Peppermint ice cream

 

This is a fun, flavor packed ice cream, and it's a perfect fit for my love of peppermint.  Peppermint bark is the star of this ice cream show.  As a stand alone, peppermint bark is one of my favorite holiday treats, but paired with this subtle flavored peppermint ice cream, it stands on a pedestal all its own.

 

The link to our own peppermint bark can be found in the ingredient list below.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
3 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
Peppermint bark

Directions:

While you can get it already made, peppermint bark is so easy to make yourself, there really is no reason to buy it.

 

Chop bark into coarse chunks.  I generally will add 3/4 to 1 cup of chopped bark to my ice cream, but feel free to add more or less, depending upon your preference.  Once chopped, set aside.

 

In your stand mixer, whip eggs and sugar on high speed until thick and creamy.  Turn off mixer, and add whipping cream, milk and extracts.  On low speed, mix until well blended, about a minute.

Pour mixture into prepared ice cream maker, along with chopped peppermint bark, and continue according to your machine's user's manual.

When ice cream is soft set, transfer to an air tight container, and freeze for several hours, or overnight.

Serve it alone, or with your favorite cookie, cake or other accompaniment.

(If you are concerned about the raw eggs in this recipe, please adapt it to a cooked ice cream base, which you can find in most any homemade ice cream machine recipe book).

Peppermint bark

 

One of my favorite holiday time treats.  For starters, I love the flavor of mint.  Anything mint really works for me, so this is an obvious choice as a favorite.  And I would be lying if I didn't admit that the ease of preparation of this candy didn't play a role in securing its place on the 'favorite list', as well.

This is a terrific kitchen project for youngsters (with supervision for the wee ones).  It packages up nicely for a holiday gift for friends, teachers, co-workers...anyone you'd like to remember.

Ingredients:

12 ounces Baker's white chocolate (or any white chocolate with cocoa butter listed as an ingredient)
1/2 cup crushed starlight mints (or candy canes)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Directions:

Layer a cookie sheet with wax paper, and set aside.

To the bottom of a double boiler, add water, and bring it to a very low simmer.  Affix top over bottom, and add the white chocolate to the top.  Keeping the water at a very low simmer, stir occasionally, until the chocolate is melted.

Remove top of double boiler from the bottom, add crushed mints and peppermint extract, and stir to combine.  Once well incorporated, pour candy onto your wax paper lined cookie sheet, and with a rubber spatula, spread to an even, thin layer.  Set in a very cool spot to set up.  If you have room in your refrigerator, that works well.  If not, any cool spot will work.

When candy is set up, break into roughly 2" pieces.  Store in the refrigerator, until ready to eat/use.  We use this bark in our peppermint ice cream.

Chili sauce

A good sauce for burgers, chicken wings, meatballs, or meatloaf.  Spicy, and slightly sweet.  Make a bunch and can it, or make it as needed:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more, depending upon how spicy you like your chili sauce)
Water

Directions:

In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine all ingredients, but the water.  Stir until sugars dissolve and sauce begins to thicken.  Add water, a little at a time, until sauce has the consistency of slightly runny ketchup.

This sauce is a great partner to canned jellies.  For a spicy and sweet dipping sauce, add 1 cup of chili sauce to 1 cup of your favorite jelly, heat in a saucepan until bubbly.  Serve with grilled chicken wings, meatballs, or any favorite finger food.

(This sauce is similar to Heinz Chili Sauce, and if you don't feel like making your own, by all means, use Heinz.  I prefer to make my own, because I dislike industrially prepared foods, but I also dislike the high prices they often come with).

Cornbread meatballs in a spicy cranberry glaze

I had some ground beef in the freezer, and it has been there for a spell, so decided I needed to get creative, and use it up.  Ground beef is one of my least favorite things to work with.  I always end up doing burgers of some variation, and in the middle of a December cold snap, I'm not really up for grilling outside.

 

My sister suggested meatballs.  Great idea!

I have a stash of Jiffy cornbread muffin mix in the pantry, and that gave me an idea for the meatballs.  I also have several jars of my homemade jellied cranberry sauce in my canned good storage, and that took my idea a little further.  Cornbread meatballs, paired with a spicy cranberry glaze.

As I thought about browning the meatballs, I remembered a pan I'd been given as a gift, a couple of years ago.  It was from my sister.  It's an ebelskiver pan, and it's designed to make those round, lovely pancakes you can find in Danish restaurants.  I thought the pan would make for the perfect browning vessel for my meatballs, and I was right.  Why have I never thought of this before now?

Here they are, waiting to be flipped.

 

And after flipping!  Perfectly browned.

 

I was bound by the size of my pan, but that's fine.  This isn't a size sensitive recipe.  Make 'em large, make 'em small...whatever you wish.

