Summer Grillin'!

Superking and I recently bought ourselves a little charcoal grill. Up til now, if we wanted to grill something, we would hop down the street to my in-laws' house with our food and bogart their grill, then run back home before the food got too cold.  Superking finally broke down and got us our own. Its a Weber and its small, not too expensive, but its perfect for us.  And we've been grillin' up a storm every chance we get!!

The first night we fired it up, we got a nice tender filet and some raw shrimp.  We've never cooked raw shrimp ourselves before.  But we marinated them...half in a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce and half in this creamy Greek marinade with lots of spices...and put them on skewers.  The filet, prepared with nothing but salt and pepper. We also tossed a few poblano peppers on the grill too.

The steak was perfectly tender and juicy and the shrimp plump and pink with a slight smokiness. The peppers had a lovely char on the skin. Everything was great and so easy!

 And every time we fire up the grill, we leave it burning for a while after dinner so we can roast marshmallows to make smores!! Superking asked me after about the second or third time of doing this, if the smores were going to continue to be an after-dinner-grilling-tradition.  I'm like, uh heck yeah!! What kind of question is that??

Smores Ice Cream

I'm so excited to present to you Yumma Yumma's very first guest blog post. And its by none other than Superking himself; English major, computer genius, and ice cream maker extraordinaire!!  Superking likes to make up his own recipes but we did get a few ideas from another blog, Spache the Spatula.

ah, summertime.  the mild, vernal climates of spring have begun to ebb, and mother nature beckons us to the maternal clutch of her warm embrace.  her calescent similitude and clarion skies are harbingers of all things exuberant, things we so dearly reckon with such a season:  a holiday spent frolicking amongst the heaves of azure sea, scintillating displays of dignified patriotism, midgets in powdered wigs playing backgammon whilst they regale one another with tales of butterscotch pudding and adult diapers.  it is summer.

having noticed it was now June, and because it was over 9000 degrees outside (fahrenheit, kelvin … look, when it's this hot it's irrelevant), AND because my wife bugged me a bunch - it was ice cream time.  but what flavor?  i've done chocolate, peanut butter, honey, strawberry (and a buncha others i can't remember) we scoured the internet looking for something unique - and we found it.  s'mores.  yumma yumma.

this recipe differed a bit from my usual forays into home made ice cream.  this one did NOT use a custard base (no eggs).  SIDENOTE:  yep, raw eggs.  i know.  salmonella, and yellow fever, and in-grown toenails, and AIDS - the government says you will experience all these things if you prepare food using raw eggs.  i guess i've just been lucky so far.

anywho, the Cuisineart mixer/churner was in place and the freezer bowl was -9000 degrees for extreme coldness.  the hardware was in place, but now to prep the ingredients.

first i heated up some heavy cream.  at lot of recipes for ice cream call for milk.  lame.  heavy cream (in nearly all cases) is far superior because fat in food tastes awesome.  don't believe me?  ask your tongue.  the only time i wouldn't use all heavy cream would be if the additional ingredients have a high fat content (e.g., peanut butter).  and even then, it would still taste crazy delish.

once the cream was warm/hot (not lukewarm, but not boiling) i proceeded with the marshmallow infusion.  did i measure anything?  no.  numbers are for accountants and idiot savants.  it took a bit for the marshmallows to melt into the cream but a few minutes of patient stirring ensured proper infusion.  bear in mind that there's oodles of air in the marshmallows and as they meld final-scene-of-Terminator-2-style into the cream, the mixture will wax increasing in volume.  don't panic (or do).

having prepared the base, our classic s'mores flavors were going to be provided by crunched (NOT pulverized) graham crackers and chopped chocolate.  the semi-sweet Ghiradelli bars were the obvious choice, our base being pretty much processed sugar suspended in liquid fat.  milk chocolate in this ingredient would doom any of it's consumers to instant and cataclysmic diabeetus.  

hee hee, just kidding!

only good chocolate please

freezer bowl + churner  + lid = hammertime.  let's churn us some ice cream.

i dumped the base into the churner and let it churn for a good 20 - 30 minutes.  it was fairly warm when i added it, so it didn't really start to thicken until it got chilly willy.  REWIND:  remember the part earlier i mentioned, about how the volume goes crazy mad when you add the marshmallows to the cream?  well, now that it was cool it got way lower.  i arrived at an impasse:  go with the current volume of ice cream (barely a quart), or really quickly heat some additional cream and toss in the remaining marshmallows.  In an almost 1980s movie montage'esque fashion i dumped the remaining cream in a pot, cranked the burner heat to 11, and dumped in the remaining marshmallows.  like a boss.

