of the Vine

by Chewy

You planted the garden, composted responsibly and spread that fertile gold around the sprouting plants. Now that they have pushed above ground they are open season for squirrels, chipmunks and slugs. Trapping slugs is fun. All you have to do is finish off most of a can of beer and place in the garden. Trapping the rodentia  is pointless. If you don’t take them far enough they find their way home (why they didn‘t use them during the war instead of homing pigeons, I‘ll never know). If you do manage to get visas for them and send them to Canada, their relatives  take advantage of the abandoned quarters. I suggest standing guard with a pea sling shot. It doesn’t kill them, it just reinforces the negative consequences of crossing the line. Kind of like a dog and a rolled up newspaper.

Pest problem solved, you devoutly water and weed, and soon little blossoms and produce appear. Then one day, as you proudly peruse plot, you realize things have gotten out of hand and you are facing massive amounts of ripened yield. Torpedo zucchinis, vines of cucumbers,  bushes of tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapenos and eggplants. What is a gardener to do?  Make dessert of course!

What, you say? These are vegetables! Oh, contraire mi amour, these are FRIUTS.  Being the helpful person that I am, I am sharing the "fruits" of my research to lighten your garden burden.

The first comes from my own kitchen, Zucchini Crisp. This is particularly appropriate for those zucchinis that “get away from you” and attain lethal weapon status. I have never served this dessert and had anyone correctly guess it’s main ingredient. You and your guests will swear you are eating an apple crisp.


The next on the list are cucumbers. When I think of summer cucumbers, my mind wanders to that delicious and refreshing cold cucumber and yogurt soup.  So it comes as no surprise that they make a delicious and refreshing sorbet as well (see Cucumber Sorbet). Yet another opportunity to use my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker (Tired of me fawning over this appliance yet?).

Tomato crops seem to fall into two groups. Those partially eaten by vermin resulting in compost fodder, and those that reproduce like rabbits resulting in bags of them being left anonymously on neighbors doorsteps ( along with that zuke with a glandular problem). What’s needed is a recipe for Sweet Baked Tomatoes. Dried fruits, nuts, spices and honey are used to enhance this red berry (botanically speaking).

When ever I have cultivated jalapenos, they all seem to arrive at once and reproduce immediately after harvesting. The interesting thing about hot peppers is that adding sugar tempers the heat and you end up with an interesting flavor combination with just a little warmth at the end.  I managed to find a recipe that combines a couple of traditional  favorites. Dubbed Jalapeno Happiness Dessert, it’s a jalapeno pepper, stuffed with peanut butter and covered in chocolate. I can not wait to try this!

 Not to be left out are the sweet peppers. Sweet Pepper Upside Down Cake uses the attributes of butter, spices, sugars and cornmeal to make a dense dessert. No heat here, it’s sweet all the way.

Finally, we come to eggplant. It’s purple, my favorite color, so it had to get a mention. A far cry from the parmesan rendition, the Spicy Eggplant Cake delights with nuts, honey, sugar, spices, white and whole wheat flours. Topping it all off is a light cream cheese frosting.

All these recipes can be found on the website under recipes. My hope it that some of these will make it to your table and be enjoyed. I would love to hear any of your experiences and opinions and I promise to get back to you on that Jalapeno Happiness Dessert!

Only the Best

by Chewy

You’ve gone to the grocery store, stuck religiously to your list, brought the coupons you meticulously cut out and avoided all the stores padded for profit items. Much to your surprise, there is a little left over for a treat. Now comes the hard part, what to spend it on. None of us want to buy that item with the exceptionally yummy photo on the packaging, only to get it home, open it up and discover you bought a mutant facsimile that leaves you disappointed and under-satisfied. Thankfully, we have Consumer Reports to aid us in obtaining our “just desserts” .

In July’s issue, they have rated the best frozen treats, and it’s none too early as some of us have been scouting out frozen treats since March! They broke the article down into three sections, taste, nutrition and bottom line. There were a few surprises and some “of course, what else” responses.

Take, for example, the strawberry fruit bars. Whole foods 365 Everyday Value placed an Excellent, the only one to do so. It has a few more calories then the others on the list, but isn’t that where the great flavor is? Actually contains large chunks of fruit! Runners up in the Very Good column included Dryer’s/Edy’s, Whole Fruit and Blue Bell. Coming in third under Good was Weight Watchers and Dole.

