cinnamon marshmallows April 11, 2011

A couple days ago I had a real hankering for marshmallows. I have no idea why, I was also craving Rice Chex so I don’t think there was rhyme or reason to either said cravings. But alas, I am quite broke from paying bills and didn’t want to go to the store just to buy rice chex and marshmallows. So I decided I’d make them from scratch! …not the rice chex, just the marshmallows. Still waiting for the rice chex craving to mellow out.

But what I thought was going to be a simple and quick recipe to make ended up being the craziest disaster day! I almost gave up a few times, but I conquered the mallow madness.

The first thing you want to do is bloom the gelatin. That was simple and easy, no problems there.

First off, I started with a pot that was apparently way too small. I figured since it only filled the saucepan half way, there was plenty of room for boiling. But no, that was not the case at all. About 6 minutes in, the bubbles started going out of control! The hot sugary liquid quickly boiled over the sides and down onto my stovetop. Quickly, I found a larger pot twice the size of the first one and moved everything into there. The boiling subsided and I waited for the liquid to heat up. Once again, it began to boil over. So I whipped out the biggest soup pot in the house, confident that there would be no way this small amount of liquid boiled over. I have no idea why it was boiling so much and feel like it probably wasn’t supposed to be doing that, but I finally had to call it quits and say the temperature is good enough at 235 degrees F (it was supposed to get to 250) and move on to the next step.

At this point, I have become extremely exasperated. As I put the hot mess that I am sure will not form peaks into the mixer, I decide I’ll add cinnamon in case I messed up the liquid by heating it and cooling it so many times while switching pots. I wasn’t sure if anything had burned so I figured I’d just try to cover up any mistakes with the cinnamon. But then, when I meant to put 1 tablespoon in I accidentally dumped about 3 to 4 good tablespoons in! This is the point where I almost gave up. Feeling defeated, I turned the mixer on high for one last attempt at sanity.

I left the mixer running for about 5 minutes when all of a sudden, the marshmallow cream was advancing over the side of the mixing bowl, as if the world needed to tell me that I had yet to meet my messiness quota for the day. I separated it into three portions and started mixing. And to my surprise, it seemed like it was actually doing what it was supposed to and stiffening to medium peaks! I tasted the marshmallow cream, prepared to spit it out due to the mad crazy amount of cinnamon I dropped in the mixture. But it was delicious! Which is a good thing because otherwise my head probably would have exploded.

 

So, needless to say, I recommend starting by either only making half of this recipe or having a very large pot at hand. I’m interested to see if anybody tries this recipe and has the same problems I did with the boiling over.

And because I got so many questions from friends, YES they are just like “real” (ahem, store-bought!) marshmallows, YES you can toast them over a fire and make smores, YES you can put them in your hot cocoa! : )

Cinnamon Marshmallows

1-1/4 oz (5 packets) gelatin, granulated

2 c cold water

1lb 8oz sugar

12 oz light corn syrup

12 oz honey

1 TB vanilla extract

1 to 3 TB cinnamon (depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavor to be)

confectioner’s sugar, for cutting

Bloom the gelatin in 1 cup of the water.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, honey, and rest of the water in a large pot or saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly to ensure that the sugar fully dissolves. Allow to boil without stirring until the temperature reaches between 230 degrees and 252 degrees F.

Allow to cool to 210 degrees F while you remelt the gelatin (you can do this by putting it in the microwave for about 20 to 30 seconds). Stir the vanilla into the gelatin and then stir the gelatin mixture into the syrup. Now add the cinnamon and mixture into your mixer and whip on high speed until medium peaks form.

After lining a sheet pan with parchment paper, spread the marshmallow cream evenly into the sheet pan. Allow to set before cutting, at least 4 hours.

To cut, remove the set marshmallow from the sheet pan, inverting it onto a work surface sprinkled with powdered sugar and peel off the paper. Cut into small squares, dusting with confectioner’s sugar as necessary to keep from sticking.

Enjoy in hot cocoa, s’mores, or by themselves!

Nate’s Tates April 8, 2011

This is Sven, Nate’s gay Swedish alter ego. Sven decided to have Nate try out one of his favorite recipes, fancy potatoes, or as Sven likes to call them “Fancy Tatas”. I think the only reason Sven likes potatoes is so he can say “tates” or “tatas”. Sven wants Nate’s Tatas to be the next big thing, like, you know, like sliced bread or Britney Spears.

