Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream

My family and I went to the beach last weekend so I missed out on the brown sugar vanilla ice cream that was chosen by Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More. I was kind of hoping to fit it in before we left but laundry and packing got in the way... I was kind of bummed I missed out on making it because I rarely use my ice cream maker and I love vanilla ice cream, so I am doing double duty for SMS this week.

The last time I made a custard ice cream, I was not quite sure how thick the custard was supposed to be. I was also using an electronic meat thermometer my husband got for the grill so I wasn't confident in the temperature reading I was getting. I wound up overheating the mixture and ended up with a curdled mess. I tried throwing it in the blender to see if it would come back together, but it just wasn't as creamy as it should have been. So I was much more cautious this time around.

The custard was super easy to make. I love recipes like this because they don't require you to temper the eggs. With my trusty meat thermometer in hand, I successfully heated the custard to 182 degrees (I should really get an instant read thermometer). After chilling overnight, I churned the ice cream Sunday morning and was it ever delicious. Super creamy and a nice vanilla flavor... I even got my three year old to eat a piece of chicken by bribing her with an ice cream cone!

Thanks Karen for picking such a great recipe! I was happy for an excuse to use my ice cream maker. You can check out the recipe on her blog.

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake with Cornmeal Crumble Crust

This week's recipe for Sweet Melissa Sundays was chosen by Eliana of A Chica Bakes. I have to admit there are several recipes in the book that I am a little wary of, but I always end up loving them. While I love cheesecake, the idea of a cornmeal crust didn't sound very appealing.

Aside from being a little time consuming, the recipe is relatively easy to make. I really like the addition of the lemon zest/juice. I am generally not a huge fan of flavored cheesecakes, but the lemon was very subtle. I knew I was going to at least like the cheesecake part when I tasted the batter- so creamy!

I brought the cheesecake over to my parents' house last night and everyone loved it. Very creamy and not dry or gummy as some recipes can turn out to be. My dad kind of had a funny look on his face when he took the first bite and then he asked what the crust was made of. Oh no... I told him it was cornmeal and he said that was what he thought. But surprise, surprise, he loved it! He thought the traditional graham cracker crust would have overpowered the lemon, which I tend to agree with. My husband on the other hand, said he really liked it, but prefers the traditional crust. The only thing I had an issue with was the blueberry sauce. It was a little runnier than what I expected but still delicious.

Thanks Eliana for picking an awesome recipe this week! If you would like the recipe, you can find it on her blog.

Seafood Chowder

We went to the beach this past weekend and my husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law caught a few crabs. I guess no one felt like picking at the crabs when there were three pounds of shrimp and a hundred steamers to munch on so I needed to find a recipe to use them up. There were a few shrimp left as well, so I decided to make a seafood chowder (despite the warm weather).

This recipe, or rather the inspiration for this recipe, came to me from my mother-in-law who owns a daycare center. They had put together a cookbook one year and one of the mother's submitted this delicious soup. The original recipe was a little too rich for me so I have dumbed it down quite a bit. I am all for splurging once in a while, but a quart of cream, a quart of half and half, and a stick of butter was more than even I could take! The recipe comes together very easily. My mother-in-law likes to serve it in bread bowls when she has the time to make them. I prefer to just get a crusty loaf of bread as I am not a huge fan of the bread bowl...

This may be a little runnier than most people make their chowder (the original recipe does use flour as a thickener), but I prefer it this way. If I have it on hand, I will add a fresh firm white fish as well.

2 T Butter

2 T Olive Oil

1 Medium Onion Chopped

2 Stalks Celery Chopped

2 Cups Heavy Cream

2 Cups Whole Milk

2 Cups Chicken Broth

1/2 Cup Dry White Wine

1 lb Crab Meat

1 lb Cooked Shrimp

2 Cups Corn

1/2 t White Pepper

Salt to Taste

2 t Old Bay Seasoning (optional)

In a large stock pot, sautee the onion and celery in the butter and olive oil until tender. Add the remaining ingredients and slowly cook over very low heat until it just comes to a simmer (do not boil).

Lemony Ice Cream Pie

My mom had pointed out this recipe when we were thumbing through a Southern Living cookbook looking for a chocolate cake recipe. It looked really good and seemed like a simple dessert to throw together. Since we were having family over for dinner on Sunday, I decided to give it a go.

First of all, I have to say I think this is the easiest dessert recipe I have ever made. You litterally mix a can of frozen lemonade (I used yellow lemonade) into a quart of softened vanilla ice cream, pour it over a graham cracker crust, and you are done. I was not quite sure the best way to mix the lemonade with the ice cream, so I tired using my blender. While it worked out fine, I think next time I will either use the whisk attachment on my stand mixer or use a hand blender. I think the ice cream was a little thick for the blender and I kept having to push it down with a spoon. Of course, I dropped the spoon into the blender while it was on, but luckily no damage was done!

I ended up serving the pie with fresh blueberries we had picked over the weekend and a blueberry sauce I threw together real quick. It was really delicious and very refreshing. This recipe is a definite repeat for the summer months. I also like the versatility of the recipe- you could serve on its own or pair it the blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.

I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as my family did!

Lemony Ice Cream Pie

Southern Living Annual Recipes 2006

1 Quart Vanilla Ice Cream

4 oz. Frozen Lemonade Concentrate

1 Graham Cracker Crust

Mix softened frozen lemonade concentrate into softened vanilla ice cream. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust. Freeze until firm.