When it comes to Ice Cream Bars (dark chocolate over vanilla ice cream) there were no real shockers here. Haagen-Dazs’ and Dove’s strong dairy/vanilla taste and rich chocolate coating, raises them to Excellent status. Although the coating was painted slightly chalky, Julie’s Organic ranked Very Good. Klondike, Magnum and Good Humor ( flavor described as waxy, artificial vanilla, and hint of wooden stick….still if this is your fancy, who am I to judge) arrived at Good.

Ice Cream Sandwiches (vanilla ice cream inside chocolate wafers) was a tough category, no one ranked Excellent. The top of this class, Very Good, goes to Walgreens Old Fashioned (still supporting my jaw over this one). I would have never sought out this brand, but with this knowledge I will definitely put it on the “list”. Trailing behind under Good, we find Klondike, Great Value (Walmart), Blue Bunny, Weight Watchers, Klondike 100 calorie and Skinny Cow.

When it comes to nutrition, no real stunners to consider. Fruit is lower in fat and calories, the dairy items have comparable calories to each other and the “diet” entries didn’t necessarily have fewer calories.

There is a small blurb for non-dairy (think soy, artificial flavoring, corn syrup). Delicious Dairy free Vanilla minis and Tofutti dairy Free Cuties Vanilla sandwiches were summed up tersely as, artificial vanilla flavor, soft and sticky wafers, stale and NOT delicious. This is why I prefer to make my own non-dairy ice cream.

The bottom line seemed a bit simplistic but sensible: choose the ones with an excellent rating.

With this information in hand, I hope it helps to make your summer a little sweeter!

OOPS!

by Chewy

There is no doubt that some accidents have lead to great discoveries and inventions. Everything from Isaac Newton’s apple knocking, to glue that wouldn’t stick post it notes, to burr covered dogs leading to Velcro. Things are the same in the culinary world as well and those “oops!” have lead to some masterpieces. One example, if you are to believe the story, is salt water taffy (Taffy, A Sticky Situation) where the Atlantic Ocean recreated the whole taffy industry.

I also picture a scenario where prior to a dinner party, the hostess places the dessert in the middle of the table as a center piece. Just as she is lighting the candles, her adroit husband, open wine bottle in hand, trips over the dog and splashes some on her dessert. Startled and upset she drops the match and whoosh……flambé is invented. It could have happened.

There are some more reliable mishaps that have ended up being quite the sensation. Take for example the chocolate chip cookie. Did you grow up thinking this came from the Nestle labs, slapping the recipe on every package of their chocolate morsels? The last part is accurate but the recipe comes from a failed baking experiment. Credited to Ruth Graves Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn (has a nice ring to it) in Whitman Mass, the now famous Toll House cookie recipe was really a work of substitution. Legend has it that in 1930, Ruth ran short of baking chocolate and decided to use smashed up pieces from a bar of semi-sweet chocolate. Adding these to her dough, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the chocolate did not melt into the batter as planned. Nestle later acquired the rights to the recipe and became a global giant.

Another misstep occurred in 1905 in San Francisco. Eleven year old Frank Epperson wanted to make soda pop and mixed soda powder with water. Using a stick to stir the concoction, he accidentally left it on the porch overnight. The next day, Frank discovered it had frozen solid with the stick still in it. Fast forward 18 years, Frank decided to market his childhood invention. Meeting with instant success, he patented the idea. Originally dubbed the “Eppsicle”, his children implored and convinced him to rename it “Popsicle”. The original 7 flavors have now grown to 30; the most popular flavor being classic orange.

St. Louis has long taken great pride in our next entry, the ice cream cone. During the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair an ice cream seller ran out of dishes. A nearby Syrian pastry vendor, Ernest Hamwi, rolled his pastry into a cone so the ice cream could be scooped inside. An instant hit, it has competition on originality. Appears and Italian immigrant, Italo Marchiony, had also paired these two items and acquired a patent for it earlier in the year.

photo by becco

Our final entry comes from down under. One hundred years ago, Lord Lamington (governor of Queensland at the time), accidentally dropped a cake in some melted chocolate. It was then decided to cover it with coconut so it wouldn’t look so messy. Thus the Australian Lamington was born, and enjoyed ever since.

The lesson we can take away from these legends is always to keep an open mind. Never fear to cook outside the lines, improvise, substitute and experiment. If mishaps occur, and they will (Kitchen Klutzes Unite), trust your eyes, nose, ears and mouth and smear it, dust it or slather it with an interesting ingredient. Perhaps your gaffe will make the “famous desserts created by mistake” list.