Sven likes Britney.

He also likes wine tasting and other cultural things that make him better than you. So that’s why they’re called Nate’s Tates instead of Sven’s Tatas because Sven wouldn’t share his tatas with you anyway.

Anyway, Sven wanted potatoes with dinner but not mashed, because I usually just make mashed potatoes on the side because it’s quick and simple. But Sven told me I needed to branch out a little, pulled out my mandolin, and started making little potato slices shaped like fries. Then he told Nate to fry them up, throw them in the oven with some cheese on them, and let them bake for a bit to make them crunchy on the outside. Nate did all the work and then at dinner Sven totally took all the credit. But such is life, right? No need to bicker over small potatoes.

Nate’s Tates

3 lb russet potatoes

4 to 6 oz of any kind of cheese you’d like to use, grated (Sven suggests trying to be a little fancy and maybe use three cheeses or something like that)

butter for the pan

a mandolin for cutting fries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Peel the potatoes then cut them into fries with the mandolin. In a frying pan, fry them up so they’re nice and golden brown, putting a little butter in the pan to help stop them from sticking too much.

Once they’re cooked through, remove them from the heat and put them in a casserole dish, topping them off with your grated cheese. Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy!

 

Homemade Pizza Faster Than Delivery April 5, 2011

Whenever we order pizza, the guilt inside me grows as we wait for the delivery guy to appear. Suddenly, out of nowhere, knock, knock, knock… oh no! he’s here! Slowly, I open the door. creeeeeaaaaakkkkkkkk. I peer outside. There he is, looking at me menacingly, his hand out, waiting for me to join him in an evil ecstasy of overcharged services and low quality dining. My arm shakes as I reach out, a twenty in hand.

“Keep the change,” I say, trembling from terror, the sweat dripping down my finger as I release the bill into his hand.

He looks down at me, I can barely make out his green, beady eyes amongst his greasy bangs fallen in front of his face.

“Thanks,” he says, slowly turning around and walking toward the street.

Watching him get into his car, I quickly shut the door and lock it. Safe.

Then, suddenly, from out of nowhere… KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. Oh no! I think to myself. Did I not appease him with my tip offering? Did he change his mind and want his pizza back?

After a few moments, I peer out of the window and he is standing there, looking rather irate. I slowly open the door, holding my breath for dear life.

“Yes?” I ask, trying to sound more confident than I really am.

“You forgot your 2 Liter of Pepsi.”

“Thanks,” I say back. We look at each other for a moment, then, suddenly, he REACHES BEHIND HIM AND PULLS OUT A KNIFE AND STABS ME AND STEALS MY PIZZA!!!

No, just kidding on that last part. But I did realize the other day that for the time it takes delivery pizza to get to you and the cost these days, it is actually cheaper and can be faster to make it yourself at home. I guarantee you can make this pizza before your pizza guy can. It’s simple, better for you, and still very tasty. The crust is a simple non-yeast crust, it rises with baking soda, and by adding a sprinkling of oregano to the dough it taste like good old fashioned Italian pizza.

It’s not Delivery, It’s Damn Good Pizza

for the dough:

1 c flour

1 ts baking powder

1/2 ts salt

1/3 c milk

1/8 c olive oil

extra olive oil to pour over the dough

for the sauce:

Seriously, be creative. Have spaghetti the other night and you store leftover sauce separate from noodles? Use that sauce. Have a can of prego? Use that. Went to Olive Garden the other night and got the creamy Alfredo pasta? Use that, noodles and all. Or you can make a sauce by simmering a small can of tomato paste, a can of crushed tomatoes, a bit of oregano, and a bit of olive oil together for about 5 minutes. But this is supposed to be fast and simple, remember? : )

for the toppings:

You can top it with anything you like, really. I had a tomato in the fridge that had no specific destiny, so I used that with black olives, grated havarti, and mushrooms.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put all of the measured ingredients (for the dough, only, for the dough!) into a bowl and stir vigorously until it forms itself into a small bowl. I use my mixer with the dough attachment, but you can mix it by hand, too. Gather the dough together and press it into a ball.

Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out onto it. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to your desired diameter. You can also form this to the inside of sheet pan (or shape it into a heart, if it pleases your fancy). Use the extra olive  oil to brush the top of the pizza dough, then add toppings and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until the dough looks done.

Eat and Enjoy!

ricotta stuffed mushrooms April 4, 2011

life after dinner… who wants to be on clean up duty? : )

On April 1st, Rob and I took on the challenge of going vegetarian for one month with our friends that are trying new things every month as part of their new year’s resolution. I don’t really do the whole new year’s resolution thing but I figured it’d be fun to take on this challenge for one month to come up with new dishes. I had bought some ricotta a couple days ago because it was on sale but had no intentions for it, so I decided to make use of it by coming up with a delicious stuffing for stuffed mushrooms.

For the main course, we had my own rendition of eggplant parmesan. Eggplant parmesan is normally battered and fried but since I had been canning all day, I didn’t want to waste the time or grease to batter and deep fry it, but it was good and sinfully cheesy to make up for it. I first sliced all of the eggplant into 12 round slices. Then I sautéed the eggplants in olive oil, oregano, garlic salt, pepper, and a bit of cayenne, making sure not to overcrowd the pan and putting more olive oil and spices in the pan before adding new eggplant. Once all of the eggplant was cooked, I put the six largest pieces back in the pan with the heat now on the lowest setting, put down a layer of gruyere cheese, then added a second layer of eggplant, and finally topped each eggplant tower off with parmesan and covered the pan to let it all melt together. The eggplant tower was then placed on spaghetti and topped with a creamy rich tomato sauce. It was possibly the cheesiest, richest thing I’ve ever came up with. My goal was to come up with a really rich sauce because I have no idea how you can take a basic tomato sauce and turn it into something wonderfully and sinfully rich, so I gave it a shot and it turned out pretty good! The trick for me was to add some gruyere and heavy cream. It probably would have been outstanding if I had put in the rest of the gorgonzola sauce from dinner last week.

Finally, for dessert, I decided to test out one of my own recipes again and make my blueberry pie. It turned out delicious except that it didn’t set up as well as I remembered. But then I realized that I didn’t simmer the blueberries for 45 minutes, only about 15! So that step is really important, for those of you that end up using my recipe.

The aftermath of dinner is always like somebody started a war in our kitchen. Cleanup for these events generally takes two days. But it’s worth it in the end, of course. And everybody got to take home jam! I still have a lot left though and I need to find means for giving away or trading.

Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms

12 large mushrooms good for stuffing

12 oz of ricotta cheese

1 green pepper, minced

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut off the stems of the mushrooms and discard. Toss the mushrooms in olive oil and arrange on a baking tray lined with either a silpat or parchment paper, gill side up.

Mix all of the ingredients (except the mushrooms, silly). Spoon the ingredients into the mushroom cavities and top with grated parmigiano reggiano.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes and Enjoy!

Jams and Canning 101! April 3, 2011

I’ve been wanting to get into canning and making jams for a while now, and I decided this weekend would be the time to do it. I used to help my parents out whenever they did it and I remembered it being very laborious, so I set aside my entire Saturday to devote to canning and making my first vegetarian dinner. Granted, although there was no meat there was a LOT of cheese, but it’s not like the challenge was being vegan for a month, right?

Getting back to the jams, I chose to make strawberry rhubarb and mango cherry jam and then I had also bought a 4-pack of these cute little wide mouth jars and decided to make cherry almond butter since I had an extra bag of frozen strawberries.

Making the jams is really easy, and actually as far as I know canning was pretty simple, too! As I remembered, though, it was very time consuming. I think I worked on making the jams and canning from about 10am until maybe 3pm. But then again, I didn’t have a pressure canner, and had to make due with a smaller pot that I could only fit 4 jars in at a time.

If you don’t have a pressure canner and want to start canning without spending a small fortune, it’s pretty easy to do. I used  a large soup pot. You can buy a cheap pressure canner for around $20 normally, but at that point the only different between that and a normal large pot it comes with a rack to put the cans on. I didn’t have a rack and decided not to spend an extra $20 because all the rack is doing is lifting the cans from the bottom of the pot so that water can flow around them on all sides. You can gain this effect by simply putting a tea towel or washcloth on the bottom of the pot and place the jars on top of the cloth.

