This week's treat- Frozen Hot Chocolate

I went to NYC last year (before the whole job loss, moving in with the in law's thing!). Anyway while I was there, with a wonderful girlfriend, we decided to check out Serendipity! We just HAD to try the frozen hot chocolate! It was good, HUGE and nice. Even better? Totally able to make at home! I just made a batch of my homemade Hot Chocolate and then put it in the fridge. Once it was cool I threw it into my ice cream maker. Since it doesn't have cream in the hot Chocolate it doesn't cream up, instead it crystallizes a bit. Anyway, I made a batch tonight! It totally hit the spot. This way I can enjoy my favorite beverage even in the middle of winter! Whatever you don't finish just put it back in the refrigerator (it get's too hard in the freezer) and you can either reheat it for hot chocolate, or refreeze another time.

Hot Cocoa
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup hot water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix cocoa, sugar, water and salt in a saucepan. Over medium heat, stir constantly until mixture boils. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Stir in the milk and heat, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla; blend well. Serve immediately.

Iron Chef- Bacon and Chocoalate

Tonight was another Iron Chef. The secret ingredient was Bacon (prosciutto or panchetta was also allowed) but since Bacon isn't a great dessert item they (last month winners) choose Chocolate as well. I made my Penne Rustica (it has smoked prosciutto in it).

It's been one of our family favorites for years now. I made one HUGE mistake. I made enough for the kids to have for their dinner as well. So I mixed it all up and served them just before we left, but then the pasta sat in the sauce for over half an hour before everyone else got some and most of the creamy sauce was absorbed. If I had only mixed a bit for the kids and waited to mix the rest until right before there would have been more sauce and I think it would have gone over better.

There was a bacon dip, a chicken stuffed with bacon, bacon wrapped asparagus, bacon rice (two different dishes), salad with bacon and then chocolate pie, mud pie, cream puffs, my BEST EVER chocolate Ice Cream as well as an eclair dish that I forgot to get a picture of!

The winner was a bacon pasta dish that was VERY similar to mine, but had a lot more sauce left... GRRRRR I think I might have had it but for that one mistake!

Since we're moving next month this was our last one to attend. I'm sad, and totally going to miss it. So wherever we end up moving I'm totally going to start one! I've LOVED it! Thanks everyone, I can't wait to get the cookbook at the end of the year!

Iron Chef- Risotto (or other specialty cheese)

Tonight was our 2nd Iron chef dinner party. Since I won last month I was in charge of picking the secret ingredient. I picked Ricotta cheese, but our leader was worried it would be too difficult for everyone so we added the option to choose any specialty cheeses (we were trying to avoid the normal cheddar, mozzarella, etc that people use all the time).
I lost my photoshop when I got my new computer and haven't been able to upgrade to the version that will work on my new vista 64 bit yet. So I apologize that the pictures don't look as nice and as appetizing as they should. I've been putting off posting hoping to get the upgrade, but finally I'm just going to start posting...
The winner was the Polla Rosa. Chicken stuffed with a cheese filling and topped with onions and mushrooms. I enjoyed it and will try it myself, but without the mushrooms (maybe on one for my husband, but I'm not a fungus fan). I also have a recipe I wanted to make, but ran out of time, for ricotta stuffed pork chops.

Here are the others that were there. Ricotta Ice Cream (mine), nuetutella with Raspberry chili sauce and crackers, spinach manicotti, key lime pie, feta dip with chips and 4 cheese calzone.
I also made a ricotta risotto. The picture is extremely unappetizing. But the flavor was great. I didn't have risotto rice and used my Japanese rice. It wasn't quite right, but worth buying the right rice to try it again. I wish it had been just a little bit... runnier? (not quite the right word, but juicier doesn't work either) I think the correct rice will fix that problem though. I'll let you know next time I try it.

Cheesecake on a cone

A few months ago, while visiting my sister, she introduce me to this amazing Cheesecake Ice Cream recipe~ I fell in LOVE. It is a bit lighter than cheesecake, but definatly has the distictive flavor. It was wonderful. In fact her husband, my sister and myself ate an entire batch in one sitting! So for my birthday she got me The Ultimate Ice Cream book she got it from. I immediately came home and made a double batch! I didn't even share with my kids, It was wonderful!
From "The Ultimate Ice Cream Book" by Bruce Weinstein

Cheesecake Ice Cream
1 C sugar
4 oz cream cheese softened
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
½ C milk
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 ½ C cream
3 graham crackers crumbled (or nilla wafers)
Beat sugar and cheese together until smooth, beat in the egg and vanilla. Bring milk to boil, beat into the cheese mixture. Pour mixture back into sauce pan and heat until custard thickens. Stir in zest and cream, refrigerate until cold.
Pour the chilled custard into an ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer's instructions until frozen. Add crackers the last 3-5 mins. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve.

I used Nilla wafers crushed instead of graham crackers, and a bit less lemon zest (it was a bit too strong for me the first time). The book has a few more variations I havn't tried yet, but I'm looking forward to it! Enjoy.

On the First Day of Chrismas

I made Peppermint Candy Cane Ice Cream! Happy first Day of Christmas!

CCHHOOCCOOLLAATTEE!!!!

So my friend at Duff ABC's was visiting last week and we had a wonderful time skimming through the Daring Bakers monthly challenges. We considered asking them if we could join but decided that we'd want to repeat some of the recipes, but wouldn't want to do some of them. SO we decided to do something similar ourselves. Not only will it be desserts, but just random things we've been interested in learning. So this month we're starting pretty basic, with some Ice cream we actually made together last week (but I had to remake it tonight for pictures-- DARN). Here is a direct link to My ABC's Ice Cream Post

Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream

1 Cup Whole Milk
2 Cup Heavy Cream
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Cocoa
3 oz. Chocolate (I like DARK)
4 Egg yolks
Pinch of Salt


1. In a sauce pan, whisk together the Milk and Cream with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt until smooth. Whisk together the egg yolks in a small bowl. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Drizzle a little bit of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, stirring to combine, then add the egg yolks in a slow stream back into the milk in the saucepan. Return the pan to the heat and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let boil or it will curdle. Remove the mixture from the heat and immediately stir in the chopped chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is melted and combined.
2. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly, at least 4 hours. Process the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Now my manufacturer claims it only takes 25-30 mins, and usually that's about right, but this one took about 35-40. I'm not sure if maybe I just didn't cool it long enough (I just couldn't wait the 4 hours, but I put it in the BACK of the fridge, where things tend to freeze...), or if it's just so THICK and CREAMY that it needs longer to crystallize (or whatever the reaction is) into Ice Cream. It also didn't fluff up as much and make as big of a batch as my normal recipes. I also normally don't use the "cooked" ice cream recipes, but this one is SO worth it. I just have to remember to give myself more time.

The first time I did it perfect, this time I was making cake and icing and dinner and was a little off and accidentally added the eggs at the beginning instead of boiling first. I can definitely see a difference, but the taste hasn't been compromised. It's much runnier, and the texture is a little on the grainy side. So I'm make SURE I boil first then add the eggs next time.

**Update** So I waited a day and tried it AND it's great, I still liked the first batch better, this one melts faster, but isn't grainy like I expected it to be. And it's great with my Marshmallow frosting!

Thank you to Desert Candy for the recipe and her 21 days of Ice Cream in Aug.