Pistachio Ice Cream

Pistachios are awesome. Raise your hand if you agree. Woohoo! (You may lower your hand now, if you like)

I am by no means obsessed with pistachios. In fact, I rarely eat them, but they have popped up in my life in special ways so that I think of them as an indulgence rather than a mere common snack.

I remember pistachios being a perpetual snack at most family gatherings when I was a small girl. Though it could be frustrating to remove the shells, there was always an uncle around to help me out. And even if I couldn't get a shell opened, the roasted, salty shell tasted good enough to suck on for a minute anyway (just be sure to put the slobbery shell in the bowl of shells, not the bowl of uneaten pistachios). Win, win! Snacks that take the most work to eat always seem to taste the best, don’t they?

Another popular pistachio-ed treat among my family was Watergate Salad, whose ingredients include cool whip, pineapple, marshmallows, and pistachio pudding. It wasn't present at every family party, but when it was, boy was I excited! I remember taking leftovers to school in my lunch only to hear my friends ask suspiciously, "What is that?!" The salad's green coloring always intrigued me and it was just ridiculously delicious.

It should have come as no surprise, then, that my first taste of pistazien-eis (translation: pistachio ice) outside of a gelateria in Salzburg, Austria would be a resounding success. I fell in love with the pistachio gelato and although I did commit myself to trying a handful of other flavors while I was there, I often ordered a scoop of one flavor along with a scoop of pistazien to make sure I got enough of it before the end of my six week study abroad session.

Can you guess what this store sells?

Fast-forward several years later and I met the man who would become my husband. Early on in our dating relationship, Drew moved to Miami and mentioned that the city life at twilight reminded him of evening strolls to get gelato when he lived in Italy. I asked him his favorite flavor (one of the few questions that I am proud to say I actually initiated) and told him mine was pistachio. Here was his response: “Holy cow! pistachio!? I have met NO ONE that shares my love of pistachio gelato.” As you can see, the two of us were meant to be. We even ended up naming one of the tables at our wedding reception “pistachio,” so this particular nut is obviously special to us. I know you’re thinking, “Wow. They are weird.” You are right, and we have no qualms about admitting it.

Now it is time for me to tell you why I have been a little nutty today. I made Pistachio Ice Cream yesterday evening and it was PERFECT. Not too sweet and just pistachio-y enough. The recipe is almost exactly like the Strawberry Ice Cream I wrote about a few days ago, but with one key ingredient changed. You guessed it – replace strawberries with pistachios.

Here are the details:

INGREDIENTS

1 can of regular coconut milk

2 cups half and half (or whipping cream)

1½ tablespoons vanilla extract

½ cup granulated sugar

12 oz bag of pistachios with shells on

Liquid Stevia to taste

PROCEDURE

First, shell the pistachios. I suppose you could buy them pre-shelled, but I don’t know how much you would need. Maybe a cup? I bought the kind with the shell on because they were less expensive. Pour the coconut milk, half and half, vanilla extract, sugar, and pistachios into a blender to mix the ingredients and break down the pistachios. Next, I added about 20 drops of liquid stevia to mine, but you can add stevia or sugar or another sweetener according to your taste. Then, follow the directions for your ice cream maker and freeze it in a sealed container until you are ready to eat it.

We have eaten ours with chocolate syrup and whipped cream, but I think next time I will also add fresh strawberries and banana. Yummers!

Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe

I have been a slacker. It has been more than a month since I last posted, and I am sorry. A lot has been going on around here, but I will fill you in on that in some future posts. (No, I am not pregnant, in case you got excited for a second). :)

Also, as part of my chosen Lenten penance I have not been getting on the computer until after noon, and since I usually worked on blog posts in the morning, my groove has been disrupted. Being disconnected for a few hours is actually nice and I have enjoyed these quiet computer-less and television-free mornings.

