Screaming for the cream, ICE CREAM!

Summer is here, well it's here in theory. In Seattle it's sill raining and we haven't seen the sun in some time. It did reach about 70 degrees, which felt down right hot. So now that "summer" is here I'm going to start experimenting with ice cream recipes. I have a cuisinart ice cream maker. The ice cream is always good and it's really easy. I mean the basic vanilla is 1 cup milk, 2 cups heavy cream, 3/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp of vanilla, stir it all in a bowl and pour into machine and 30 minutes or less later you have ice cream. I have made an epic chocolate and a chocolate peanut butter.
Now it is time to experiment with non dairy. As with anything that taste great it's not always great for you. So tonight I searched the internet for some non dairy options and came across one using coconut milk as the base so I gave it a go. It follows the same recipe as the basic vanilla. 2 cups coconut milk (not lite) 1 cup soy or nut milk, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon vanilla.
I will have to say for the first outing it was pretty good. Not great but good. It was creamyish and smooth. Had a nice coconut taste. I'm going to keep experimenting with different non dairy options and see what works the best.

Scraps

There are times when you are cooking three meals a day and you start to hit a wall. After looking at cookbooks, blogs and trying to figure out what the next great meal will be, I start to burn out. Going to the store a few times a week to a few times a day to get one to two different items will make you want to stop cooking and eat cereal ( I have done that a few times). When I hit the wall I take stock of what we have and try and put a meal together. Most the time the "Wife" is the one that comes up with an idea and I just expand on it. 

This is a very 'go to' dish when we don't know what to have for dinner and we haven't shopped in a while. This dish consists of:

1/2 pound of ground turkey (optional)
1/2 package of mushrooms
1 cup of baby carrots sliced
1/2 onion chopped
2 cups chopped kale (you can use spinach too)
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of tomato paste (optional. I use it if I have it.)
dash of red pepper flakes
half package of spaghetti (any pasta will work, I have also used quinoa)

Cook pasta, drain.

Saute the onion and carrot until tender. Add the meat and cook until brown. Then the mushrooms, garlic, tomato paste, pepper flakes. When mushrooms have cooked for a few minutes add the kale. Once the kale has wilted or shrunk add the pasta and still until combined.

Enjoy with some fresh pepper and parmigiana cheese (or any cheese of your choice.)

Breakfasts: 

Lots of the same colors but very different tastes and textures. 

This is a sampling of some recent morning menus. Better start getting more colorful with this, the most important meal of the day. These were all scoring high in the yum dept. though.

Still getting the hang of the new Espresso machine.
Morning lattes are big, bold and awesome.

Soy chorizo, cheese and eggs wrapped in wheat and flax tortillas. 

Pumpkin Oatmeal - topping was apples and nuts.

Almond, Orange, Blueberry Pancakes.
Another Joy The Baker recipe.
Big thumbs up. Super tasty.

Kale egg scramble and Belgian blueberry spelt waffles.

Irish Soda bread - just had to do it for St. Patrick's Day.
Very cool and easy in the iron skillet.

Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes - needed to use up the pumpkin.
These are so light and fluffy, thanks to whipped egg whites. 

Inspired Indian

Namaste! The Mrs. took a class with DanaTreat, local blogger + cook extraordinaire. Indian Vegetarian - with emphasis on Southern Indian dishes. A dinner for 4 had to be made. Here's what came next:

Found this photo online and it shows a small sampling of some of the 

most often used spices. Turmeric and saffron, cloves and cardamom, 

all very important to this cuisine. All pack a punch, even just the smallest amounts.

It's really all in the prep. Here we have some garlic, the curry leaves (thanks Dana),

potatoes and ginger. There is an onion waiting in the wings. It will be chopped too. 

The frozen peas and cinnamon sticks were such cool additions to the rice dish.

As were the cashews. It was probably the biggest hit of the night.

Bay leaves, the nuts and a spice assortment really added a rustic

flair to this delicious Basmati rice side dish. 

Chutney (prepared by sister-in-law), naan (Trader Joes), 2 potato vindaloo, curry rice and turmeric chicken (also sis-in-law's making).

Plus some plain yogurt to cool down your palette. Oh yes, there was some spice happening.

