Summer Favorites

So as the days get longer and the temperature goes up so does the desire to put delicious frosty things in our mouths. I have always been a fan of ice cream, but now i love it even more than ever. I also am a big fan of the popsicle. It isn't even a matter of reliving youth or any other sort of mumbo jumbo. I JUST LIKE THEM! Mata loves popsciles or any other frozen variation of flavored water ten time more than i do!

I picked up a copy of Vegan Soul Food at the library after fiddling around for new books and cookbooks to read. The recipes look tasty enough for me to buy the book if i find it cheap enough or check it out again when i need to add some variation to the daily food grind. The one tibit that i did keep from the book was the watermelon juice and popsicle ideas. I have some inexpensive molds from target that make mediocre pops, but i found a better set last week to try again. The watermelon juice is incredibly refreshing albeit very very sweet and goes well with vodka. I think that's what i'll do tommorrow while i hide out at home from the storm, juice my baby watermelon.

I bought an ice cream machine about 4 years ago when my spending habits were pretty poor and i had no regard for my credit card balance i found a cheap one at target at the end of the summer and bought it with the intention of one day making ice cream in my inexpensive maker. That time finally came! I recently started to take free cooking classes at williams sonoma and somehow got the inspiration i needed to do it myself. I had all the basic ingredients..milk, egg, cream, fruit, sugar, it just took me a few weeks to finally get past the right stack in the garage. I finally found it last friday and last friday night was the test run. I had some easy to use mixes and rock salt. Wendy contributed the ice, milk, electricity and willing test tastebuds. If you've ever used an old school machine you know how insanely loud the process can be. The canister may be spinning, but its at a slow speed which i interpret as really loud motor speed. Along with the spinning its scrapping ice and rock salt as the slowly melt and shift. The whole process really builds up to the finished product which is worth the effort. The ice cream was gone that night with the help of three more test subjects.

Saturday my mom did not come down for our usual misadventures since i'd spent my friday off at her house. I had also done major damage at the anniversary sale of a particular department store. i decided to venture to target to get some rock salt and the summer stuff was 75% off....that was enough reason to get a gel canister ice cream maker. That made it easier to make mango ice cream with the mangos Wendy gave me....The Joy of Cooking told me to puree my mango and mix it with sugar, vanilla and lemon juice and put it in the fridge to let the sugar dissolve. In the meantime i mixed cream, milk and sugar and dissolved the sugar. I mixed the two mixtures together, tossed them in the little ice cream maker and less than an hour later i had a very tasty summer treat. I made more last night, on the large scale...up next..Lychee sorbet!

Smokey Mac and Cheese!

I was craving mac and cheese last weekend and i decided that Wendy was going to partake. I happened to be at whole foods so i picked up some cream cheese and gorgonzola. I boiled my pasta, in this case it was ziti. I then chopped up some roasted garlic i found at wf and tossed that into a baking dish with the pasta and cream cheese. I then crumbled the gorgonzola and mixed it up again. i then added some freshly grated parmesano reggiano and mixed again. on top i put some more of the other cheese and a little bit of bread crumbs and tossed it in the oven. I took a shot of my homemade cherry vodka and dug in. I didn't plan on the smoky flavor but it made it amazing! No artificial smoke required!

No i haven't forgetten about you mister blog...

So it's been a hectic couple of weeks since the move. I have been cooking but with the shortage of employees on the evil island where i earn the money that feeds me i have been unable to sneak in time for blogging...

My most important culinary endeavor over the past few weeks though was to finally make JoAnn her birthday basket. By the time i was done her empty containers went back with kale and sweet potato enchiladas and cajun red beans. The birthday basket was loaded with rosemary infused olive oil, chocolate bread, banana waffles, watermelon juice, and strawberry fruit leather. I also plan on making some more goodies. most of the goodies i made spoil easy so i guess its good i'm giving a few later on to keep the delicious going. The chocolate bread came out of a thirfted bread machine book, the olive oil is pretty straight forward and the watermelon juice is just puree in blender and strain out pulp. I normally used to use the Whole Foods Whole Wheat waffle mix when i make my waffles but i was still motivated to make them myself without the powdered buttermilk. I used a recipe from the joy of cooking for the waffles and put too much baking powder and had to doctor a bit with milk, flour and sugar. The ones that i kept taste like french toast. I always add to my waffle mix banana and walnuts to make them extra tasty. The strawberry fruit leather gave me a chance to test out my new handy dandy $4 food dehydrator from goodwill. I pureed the strawberries in the blender and added a touch of lemon and sugar and laid the puree on some saran wrap on the trays for almost 16 hours for a tasty snack.

I made the sweet potato and kale enchiladas again, some cauliflower that i boiled and then baked with a beachamel sauce that i melted in parmesan and smoked gruyere and some bread crumbs on top. I also marinated sauteed portabellas in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. I also steamed green beans and tossed them in my rosemary olive oil and sauteed yellow zucchini summer squash with oil and onion.