Mint Chocolate Andes Icecream Delight

Another one of my favorite kitchen machines: my ice cream maker. If you are on the fence about getting one, DO IT. It is so easy and makes delicious ice cream in about 25 minutes, no weird ingredients like dry ice or salt peter or whatever the heck you add in other ice cream makers.

I followed a recipe for a mint chocolate ice cream and added chopped up Andes mint chocolate candies. It's a perfect Christmas ice-cream!

Winter Penguin Paradise, in Cream Cheese

What do you get when you mix some black olives, carrots, and cream cheese?

Why, a idyllic Winter Penguin Paradise, that's what.

Yes, I seem to have too much time on my hands. But they are cute, and my husband convinced me that the idea wasn't "super lame". So I decided to try out a new appetizer, and, surprisingly enough, they came out just how they were supposed to!

First: Feet and beaks out of carrots. I found it worked best to slice the little beak-parts in half before you stuff their little penguin heads so that the olives hold them better.

Next: the olives.

I used "Super Colossal", "Colossal", and "Small". I whipped a pkg. of cream cheese in my Mr. Mixy Kitchen Aid mix master with a fiesta ranch dressing mix packet, put the cheese in a plastic baggie, and snipped off the end. To ready the olive bodies, hole side down, I cut out a little slice of olive (not going all the way through to the top). Then I piped the cheese into the olive, very easy. I don't know why I didn't take pictures of all this. Apparently I don't think my readers understand what a black olive looks like, but can't offer my wisdom when it comes to piping cheese into little bird bodies.

Roasted red pepper (from a jar) sliced into thin strips will become little scarves.

A Place to March: Tasty constructs a penguin habitat.

This was literally $2 and a lot of fun to make. I bought a thin piece of Styrofoam from Jo-Ann's (12"X36") and two pieces of 12"X12" pretty printed scrapbooking paper. The paper already had the winter scene in the background, and I just glued each piece onto Styrofoam and cut the "wall" and "floor" out and glued them together. Then I used the remaining 12"X12" piece to create the icebergs and for a couple of stand-up pieces. I dug out some stickers I had from years ago and used foam to make a sign on the "wall", a snowman, and a little red bird pop into 3-D action. I wrapped the plain Styrofoam icebergs in plastic wrap so the food wouldn't get little specks of foam on it.

For the cheese igloo:

I took a pkg. of cream cheese and a packet of fiesta ranch dressing mix and whipped it together. Then I folded in about a cup of cheddar cheese. I then molded into a brick shape and refrigerated for several hours. Then I cut into blocks, googled images of igloos, and then built one out of cheese (the best I could. admittedly, it needs some work on the design).

The finished product:

Super Easy Chocolate Tastycakes

Mixture of dry ingredients in a medium bowl:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Other ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened (1.5 sticks)
3 eggs (room temp. for at least 30 min.)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk

Beat butter, gradually adding sugar. Beat thoroughly.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for about a min. between eggs.

Beat in vanilla.

Alternate adding in the dry mix and the milk.

Bake for about 17 min. at 350F. Delish, and only two bowls to clean.

Gratuitous shot of my beloved Mr. Mixy in action. How I love him so.

Ravioli, Butternut, and Chard Salad

I scored this awesome recipe from Kapowie (Mrs.Kapow) with the instructions to try it as the "resident" board veggie. Thanks to her, I had the opportunity to enjoy the richness of flavor this delish fall recipe provides. SO GOOD.

Okay, so this is how you kids can do it at home:

There are a few steps to get all the ingredients ready for "assembly".

1. Make butternut squash croutons. I just diced the squash small and cooked on low heat w/ some olive oil, salt, and pepper, then cranked up the heat to get kind of a crispy outside. I was pretty liberal w/ the salt and pepper.

2. Make ravioli. I used a frozen butternut squash ravioli. In hindsight, I might have searched a little harder for a different "fall" veggie ravioli because it might have added another flavor step to the recipe instead of more squash. I separated the raviolis on parchment paper so that they wouldn't dry together.

(my ravioli army)

3. Toast hazelnuts. Medium heat and more olive oil. How I love thee, toasted nuts!


4. Caramelize two yellow onions, thinly sliced, in more olive oil and a pinch of salt.

5. Slice your chard into ribbons. They didn't have chard in the grocery store I went to, and nothing very comparable looking, either. I chose some weird chard-y looking veggie called "daikon". I think. That's what she rung it up as, but she could have been clueless as well.