The minty-cilantro chutney was good for that too. Definitely a very balanced flavor event going on.

Plating the food, trying to get one more picture before we devoured it all. 

We actually had some leftovers (see below) for the next night, but very little. We are looking forward to using up the spices in different recipes in the coming weeks. 
Thanks again to Danatreat for the inspiration & for the curry leaves & just being awesome. 


Here are some links if anyone wants to try these dishes: Two Potato Vindaloo and Turmeric Garlic Chicken (this is close to what was made). I can post or email the other recipes too.


Everything came out amazing! My main advice about cooking Indian food is: prep, prep, prep. Most the recipes have a lot of ingredients and it helps to have everything measured and cut and chopped.  


Here's what the next night's dinner of leftovers plate looked like, not bad! 

Tempting Tempeh

Guest contributor/collaborator/wife/aka the Mrs. is responsible for the following post.
Take it away:

Sometimes, while wandering around the grocery store, random things will end up in the basket, with no pre-planned menu ideas whatsoever. Occasionally, tempeh is one of these items. On it's own, it doesn't look particularly appetizing.  This time we thought it needed some livening up and this Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh recipe from 101cookbooks.com  seemed really appealing so why not give it a try? Plain quinoa and some roasted green beans (from thekindlife.com-one of our faves) are also on this last minute menu.  Let's get to chopping and prepping now.....see how easy my hubby makes it seem? He is an excellent chopper!

Chopping the garlic for the glaze on the tempeh.
Fresh squeezed oranges really added the flavor punch to this dish.

Here's the glaze - fresh with citrus and garlic and ginger.
We didn't have cilantro or cloves, so they were omitted. 

Roasted green beans were a nice side dish.
We used Trader Joe's frozen beans.

Sizzling, naked tempeh.

Presto! And just like that, it is a beautiful  orange-y brown.
The crispy factor makes all the difference and it smells so good.

Plated, on to a bed of quinoa.
Healthy and relatively quick.


Here are links to the Tempeh and Green Beans recipes.
We would definitely make these dishes again.  

Mom's Mac and Cheese

Here is my mom's mac and cheese recipe. I call it my mom's as she is the only one I remember making it. Although I found out that it's my great great grandmother's recipe. They were farm folks and I guess this was a staple. As it was cheap , easy and filling.

This is a little different then most mac and cheese. I refer to it as a dry mac and cheese. you can make as much or as little as you want and there is no real recipe or measurements. You can use any style macaroni and any type of cheese. The recipe I'm posting is what my mom made.

What you need:

Cheddar cheese (a lot)

Elbow macaroni (a pound)

Butter (at least a stick)

Saltine crackers (Sleeve)

13X9 pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook elbow macaroni and drain. Shred or slice cheese.

Butter the bottom of the pan then do a layer of macaroni, some pats of of butter, then a layer of cheese and repeat to you reach the top of the pan.

Now crush the crackers by hand until you have covered the whole pan. Add a little more butter to the top and throw into the oven.

Bake until the bubbly and the butter is melted and you have a nice golden brown top. Roughly about 20 minutes. Although it's not gooey like most, I still love this recipe. It's simple and you can vary it to your liking. I have made smaller batches and mixed cheeses. If you have any version of the 4 ingredients you can make it.

Enjoy

Not Mar-a-Lago Turkey Burger

This recipes comes after seeing Oprah's favorite Turkey Burger. After I looked at the recipe I made my version and WOW, crazy delicious!


Recipe:
1/2 Pound Ground Turkey
1/2 Green Apple Diced
1tblsp Chutney (I use Trader Joes Apple Cranberry)
1tblsp Salsa (I feel this could be optional)
1 to 2 Green onion (depends on size of green onion)
1 tsp Olive olive
6 Saltine Crackers crushed (whatever crackers you have on hand will do)
Pepper


Mix it all together and form patties. This recipes makes 2 good size patties. When the patties are cooking don't worry about how brown they are getting. The sugars in the apple, onion and chutney are carmelizing.


I have made them with all white ground turkey and a mix of white and dark. The white and dark mix comes out so moist. Use can use whatever you want, they still come out amazing.


ENJOY!