Archive for August, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Home, Photography, tagged Home, Photography, Wordless Wednesday on August 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Dairy Free Vanilla Ice Cream
Posted in Cooking, tagged dairy free ice cream, vanilla ice cream, vegan ice cream on August 27, 2011| 10 Comments »
I tried to warn you last week that the dairy free ice cream recipes were going to come hot and heavy here for a few weeks. It is my new favorite thing! I asked my nanny and dad what ice cream flavor they would like to try and they chose good ol’ vanilla. This makes a great base for a decadent sauce, like, maybe a homemade blackberry sauce from freshly picked blackberries perhaps? Yes, that is a tease. Check back next week for some berry goodness.
1 14oz. can full-fat coconut milk
1 1/4 cups soymilk or other nondairy milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or agave syrup-I just bought some and will try this, too. The agave syrup lowers the glycemic index which makes it better for diabetics.)
1.5 tbsp. real vanilla extract (The fake stuff would probably work, but I am a real vanilla snob. Sorry!)
Place all of the ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until well combined. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Turn on the ice cream maker and pour the vanilla base into it. Process for 20 minutes and you will have amazing soft serve vanilla ice cream. Pour this into a lidded freezer-safe container and let it harden for 2 to 3 hours.
Please join me and many other great bloggers at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday.
Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Beanilla.
Almost Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Home, Photography, tagged Kentucky, Photography, Wordless Wednesday on August 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Dairy Free Rocky Road Ice Cream
Posted in Cooking, tagged dairy free ice cream, ice cream, vegan ice cream on August 20, 2011| 15 Comments »
Here is the first of what I am sure is to be many dairy free ice cream recipes. If you read my Thoughtful Thursday post a couple of days ago (And if you didn’t, go back and read it right now. I can wait. Hmm, hmm. Done? Good.), you will know that I have found a new passion…dairy free ice creams. Ooohh! They are so good!
One of my and C’s favorite ice cream treats is rocky road at a certain national ice cream chain, so that is one flavor that I wanted to try to duplicate. This recipe is in the “lick it!” vegan ice cream cookbook. In my humble opinion, this is just as good if not better since the nuts and marshmallows taste fresher in this homemade version. Try this now!!! (If you want this recipe to be truly vegan, you will need vegan chocolate and marshmallows.)
1 1/4 cups soymilk or other non-dairy milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
6 oz. milk chocolate chips
1 14 oz. can full-fat coconut milk
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup mini marshmallows
Combine the soymilk, sugar and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan and whisk until smooth. Warm on medium heat until the soymilk begins to simmer. Remove from heat.
Put the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl. Pour the hot soymilk mixture over the chocolate and stir until smooth. Whisk in the coconut milk and vanilla extract. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
Then freeze in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (The instructions for mine say: Turn on the machine. Pour the ice cream base into the machine and process for 20 minutes. Add the almonds and marshmallows for the last 5 minutes.)
At this point you will have soft-serve ice cream which is awesome in itself. If you want hard ice cream, pour the soft-serve into a lidded freezer-safe container and freeze for 2-3 hours if you can wait that long!
Please join me at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday.
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Books, Cooking, My Thoughts, tagged Cooking, dairy free, ice cream, ice cream maker, vegan, vegan cookbook on August 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Up until now, you would not have found many, if any, ice cream recipes on this little blog o’ mine. Why? Well, I am extremely lactose-intolerant. So bad that one little bite of regular ice cream will send my stomach into fits for hours, and that is so NOT FUN! I can take the medicine that helps, and it does just that, helps, but it does not go away completely.
All of that is about to change. You may see a dozen ice cream or frozen treat recipes on here all in a row because of a birthday gift that I received. My in-laws (God bless ‘em, they are wonderful!) gave me a tabletop ice cream maker along with a recipe book titled “lick it!”, which is full of vegan ice cream recipes. Now, I am not a vegan, and probably will never be a vegan, but one thing that vegans and I share is a need for food without dairy in them. This book rocks!
The ice cream maker is a Cuisinart model ICE-21 and it is awesome! Check it out here for all of the info. It makes 1.5 gallons at a time in about 20 minutes. At that point the ice cream is like soft serve which is the way I like it. If you want it firmer, just put the deliciousness into a freezer-safe lidded container and let it harden for a couple of hours. That is if you can wait that long!!
So far I have made the chocolate rocky road, vanilla, and orange sherbet recipes from the “lick it!” book, and they are great! I couldn’t tell that they weren’t the real thing.
If you are lactose-intolerant or vegan or just want to try something a little different, get yourself an ice cream maker and this book. A little word to the wise, you might want to invest in coconut milk and soymilk stocks. Just wait, you will understand!
Southern Plate’s Deep Dish Pizza
Posted in Cooking, tagged Beef, Casserole, Main, Pizza, Sausage, Southern Plates on August 13, 2011| 22 Comments »
For this month’s version of the Southern Plates-Picture Perfect Cooking project, I have changed sources just a little. This recipe is from her website instead of her book, but I had to show you all this one. It is so so good! I made it one Monday night and took it to my in-laws and they said that I could make it again any time I wanted to!
To save a little time that night, I cooked the meat, onion & pepper mixture the day before and stored it in the fridge until I needed it. This is a great weeknight meal with a salad on the side. Enjoy!!
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, diced
15 oz. jar pizza sauce of your choice
2 tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp. olive oil
8 oz. shredded mozzarella (Italian cheese blend is good, too)
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the peppers and onions in the vegetable oil until they just start to soften. Add the ground beef and sausage; cook until there is no pink left in the meat. Drain off the fat if necessary and then pour in the pizza sauce and Italian seasoning. Stir to make sure the sauce and seasoning are completely combined and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13×9” baking dish with non-stick spray. Spread the shredded cheese over the bottom of the pan. Then layer the meat/pepper mixture over the cheese.
In a separate bowl (one with a pour spout if you have it), combine the flour, salt, pepper, milk, eggs, and olive oil. Stir until just combined. Pour over the meat and cheese as evenly as possible
Bake for 30-35 minutes and enjoy!
Please join me at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday. I linked up this recipe and there are many other wonderful dishes from other bloggers, too!
