If it’s Tuesday, then I’m baking with Dorie. But… this week, a funny thing happened on the way to TwD…
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie host was Dolores of Chronicles of Culinary Curiosity who selected the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream recipe. I love ice cream… and I love making ice cream at home. Since getting my Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Maker attachment for my stand mixer a couple of months ago I’ve made several different kinds. Vanilla Custard, Mint Chocolate Chip, Strawberry, Bubble Gum, Coffee, Orange Pineapple and even a Lemon Sorbet. So let there be no question as to my love of making home-made ice cream :) I wanted to make the blueberry sour cream ice cream… really, I did. But for a variety of reasons it just wasn’t going to happen.
First problem… I didn’t have blueberries. Trying to be supportive of this week’s TwD recipe, I considered using a different berry since I had a bunch of strawberries from another recipe I just made. I seriously toyed with the idea of strawberry sour-cream ice cream. Then came the second problem… I didn’t have sour-cream. Not only didn’t I have it… I don’t like it… no one in our family likes it and that was a much bigger issue. I thought about just omitting the sour-cream but wasn’t sure how that would work out.
While perusing the net I found a variation on blueberry ice cream… blueberry cheesecake ice cream. Oh do I love cheesecake ice cream…. ohhh-boyyy do I :) :) But I didn’t have fresh blueberries… only strawberries… so in the final analysis that’s how this week I ended up making strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Hey, it’s TwD… sorta ;-)
The recipe I used can be found here and I only made about 1/4th of the recipe since I didn’t want too much of this on hand. Some things are just way too tempting. The result was most excellent and I will definitely make this again!!! It’s smooth and creamy like egg-based custard but without all the time and hassle. My good friend and best-baking-buddy Jamie did her own version of this recipe which you can check out on her blog here. Guess you could say we’re both just a couple of TwD “rebels” this week ;-)
Check out the results of the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crew… they made some great looking Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream!
Have a delicious day :)
Posted in Tuesdays with Dorie, ice cream, recipes | 18 Comments »
Ever since I went to Hawaii in March, I’ve been on a serious pineapple & coconut kick. DH has always always ALWAYS loved pineapple while I’ve thought it to be “fine”. But something happened on vacation and I been eating pineapple like it was goin-out-of-style. Since that time we’ve consumed no less than 3 whole pineapples each week. I’ve found lots of ways to incorporate pineapple in some way in our meals and in my baking… and this coconut cupcake with pineapple cream cheese frosting is simply out of this world!
Recently, my baking buddy Jamie over at My Baking Addiction posted what she believed to be the best cupcakes she’d ever tasted. Well, that’s quite a statement coming from another baker… so of course I had to try these out for myself. She made certain adjustments and then I made certain adjustments but the basic recipe is Ina Garten’s coconut cupcakes. I used no almond extract at all… just coconut extract in the cake batter and fresh pineapple juice (along with freshly cut pineapple pieces) in the icing. The fresh fruit definitely impacts the “set” on the icing… even though it’s still pretty thick, that comes from the fruit chunks, it’s certainly not for piping. But that’s okay, not every icing needs to be piped :) This one would be fantastic as a layer cake filling – in fact I’ll probably try that at some point!
I sent Jamie an email earlier today telling her just how addictive these cupcakes are. They’re fantastic… just fantastic. And personally I think it was all in the pineapple ;-)
Have a delicious day!
Posted in cupcakes, recipes | 4 Comments »
M’mmmm don’t these look good? Yes indeed they do! Not only do they look good, they taste phenomenal and make your whole house smell incredible while they’re baking. What a crazy week this has been. I’ve baked so many different things and I’m totally behind in sharing them… but I’d like to begin correcting that right this instant :) Not many of you know this but Alton Brown is my boyfriend. Yes yes, I know, I’m married. And married women are not supposed to have boyfriends. But Alton Brown is spayshul… I watch his show Good Eats on the Food Network and just go positively mushy over him. He’s entertaining, he’s funny, he’s got some great recipes… and he’s smart as can be.
If you’ve never seen his show, Good Eats, I highly recommend it. I’ve learned so much about the “why” behind food and recipes that I can almost, kinda sorta, maybe, perhaps, sometimes come close to sounding like I know a thing or two when I’m having a food- or cooking-related conversation. And I have my boyfriend to thank for that :) I’ve bought two of Alton’s books as well… they’re both on the right hand sidebar of my blog. He’s not drop-dead gorgeous… but he’s got a little geeky-nerd-boy thing goin on that appeals to me. Hey, what can I say… I graduated from engineering school and during all those years of study I was surrounded by the geeky-nerd-boys. Certainly not all of them do it for me (ever caught an episode of Big Bang Theory on CBS? LOL!!!) but the ones with personality and a great sense of humor usually catch my attention… and that, folks, pretty much describes my boyfriend Alton ;-)
The recipe can be found here and while I won’t lie and tell you they’re quick and easy, I will tell you the results are pretty much worth it… if you’ve got the time. You’ll use up a few bowls and make a bit of a mess in the kitchen… but your friends and family will love you for it -uhm… that is unless you devour them all yourself! LOL. If you’re thinking about serving these for tomorrow morning’s breakfast… get started now. My boyfriend Alton named these OVERNIGHT Cinnamon Rolls for a reason!!!