But before you can can (haha), you need to make some jam! I made strawberry rhubarb and mango cherry so I’ll post those recipes below. But the basics in making jam is that you need 8 cups of fruit, 2 packages of pectin, 4 TB lemon juice and 10 CUPS OF SUGAR OMG as a basis for any jam. I had no idea how much sugar it took to make jam! I even had to use some of my reserve vanilla sugar that I make to recycle my vanilla beans! 10 CUPS!!! This yields 12 half pint jars. For the mango cherry, I made a half batch, and filled a dozen 4 oz jars. But you can do whatever you want, that’s the great thing about canning! : )

The most important thing in canning is to make sure everything is very sterile. You also need to keep the jars and lids warm until you are ready to fill them. To kill two birds with one stone, I put the jars in the dishwasher and cleaned them, then left the door closed until I needed the jars and took them out 3 at a time while filling so that the steam from the dishwasher would keep the jars warm. For the lids, you don’t need to worry about the part of the lid that actually screws, just wash those and set them aside. But the seals you can sterilize and keep warm by placing them in a medium saucepan filled with water and bring it to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, you can remove it from the stove and keep a lid on it to keep the seals warm.

The one thing I do recommend that you buy (besides the ball jars, of course) is a small canning kit you can get at most grocery stores for around $6. It normally includes a funnel, a magnet for pulling the seals out of the boiling water, large tongs for handling the jars, and a small spatula to run along the inside of the jar to remove the bubbles.

Fill the canner or your large pot 3/4 full with water. I recommend bringing this to a boil while you are making your jams because it does take a long time to bring that much water to a boil. Once your jam is finished, you can take the jars out of the dishwasher a few at a time, fill them using the funnel, and then clean the rims of the jars with a wet paper towel so that the seal is clean. Place the seal on top and then screw on the lid. You only need to screw it on tightly with your fingers, no need to wrench on it or give it all you’ve got. You can now put the washcloth in your boiling water and push it down with two ladles or anything you have that is not your hands! Don’t worry, I did not make this mistake. Using the large tongs, pick up a jar and put it in the boiling water on top of the cloth. Place as many as you can in the pot without crowding them, you want a good inch between each can and the side of the pot so that water can flow around them evenly.

Put a lid on the pot and bring the water back to a boil. Leave the jars in the pot for approximately 5 minutes after the water has come back to a boil (unless you do have a pressure canner, then follow the instructions that came with it). Then remove the cans and put the next batch in, always waiting to start your countdown until the water has come back to a boil. If the water begins to run low, you can put more water in and bring it back to a boil before loading in the next batch of jars. I only needed to do this once.

Once the jars are ready to come out, place them on a thick wooden cutting block or a few towels to cool. As they cool, you will hear a little pop! when the seal has been made and the top has been pulled down. Once you hear this you know you have been successful! If any of the tops don’t pop, do not push down on the lids as tempting as it is! The ones that don’t pull down by themselves once the jars have cooled did not make a proper seal and you should put them in your refrigerator and use these right away. Hopefully, that won’t be too many jars, though! I luckily didn’t have any that didn’t seal, but you never know what’s going to happen. You should label your jars with the date so you know how long they are good for. If you did make jam, it will probably take a day for the jars to fully cool and the pectin to thicken so plan on enjoying your jam no sooner than the next morning for breakfast. But it’s well worth the wait and the hard work you put into it! Happy canning everybody!

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam (makes 12 half-pint jars)

4 c strawberries, diced small

4 c rhubarb, diced small

2 packages (3-1/2 ounces) fruit pectin

4 TB lemon juice

1/2 ts salt

10 cups of sugar (yes, 10!)

In a large saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the sugar. Cover over high heat until the mixture reaches a full boil. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved, then bring back to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, cook for 1 minute longer, being sure to continue stirring to avoid getting lumps or burning the sugar at the bottom of the pan, and then remove from the heat.  Skim the foam off the top with a ladle or large spoon . Your jam is now ready to can!

