Ice Cream Sandwiches

It's been about a month and a half since I started talking about that meal I made for Aaron, but I've finally reached dessert! Yay! And it's really easy! Double yay!

My only note for this is that you shouldn't get distracted by your friend who joined the army and is off far away calling while making the cookies. You might end up with gigantic ones that don't work as well for sandwiches. They were still manageable, but smaller ones would've been nice.

Ice Cream Sandwiches:

Makes 6 gigantic or 12 regular size sandwiches

Sweet Cream Base #1, as first seen here (2 large eggs, ¾ cup sugar, 2 cups heavy or whipping cream, 1 cup milk)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. crushed oreos
Cookie dough recipe, originally seen here (use 2 c. chocolate chips instead of M&M/mini chocolate chip combo)
½ c. crushed oreos

Make sweet cream base and mix in vanilla extract. Make ice cream according to manufacturer's instructions. In the last 3 minutes, add in 1 cup crushed oreos. I went with this ice cream versus the one I made for Aaron's birthday cake because it was much faster.

Freeze ice cream for at least two hours and preferably overnight.

Make cookies. While cookies are cooling, crush oreos and slightly soften ice cream. Smush ice cream between cookies and roll outside edge in crushed oreos. Enjoy the sweet life.

Thai Style Buffalo

I feel like I should post a warning when a new semester starts for me: WARNING! SCHOOL IN SESSION. I MIGHT FORGET I HAVE A BLOG.

It makes me sad too because I love making good food and posting about it. So here we go, back to the middle of last month when I was talking about that fun, three-course meal I made for Aaron. The entree course was Thai-style buffalo. I was going to make them into meatballs, but decided to go with it loose over rice. It as tangy and fun and I really liked it.

Thai Style Buffalo with Rice:

Serves 4

1/2 lb. ground buffalo
Zest and juice of one lime
1 Tb. garlic chili sauce
2 Tb. toasted sesame oil
1 tsp. oyster sauce
1/2 c. rice vinegar
1/2 c. island soyaki
1/2 c. olive oil
1 c. cilantro, chopped
3 cloves garlic, diced
Zest and juice of 1/2 orange
Olive oil
1 c. cooked rice

Mix buffalo with zest and juice of lime and next 8 ingredients in a large bowl. Place in fridge and marinate for about two hours, mixing every 30 minutes.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add buffalo and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice.

It’s tangy and a little spicy and, of course, garlicky, which made it all a very satisfying main course. I’m sure you could marinate it for less time for a quicker mid-week meal.

Goodbye Summer

It's felt like autumn for a couple of weeks now, but today summer is officially over. It's been a good one. Peace out summer, I'm already wearing boots and tights again.

Rosh Hashanah Honey Apple Tart

Shana tova! It's Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Jewish New Year. This is the time when we celebrate the sweetness of life, traditionally through the use of apples and honey. If you search for "apple honey" in Google, the first article that comes up is this one, which explains the importance of apples and honey not only to the New Year, but to the Jewish people in general. Rosh Hashanah signifies the beginning of the High Holy Days, which deal heavily on repentance, ending with Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur involves fasting, so I won't have any recipes for that unless I come up with an awesome breaking the fast meal for this year.

But Rosh Hashanah does involve food and some of my favorites! Apples and honey are an amazing combination and I thought that making a tart would be a great way to celebrate. It's simple because of the use of galette dough and delicious because it's apples and honey. I think everyone will love it, even on non holidays.

Rosh Hashanah Honey Apple Tart:

Makes one 12" tart

1 full recipe galette dough
4 apples, Braeburn or Fuji, peeled, cored, and sliced very thin
½ c. plus 3 Tb. honey, divided
3 Tb. unsalted butter, melted
2 Tb. flour
2 Tb. cinnamon
1 Tb. allspice
½ tsp. lemon juice
2 Tb. lavender infused honey (optional. I get it at the Farmer's Market)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter until slightly browned. I do this because I really like the nutty flavor of browned butter and it combines very well with apples. Mix butter with ½ cup of honey. Stir in with apples. Mix in lemon juice, spices, and flour.

Press chilled dough into tart pan and fill with apple mixture. Place on middle rack of oven and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Drizzle additional honey over entire tart, serve, and enjoy the sweetness of a new year!

The galette dough is perfect for this as it comes together so quickly and is always perfectly flaky. If you choose to use the lavender honey, it is a perfect complement to the other spices in the tart. By slicing the apples so thin, the apple to honey ratio per bite is increased and you really taste the combination with each bite. I hope you all have a happy, healthy, sweet New Year, whether you're Jewish or not.

