I scream...

Ice cream is an important thing in our family, even if I don't eat it that often any more. As with everything, I've been experimenting with vegan versions and made this one tonight. And, oh, is it good. Possibly even better than the white chocolate champagne of parties past, and with less bad things in it. Though the reduced champagne would probably be great here too. Regardless, a second batch of this will be made this week. This base of almond milk would work really well with peaches, pineapple, banana or any number of squishy fruits that would taste good in ice cream. I fully intend to do some experimenting later, and eat the results over sliced strawberries. Because that's just the most perfect way to eat ice cream, ever.


Jackfruit Ice Cream
(makes about 1 quart)

Ingredients:
3 cups vanilla almond milk (or rice, soy or lowfat/skim dairy milk)
1/2 cup coconut milk (or soy creamer, cashew cream, heavy cream) OR another 1/2 cup milk
3 Tablespoons sugar or 1/4 cup syrup from fruit can
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can of jackfruit (or equivalent amount of peaches, apricots, bananas, etc.), drained, syrup reserved if needed

Directions:
Pour all but 1/3 cup of the milk/cream into a saucepan along with the sugar and heat to near boiling. In a separate small cup or bowl mix the cornstarch and remaining milk into a slurry and set aside. While the milk and sugar heats up, either chop or process the fruit into the desired size and texture. Add slurry to hot milk, stirring often to keep from curdling. Taste the custard and adjust for sweetness or vanilla level if needed. Add the fruit to the custard and cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and leave a distinct trail when you draw a finger down the back of the spoon. Remove custard from heat and chill in the fridge until ice cold. The recipe up to this point can be done well in advance of when you wish to freeze the ice cream. When it is cold, usually after two hours in the fridge, freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions for your machine.

Notes
-Home made ice cream starts out far softer than commercial, but freezes much harder when you put it away due to the lack of air being added while freezing. If it comes out of the freezer too hard to handle you can either let it sit on the counter for five or ten minutes or zap it in the microwave for 7-10 seconds. The lower the fat and air content the harder it's going to freeze, so keep that in mind if you're making this with straight skim milk--it will be a brick in the freezer. Freezing the super low fat/sugar versions in smaller cups has worked well for me in the past, and makes portion control/counting easy too. They also soften up a bit faster due to the smaller size.
-Alcohol can also impede the freezing, but might not be the best idea if you're serving this to your kids. Mango rum would be ideal here, or another lighter tasting spirit like plain old light rum or vodka. If you're going to use it, add 1/4 to 1/3 cup to the cooling custard so that the alcohol doesn't burn off. You might taste it, but it won't be enough to make you tipsy.

Almost Easter Muffins

Another cross post, another one I actually took a picture of before figuring out that muffin liner=bad :)
I made these muffins for a treat, though they really weren't much work at all. The can be mixed with whatever berry type fruit you have floating around in your kitchen or in your freezer. The lemony body of the muffin is the perfect foil to the jammy pockets of fruit that result from the berries cooking in the oven--you don't even need to butter these to enjoy them. As breakfast pastries go, these are lower in fat than most using just two eggs or tofu and no butter or oil so enjoy without guilt.

If you don't already have a mini food processor in your kitchen it might be time to consider one. It makes the tofu version of this recipe a snap since all the liquids can be mixed together right in the processor bowl and cleans up very quickly due to its smaller size. I have one from cuisinart that I found in a thrift shop for $3, but I've seen them on sale for $20 or so fairly often. If you like having fresh pesto or making smaller batches of salsa or just don't like having to put together a huge machine to do a little job it might be the right appliance for you.

Lemon Berry Muffins

Ingredients:
2 c all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
zest of 1 lemon
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 eggs OR 1/2 cup warm water mixed with 2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
1 cup yogurt OR 6 oz silken tofu, blended smooth
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 Tablespoons applesauce
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 c diced strawberries, cherries or other berries (frozen is fine)
cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling on top

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients except zest in a bowl and set aside. If using eggs and yogurt mix all wet ingredients and zest together in a separate mixing bowl and stir in sugar until all is combined and there are no large lumps of brown sugar left. If using tofu and flax you can blend the tofu and wet ingredients together in a small food processor or blender until smooth, then scrape into a mixing bowl with the sugar and stir to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined, being careful not to overmix. Fold in berries until evenly distributed. Prepare muffin tins and fill cups 3/4 full. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for 18-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean and tops are light golden brown. Remove from tins and cool on a rack.