Mango Cherry Jam (makes 12 4-oz jars)

2 c frozen mangos, diced small

2 c frozen unsweetened cherries, diced small

1 package fruit pectin

2 TB lemon juice

pinch of salt

5 cups of sugar

In a large saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the sugar. Cover over high heat until the mixture reaches a full boil. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved, then bring back to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, cook for 1 minute longer, being sure to continue stirring to avoid getting lumps or burning the sugar at the bottom of the pan, and then remove from the heat.  Skim the foam off the top with a ladle or large spoon. Can and Enjoy!

basil mustard BBQ rub April 1, 2011

Yesterday was such a fun-filled day! First off, my roommates twin brother in town, and it’s always nice to hang out with more family. His twin looks a lot like him, so even though I’ve only hung out with him twice, it feels like I know him and he’s a really personable guy, too. We grilled out for the occasion, signifying SPRING with BBQ and homemade ice cream. On top of that, my blog post about my ice cream is being featured on food press!! I’m very honored, and definitely inspired to continue writing.

Secondly, my account was also finally accepted for the Daring Bakers website, and it’s a new month, so I can participate in the new challenge! I’m really happy to have an outlet for my random bake-a-thons because I was running out of excuses to make cakes and other delicious baked goods every weekend. Not that you need an excuse, of course, unless your friends are tired of working off the extra calories.

Lastly, on top of all that, our friends are not eating meat all of April and we decided to accept the challenge and do it with them so I’ll be cooking up a lot of new recipes and I’m so excited to share them with you. However, as it was the last day of March yesterday, we had chicken and I made a rub, which I have never done before. Ever since I was a kid I have hated mustard. I’d go to a restaurant and get a “hamburger without mustard” or go to a baseball game and get “ketchup only”. Well last weekend I went with my housemate on a little road trip adventure out to Battle Creek and he made a sandwich smothered in mustard. I was so hungry that I asked for a bite, knowing I probably wouldn’t like it but it would at least make the rumbling subside. Turns out it was delicious!!!! The next day we went out for a double date at Red Robin and I ordered a side of dijon mustard and once again was thrilled by the new tastes I was experiencing. It’s like if you lived your whole life not knowing there was such a thing as air and then one day took a breath! …haha, ok so it’s not all that thrilling, it is just mustard, but still I was happy to find that my adult taste buds have matured and that I do indeed enjoy it now. So anyway, I decided to make a mustard and basil rub because I had a bunch of basil that was about to go bad.

Now I’m not sure if I can really consider this a dry rub. It’s mostly dry ingredients, but then I used fresh basil that I put in the food processor with a little bit of olive oil and some stoneground mustard, so it might not quite fit the dry rub bill. Then again, I don’t know what else you’d call it, so I’m just going to stick with “a rub”. If you have the time to prepare your chicken the night before, I’d recommend doing this to give the spices time to seep into the chicken and really add some flavor to it. I unfortunately didn’t think to do this ahead of time because I didn’t know we were having company, so it wasn’t as flavorful as I desired. But when you make it give yourself a day to let the chicken sit in the rub.

Basil Mustard BBQ Rub

3 TB brown sugar

2 TB paprika

2 ts dry mustard

1/2 ts onion powder

1/2 ts garlic powder

1/2 ts ground bay leaves (I just took one of my bay leaves and crumpled it up into fine pieces)

1/2 to 1-1/2 ts cayenne, depending on how spicy you like things

1/8 ts ground cumin

approximately 1/4 to 1/3 c fresh basil

1 TB olive oil

1 TB stoneground mustard

Put the olive oil, stoneground mustard, and fresh basil into a food processor and blend them together. Put them in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. With a fork, mix them all together well, using the fork to break apart the wet basil mix to fully incorporate it into the rub.

Spread the rub on both sides of the chicken – yes it’s ok to use your fingers!

Let sit for 12 to 24 hours. You can either do this the night before or in the morning before you go to work and either should be enough time to let the flavors deepen and marry to the chicken.

Grill and enjoy!

Blackberry Black Tea Smoothie March 31, 2011

My cat has been longing for some overdue attention so I decided to take the morning off from long blog updates and play with her and give each other baths (it’s mostly her doing the washing for both of us). Since I didn’t have time to make breakfast because I was too busy playing with this adorable kitty, I blended up a quick smoothie.

