The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 42 trips to carry that many people.
A few weekends ago, Katie and Kelsey came to visit our new city – Chapel Hill. Hopefully, they enjoyed visiting a college town and hanging out with a few over-worked and happy-to-be-not-doing-homework MBA students. We had perfect fall weather so it was a delight to wander around UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus, Franklin Street and Duke Gardens. Come back soon, y’all!
Even though the cooler weather hasn’t hit North Carolina yet, I’m still in full-on fall mode, especially with cooking. I can’t wait to make the first batches of clam chowder and chili, and dive into all the autumn fruits and vegetables. But for now, I’ve been using my stock of pumpkin puree for everything from pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to pumpkin pancakes, and now pumpkin ice cream.
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Pumpkin Ice Cream
Ingredients:
• 1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 tsp ground clover
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Combine the ingredients and whisk until well blended. Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.
I snatched up some shrimp at the grocery store yesterday without a recipe in mind, so naturally I panicked a bit today when I decided to have shrimp for dinner. I didn’t have a ton of speciality ingredients in the house and I definitely didn’t want to visit the grocery store AGAIN. Luckily, Ina Garten came to the rescue and I adapted her Baked Shrimp Scampi from “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics”.
I didn’t have all the needed ingredients, but the recipe worked out just fine. I substituted the dry white wine for 1/2 tablespoon each of apple cider vinegar and water; I omitted the lemon zest and used bottled lemon juice; I used onions instead of shallots and dry herbs instead of fresh. Also, I cut the recipe in half.
_ _ _
Baked Shrimp Scampi
Ingredients
• 2 pounds shrimp in the shell
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp dry white wine
• Kosher salt; freshly ground pepper
• 12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 tsp minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 3 tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1 tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 extra-large egg yolk
• 2/3 cup panko (breadcrumbs, crumbled crackers or even cornflakes would also work)
Directions
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Peel, devein and butterfly shrimp, leaving the tails on. Place the shrimp in a mixing bowl with the olive oil, wine, 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper, and gently toss. Set aside while you make the garlic-butter mixture.
• Mash the butter with the garlic, shallot, parsley, rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, egg yolk, panko, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper until combined.
• Starting from the outer edge of a 14-inch oval gratin dish, arrange the shrimp in a single layer cut side down with the tails curling up and over the shrimp. Pour the remaining marinade over the shrimp. Spread the butter mixture evenly over the shrimp. (With the recipe halved, the shrimp didn’t line up neatly in my baking dish, so I simply placed the shrimp in a single layer, or tried to at least, in the dish and covered them with the garlic-butter mixture. Next time, I’ll take the tails off before hand.)
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until hot and bubbly. For a browned top, place under the broiler for 1 minute.
Two years of loving, living and laughing…
The southern heat definitely makes you crave cooler foods and, of course, desserts, which is the excuse we use for eating so much ice cream (whether store bought or homemade) in the summer. Obviously, this works great for the summer, but we need to figure out an excuse for the excessive amount of ice cream we consume in the winter as well.
For some variety, I’ve been experimenting beyond my to-go ice cream recipe, which is a simple, quick, no-cook, four-ingredient recipe. Let’s face it, I don’t have much patience, so when I want homemade ice cream, I don’t want to have to cook a custard and then let it completely cool in the fridge. I mean who plans ice cream cravings 8 hours in advance?!
Here’s a rundown of my latest adventures in ice cream making and my thoughts on the outcomes.
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Simple Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
1 cup milk (I use skim milk that I always have on hand)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
Mix ingredients and dump into an ice cream maker. Churn following the manufacturer’s instructions (usually about 20 to 25 minutes).
I usually add chopped mini oreos for the last 5 minutes or you can stir any mix-ins in when the churning is done — the ice cream is usually very soft serve after 20 to 25 minutes. Then transfer the ice cream to a freezable air-tight container and let the ice cream firm in the freezer. For strawberry or any fruit ice cream, I’d suggest making about 1 cup of fruit puree to the initial mixture. I slice the fruit then add a little sugar and let the fruit macerate for 10 to 15 minutes to create a syrup. Without the puree the ice cream is basically vanilla ice cream with chunks of frozen fruit, but that’s delicious too. This is a quick recipe and always a winner!
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Paleo Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 can (15 ounces) coconut cream
1 cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar (You definitely could use honey or another natural sweetener)
Mix together and churn according to your ice cream maker instructions.
Again, I was too lazy to cook and cool an ice cream mixture, and I wasn’t thrilled about having raw eggs in the ice cream so I modified my regular recipe by simply substituting the diary products with coconut products. I also added a strawberry puree. Final verdict? The ice cream mixture definitely didn’t freeze and churn like it does with diary products but after churning for about 30 minutes, without increasing in volume, I put the ice cream in the freezer and it eventually firmed. Kevin seemed to enjoy it, as the ice cream disappeared in a couple days.