Notes:
-If using the tofu/flax option when making these muffins I highly recommend either greasing the bare tin or using silicone pans as the batter really likes to stick to the paper liners. If opting for the traditional eggs and yogurt paper liners should be fine, but the reusable silicone cups are adorable if you happen to have them floating around.
-You can use dried berries for this recipe, but plump them a bit in some warm water first so you don't get hard bits of fruit when you bite into your muffins.

Best Vegan Summer Sandwich. Ever.

As I'm not living with my own kitchen anymore, inspiration has been rather little and far between, hence the huge gaps between posts. There's plenty of stuff I could just type up from memory and post, but I haven't felt like mentally revisiting things that I can't make right now due to lack of ingredients or the tiny problem of all my kitchen equipment living in four or five plastic storage crates stacked in the corner of my borrowed bedroom. About the only thing that has changed all of that is that two weeks ago I was told I could eat gluten again, as I had been given wrong advice based on my test results of almost a year ago. Oops. Not that being gluten free has been all the difficult, save for the occasional craving for a grilled cheese since I gave up on gluten free bread pretty quickly (gluten free brownies on the other hand, not so much :) ) but it's nice to be able to eat pasta and bread again along with not having to worry about ordering takeout or any of that in the future. The first thing I ate when I was allowed to reintroduce the stuff was a brie and apple sandwich on french bread. It was heavenly. And if you really need to know how that's made, just thin slice granny smith apple and stack that on one side of a split baguette and then spread brie on the other half (I scrape it off the rind, as I HATE brie rind) and squish the whole thing together. For a 14 inch or thereabouts sized baguette I usually end up using around one apple, if not a little less, but that's my taste. You can also use fontina cheese (though NOT the one from trader joes, it's just nasty) and vary the apples, but I like to have at least a semi-tart apple with the cheese. I've heard of people going so far as to make the sandwich with white bread, cream cheese and apples, but I've not done that yet.
Anyway, that sandwich isn't vegan, though it could be if you used vegan cream cheese :) The vegan bits come into play as I've decided to have most of my food come from vegan food groups with only the occasional foray back into vegetarian (cheese, eggs) and even less occasionally meat. Apparently I just don't know what to do with myself if I don't have some sort of dietary restriction anymore. I'm keeping a little of the dairy/meat stuffs as I really do like them, it's just getting expensive to eat the good stuff and I don't like subbing out cream cheese for brie. Not that produce is getting any cheaper, but with the international markets it's not so bad, and there's a lot of variety in those along with the farmers' markets that are booming around here right now. Summer means a lot of things, but mostly zucchini (as anyone who's ever planted it knows) along with tomatoes, corn, okra and all sorts of other good (and mostly green) veggies. Summer has usually been represented in my sandwich repetoire by a version of the zucchini sandwich my mom made a lot when we were little--fried zucchini and fresh tomato slices on buttered toast. That one is pretty damn addictive in and of itself, but not quite what I wanted the last few days. For one, we're out of sliced bread. Again. And no, it's not me that's eating it. For another, we stopped frying zucchini about a decade ago and now bake it, but in order to do either you have to dip it in beaten egg before dredging it in bread or cracker crumbs. Not vegan to say the least, and it doesn't stick if you don't do it (believe me, we've tried, usually by mistake). Cheese cracker crumbs also melt and burn to the cookie sheet, in case you're curious. So being that it's still summer (even if school is back in session) I decided that the zucchini in the fridge was going to be dinner, sandwich style. I've been reading a cookbook I've had for about a year now called Veganomicon and came across their recipe for white bean aioli, which is meant to be either a dip or a spread. If you like garlic and lemon, make it, it takes 10 minutes and a blender and is incredibly worth it. The other important modification was the bread. I ditched white bread slices in favor of bake-at-home baguettes (trader joes, I love you). These loaves are about 18 inches long and kind of skinny, even for baguettes, but bake up with a lovely crisp crust and soft innards, just the way I like it. Tonight I had this sandwich for dinner accompanied by a pea salad and chocolate cake. Yeah, you're really deprived if you go vegan. Brew a huge glass of iced mint tea and go outside to eat this truly yum dinner.