Ingedients:

Meatballs
1 package Jiffy cornbread muffin mix (you will only use half of the yield, so plan to freeze the other half)
1 lb. ground beef (use a fattier ground beef - if it's too lean, the meatballs will be dry)
1/2 a small white onion, chopped
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Spicy cranberry glaze
1 cup jellied cranberries
1 cup chili sauce

Directions:

Make cornbread, according to the package instructions.  Once cooled, divide cornbread in half.  You will only use half the yield, so bag/freeze the other half for later.  Break the remaining half into very small pieces and transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Add ground beef and onion.  Stir to combine, and set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk the egg and milk.  Add the salt and pepper and stir to combine.  Pour over the cornbread mixture, and with your hands, bring mixture together until all ingredients are well distributed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With an ice cream scoop (small or large, whatever you choose), shape meat balls, and set aside.

Heat a large skillet to medium.  Use your ebelskiver pan, if you have one.  Brown meatballs, turning so all sides are browned evenly.  Transfer to a cookie sheet, and bake in the pre-heated oven until cooked through, 10-20 minutes, depending upon size.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the cranberries and chili sauce until a smooth sauce forms, and it begins to thicken.  Toss with meatballs, and serve as you wish.

We used our meatballs to make sandwiches, topped with dressed arugula.

 

Bon appetite!

A little purging

The more and more I cook, the more and more I realize I have a bunch of 'gadgets' I really don't need.  I need good pans, good bowls, good utensils, my two mixers, and a few other random things.

Over the years, as I learned to cook, I thought I needed a bunch of gadgets, and the truth is, I really didn't.  None the less, I marched on, collecting the latest gadgets to hit the market.  A couple of years ago I did a small purge in the kitchen, and sold several items at a garage sale.  It's time for a more thorough purge now.

I want storage space in my kitchen for the things I really need vs. giving up valuable space with things I don't need, and will likely never use again.

What I find most interesting about this process is the realization that great cooking is really far more simple than most folks think, and certainly more simple than I realized, as well...until recently.

Really looking forward to boiling down my kitchen contents to the simple, yet great tools required to prepare the dishes I love.

Three months without you...

Three months without you.

Four words I never imagined I would utter so soon.  I never thought you'd be gone at barely 10 years old.

I think I have said it all: how much I love you, how much I miss you, how desperately I wish I could hold you, hug you, smell you, watch you play, sleep, wag your tail...just everything that made you who you were.

It was a Friday, three months ago, when Dr. Karen said the words I didn't want to hear; "I think it's time".  Bless her, she was, I think, just as broken hearted as we were.  I can still remember, and see in my mind, the moment your chest stopped rising and falling.  I can still hear her words, "his heart has stopped, he's at peace now", and I can remember then, and feel now, that moment of panic, thinking we were past the point of no return.  I couldn't change my mind, and in that moment, I felt a pain in my heart, so deep, so searing, I didn't know what to do.

I laid on the floor, holding you, taking in every thing I could, wanting to remember everything you were.  When we left you, I asked for a blanket.  I covered you up, as if you had drifted off to sleep.  You looked so peaceful, and you passed so peacefully.  There was no fight.  As we walked from the room, I turned, looked back at you, one more time, told you, again, how much I loved you, said 'good night', and turned off the light, closing the door behind me.

I have worked so hard to remember the good, and not the bad, but it is a struggle larger than I imagined.  We laugh when we think of you, and how joyful and silly you were, but the tears always come...the loss floods our hearts, my heart and poppa's heart.

I know, in time, the pain will diminish, but I'm quite certain now, there is no 'getting over' losing you.  There is only learning how to find joy in the memories we have of you, and embrace everything you were.

Poppa says, "I'm going to Heaven.  That is the only way to see my boy again, and I will do everything in my power to get there".  He wakes up, and he lives the best life he knows how, ever faithful in the Lord, embracing every blessing, every challenge, focused on seeing you again.

I often talk to you about how much I loved you, but I forget to tell you how much poppa loved you, too.  He hurts for you as much as I do...he always called you 'his guy', and you were.

'Night, baby.  We love you, and we miss you...always.

Slashing still not right...

Still working on proper bread slashing technique.  Part of my problem might be the tools I'm working with.  I understand I need something called a 'lame', and at present I'm just using a very, very sharp knife.  None the less, the bread is still excellent, so I can't complain, but I'd like to get a grip on proper slashing, so my bread will look as good as it tastes.

 

Today I used more of the dough for some rolls.  Trying not only large loaves, but small ones, and now rolls.  It's so nice to have bread baking in the house, especially in the winter.  It's one of the most 'soul warming' smells I know.