Things I Love Thursday: Sept. 2, 2010

New Potatoes by Mike

It's National Potato Month!: How did I not know this was a real thing? From my bio and many, many, many, many (there could probably be a few more manys, but I'll stop now) blog posts, you all know how much I love potatoes. I will be finding a number of ways to celebrate this month and probably increase the number of manys when it comes to blog posts and potatoes.

Lady Gaga Cookies: These might be even better than the Lady Gaga Cupcakes I mentioned in my first Things I Love Thursday post. The one for Bad Romance is my favorite, but probably because I love the heck out of that song.

Chisum and Me (circa 2004)

How to Make a Grass Pot for Cats: I should definitely do this because of the few times I've had a plant in the house, Chisum has decided that he wants to eat it. All of it. Plus, he's a hungry guy, so a little extra good for him food might make him a happier kitty. Look at him! He loves eating and sometimes he loves me.

A Bit More Button for Toasters: This happens to me all the time - I make toast and I think I've picked the perfect level of desired toasty-ness and what happens? It's undertoasted. So I put it back in and then I overtoast it. A bit more button, like the one on this toaster, is just what I need. I love that of all the technology developments going on right now, someone decided that this was something that needed to be worked on right away. Dear developer, I salute you.

Fish and Chips by foodorfoot

Album Tacos: Music? Good. Tacos? Extra good. Put them together? Awesome! I really think musicians should think more about how amazing tacos are and just put the tacos on their album covers to begin with. This is an incredible idea.

Street Food in Germany - Döner Kebap: Serious Eats knows good food and doner kebaps are one of the greatest things ever to exist. I already talk about food carts all the time on this blog, but before I even started this wonderful thing, I was already obsessed with street food. In Germany and in fact, much of Western Europe, döner stands are everywhere and everyone who runs them are among the most friendly people I have ever met. Aaron and I went to the same one twice while in Paris and the man behind the counter introduced himself to us through broken English, asked our names, and told us he would see us again tomorrow, all while giving us delicious, delicious food. These stands often have falafel too, so you know I'm happy. If you haven't had a döner kebap sandwich yet, try to get one. They are so, so worth the search.

Benessere Olive Oils and Balsamic Vinegars: I'm planning a field trip here with Kirsten because we both love a tasty olive oil and balsamic should be on almost everything. It's what got Aaron to eat salad!

Birdy Juice by Mats Ottdal (of Jeksel)

It's 90210 Day!: Sept. 2, 2010 or 9/02/10 is the day to get involved in some cheesetastic drama with all of your wealthy friends. Make sure not to get slapped! Celebrate by eating peach pie or diner food. It's once in a millennium people! We have to celebrate!

I'm also loving: Promising my famous cookies to Lindsay and knowing how excited she is, even though she's only typing that to me; ginger ice cream from Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream; peaches from the farmer's market that taste so good, they should be illegal; "Ar-gu-la. It's a veg-e-ta-ble."; talking canning with my mom; when Aaron opens the front door and gets excited because it smells awesome because I've been baking; ridiculously delicious garlic bread from Wild Abandon (plus their patio is amazing!); the anticipation of delicious food at a fabulous farm wedding; my backyard and future garden coming together; savory pies; "Too few people understand a really good sandwich" - James Beard.

What are you loving this week?

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Wings

This is the second appetizer I made for Aaron's fancy-things-that-he-likes dinner, again inspired by Real Simple (the original recipe is here). I'm not usually really into chicken wings, but these were fantastic and made all the better by the addition of toasted sesame seeds. We've recently both become obsessed with toasted sesame seed oil because it makes stir frys and fried rice just that much better, so I was stoked when I saw toasted sesame seeds at Fred Meyer's. Be careful on the time with this one. I came really close to burning them, but fortunately did not. They are crispy and delicious and might change my mind about chicken wings in general.

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Wings slightly modified from Real Simple:

Serves 2-4

8 chicken wings
¼ c. island soyaki
Toasted sesame seeds

Heat grill. Grill wings over medium-low heat, covered, turning occasionally, until cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. I opened up the grill around 22 and it was good that I did because they were starting to burn. They really do need to be turned and moved around as most grills don't heat evenly.

Brush with island soyaki sauce during the last 5 minutes of grilling. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

These were really, really good, but Aaron did come up with a great suggestion, which is to toss the wings in more sauce after they grill and then add the toasted sesame seeds. I think that this is a great idea and I look forward to trying it again.