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Chocolate Low-Fat Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 pint (2 cups) light whipping cream
1 cup skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 semi-sweet Ghirardelli baking bar (or chocolate chips, milk chocolate, etc)
2 tsp cocoa powder
Chop the chocolate. Whisk and heat diary products, sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder and chocolate over medium-high heat occasionally stirring until chocolate is thoroughly melted. Let the mixture completely cool in fridge then churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Also, if you didn’t want to melt chocolate, I think about 1 cup of chocolate syrup would work fine if mixed into the original ice cream mixture.
I really wanted to make a chocolate ice cream and I had been wanting to see how light cream would would work in the recipe so why not combined the two unknowns, right? Well, I may not have let mixture cool enough as it didn’t freeze well in the ice cream maker or maybe the light cream doesn’t freeze as fast as heavy cream. However, it definitely firmed in the freezer and was delicious. The texture is much lighter (like hard-churned frozen yogurt). The only complaint was that the ice cream was very cold and I’m not sure why. You definitely had to savor each bite so you didn’t get a brain freeze.
As for cooking and cooling the mixture, I’m planning to try that method with the other recipes to see if you can tell a difference in texture, freezing time and flavor.
My first attempt at using spaghetti squash was a delicious surprise (even for a die-hard pasta lover like me)!
Just chop the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and bake, cut side down in 1/2 inch of water at 375 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes. Then use a fork to pull the meat out of the squash – it shreds into noodles.
I used my squash as a spaghetti noodle substitute, serving the squash with turkey meat sauce, and it was a major hit.
I won’t lie – the first couple bites are confusing because the squash looks so
much like pasta, but ultimately the dish tasted like a lighter version of a traditional pasta meal with a little crunch from the squash.
Yay, for discovering a new Paleo meal to add to the rotation!
Whew! Today has been long, but very productive in the kitchen. We started out with Carolina Blue banana pancakes to celebrate classes officially starting tomorrow. (Gel food coloring is my new favorite, great colors without watering down the mixes)
Then, my student requested homemade lunches so he doesn’t have to eat at the KFBS cafe every day. So I found a couple recipes to make ahead and divide up. They’re veggie heavy so hopefully he’ll stay full and happy during the long hours of studying and learning. Now, everything is cooked, cooled and stored — we have about 10 lunches in the fridge and freezer ready to go!
Chicken Fajitas (originally from PaleoDietLifestyle.com)
Paleo Shepherd’s Pie (with whipped cauliflower instead of potatoes)
Since we’ve been in Chapel Hill, we’ve had the amazing opportunity to explore so many different cultures and cuisines — and it’s all been delicious! But I’ve definitely been missing some Low Country food, which I remedied tonight by whipping up some Shrimp & Grits to remind me of home. I used one of Bobby Flay’s recipes, but there’s so many varieties!
We’re settling into the groove of home dinners again – hooray! Last night, we revisited an old favorite – Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches. And, it’s still a hit!
Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches* (makes 4 sandwiches)
Ingredients
In a small bowl, combine mayo, basil, garlic and lemon juice. Set aside. Preheat grill and brush onion, bell pepper and zucchini with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill onion and peppers for 10 to 12 minutes, turning once, or until vegetables are tender. Grill zucchini for 6 to 8 minutes until tender. Spread 4 slices of bread with hummus. Top each slice with one onion slice separated into rings, 2 bell pepper slices, 2 zucchini slices and 2 tomato slices. Spread remaining 4 bread slices with prepared mayo mixture and top sandwiches. Cut in half & enjoy!
*recipe from The Sugar Solution Cookbook
It’s been one week in our new town, Chapel Hill, and we’re loving it. All the boxes are unpacked and most decorations are out and on the walls, except for a couple paintings that are being framed. Hopefully, I’ll start getting some pictures online soon (we just got Internet on Friday)!
Today we ventured to the Chapel Hill Farmers Market and the Durham Farmers Market, played and relaxed in our pool, napped, and skipped over to Carrboro for dinner at Acme, which was amazing (and much cheaper than Atlanta prices). Kevin had wahoo fish over rice with shitake mushrooms, heirloom cherry tomatoes, bacon and spinach. It was delicious – very fresh and bright, perfect for a summer evening. I got grilled pork, which was served with a basil butter, tomato chutney and cornbread. Again, super fresh and delicious. To quote Kevin, “it was like eating a summer day”.
Now we’re closing out the night with a little baseball watching – GO RED SOX!