I had some extra blackberries leftover from my ice cream extravaganza and decided to make my blackberry black tea smoothie this morning for breakfast. Normally in smoothies, I use bananas as a base to give them some body. I don’t believe in using ice but prefer to use frozen fruit so that it has more flavor. Plus I make them in my little Magic Bullet and there frankly isn’t room in there for fruit and ice. So this one uses a lot of frozen raspberries, meaning it’s a bit more expensive to make than the banana ones, but I promise you it’s delicious and worth it!

Another thing I always add to smoothies is bee pollen. Bee pollen has no “scientifically” proven effects, but given that it’s been used for centuries in asian medicines as well as other nutritional supplements, I’m going to bite the bullet and agree that bee pollen couldn’t hurt so you mine as well try it. It’s known to enhance energy, memory, and performance and be chock full of most of your daily vitamins and minerals. A disclaimer, though, be careful if you are allergic to bees! I mean highly allergic, of course, like Anaphylaxis allergic.

Happy to say, I can use a Magic Bullet without blowing up the whole kitchen, so I unfortunately have no funny stories on how this developed. But hey, everybody deserves a break now and then, right? Just blend and enjoy!

Blackberry Blacktea Smoothie (recipe size for 1 smoothie)

1/2 c frozen raspberries

1/4 c vanilla (or plain) yogurt

1/4 c blackberries

Darjeeling tea packet or leaves

1 TB honey

1 TB bee pollen

Steep the Darjeeling in about 1/3 c of boiling water. You’re going to want the tea to be very strong because you’ll basically be watering it down once you add it to the fruits. If you were to taste the tea on its own, you’d want it a little too strong to drink. Once the tea is ready, put it in your Magic Bullet or blender and add the rest of the ingredients. Willowkitty says blend and enjoy!

pâte à bombe ice cream! March 30, 2011

On Saturday I unintentionally figured out how to make great ice cream without an ice cream machine! I don’t know whether it’s technically ice cream or just somewhere in the realm of frozen desserts, but I promise you it is creamy and delicious. Just try it!

Pâte à bombe is the french term for the egg-sugar mixture used as a base for making a mousse. The basic idea is to heat up the sugar with a bit of water until it gets to 121 degrees C, or the hardball stage. Meanwhile, while the sugar is boiling, you beat the eggs in a mixer on high until they become pale, which happens to usually be by the same time the sugar syrup is ready! At this point you’re supposed to immediately pour the sugar into the eggs while they’re beating so that they go from just being pale to this creamy mixture that sort of has the consistency of instant pudding before refrigeration… unless of course you get a nasty sugar burn in the process of taking the sugar off the stove, at which point you stop what you’re doing, ruin the sugar as you attempt to remove what now seems chemically bonded to you, and attempt to leave as much skin behind as you can… at which point you remake the hot sugar syrup, whimpering to yourself and — you get the idea. I’m saying this all from experience of course, so please please please be careful!!! Sugar burns are like the worst! My finger still hurts 3 days later.

But all is fair in love and baking, right?

Marbled Vanilla and Blackberry Ice Cream

vanilla mix:

16 fl oz (1 pint) heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, seeds only

6 oz egg yolks (that’s approximately 7 or 8 yolks, between 5.5 and 6 ounces is ok)

1/2 c sugar

1 fl oz (1/8 cup) water

blackberry or chocolate mix:

(try either one, the blackberry is great and what I have pics for but the chocolate will blow your mind!)

1-1/2 c blackberries or 3 to 5 TB cocoa powder, to taste

16 oz heavy cream

6 oz egg yolks

1/2 c sugar

1 fl oz water

You will probably want to

Preparing the mixes one at a time, whip the 16 oz of cream to medium peaks and then place in refrigerator to reserve.

Make a pâte à bombe by first putting the egg yolks in the mixer with the whisk attachment, turning it on high. The eggs will get to a pale yellow color when they are ready. You can let them continue beating until the sugar mixture is ready, but that shouldn’t be too long after the eggs are ready.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and put on high until it reaches 121 degrees C or 250 degrees F. Once it reaches this stage, quickly (but carefully!) pour the sugar mixture into the mixer and let beat until it comes to room temperature, or until it is just warm to the touch.

Add the vanilla bean seeds and whisk until incorporated.  Fold in the reserved whipping cream. Transfer to a pitcher then refrigerate until you are finished making the other half.

