I’m in love…

.. with my ice cream maker.

I think he needs a name. He’s been such a good little guy this week! And you know what? Tonight he’s outdone himself.

Ooooooooh!

You see, I had this butternut squash sitting on the counter from the farmer’s market. Oh how I love the farmer’s market. A plethora of delicious veggies and such for super cheap. Ahhhh it’s heaven to me. Well the squash was roasted up last night in preparation of.. well.. eating! But I wanted to be sure to save enough to make some ice cream.

Yes, butternut squash ice cream. Oh my you have never tasted such ice cream.  Just look at that beautiful color and those teeny spice specks!

I decided to spin up my own little recipe instead of following one. I bought half and half JUST for this reason. I also bought canned peaches JUST for this reason. Oooooh you just have to taste it for yourself. Mmm.. mmm.. mmm…

Maybe serve it over some frozen blueberries?  Or sprinkled with chocolate shavings..

Now I have to go deal with Ralph. He keeps trying to come in here. What the hell do you do with a ballsy Ralph??

(photo courtesy of Google and is NOT actually Ralph)

He simply canNOT live in my house. No way, Mister.

Appetizing, no?

Butternut-Peach Ice Cream
1 cup pureed butternut squash (pumpkin would work wonderfully here, too)
1 14 1/2 ounce can peaches, drained, rinsed and pureed in a food processor
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon garam masala (you could use plain cinnamon here, too)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine all ingredients and whisk together until smooth. If needed, refrigerate until chilled (everything I’d used had been in the fridge except the peaches and the honey so I didn’t need to stick it in the fridge) and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. My ice cream maker took about 30-40 minutes to get a nice, thick consistency.

Caffienated Goodness

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It’s been so hard to get my butt over to Starbucks or Barnes and Noble for the wi-fi for my computer. Poor lonely little laptop sitting on my bookshelf with wonderous photos just waiting to be uploaded and posted!

*sigh*

Well this morning I decided to make my own coffee. I have some of Target’s house blend in my pantry and I like to add odd ingredients to it. This morning’s concoction was 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds, a pinch of lavender buds and a light sprinkling of cinnamon brewed in 5 cups of ice cold water. I poured it over some honey to sweeten it, ooooooh was it yummy!

So experiment with your coffee! You may be surprised!

Marshmallows

I finally did it! Thanks to Smitten Kitchen, I found a recipe for homemade marshmallows that set up the way it was supposed to, just like her recipe claimed it would!

There’s also a special thanks that should go out to my mom. I found some unflavored gelatin packets hidden with the Jello when I rummaged through her cabinets yesterday afternoon. Thanks mom!!

Hehe!

The first time I made marshmallows, I ended up with a new dish – tofumallows.

See? Quite disgusting. Those went in the garbage.

I decided to try the one over at SK. Boy was this a completely different experience! I measured out my sugar and was unfortunately 1/4 cup short. No problem! I’ll substitute honey! It’s ok, it’s ok, this turned out much better than the meringues! I was a little frightened there for a while, though. I decided to multitask and look for a baking dish to butter while the syrup was boiling. Well let me just tell you, that syrup did NOT like being ignored! It promptly erupted all over my stovetop! That’ll teach me to use a smaller pot instead of just washing the medium one that was dirty. Well actually, it probably won’t. In any case, the marshmallows turned out just fine despite the fact that a third of the syrup was residing on my stove.

These tasted pretty yummy, though I advise you to go easy on the extract if you’re using hazelnut. They were a bit overpowering for me!

Springy Fluffy Marshmallows (adapted from Smitten Kitchen and halved)
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water, divided in half
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt (which I forgot DOH!)
1 large egg white
2 teaspoons extract (would reduce this the next time)
Mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder, for dusting

Oil a baking dish and coat with powdered sugar mixture, making sure to get the corners and sides.

In the bowl of a mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup of the water. Allow to sit while you boil the syrup.

In a medium pot over medium-low heat, cook sugar, honey, corn syrup, remaining 1/4 cup of water and salt, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved, increase the heat to moderate and boil without stirring for roughly 12 minutes or until a candy thermometer reads 240 degrees. Remove the pot from the heat and pour the syrup over the gelatin, stirring until dissolved. On high speed, beat the mixture until tripled in size and fluffy, about 6-10 minutes.

In a separate bowl with clean beaters, beat egg white until stiff peaks form (whoops I only did soft peaks). Beat egg whites and extract into the fluff until just combined. Scrape the mixture into the oiled baking dish and sprinkle powdered sugar mixture over the top. Refrigerate uncovered overnight. Cut with a pizza cutter and toss in powdered sugar mixture.

A word of advice – don’t bring them to your un-airconditioned work and fail to keep them in the fridge. They get all sweaty!