Vegan Zucchini Sandwich
(Serves 2-3, depending on who's cutting the sandwich)

Ingredients:
-1 small to medium zucchini, sliced
-seasoning salt or whatever seasoning blend you happen to like and have on hand--I use King Street Blues Rib & Butt Rub
-olive oil for sauteeing
-1 medium tomato, sliced
-white bean aioli (recipe follows)
-1 18 inch long baguette, split lengthwise

Directions:
Slice the zucchini into rounds, on the bias or flat strips. Whichever shape is easiest for you to work with is fine, but I wouldn't use tiny chunks like you'd cut for stir-fry, as they'll fall out everywhere. Sprinkle slices of zucchini with the spice blend of your choosing (at the very least salt and pepper). Sautee the slices in just a little bit of olive oil over medium-high heat until cooked to your liking--I prefer them to be al dente. Remove from heat and let cool a bit on a paper plate or paper towel to absorb some of the water and oil in them. While the zucchini is cooling, slice your tomato and spread the aioli over both halves of the baguette. Assemble sandwich by stacking zucchini slices and tomatoes on the dressed bread and topping with the other half of the baguette. Slice into whatever portion sizes you like and serve.

Notes:
-You may want to drain your tomato slices by pressing them with paper towels, as the sandwich can be a little drippy otherwise. If you don't, have a few napkins handy. If you don't want tomatoes, leave them out. The sandwich is still good.
-If your loaf is on the thin side, toothpicks are a good idea to hold the thing together when slicing and eating. Wrapping individual sandwiches in foil works too and can help catch the aforementioned drips.
-If you don't feel like making the white bean aioli for this, Vegenaise or any other vegan mayonaise works very well as a substitute (and no garlic). Just spread thinly over the baguette and proceed as normal.


White Bean Aioli
(Adapted from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero, p62)

Ingredients:
1 15oz can navy or great northern beans, drained and rinsed (I used cannelini, they worked fine too)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
Fresh ground black pepper, several pinches/to taste
2 Tbsp flax oil (original recipe calls for 1/4 cup olive, use whatever you have on hand or prefer)
6 cloves garlic, chopped (I used jarred)

Combine beans, lemon juice, salt and pepper in blender or food processor and puree until smooth, scraping down as needed. Set aside. Heat garlic and oil in a small pan over medium heat for about three minutes. Original recipe calls for you to heat but not brown the garlic, I browned mine intentionally the second time as the first time had a VERY garlic hit to it. The choice is yours. When garlic is cooked to your liking, scrape garlic and olive oil into the blender and puree. Taste for salt, lemon, pepper and adjust to your liking. Scrape out of blender and into a storage container and refrigerate until ready to use. Makes around 1 1/2 cups.

Notes:
-Ok, I lied a bit here. I didn't puree this in two batches, I just cooked the garlic and then dumped it in with the whole beans and did it all in one go. The second time I followed the two part directions. Honestly, couldn't tell a difference save that I cooked the garlic longer the second time.
-This comes out sort of hummus-textured/thick. If you want it thinner for a dippy/saucy consistency you can thin with a little water and whir in the blender to incorporate. For the sandwich this isn't necessary.
-This is the best artichoke dipper ever. By that I mean steam or microwave your artichoke, then dip the leaves into this instead of lemon butter or real aioli. WAY less guilty, which means you can eat another artichoke, which is always a good thing :) You may want to make it a little bit thinner and puree until it's totally smooth if you use it for artichoke leaves, but it's not necessary.
-Regarding oils--I don't think this needs as much oil as the recipe originally called for. It tastes really good with that much olive oil, and if you're using olive it might be worth it, but the creaminess of the beans themselves doesn't need much to make a good dip. I used flax oil because of the omega-3s, as this is a way to add a little extra without really noticing it. I'm all about finding new ways to use flax and flax oil right now, as I've discovered that I love the stuff and it happens to be good for you.