To make the chocolate or blackberry half, you do exactly the same thing and then in the end just add the fruit or chocolate instead of the vanilla bean.

To blend the two together, pour at the same time into a large container to get a marbled effect. Freeze overnight or for 24 hours. You can either pour it into individual containers or make a large vat to serve from. The larger vat, however, will take a little longer to freeze so you’ll have to be more patient! : )

quick update! March 30, 2011

Hey ya’ll! I’m just writing to you to say hey! it’s still me! I’m working on a new look for my blog, please let me know what you think. And check back later tonight for a post on my homemade ice cream, no ice cream machine needed!

homemade gnocchi and creamy gorgonzola sauce March 27, 2011

Yesterday I spent all day making gnocchi, an interesting italian pasta, interesting I say because the dough is actually made from potatoes! Well, potatoes and flour, of course, and truth be told it’s not really defined as pasta. I thought it was pasta the first time I had it but they’re really considered dumplings. I made Gnocchi Piedmontese and a sauce with gorgonzola verdi dolce. I knew that I wanted a rich creamy sauce and decided to go with gorgonzola because I haven’t ever been a fan of blue cheese and really want to acquire a taste for it. So I went to Whole Foods and talked to the guy in the wine and cheese department and told him I wanted gorgonzola but also mentioned that I didn’t want the bitterness of the blue cheese to be too overwhelming. So he suggested gorgonzola verdi dolce, which is creamier, softer, and more buttery. This lends to a less bitter blue cheese, a good way to expose yourself to blue cheese if you are like myself and wishing to acquire a taste for it.

Even though it took all day, I had so much fun making gnocchi! The dough was a bit frustrating, I think I possibly pureed the potatoes too much, if that’s possible, because it was practically impossible to get the dough to become stiff like the recipe stated should happen. This could have also been the result of mixing in the ingredients in my mixer with the dough hook rather than doing it by hand. I’ll have to try again and do some testing but the recipe below should work for you just fine! For a wine pairing, a simple sauvignon blanc will do great. Anything red will be too overpowering and any sweeter white will taste terrible with the gorgonzola sauce.

 

Gnocchi Piedmontese (makes 10 servings)

for the dough:

3 lb russet potatoes

2 TB butter

3 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 lb flour

for cooking:

4 TB butter

1/4 to 1/2 lb parmigiano reggiano – you can buy the amount you want depending on how much you are willing to spend on cheese, sometimes I’ll buy less and if I’m feeling good about my finances I’ll buy a little more

2 TB chopped parsley

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Peel and cut the potatoes into small evenly sized pieces so that they cook at the same rate. Boil the potatoes in a large saucepan until they are tender. Drain the water and place them on cookie sheets, then dry them in the oven until no more steam rises from them. While the potatoes are still hot, puree them through a food mill (this is where I went wrong, I just pureed them with my magic bullet to the point of looking like a creamy milkshake… don’t do that!).

Add the butter, eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and mix until fully incorporated. Continue to mix in the flour until the dough is stiff.

Roll out the dough into long cylinders about 1 inch in diameter. Section into pieces about 2 inches long. Hold a fork on the table with the tines laying flat and roll each gnocchi over the tines, pressing and rolling the dough with your thumb.

Cook the gnocchi in simmering water with either a little salt or olive oil until they rise to the surface. Remove each one as it rises with a slotted spoon.

Heat the 4 TB of butter in a sauté pan until melted, add the gnocchi, and toss until very hot and coated with butter. Turn off the heat and toss with the cheese and parsley. Adjust with salt and pepper to taste. You can serve it just like this or you can make a sauce.

Creamy Gorgonzola Sauce

16 ounces of heavy cream

2 TB butter

8 to 16 ounces of gorgonzola verdi dolce – if you are unsure if you like gorgonzola, 8 ounces is definitely enough to still get a very strong taste that is not so overwhelming to the blue cheese novice. However, if you love gorgonzola with a passion, go for the gold and get a whole 16 ounces. I used 8 myself.

Cut the gorgonzola into smaller pieces so that it melts faster and evenly.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the heavy cream, butter, and gorgonzola. Stir often while the cheese is melting to ensure that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. After about 7 minutes it should thicken slightly and be warm throughout. At this point you can remove it from the heat and serve it over gnocchi or any pasta dish.