  

Kitchen Klutzes Unite

by Chewy

June 15th, which lands on a Friday this year, just happens to be one of the more colorful and whimsical culinary celebrations. It’s Kitchen Klutzes of America Day. If you’ve ever even been in a kitchen, you must have a story that is worthy of noting on this day.  Even those of us who think we’ve mastered our way around small appliances, a myriad of ingredients and several cooking techniques, have found ourselves slapping the forehead over a “duh” moment.

My latest entry in this department happened only weeks ago. Making my famous brownies (the recipe is in a sealed envelope only to be opened upon my death) for the umpteenth time, I gathered, arranged and started blending ingredients. I was taught to crack eggs into a bowl and then add them to the batter. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is to make sure there is nothing wrong with the egg. The second is for exactly what happened. Using my trusty Oster stand mixer on full power, I cracked the egg and proceeded to drop egg and shell into the batter. The savvy person would have pushed the “stop” button on the machine and picked out the shell. The “klutz” that was actually present tried to fish them out with her fingers while trying to avoid the whirring beaters. This inane maneuver only hastened the shell’s journey into the beaters resulting in shell fragments becoming completely incorporated into the batter.  Brings new meaning to the term “shell shocked”.

photo by ravasolix

Happily, I have plenty of company. Perhaps you know someone who manages to set off the fire alarm during frequent forays into the kitchen (Raise you hand if you’ve done this and notice that mine is up.). Ever set fire to the oven? Does the family know the fire department on a first name basis? Ever confuse sugar with salt, baking powder for baking soda or cinnamon for chili powder? Ever misread the recipe and mentally transpose ingredient amounts ( 1 teaspoon mysteriously becomes 1 cup)?  Ever gotten creative with kitchen utensils and discovered those warning labels are there for a reason? Ever forgotten to turn on the oven and “roasted” a raw turkey for 4 hours? Then hold your head high, this day’s for you.

Here are some delightful real life experiences, either amusing anecdotes or life lessons, to ponder.

This day is for the mom who cut herself in a knife-skills class she was given as a gift so that she’d learn to stop cutting herself in the kitchen.

This day is for the hopeful pumpkin pie maker who tossed a pumpkin down the stairs as a last resort after unsuccessfully trying to slice it with a knife. This falls under “creative utensils” .

This day is for the culinary artiste who made cornbread and couldn’t figure out why it was white instead of yellow. She’d forgotten to put in the cornmeal.

This day is for the person who had a “shattering” experience when she placed the cold casserole dish in the preheated oven. Appears she missed the step where she was to bring it to room temperature first.

My favorite comes from an individual who decided to reheat tortilla chips with his left over Mexican meal. A little soggy,  he deemed the toaster oven as a perfect way to dry them out and restore crunch. Placing the chips in the toaster oven and hitting the toaster button, success was imminent. A minute later, the chips caught fire and flames were pouring out of the oven and up the cabinet. Grabbing the fire extinguisher and pulling the trigger resulted in the discovery that it was empty. Flames are growing, fire alarms are blaring, dogs barking and security people are trying to talk to him through the alarm speaker system. Now what? He couldn’t use water on a plugged in appliance and he couldn’t reach the plug for the flames. Grabbing a bag of flour and dumping finally put the fire out. All evidence was covered up with a brand new toaster oven, a thorough scrub down of kitchen and repainting of cabinet. I counted 17 lessons we can learn from this account.
So what is the best way to celebrate this day? Select your favorite restaurant, make a reservation and stay OUT of the kitchen!

  

Avocado in My Kitchen. Ole!

by chewy

Returning once again to the kitchen as promised, La Confectionista (LC) and I were enthused to start our new venture. Our mission: Avocado Ice Cream. I can see by the look on your face that you are not completely sold on the whole avocado idea. Not to worry, our compelling reasons for using this item will win you over. One thing to consider is that the avocado is actually a fruit. Additionally, the fat content adds a great deal of creaminess and that delightful “whole” feeling in the mouth. That is why this recipe requires NO dairy products and is perfect for the lactose intolerant or those with allergies to milk. Finally, a green dessert just looks refreshing.

A relatively simple recipe, I still can’t help but put my fingerprint on it and change a few things. I will provide my version based on the outcome. First, we gathered all the ingredients. Well, we gathered my assigned ingredients. LC was in charge of RIPE avocados and wouldn’t you know it, when she went shopping the day before, they had one ripe and 3 rocks with pebbly jackets on doing a good imitation of an avocado. Bringing them home, she tried all the tricks to ripen overnight. I think she should have brought in children to scare them. As a parent I can attest to the fact that nothing ages you faster than when your children do something that scares you (usually death defying). The bag of limes she purchased mysteriously remained at her house. But I don’t like to point fingers!