Have a delicious day :)
Posted in alton brown, breakfast, cinnamon, recipes | 13 Comments »
A couple of weeks ago the Tuesdays With Dorie group made the Summer Fruit Galette. I bought the peaches at Trader Joe’s and while they were significantly more expensive than I’m used to paying, they were among the best tasting peaches I have EVER tasted in my life!!! I’ve been on a serious peach kick ever since. Toward the end of last week I was in my regular market and found myself (surprise?) drawn to the peaches. But the yellow peaches felt hard… and instead I opted for the white peaches which I thought would be a better move. Eating the first one told me these were nothing like the yellow peaches from TJ’s… they lacked sweetness… overall they lacked flavor. So what to do? I didn’t want to make a pie or a cobbler… and I couldn’t think of anything else… but leave it to Dorie to solve the problem for me!
I turned to Dorie’s book Baking From My Home To Yours for inspiration… and once again, Dorie came thru for me. This cake is so versatile… and so very, very good.
In the book, the recipe is for a Cranberry Upside Downer but the side notes indicate how to make it summery by using peaches. Problem solved! I peeled the peaches, sliced them very, very thin with my handy-dandy Kyocera ceramic paring knife (absolutely love love love love LOVE my Kyocera knives – amazingly efficient and comfortable!) and arranged them in a circular fashion atop a layer of melted butter and brown sugar. Made the batter, poured it over the peaches and baked according to the directions. Cooled for just a slight bit and it inverted beautifully on the platter. Topped it with a dollop of freshly whipped cream and a sprig of mint and voila my “what to do with these peaches” dilemma was officially solved thanks to my girl Dorie :)
This really is a great cake… I’m sure it would be fantastic as a traditional pineapple upside downer too. M’mmmm served warm… or cold… it is sooooo good!
Have a delicious day :)
Posted in Dorie Greenspan, cake | 9 Comments »
Come on… who doesn’t like to hear nice things… especially about themselves ;-) I think it’s just human, yanno? As a blogger you start out not entirely sure if what you have to say is enough to sustain consistent posting. As a food blogger you have to tackle that and present interesting recipes and attempt to take decent pictures of your food! LOL! This award is the Arte Y Pico award and it’s for visual images (that’s what I call the “art” contained in my little blog). I received it from Angela at Stressed Out Mum Seeks Inspiration (love that title! LOL) and I’m very flattered by it.
Photography… especially food photography… is something very new for me. I’ve never taken a class… I know next to nothing… and honestly think I just get very lucky on any of my shots that come out “good”. But I love photographing food and it was one of the main drivers in my decision to enter the blogosphere 6 months ago.
I want my blog to present approachable recipes… things pretty much anyone could make with a reasonable amount of success. I’m not a professional… I have no training… I didn’t grow up in the kitchen. I bought a KitchenAid stand mixer last December and it literally transformed my life. Sure, I cook quite often but I bake all the time. That’s my true passion – baked goods! What can I say? LOL! There’s a pastry-chef inside of me that’s continually screaming to escape the confines of my software development real-life ;-)
Food photography excites me in a way that few other things actually do. And I like to put up a lot of pictures of a recipe… not just one shot from one angle. The recent Daring Bakers recipe for July that was posted here was quite a challenge and I ended up taking over 200 shots of all the different steps along the way. Initially it came off as a very complicated recipe that, when deconstructed, was not really that difficult. I wanted to compose a post that showed the process of how it’s done… so those of you who actually come here and read my little blog… would feel like “hey, I could actually DO that”. Okay granted maybe you wouldn’t wanna do it, but you’d feel like you could do it :)
I’m not one who’ll buy you dinner every night… I’d rather teach you to fish so that you can make your own dinner whenever you’re hungry. At work, I’m big on knowledge transfer… I’m not one to selfishly wrap my arms around what I know and scream “Mine! Mine! Mine”… I’m glad to teach someone else how to do anything and everything I know. It makes me happy to see someone that I’ve helped along the way actually go out and achieve on their own. Makes me very happy indeed. So when people read my blog and try some of the recipes or techniques… and email or comment to let me know… it just rocks my world. There’s nothing at all impressive about me or what I do… if I can do something, really, anyone can do it.
I hope all the pictures I put up here on this little blog are helpful to you in some way. Notice I didn’t say “each” of the pictures since I totally realize that not every single one of them is a “great shot” hahahahaha. I could put up more pictures… I could put up less pictures… I could put up no pictures at all. But a food blog needs pictures if you ask me… and I’m really very flattered that Angela thought my food pictures were worthy of the Arte y Pico award – Thanks Angela :)
Have a delicious day!!!
Posted in awards | 4 Comments »