Superking;s kitchen chaos

once the mixture was sufficiently heated, it joined the already churning base in the churner.  a few minutes later it thickened and the mix-ins joined the battle for culinary glory.  was it pretty?  no.  was it perfectly sanitary?  no.  executing something this epic takes a lot of dirty work.  this is an uphill battle for epicurean superiority.  this is guerilla cooking.  (i was gonna say "this is Sparta", but that whole joke is really played out - i mean, the movie came out in 2006, and even if it was more recent, its relevance to this blog post would be weak at best.  in that pivotal scene, King Leonidas of the Spartans was conversing with an emissary off an encroaching foreign land whose desire was - by negotiation or by force - to seize control of the Spartans' lands and alter their entire system of governance.  i'm only making ice cream.  i hope you see the conundrum i'm faced with here.  perhaps it is best we move on.)

can I lick the freezer bowl?

at about 40'ish minutes in, it was ready.  i pulled the mixing arm, only to realize that i forgot to (beforehand) find an appropriate container.  i tore through the (questionably) organized plastic container cabinet and found a container and matching lid.  i scooped the ice cream into the container.  the few remaining bits of chocolate, and marshmallow, and graham cracker were dumped on top of the gooey concoction and hermetically sealed before placement into the freezer.

it turned out yumma yumma (if i may say).  my wife seemed pleased with it (and refused to share it).  so, i guess we've got a point in the win category on this one.  geez, i can't believe i wrote so much.  really, if you're still reading this - you deserve a ribbon or a medal or something.  i personally woulda said "tl;dr" a while back and bailed.  anyways, go make some ice cream.  enjoy your summer.

CORRECTION: About Etsy (a yummy correction)

In my last post, I talked about Etsy and I said there was no food at Etsy. However, I just found out there IS food at Etsy!!  Check these out...

Chocolate Whoopie Pies by Cacao Bakery

Peanut Butter Doggie Snacks by Mynskie and Libelle too

Super Mario Cookies by Craving Something Cute

Mayan Chocolate Cookies by Keri Keifer

Owl Marshmellow Pops by Friendly Creationss

Valentine Cookie Pops by Keri Keifer

Wow, whaddya know?! Cool and yummy!

Chocolate Bark Treats

Chocolate bark makes a nice treat to have as a quick snack or to give as gifts.  Its very easy to make and there are so many options for flavors and add-ins.  You can even make healthy versions!

I found this basic recipe in the December issue of Health magazine.  The ingredients they had listed are as follows:  3/4 cups dried cherries, 1/2 up unsalted pistachios, 1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger, 7 oz dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids) chopped into chunks.

Combine cherries, pistachios, and ginger in a medium bowl.  Line baking sheet with heavy-duty foil, chill pan.  Melt chocolate in double boiler or the microwave, stirring frequently.  Stir in half of fruit mixture and spread into prepared pan.  Using a rubber spatula, spread chocolate evenly onto baking sheet.  Immediately sprinkle remaining fruit mixture evenly over top of chocolate.  Chill about 10 minutes.  Break into pieces and serve.

Now there are definitely a ton of modifications you can make to this.  First of all, you can certainly leave out the ginger.  It can be hard to find and also it can have a strong flavor that you may not want.  No big deal to leave it out.  I made this version minus the ginger and it was great. And when I couldn't find pistachios, I substituted chopped walnuts instead.

I also wanted to make another version that didn't involve nuts, as I've mentioned there are several people in my family with nut allergies.  So I came up with the idea of using coconut (which is a fruit, not a nut) and pretzel sticks to give it a sweet/salty flavor like nuts would have done.

You can also use any kind of chocolate...milk, semi-sweet, even white chocolate.  As long as it melts, you're good.  As for toppings, the possibilities are endless.  Using unsalted nuts of any kind with dried fruit of any kind will help keep it on the healthier end.  You could also probably melt in some peanut butter into the chocolate for a more decadent version.  For other mix-ins, you can use peppermint (great for Christmas), granola or any kind of cereal (hmm, I wonder what fruit loops would be like?), marshmallows and graham crackers for a smores effect...I could go on and on. 

And in 10-15 minutes you have a great home-made treat to share with friends or eat for yourself!