Garlic Pea Salad
AKA, this is what happens when I get bored...

Ingredients:
-1 1 pound bag frozen peas, thawed
-1/2 to 2/3 cup white bean aioli
-optional--handful of pitted kalamata olives, chopped fine or a few tablespoons of kalamata tapenade

Directions:
Thaw the peas on the counter, in the fridge or with warm water and a colander, but do not microwave--you want them bright green and fresh tasting. Stir the aioli into the peas, starting with a couple of spoonfuls and adding more until the peas are sauced to your taste. If using the olives or tapenade, stir into peas until evenly distributed. Serve cold.

Notes:
-This would be great picnic food, as there isn't anything that could make you sick after sitting outside for a few hours.
-I imagine this would also work very well for a potato salad made with waxy boiling potatoes. Ok, it would probably top a baked potato pretty well too. I like the aioli/olive combo on just about everything so far.
-Don't make this for a romantic date. It's just a bad idea. In fact, only make the cake on this page for a romantic date, unless you sub vegenaise for the aioli in the sandwich.

Amazon Cake
This is one of my favorite cakes, and I FINALLY found the original NYT article that I got it from forever and a day ago. Ah, New York, I miss you sometimes. I've only made one change from the recipe here, and that's to experiment with the oil called for. I've successfully used canola, olive, hazelnut and of course, flax, without any really noticeable difference in the taste, save for when I use straight olive if the oil itself is very strong. Light olive would probably be fine, but if you've only got a bright green extra virgin sitting around, you might want to cut it with at least 2 tablespoons of a lighter oil, otherwise it can have a somewhat salad dressing kind of aftertaste. I spent some time last year playing with this trying to make a sugar free or low sugar version, and I'm going to save you time now by saying don't bother, it doesn't work. Unrefined granulated will probably work fine, but agave, honey and splenda don't. This cake is vegan, but you'd never know it to eat it--it's very moist and very chocolatey. Honestly, if I gave it to you and didn't mention it, you'd never guess. My favorite way to serve this is with whipped topping (take your pick of which kind) and strawberries, but it's equally good eaten plain with a glass of milk (cow, almond, soy, whatever).


Adapted from ''Cafe Beaujolais'' by Margaret Fox and John S. Bear (I totally copied the recipe straight out of the article, as it's so easy there was no need to alter the directions)

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cups flour
-1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-5 tablespoons corn oil
-1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
-1 tablespoon cider vinegar
-Confectioners' sugar.

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, vanilla and vinegar with 1 cup cold water. Whisk in the dry ingredients, blending until completely lump-free. Pour into a greased 9-inch round cake pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top springs back when pressed gently. Cool before removing from the pan and dusting with confectioners' sugar, or frosting if desired. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Notes:
-You can have this always at the ready by mixing up the dry ingredients ahead of time and keeping them in plastic bags. All you have to do to mix the cake in two minutes is to dump the wet ingredients into a cup, swirl around a bit to break up the oil and then whisk into the dry ingredients. I've even heard of people mixing this in the pan they bake it in. I've not tried it, but it can't hurt.
-Make this in a round cake pan. It does OK in square, but it just seems to like the round better.
-This is a very stable cake to use to make a layered chocolate something. I made a "German Chocolate Cake" out of this once by baking two of them and then frosting and filling with canned coconut/caramel icing. It went over well.
-I very rarely bother with the confectioner's sugar. It looks pretty and tastes fine, it's just more work than I bother with unless I'm using the cake for company.
-You can use other acids, but I prefer the apple cider. If you use lemon and olive oil, then it really comes out tasting oddly of salad dressing. The leavening in the cake comes from the acid/base reaction of the vinegar and baking soda, so an acid is a crucial ingredient here, but with so few ingredients the one you choose can be important. I've not tried it with orange juice yet, but will eventually and will post the results when I do.
-For a vegan ho-ho/devil dog kind of treat, use a cake leveler or a long knife to the cake into thin rounds and roll them with a little cool whip. This is a great way to use the bits you get when you level the cake for layering. Waste not and all that :)
-This also works very well with raspberry sauce made by pureeing frozen raspberries in syrup (strain out the seeds if you feel like it, but they don't interfere with the taste).