Anyway, I HAD to get my act together, because spring is here! Sort of. Well, the calendar says it is here but the real thing is still working on being here in practice. Soon we’ll get off of this weathery roller coaster and take a walk in some sunshine. One of the only ways I know it is springtime is that I can go to the grocery store and not feel guilty about buying strawberries. Everyone and their mother in Florida is going to strawberry festivals and since I am out here in Texas, I will instead enjoy the fruits of the strawberry farmers' labor by eating strawberry ice cream!

One of the best gifts Drew and I received for our wedding was a Cuisinart ice cream maker. I absolutely love it. I haven’t bought ice cream since we unpacked it in August. Cost-wise, I don’t think making your own ice cream is less expensive than purchasing it. I didn’t do the math, but I am pretty sure it would be cheaper (ounce for ounce) to buy a half gallon of ice cream at the store. HOWEVER, pints of the good stuff – Ben & Jerry’s, Starbucks, SO Delicious – you know what I am talking about – can cost you five or six dollars, and the homemade goods are definitely less expensive and oftentimes way more scrumptious!

I have had some misses in my ice cream experimentation thus far, but I think I have now found an ice cream base that works for me, a combination of coconut and cream. I just add different ingredients to change the overall flavor. I plan to share many of these creations with you, but for now I will start with my most recent recipe: Strawberry Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS:

1 can of regular coconut milk

2 cups whipping cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/3 – ½ cup granulated sugar

2 cups sliced strawberries

Add liquid Stevia to taste

Put the first five ingredients into a blender to mix all the liquids and to break down the strawberries. My strawberries were frozen, which shouldn't really matter, but it helps to make ice cream with cold ingredients. Taste the blended mixture and add liquid stevia or more sugar until your desired sweetness is reached (I personally do not like sweets that are too sweet). Follow the instructions on your ice cream maker to finish up.

For me, it took about 15 minutes in the ice cream maker. I actually had too much in the blender to fit in the 1.5 quart machine, so I poured the extra into a cup and popped it in the freezer before we ate it for dessert, and it was delicious. The real point of the ice cream maker is to add air into the mixture to give it that light, ice-creamy texture.

Blend it up!

Let the ice cream maker do its thing. (Shh! Don't tell, but I always think at this point that it looks like a butt . . . )

The machine adds air to the ice cream and practically pushes it up and out of the machine.

SO MUCH ICE CREAM! HOORAY!

Top your Strawberry Sundae with fresh chopped strawberries and chocolate sauce and then enjoy your homemade treat!

Crock Pot BBQ Beef Tacos

Back in September, Drew and I went to a small town festival in Celina, Texas – the Celina Balloon Festival (as in hot air balloons, not the blow up birthday kind.) It was a HOT and sunny day accompanied, fortunately, by a brisk breeze. The wind prevented the hot air balloons from launching, which was a bit of a bummer, but the festival featured a classic car show, which was a lot of fun for me as a first timer, and wonderful for Drew who drooled over most of the cars. All good festivals are sure to feature tasty food and we were not disappointed! Searching for a food truck serving gluten free food is nearly impossible, so I got tacos, hold the shell and just give me the stuff that goes inside. Drew picked out barbeque brisket tacos that were delicious! I took a bite and thought aloud, “I bet I could make this.” Drew’s skeptical response was, “You can’t really do something like this without a smoker or grill.”

Oh, yeah? Really? GAME ON. Me and my crock pot got this.

Going back to my historian roots, I did a lot of research, read a lot of recipes, and came up with my own strategy for replicating the tacos.

The apartment was filled with the summery smell of smokey barbeque sauce, and like any slow cooker recipe, the hardest part of making this meal is waiting for it to be done!

In the end, Drew was very impressed with the results. Dare I say that we thought my version was even better than the tacos at the festival?

An arctic chill seems to have taken over most of the country, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the flavors of summer! In fact, this warm, tangy, melt-in-your-mouth meal might be just the comfort food you need to get you through this installment of the polar vortex.