A couple notes...

• I used 1 1/2 quarts vanilla ice cream and 6 oz. frozen lemonade concentrate for a nine inch pie.


• While a blender can be used, it is probably easiest to mix using a stand mixer or hand blender.


• For the graham cracker crust, I used 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, 6 T butter, and 1/2 cup sugar, and poured into a 9 inch springform pan. Press down on the crumbs to set.

Double Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies

So I'm a little late posting for Sweet Melissa Sundays this week. We had a very busy weekend and then I had to go out of town for business on Monday and Tuesday. I did actually make the cookies over the weekend, but had to give up the memory card in my camera to my three year old. My husband snagged the memory card in her V-Tech camera my mom gave her for Christmas and she really wanted to use it over the weekend, so I gave her mine. How different things are these days- my three year old has her very own digital camera!

In any case... This week's recipe was chosen by Megan of My Baking Adventures. I was somewhat skeptical about the recipe this week because I don't generally like cookies made from a chocolate dough. But I knew the people at my work would eat them if my family and I did not. I was pleasantly surprised by them. I only had regular cocoa powder, so I am not sure how much that affected the flavor. To me, they seemed to have just the right amount of chocolate flavor (not too bitter) and I loved the chunks of cherry in them. Per the suggestion of other SMS bakers, I did cut the cherries in half and doubled the amount I put in the dough. 1/3 Cup just didn't seem like enough.

They got really good reviews at dinner on Sunday evening. My sister-in-law, who is four months pregnant, seemed really excited by them when I set them out on the table after dinner. But who isn't excited by chocolate when you are hormonal!

One last comment about these cookies and similar recipes in the book. The recipe calls for the dough to be chilled twice. First you chill in the bowl, then scrape out of the bowl, shape into a log, wrap in plastic, and then chill again. I have found it a little easier to just shape into a log immediately and chill. I divide the dough in half, kind of squish it on the plastic into something that resembles a log, roll the plastic wrap around it, and then shape into a uniform log shape with my hands when it is wrapped in the plastic. I found it kind of difficult to get the dough out of the bowl after it was chilled the first time and this method also cuts down on the amount of time it needs to be chilled.

Thanks Megan for picking such a wonderful recipe! You can check out the recipe on her blog.

Ratatouille

Finally, proof that I can do something other than bake! I find it challenging to post meals because of the time it takes to get a nice picture. And since I have had kids, I insist on my food being really hot when I go to eat it. Probably because I have eaten so many cold meals after trying to make everyone else happy!

This recipe, really more of a throw together for me, is one of my summer favorites. It is especially helpful when you have more squash than you know what to do with in your garden. We don't have any ready in our garden yet, but I picked some up at the grocery store last weekend and had an extra tomato that needed to be used up. Its incredible easy to throw together and really packed with flavor if you are using fresh vegetables. I normally chop up about two zuchini, two yellow squash, two tomatoes, an onion, and a couple of cloves of garlic. I sautee everything in a little olive oil and then season it with a little salt, some fresh ground pepper, and a handful of chopped basil. I know the traditional version is supposed to have peppers in it as well, but I prefer to leave them out.

The "stew" is great as is, but sometimes I will heat up a chicken sausage to eat with it. I absolutely love the sausages from Trader Joe's- one of my favorites is the sun dried tomato variety. Then all you need is a nice piece of crusty bread and you are ready to go!

Sometimes I think ratatouille is a bit underrated- it is really delicious, healthy, and super easy to prepare. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Pecan Crescents

A couple weeks ago, my husband's aunt asked me to make what I think are pecan puffs or Mexican wedding cookies in a crescent shape for her daughter's baby shower. At first I thought she was talking about miniature pecan tarts (I've heard them called tassies before), but then she kept talking about how they are in the shape of a crescent. A light bulb went on and my suspicions were confirmed when she said they were covered in powdered sugar.

I had made them before a long time ago- I think I was actually in middle school or high school at the time. We had a Mexican cookbook and I was curious what Mexican wedding cookies were, so I made them for Christmas.

I wanted to make them over the weekend and knew I wasn't going to see my parents, so I found another recipe in a cookie cookbook I have barely used (I really have to start using more of my cookbooks!). It called for hazelnuts but I thought pecans could easily be substituted. It said to grind them so they could fit through a strainer, which is making them a little finer then I recall having done before, but it suited me fine because I have yet to purchase a food processor and my only option was to use my Magic Bullet. It saved me quite a bit of chopping!

The recipe is super simple and turned out great. The cookies are really delicate tasting and almost melt in your mouth. I kind of like them for the fact that they are not super sweet and have a nice buttery flavor. My three year old loved them without the powdered sugar on top, but her eyes got really big when I started to sprinkle the powdered sugar over them. She had split the first cookie with me, and she ate all her lunch, so I let her taste some of the finished product too...

I hope you enjoy the recipe!

1/2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 T Water
1 t Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Finely Ground Pecans
Confectioners Sugar for Dusting

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift the flour and salt into a small bowl.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in the water and vanilla. Gently stir in the flour until just combined and then mix in the ground nuts.

Shape about a tablespoonful of dough into a crescent and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a light golden brown.

Remove from the baking sheet and let cool completely. Dust with confectioners sugar.