The Last Shebang Revisited

The Last Shebang was a party that took place two weeks ago, and yes, it's taken me this long to get around to writing down the recipes for the stuff people liked. The theme of the dinner was pink, whether or not anyone else actually noticed. I'd say almost everything went over well, with some minor hitches involving the asparagus and timing. I had a lovely time, and I hope the guests did as well. For a last hurrah in Reston it will just have to do.
Here's the menu:

Appetizers
Herbed Goat Cheese on Endive leaves
Prosciutto & Melon

Entree
Peppered Beef Tenderloin
Roasted Garlic and Dill Baby Potatoes
Green Beans with Meyer Lemon Aioli (should have been asparagus...)

Dessert
White Chocolate Champagne Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberries

Drink
Blood Orange Punch

and on to the recipes...

Goat Cheese on Endive Leaves
This one isn't so much a recipe, as being specific as to what I used. I bought the fines herbes goat cheese from Trader Joes and mashed it up with a fork to distribute the herbs a bit more, then placed it on the broad ends of endive leaves in about half teaspoon sized lumps. A five or six ounce log served 8 of us pretty well as munchables spread over three heads of endive, using mostly the the larger leaves and not the tiny inner ones.

Prosciutto and Melon
Again, not really a recipe. Just chunk up some cantaloupe (or honeydew if you're adventurous) and wrap it with pieces of prosciutto. The prosciutto will stick to itself, so just make sure you've got pieces long enough to either get all the way around the melon or enough to layer all the way around.

Peppered Tenderloin

Ingredients:
-2-3 pound beef tenderloin
-4 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper
-olive oil
-kosher salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a 9x13 pan or roasting pan in foil (optional, but recommended). Place roast in 9x13 diagonally or in roasting pan's rack. Rub on olive oil to coat on all sides and cover in black pepper, making sure to get it on all sides as well. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Place in oven uncovered for 45-65 minutes depending on desired doneness. 45 minutes will be medium to medium rare, depending on the size of the roast. Check it with a thermometer if you're aiming for a specific level. I recommend cooking to medium or medium rare if you're going to use it for leftovers, as reheating will cook it further. The thin end of the loin will also be further along than the middle, so keep that in mind if you're cooking for people who prefer differing degrees of done. Remove from oven and allow to rest for at least ten minutes before slicing.


Roasted Garlic and Dill Baby Potatoes

Ingredients:
-2 heads garlic
-olive oil
-1/2 stick butter, softened
-3-4 pounds baby or new potatoes, the smaller the better, and red ones if your theme is pink
-2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
-kosher salt

Directions:
Slice the tops off of the heads of garlic, drizzle the innards with olive oil and roast wrapped in foil in a 425 degree oven for 20-40 minutes until golden brown and soft. Allow the garlic to cool, then squeeze out the roasted cloves into a bowl and mash with a fork. Add the softened butter and mix thoroughly. Set aside.
Boil whole baby potatoes in a large pot. Drain and return to the still-hot pot. Scrape the butter/garlic mix onto the potatoes, top with the dill and shake the pot to coat the potatoes with the melting garlic butter and dill, tossing with a large spoon to make sure all potatoes have been coated. Sprinkle with kosher salt and shake pan to distribute.



White Chocolate Champagne Ice Cream
(This deserves a post of it's own, but it's here anyway. It is a bit on the extravagant/decadent side, but very much worth it. If you feel the champagne is too over the top, feel free to omit and just enjoy the white chocolate ice cream on its own. Serve this with fresh fruit, or possibly with cake or brownies or cookies. It's quite good alone, but sublime with fresh strawberries. This recipe started as an adaptation of the one in David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop. I've said it before, I'll say it again--GO BUY IT. This recipe makes about 1 1/2 quarts.)

