Annie's birthday request...

Annie's Ice Cream Cake

Well, yesterday was Annie's birthday. She wanted an ice cream cake to share with her favorite class. Family members get to request whatever food item they want for their birthdays.  Mike usually goes for lobster ...and pie, instead of cake.  I had never made an ice cream cake so it was a new one for me. Here we go...

Crushed cookies in a bowl.  Mostly Oreos but I used Nilla Wafers to help mellow out the Oreo crust a bit.  Add 1 stick of unsalted butter, melted and press into the bottom of a large spring-form pan. I put greased parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan and put crust into the freezer  for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile set out and allow to soften, 1 1/2 cartons of your favorite ice cream, I used Chocolate Mint Chip.  Fill the spring-form pan with the ice cream, smooth off top, cover, and put in the freezer for 4 hours.

When you are ready to finish the cake, make a stabilized whipped cream, using gelatin to help the whipped cream keep longer. Put a teaspoon of gelatin in a small bowl with a a tablespoon of water, for about 5 minutes.

Melt the gelatin in a hot water bath , then let cool a bit. Use the gelatin when you whip the cream, before it sets up. 

 

Stabilized whipped cream: 2 cups heavy cream with 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 to 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and the gelatin.  

Remove the frozen cake from the freezer and un-mold,  At this point I run a knife around the edge to facilitate un-molding of the cake. Whipped cream is applied on ice cream top and sides.  

 Ladyfinger cookies are applied to the sides, top is dusted with powdered cocoa, and 3 or 4 crushed Oreos are sprinkled on top.

 Packaged and ready for delivery.

A satisfied customer. The Advanced Placement Art Class at NT High School thought it had definite artistic qualities! And it tasted great, too!

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THE GADGET!

Yesterday's Mystery Gadget

 I use it to lightly flour a work surface and it works very nicely...

...I call it "The Flour Thing"

...Mainly because I don't have any idea what it is supposed to be called.

Comfort food...

Meat Loaf is one of my "comfort foods", every once in awhile I get a craving for meatloaf and mashed potatoes and gravy, with peas as a side dish. I use the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook meatloaf recipe with the additional Tio twist now and again, here and there, or not. Yesterday's meatloaf had the addition of ground turkey,  and pork, just because there was one package each of ground turkey, beef and pork in the freezer. That's the way most of my cuisine rolls, what do I have on hand?  It was delicious!

Tio’s version of the Better Homes & Gardens Meat Loaf recipe.

Meat Loaf mixture:

2 eggs

¾ cup milk

½ cup fine dry bread crumbs

¼  cup finely chopped onion

2 tablespoons snipped parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

½  teaspoon ground sage

1   lb. each, ground beef pork and turkey

Glaze:

¼ cup catsup

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

Pre-heat oven to 350^0. Combine eggs and milk; stir in crumbs, onion, parsley, salt, sage, and pepper in large bowl. Add meats; mix well. Pat mixture into an 10 x 6 x 4 inch loaf in a shallow baking dish or cookie sheet. Bake in a 350⁰ oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven, spoon off excess fat, reserve drippings if you want to make a gravy.  Combine catsup, sugar. and mustard, spread over meat. Return to oven for 10 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes while gravy is prepared and serve with mashed potatoes. Makes 8 servings.

  

Tio’s Meat Loaf Gravy:

This part is not Better Homes, plus it is more art than science, so be creative.  Transfer drippings into sauté pan or sauce pan.  Let rest 5 minutes, skim most of the fat from the juices, add a cup or two of beef or chicken stock to pan and bring to simmer. Add 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce and 1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet, season with some salt and pepper to taste. Thicken with a roux made of cooked equal parts butter and flour, or Wondra Flour, or any thickening agent whisked into the sauce. Strain and serve over potatoes and meat.

 

Yum!

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On a different subject, while I wrote about not using my food processor when making pie pastry, I also mentioned that I do like kitchen gadgets, so here is the first in a series of kitchen gadgets. This is one that I have never seen on TV or in any cookbooks, but I love it. It was a Christmas gift from Patty M. some 10 years or so ago.  I'll bet there are very few folks out there that know what it is used for. I'm not even sure I'm using it for its it intended use.  But, I find myself using it all the time.

Can you guess what it is? 

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Happy 18th Birthday to my little girl, Annie Rose.  I can hardly believe how fast you have grown up. You are awesome!

I should plan my shopping better.  I find myself at the grocery store way too often, at least three times a week.  Anyway, yesterday afternoon when I was at the store to pick up some pork chops, for dinner, I spotted a nice sale item, and picked up 4 meals in one shot, at a great price. I bought a 9 1/4 lb pork loin for $16.50, that's $1.79 per lb. So, that comes to 18.5 - 1/2  lb servings for 89 cents each.  That loin is now 8 chops (1/2 lb each)  and 2 small (~2 1/4 lb each) roasts. Since there are four of us living at home, we ate half of those chops last night.  One of the little roasts will later be made into a Cuban meal for 4, and the other will be part of an authentic Tuscan dinner. But for now they await  their turns in my freezer.

I know that we are supposed to cut down on our consumption of animal protein, but, nope... not going to do it. I really like meat and what I really like even more is meat that is a bargain. The best are the cryovac packages of whole cuts of meat, like the  pork loin I got yesterday. And, you have to love those big sides of Ribeye or NewYork strip that you can cut to your own liking.  It used to be that you could only get these at the big box stores, (Costco or Sam's Club,) but now and then you can find them at the grocery store, like I did yesterday. 