So then comes the assembly of the salad. In a big skillet, use . . . surprise, surprise, more olive oil. Add ravioli, then onions and the chard. Cook over medium heat until chard wilts (I cooked mine for about 6-8 minutes I think, but I didn't know what this "diakon" was gonna do.).

Then add the hazelnuts and about 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Gently fold in the croutons and some lemon zest (alas, I had to omit, for my lemon had gone bad. I'm sure it would have added something to it.).

Remove from heat. Serve garnished w/ chives (I used some green onion; it's what I had) and some more Parmesan cheese.

I was very discouraged w/ this recipe right from the start, just because of all the little parts to make the whole. However, once the prep was done (damnnnn youuuuu, butternut squash), I found that the same pan could be used for doing everything one at a time, and just used a bunch of little bowls. And, I'll just say, it was sooooo worth it. This is a recipe I'd make again, and I'm definitely going to make it for our office holiday "party".

Cookies and Tastycakes

How I love to bake, let me count the ways:

Fun to measure stuff.

Use my favorite kitchen appliance . . . my Kitchen Aide stand mixer.

Warms up the kitchen in the winter and fills the house w/ yummy smells.

Spread the love--I send baked goods home to my parents, bring to family get-togethers, bring to my office to share, send to work with my husband to share with his team.

Baked goods taste so damn good.

So this weekend, I tried my hand at some complicated decorations on cupcakes and baked Walnut and Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip cookies.

Cupcake recipe:

1 box Dunkin Hine's Red Velvet cake mix (yeah, I cheated!)

1 can each of strawberry and milk chocolate frostings

various icings and sprinkles

Cookie recipe:

1/2 cup of shortening (I use butter-flavored Crisco)

1/2 cup butter (softened)

beat for 30 seconds, then add

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

mix until combine, then add

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

then add slowly

2 1/2 cups flour

This time I added about 1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and a bag of peanut butter and chocolate chips (ooh, they sell them combined now!).

Easy Cheesy Breakfast

Some olive oil in a pan, add some minced garlic and an onion, and 3 large potatoes compulsively diced to within exact specifications. Low-and slow cook w/ lid for a bit, then turned to medium and browned them a little.

Simply fried eggs with cheddar cheese on top. Salt and freshly ground pepper. I love breakfast (even at 2:30 pm, which is when we ate it today)!

Veggie Stew

It's snowing outside today, and the only remedy is a steamy bowl of chunky veggie stew. I put a rutabega in mine, and it gives the whole stew a really robust flavor. The taste is pretty powerful, so make sure you enjoy rutabega first!

This is a crockpot dish, and I prefer all my food cooked on high for half the time as opposed to low. It just always seems to turn out better for me for some reason. I cooked this stew for about 4 hours and 45 minutes (my crock is HUGE, and I filled it up) and the veggies were absolutely perfect.

Ingredients:

Beans: I used one can dark red kidneys and white kidneys, but I've made it w/ black beans, garbanzos, whatever. (2 15 oz. cans)

Diced tomatoes (undrained) w/ the garlic, basil, and oregano in it (2 15 oz. cans)

Hunts tomato sauce (1 8 oz. can)

Can of green chilis for fun (mostly drained)--I had never used them before, but I think it really added something to the stew.

Frozen green beans and corn--about a half bag of each

Generous 2 tblsp of Steak Sauce (I just dump some in, so this is approximate)

Freshly chopped vegetables:

Onion (used three)

Carrot (used a bunch of baby carrots, cut in half)

Celery (4-5 stalks, peeled)

Rutabega (just one. trust me.)

Potato (5 big ones)

Now, do your stuff, Mr. Crock P. Ott!

I can not overstate the wonderfulness of the crock pot liners. I've heard some anti-liner gals protest that they're afraid the food would taste different--believe me, it doesn't. It just makes clean-up supah dupah easy.

I just eat my veggie stew w/ some freshly ground pepper on top, but I'll cover my husband's bowl in cheddar cheese and some sour cream. You can jazz it up all you like! Enjoy.