Ingredients:
-2 1/4 cups champagne, divided
-2 cups whole milk
-pinch of salt
-2/3 cup sugar, plus two tablespoons
-5 egg yolks
-8 oz white chocolate, chopped fine
-1 cup heavy cream
-2 pounds strawberries, cleaned and quartered

Directions:
Boil two cups of champagne until reduced to 1/2 a cup. Set aside to cool. Combine the milk, salt and 2/3 cup sugar in a saucepan and stir to dissolve sugar. Warm the milk until it is steaming, but not bubbling. In a separate bowl mix the egg yolks together and gradually add some of the hot milk while stirring constantly--I find a whisk useful for this. When you've added about half a cup to the yolks, stir them back into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon until custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon/spatula. Strain the custard into a bowl and add the white chocolate, stirring to melt. Stir in the cream and cooled reduced champagne and the last quarter cup of straight champagne. Cool the mixture completely and freeze according to your machine's directions. This ice cream won't freeze to rock hard in the freezer, so it can be made ahead and still be easily scoopable. Toss the strawberries with the remaining two tablespoons of sugar and allow to macerate for at least fifteen minutes. Serve the strawberries with the ice cream.


Blood Orange Punch
This was because I wanted something nice to drink and didn't want to have to serve a lot of alcohol, what with being a bit skint and all. The blood orange juice can be subbed with regular orange juice, but the color will need some help if you're looking for a bright punch. Made with blood orange juice, this punch is the color of sunrise--orangey pink and pretty.

Ingredients:
-1 liter blood orange juice
-4 liters ginger ale
-1/2 bottle grenadine

Directions:
Chill all ingredients and combine just before serving in either a punch bowl for a whole batch or a very large pitcher for half batches. Serve cold. Add a few drops of food coloring if you skip the blood orange juice in favor of regular orange juice.

Refined Unrefined

David Lebovitz, I love you.

No, I've never met David, and likely never will, but he has earned my undying affection for writing this lovely book. Buy it. Even if you never think you'll ever make ice cream on your own, even if the thought of eggs and milk coming together to make custard is just too damn hard. Your mind will be changed, you will want to rush out and buy an ice cream machine as soon as you read through the second chapter. The Perfect Scoop is just one of those cookbooks that you must have on your shelf for instruction and more importantly, inspiration to make the kinds of desserts you have always wanted to try and never had the guts to attempt. Ice cream has to be one of the easiest foods on the planet that everyone likes and almost no one makes at home. We'd rather give another few bucks for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Daz or some other random commercial kind and not bother with the "monumental" effort that making our own would involve. My memories of homemade ice cream revolve almost exclusively around Ohio and summer visits to my grandparents and a huge bucket filled with rock salt and ice and a huge mess to deal with afterwards. No more. The smaller no ice/salt countertop ice cream makers mean never having to try to get the dasher out without getting salt in the freshly churned ice cream and relatively little forethought needed to make a much smaller quantity of simply wonderful ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet or whatever else you want to make. I picked up this model which has a 1.5 quart capacity and only needs to have the core frozen overnight to be ready for whatever I do to it. I chose Linens n' Things simply because I know they always have a 20% off coupon floating around somewhere, and since I could purchase online but pickup in store, I was able to use the coupon, go through fatwallet for that rebate and still not pay shipping. The recipe below was the one I made up to christen the machine. Inspiration and guidance came from David Lebovitz's recipe for frozen yogurt (page 49) and the contents of my fridge. I've been eating a lot of greek yogurt of late, and have just about totally given up on the dannon/regular kind as I find I really don't like it all that much, so greek was the base for this frozen one. I picked up some meyer lemons in New York not too long ago and they've been living in the crisper since while I tried to figure out what I could do with them that would make the most of their bright flavor. As nearly everyone I know is trying to reduce their consumption of refined sugars, myself included, I decided to use honey instead of sugar (it was also on my counter instead of in a drawer, so it volunteered for the job). I wanted a VERY lemony, tangy result, and I got exactly what I wanted with this one. I'm fairly certain it will work with plain old everyday lemons, but as with all things, taste before you freeze to make sure the balance of acid/sweet is to your liking. If you're not using meyer lemons, you could add some orange zest to help bring it back from the edge of lemony oblivion. Check the notes for some other variations I'm going to try soon.