What I cooked yesterday:

Tender Pork Chops Rustica with Savory Braised Vegetables

4 center cut pork loin chops, about 1 inch thick

1 large onion, sliced, not too thin

3 cloves garlic, chopped into about 9 pieces

1/2 cup mushrooms, quartered

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves or 3 sprigs fresh rosemary

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

3/4 cup dry white wine

3/4 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup flour for dredging the chops

1/4 cup or more olive oil

1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees 

Season chops with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour and brown them (about 4 minutes on each side,) in olive oil, in an oven proof saute pan on medium high heat. When you turn the chops to brown.the second side, add the onions and garlic to the pan. When the onions have cooked for about 4 minutes add the mushrooms and cook another 2 minutes. Add the herbs, olives, 1/2 cup each of the wine and chicken broth, in that order and season with a little more salt & pepper. The braising liquids should come up about half-way up the side of the chops. Cover with foil and place in oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, put meat and veggies on serving platter and cover loosely with foil,  reserve the juices in the frying pan and turn up heat on stove-top to high,.when juices begin to boil add the remaining 1/4 cup of wine, when it boils again add the remaining 1/4 cup chicken broth and turn the heat to low. Remove from heat and whisk in the pat of butter. Taste the sauce and if needed, adjust seasoning.pour over chops and serve. 

A nice crusty French baguette and a tossed salad go nicely with this dish. 

Since this blogging thing is so new to me, of course I goofed up last night. As I took the last bite of this delicious meal,  I realized that I forgot to take pictures for this blog entry. So take it from me it looked as good as it tasted and tasted as good as it sounds. This is my basic, rustic pork chop recipe that can vary with whatever herbs or veggies that you have on hand. If you don't have the olives or the dried coriander, that's okay it will work without either. Or add a little nutmeg. If you have a bell pepper on hand, you can use that too, or you could quarter a tomato. and add that as well  Or a seeded and rough chopped  jalapeno pepper could be a good variation. I always cut the veggies in a "rustic" manner, big enough  that if someone, like my son Mike, does not  want the mushrooms,  he can avoid them.

I cook these pork chops at least once a month and we don't get tired of them because you can add or subtract ingredients and the flavors can change with the different herbs. The chops are always nice and tender when cooked this way.

Here is my version of Paula Dean's recipe for Baked Sweet Potato Fries that we also had last night:

Combine:

1/4 cup salt 

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon hot paprika

Prepare:

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch long slices, then 1/4-wide inch strips

olive oil for coating the fries

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.


Line a sheet tray with parchment. In a large bowl toss sweet potatoes with just enough oil to coat. Sprinkle with seasoning. Spread sweet potatoes in single layer on prepared baking sheet, being sure not to overcrowd. Bake until sweet potatoes are tender and golden brown, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

I have two ovens so these recipes can be made at the same time. If you only have one oven, you can cook the  covered pork on the stove-top at a low simmer for 20 minutes, while you cook the fries in the oven at 450.

Better yet, the sweet potatoes were okay, but I think mashed potatoes would have gone better with the tasty pan-reduction sauce.

If anyone is out there and tries any of these recipes, let me know how it went..

Post number 1

I thought I'd start with a picture of last Thanksgiving's pie assortment. We usually have around 50 participants for Thanksgiving, Dinner, so lots of pies are called for.  Starting from the top, clockwise are Lemon Meringue, Maple Pecan Pie, Caramel Apple Crunch, Tio Stevo's Key Lime Pie, Black Bottom Banana Cream, Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie and in the center is Door County Cherry Pie. All of them were made with a flaky, buttery pastry crust except the Key Lime which is made with a graham cracker crust.

All were well received and the leftovers were few. I was very pleased with the pies this year and there were zero glitches, except for when one of our chocolate labs ate one of my pumpkin pies. We normally bake 2 Pumpkin at Thanksgiving but this year only one made it unscathed.

Whisky & Ginger Ale  WHO DID IT???!!?!!

Here is my pastry crust recipe. You could use a food processor, but I do mine by hand with a pastry knife tool instead. I've used a processor many times but I find I prefer by hand, and for me, it is no more or less speedy and clean-up is faster. Plus, it feels more "old-timey" to make it without a gadget. Don't get me wrong, I love gadgets, just not for pie dough.

 

This recipe gives me enough for 4 single crust or 2 double crust pies. I start with 5 1/4 cups of flour and mix in 1 tablespoon of Kosher salt,  cut into the flour 17 ounces of fat (9 oz cold butter first, then 8 oz cold shortening,) after the flour and fat mixture looks like gravel and sand, add 1/2 cup cold vodka and 1/2 cup cold water and mix with your fingertips until it all sticks together, use a light touch and form it into a ball on a floured surface. Cut the ball  into four pieces, form into disks, wrap them in plastic and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. Remember that everything but the flour and salt need be ICE COLD.  I cut the cold butter into the flour first, then the cold shortening. I've used Crisco, I've used margarine, I've used lard; they all work nicely.  These days I'm using Crisco, and I'm getting pretty good results  Did I mention everything ICE Cold?

So this is my first blog entry.  The problem is that the more I talk or write about food, the hungrier I get.. I know that now that I've started a food blog, my New Year's diet resolution is doomed....

Oh, and thanks also to Jeannie Burke www.Jeanniebs.blogspot.com who recently got me thinking about putting into writing my thoughts about cooking .