The day before, I placed  the bowl for the Cuisinart Ice Cream maker ( Have I mentioned how much I love this machine?) in the freezer. I then placed water and sugar in a pan and boiled for 10 minutes, making a simple syrup. After removing from the heat I added the lime juice, let cool, then covered and placed in the refrigerator.

The next day, LC arrived with the avocados (sans limes) .We proceeded to peel and de-pit them and place them in a food processor to cream.  Ripe one was perfect, three hard rocks, not so much. We used 4 different  methods to try and pulverize these puppies but all we ended up with was avocado gravel. LC, responsible person that she is, headed off for the grocery store in search of a soft avocado. And a lime. Mission accomplished, the creaming of the avocados proceeded flawlessly. The avocado and previously made syrup were combined and the secret ingredient added…..Tequila! (The fact that our first documented recipe also contained alcohol does not constitute a running theme. But it could.) Having compiled all ingredients, that looked eerily like green slime, the concoction was then placed in the refrigerator for one hour.

The time had now arrived and the frozen bowl and green goop went from fridge to machine. Anticipation was high as we watched the swirling green mixture start taking on a frostier look. Approximately 30 minutes later, we determined it was time. LC got to lick the paddle and as she leaned over the sink, I began hearing "yummy" sounds of pure pleasure. Placing a spoonful in my mouth, I resorted to the same “mmmmmmmm” noises. There are not enough superlatives to describe how delicious this is!!! A quote from The Counte, “I can’t stop eating this, it’s so goooooood!”.

The consistency from the bowl was comparable to a soft serve custard. After placing in the freezer for awhile, it became a little firmer but still remained quite pliable. I attribute this to the alcohol and fat content of the avocados. All in all, an acceptable and pleasing texture that has a nice glossy finish. Since it contains no dairy, it is technically a sorbet, but don’t let that fool you as it has all the creaminess of the dairy-ized  version.

Avocado Ice Cream Recipe

It should be noted that all photographs that accompany this are to be credited to La Confectionista and her “fancy” phone. Constant reminders from The Counte ensured thorough documentation!

No Sweat Desserts

by Chewy

photo by Tombre

Why do we like to bake in the fall and winter? Because heating up the kitchen is a plus during these seasons. Not so much in the summer when the mercury is hovering at 90 and above. Those of us who love the heat (La Confectionista) are too busy with outdoor activities to be bothered with creating confections. Those of us who don’t (Chewy) are too busy trying to figure out whether to hibernate in a meat locker or just have blocks of ice delivered to the house to recline upon. In the basement. With a TV and a remote control. Neither of these activities mean forgoing dessert. In fact, while most of the world packs on the pounds during winter, I tend to do it in the summer. In the basement. With a TV and a remote control.

I started thinking about the sweets that can be made without turning on the oven and was surprised at all the options. The first, and most obvious, is ice cream. I am a big fan of Cuisinart’s ice cream maker (not a paid spokesperson)  and have had much success with simple recipes. After placing all the ingredients in the frozen “pot”, you can be eating ice cream in as little as twenty minutes. This does take a little forethought as you need to freeze the container for 24 hours. What this fuels is anticipation and makes it all that much sweeter when you finally get to delve in.

There is a wonderful website (yes, I will share) that is partially devoted to the non-baked dessert. With recipes like Popcorn Cake, Raspberry Cheese Cake, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte Cake, there is no shortage of the yum factor and no straining of the air conditioner. You can find these and others at Recipes 4 Cakes. 

Plenty of choices to last you all summer.

Why this has never occurred to me before makes me question my whole IQ level. Where do we go to cook in the summer so we don’t heat up the kitchen? Out on the patio sits our ersatz oven, the BBQ grill. Many of us have tried grilled fruit, either skewered on a kabob or sliced and directly placed on the grill. The heat really brings out the sweet and caramelizes the natural sugar. Fancier fare is available in the form of Baked Alaska and Cherry Chocolate and Bailey’s Irish Cream Cherry Pie.  While I am sure I could find BBQ dessert recipes from women, I found it interesting that the majority of recipes I found came from men. Apparently an outdoor grill brings out a man’s inner dessert meister as well.

  Cherry Chocolate and Bailey’s Irish Cream Cherry Pie 

Not to be overlooked is the Directory of Delish on this website. Feel free to roam around, select you genre and enjoy at your selected establishment. While you’re there, would you ask if they deliver to basements?