Meyer Lemon Frozen Yogurt
(makes a little over a quart, so make sure your machine's capacity is at least 1.5 quarts to be safe)

Ingredients:
-4 cups greek yogurt (see notes)
-juice of 2 meyer lemons
-zest of 2 meyer lemons, chopped as fine as you can
-1/2 to 2/3 cup honey (or equal amounts of agave syrup, or 1/2 cup sugar)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, see notes)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine, making sure sugar is dissolved if you're using granulated. If you do this quickly and the ingredients are still cold when you're done, assemble your machine and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. If you are making this ahead, stick the mix back in the fridge for up to two days, but you won't want to wait that long.
Eat. You do not have to wait for it to freeze more in the freezer, though you can if you want to. Do keep in mind that since home machines do not introduce nearly as much overrun (air) into the mix while churning the ice cream will be harder than usual when you pull it out of the freezer. Either let it sit on the counter for a few to soften up a bit, or if their's room in your container and you lack the patients, jam a butter knife into it to break it into liftable chunks. Don't worry if this one starts to melt, it's just going to melt back into soft yogurt instead of the usual watery, sticky mess. Eat it anyway :)

Notes:
-I didn't use the vanilla for this round, but it would tame some of the sharpness of the lemon and add a lovely creamy flavor to the whole thing. Citrus and vanilla go quite well together, so don't have any fear of using it, especially if you opt to make this orange instead of lemon. Creamsicles are popular for a reason.
-To convert this to orange, use about 1/3-1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice from the best tasting oranges you've got, or a Tablespoon or two of frozen concentrate and the zest of two oranges. To make a lime version, zest and juice two to three limes (depending on size/potency of your limes) and sub them for the lemons and follow the rest of the directions.
-Chop the zest into tiny bits if you can, rather than just long skinny ribbons. The reason I do this is that in my machine, the long bits can get stuck around the dasher, while the little nibbets go whizzing merrily by. If you do get a clump of zest, just stir it back into the rest of the yogurt when you put it out of the machine.
-If you can get citrus fruit that hasn't been sprayed, use it. I like a lot of zest in my citrus glaze, yogurt and all that, so use as much as you like, but definitely use some.
-If you can't use zest or can't abide the little bits in your yogurt, try to find some citrus oil and use about 1/8 tsp to start, adding just a drop or two at a time if you want more since it is potent stuff. It won't be the same, but it will still be good.
-Greek yogurt--I love this stuff. It's richer than the regular kind, even for the 0% versions. I'm a huge fan of Fage brand, but trader joe's carries a perfectly acceptable version that is cheaper. For this batch I used 2 cups 0% and 2 cups 2% because that's what I had in my fridge. I may try to use all 0% soon, but the creaminess that comes from the 2% just makes the yogurt that much better. For all out decadence, use the whole milk version. If you don't have access to any greek yogurt, you could use strained yogurt. For that, put double the amount of yogurt you need into a colander lined with cheesecloth (paper towels work in a pinch, but be VERY careful scooping out the finished product). Put the colander over a larger bowl and leave in the fridge to drain for about six hours. So for this recipe, you'd need 8 cups of regular yogurt to yield 4 cups of strained. If you're going to strain it, use whole milk yogurt, or at the very least use the lowfat. Fat free just tastes odd when you do this to it. Ok, if you don't want to strain it, you can just use whole milk yogurt and be done with it, but in my opinion it won't be as good. The heft that comes from greek/strained is worth the extra effort or few extra bucks.
-Yes, I did tag this as breakfast. If you eat yogurt with honey for breakfast, then what's wrong with eating the frozen version with some added lemon for breakfast as well? This would probably be wonderful stuffed into crepes for brunch too. Or dessert. Whatever floats your boat.
-Check back soon for my continued experiments with this thing as I clean out my pantry. And go read The Perfect Scoop. You'll thank me when summer rolls around, and you'll worship David when you reach the bottom of your bowl.

