Ice Cream and Sorbet

We have gotten in the habit of making homemade icecream a couple times a month and have come up with some pretty good stuff. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy eating it so instead I will put up some pics of the people that helped make and or eat it! Poor Dave is probably getting really tired of hauling ice cream back and forth the 35 steps from his house since our freezer is too full to put it in!

Strawberry Ice Cream

4 cups strawberries sliced or pureed in blender/food processor

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 quart half and half

1 cup lemon juice

Mix all ingredients together and put in ice cream maker. It tastes amazing...strawberry with a hint of lemon, yum!

Pineapple Sorbet

1 pineapple

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tsp vanilla

Cook sugar and water in pan until sugar is dissolved. Cut up pinapple and puree with sugar water and vanilla. Chill in fridge for four hours and then put in ice cream maker.

Make Strawberry Mango Sorbet by substituting 1 pound of strawberries and 3 mangoes for the pineapple.

Rice Krispie Treats

Everyone always raves about my rice krispie treats...the secret people is extra marshmallows! No one wants crunchy, dried out treats, they want gooey, chewy ones! They work really well to bribe my friend Nick...

Rice Krispie Treats

6 cups rice krispies

1/4 cup margarine

16 ounce bag of marshmallows

Melt butter and marshmallows together...just till melted, stir periodically. If you cook them too long they will go hard once they cool. Dump in the rice krispies and mix till everything is nicely coated. Put in a 9X13 pan, grease your hand and press them down lightly, dont smash them!

Mix-ins are also fun...reeses pieces, m&ms, and the newest discovery Oreos! They were incredible...I think I am going to go eat one of them right now...

Avocado Cilantro Hummus

A couple of weeks ago a bunch of friends came with me to stay in my boss's condo in St. George.

We were at Costco buying all of the food for the weekend and there was some company there selling all types of hummus. We sampled the Avocado Cilantro and it was so yummy! So I decided to recreate it.

I attempted to make homemade pita bread to go along with the humus. They looked like big fluffy pillows and sounded so easy on the blog that I found them. Mine never "puffed" so we had flat breads instead. One of these days I will try them again and put the recipe up. Even though the pitas were less than perfect the hummus was pretty darn good!

Avocado Cilantro Hummus

1 can garbanzo beans (drain and reserve the liquid)

4 T lemon juice

4 T olive oil

1 tsp salt (I like salt and added a lot more than this)

1 avocado

1 bunch of cilantro

Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender with some of the reserve liquid. Blend, adding more liquid until it reaches the consistency you want. I probably used three-fourths of the liquid. Eat on pita bread or with pita or corn chips.

Its really tasty, low-fat and has some good protein!

Thai Chicken Pizza

I am a slacker, I know...but after sitting at work for 8 hours a day staring at a computer the last thing I want to do when I get home is get on the computer and update my blog. But I going to do better, well try to do better, I promise!

The other day I told Jill that I was craving two random things, Thai food and pizza, and she told me I could have both! I have never had this kind of pizza but it was incredible...really incredible!! You have to try it!

Thai Chicken Pizza

Pizza Dough:

1 cup warm water

1 T honey

2 tsp yeast

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 T olive oil

Pizza Sauce: (double the sauce, it will make pizza even better!)

3 1/2 T peanut butter

3 T rice vinegar

2 T soy sauce

1 T minced fresh ginger

2 tsp honey

Pizza topping:

1 chicken breast cooked and sliced or shredded

1 tsp salt

4 green onions, sliced

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese (I used a lot more!)

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts

Directions:

1. Pour warm water into small bowl; stir in honey until dissolved. Add the yeast, stirring until dissolved. Let stand till creamy, about ten minutes

2. In large bowl combine flour and salt. Add yeast mixture and olive oil; stir well to combine. When dough has pulled together dump out onto lightly floured surface and knead in more flour till dough is no longer sticky. Put in a large greased bowl, cover and let raise until doubled, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

4. Punch down risen dough on a floured surface. Roll dough out onto large cookie sheet or pizza pan.

5. To make pizza sauce combine all ingredients and stir until smooth.

6. Spread sauce over crust and then sprinkle with all of the ingredients. Top with mozzarella cheese.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned.

8. Enjoy!!

New Year's Resolution Cookies

We have TONS of candy in our house from the holidays, I am not kidding you, it is tons! My roommate Jill and I decided last Sunday that we wanted to make cookies because on Monday we had to start eating better...so instead of chocolate chips we cut up a bunch of different kinds of candy bars and threw them in. They were a huge hit with everyone! Sadly though, we still have a ton of candy. I forgot to grab the recipe so I will put that on later but for now here are a few pictures to make your mouth water!

Died And Gone To Heaven...

I decided I didn't really want to catch up and put recipes on for all of the pics in the last post...maybe some day I will. But I found this INCREDIBLE recipe the other day for Pumpkin Waffles. I thought they sounded slightly weird but decided I would try them. I used to be scared of a lot of food when I was a child but now I am always up for trying new things...such as sushi. Was forced to try it a couple of years ago, loved it and now crave it all the time! Thanks Ben :) Anyway, back to the waffles. They are amazing, both of my roommates loved them, even the one that is incredibly picky. They are probably good with regular syrup but I made them with Rick's Buttermilk Syrup and honestly you will think you have died and gone to heaven. So don't be scared, try them!

Pumpkin Waffles

2 1/2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat and half all-purpose)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

1 tsp giner

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups buttermilk (or in a measuring cup put 2 T lemon juice and then fill with milk to reach 2 cups)

1 cup pumpkin puree

6 T oil

4 eggs, seperated

Sift together flour, sugar, spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. Combine buttermilk and pumpkin. Stir in canola oil and egg yolks. In a large glass or metal bowl, beat egg whites with a hand mixer or beater until you have stiff peaks (when you lift the beaters out of the bowl the whites stay pointy in peaks). Stir dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture till just combined. Fold in egg whites. Cook waffles in waffle iron.

Rick's Buttermilk Syrup

1 cube butter (use butter, not margarine)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Put all ingredients in pan and bring to a boil. When boiling add in 1 tsp baking soda and stir well. Let boil for another minute and then enjoy!

P.S. When making the syrup use a pan much bigger than you think you will need because when the baking soda is added it foams up a ton! And yes I learned this the hard way when I had to clean syrup up that went everywhere but in the pan!

Of things to come...

I have been reprimanded by some friends (you know who you are KJ and Alyssa) that it has been too long since I put something on here. I am at work and therefore do not have any recipes with me but here are a few pics of some things I will stick on. Sorry but this is all you are going to get for now! In case you haven't noticed....I really like to bake sweets!!