For Rachel...

Because she wanted this one :)

This icing first made the rounds of my family a few years ago when my sister discovered it hiding in the pages of a lovely book called The Cake Mix Doctor by Ann Byrn. There was also a version of this that my grandmother made quite a long time ago (as in, I don't remember eating it) that was more of a butterscotch fudge recipe than an icing. After several years of mutual experimentation the recipe below is the one we usually stick closest too. Mine can come out soft or so crackly it falls off of the cake, my sister's tends to be softer and grainer due to her use of a spoon over a mixer and mom's can be anywhere in between.

Ann Byrn's book is a great one to pick up if you're not much of a baker but want to be or need to be quickly. The recipes feature a box cake mix as a base and ways to "doctor" them that render truly wonderful desserts. One I found all over the place in conjunction with her version of this icing was a banana cake topped with caramel icing and salted pecans. Sounds good to me. My sister's most requested accompaniement to this icing is a chocolate cinnamon banana cake. Sounds odd, but the whole thing comes together very well.


Caramel Icing
(Start to finish, this takes about 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
-8 tablespoons (one stick butter)-1 cup packed brown sugar (light, dark, doesn't seem to matter too much. use whichever one you like)
-1/4 cup milk (skim, whole, half & half--whatever is on hand)
-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted


Directions:
Place the butter and the brown sugar, milk and vanilla in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for one minute and remove from heat. Add the confectioners' sugar. Beat until smooth. You can use a spoon for this, but I have my hand mixer set up and waiting when I start and use that.

Use icing immediately. As soon as the powdered sugar is incorporated the icing will change texture and become creamy/pasty instead of just liquid. To ice a cake I usually just pour the icing directly from the pot onto the cake. this works best for bundt cakes and sheet cakes that are still in the pan. If you've got a rack you can set the cake on while you pour you'll have a cleaner edge to the bottom of your cake, but where's the fun in that? Work as quickly as you can without burning yourself, and if you need to spread the icing do it as soon as it hits the cake--it will set in seconds. If you want a smooth finish, be careful and pour evenly.


Notes:
-Sift the powdered sugar. If you don't, you'll have little bits of clumped powdered sugar all throughout the icing, and it's not pretty. Tastes fine, looks creepy. If you're icing a cake for halloween that's supposed to look awful, then not sifting and not quite mixing thoroughly is the way to go.
-Fill the pot with water as soon as you're done with it. Trust me on this one. It's far easier to clean out later if it soaks for a while, as this icing is very nearly a fudge recipe and scrubbing candy off a pot that has had time to cool and dry is a royal pain.
-Have a spoon on hand to scrape out the pot a bit before you stick it in the sink. The benefit here is two fold: there's less in the pot to scrub out later, and the icing that hardens on the spoon is quite good on it's own.
-This should probably go without saying, but if you use a mixer, use caution. Boiling sugar and skin do not mix well, so start it at a low speed. I like using a mixer because it does such a thorough job so quickly and results in a smoother texture. Using a spoon is fine, but results in a slightly grainier finish to the icing. Either way, it tastes great.
-Cupcakes. My sister has iced cupcakes with this, and it's quite good that way. To do that, put the pot back on the stove when the icing is mixed and keep it on low and stir frequently to keep it malleable. Use the spoon to drizzle globs of the icing over the cupcakes, but keep the cupcakes in their tin while you do so. This saves your counters from drips (mostly).
-If the icing seizes up too quickly and you still have a large portion of it in the pot, you can warm it on the stove and melt it back into useablility. You can add a spoon of water or milk, but if you add too much that will change the texture.
-The longer the sugar boils the harder the icing will set. One minute or so will yield a firm, breakable icing when it sets. if you want it softer, don't boil it quite so long. You will probably need to make this a few times to get the hang of how it will react and what consistency you like best. I have found that this is a very easy way to finish a cake that just about everyone loves, so getting failed experiments out of your kitchen shouldn't be too difficult, assuming whoever else might be in your house lets you.