Here is what you need:

A 2-4 pound hunk of meat – I like to look for a brisket, chuck roast, tri tip loin, etc. anything with a decent amount of fat will do. Brisket has given me the best "pulled" finish, whereas with the others, you have to cut them up into small cubes, which is still tasty!

½ cup bbq sauce – I have been using Stubbs Smokey Mesquite – choose your favorite!

½ cup apple cider vinegar

a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce

one can of Coke – make sure it is REGULAR! The sugars in real Coke help tenderize the meal. The artificial chemical junk in Diet Coke just won’t work.

one onion, sliced

one clove minced garlic

salt

pepper

Here is what you do:

Season the hunk o’ meat with salt and pepper (you could also sub Montreal Steak Seasoning in place of the salt and pepper). Place the meat into the crock pot with the fat side up if possible. Place the sliced onions on top. Mix all the liquid ingredients and minced garlic and pour the mixture over the meat. Cook on low for 6 hours. Wait. It will smell delicious and you will want to pick up the lid every five minutes, but be patient and wait. Get out of the house if you have to! After the 6 hours are up, take out the meat and onions and discard the cooking liquid. Shred the meat and put it back into the crock pot. Add in more bbq sauce and cook for one more hour. 

We like to serve this with broccoli slaw, sour cream, cheese, and corn taco tortillas, but it would be great with rice, on buns, or even on top of a green salad! It doesn’t really matter how you eat it, just eat it and enjoy!

Gluten Free Banana Bread (Victory Never Tasted So Good)

Banana Bread has been a favorite treat of mine for as long as I can remember. My mom used to make a few loaves at a time and freeze the extras so we wouldn’t run out too quickly. When I went off to college, I only got banana bread when I went home. I wanted to make my own, but the recipe Mama used required a mixer, which I did not have. I began searching the Internet, hoping to find a recipe I could work with. Well, lucky me, I came across the mother lode of cooking sites, Simply Recipes. The banana bread recipe on the site is what kept me coming back for more and more culinary creations. I had the recipe memorized for a while, it's just that good. Finish reading this post, and then go check it out.

I have never been much of a baker, although I will say that my break-and-bake cookies and my Betty Crocker brownies are delectable. You laugh, but it is actually rather easy to screw them up, so let me be proud of myself, please! With all the accurate measuring and timing needed, baking from scratch is something I have to really motivate myself to do. So, when a little more than a year ago I ventured into a strange new world called “Gluten Free,” it was intimidating and scary and there was no wheat flour there. I thought it was going to be my worst nightmare. In fact, I have said several times in the past, “If I couldn’t eat bread or pasta I think I would die.” Well, I am still here, folks. I like puzzles and I like challenges, and the world of Gluten Free is just a big, challenging, wheat-less puzzle.

Initially, I despaired, thinking I would never again snack on (or binge on) the delicious banana bread that I missed so terribly. I tried making the Simply Recipes loaf by just subbing in a gluten-free all-purpose flour and I think I used stevia instead of sugar. I was not impressed. It was too dry and it just didn’t taste right. After resigning myself to a banana bread-less existence, I plucked up the motivation to do some more searching for the right recipe. One of them used rice flour and it was too gritty. Another one that used a mixer was too crumbly and cakey. I refused to give up and, inspired by Inigo Montoya, decided to go back to my favorite recipe.

"When the job went wrong, you go back to the beginning"

I looked at the Simply Recipes banana bread recipe and willed it to work with me. Since my last go-round with it I had learned a lot in the world of Gluten Free. I discovered coconut sugar and I had learned a little bit about some of the various gluten free flours. Almond flour and coconut flour are better at holding on to moisture and I wondered if they would solve my problem of the loaf coming out too dry and crumbly. Armed with my gluten-free allies, I began.

Here is the original recipe.  If you love gluten, give it a try. It's delicious.

Here are the ingredients I used:

• 4 bananas (mashed)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• ½ cup coconut sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour
• ¼ cup Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour
• ¼ cup Bob’s Red Mill Coconut Flour

 

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel and mash your bananas (You can use a potato masher, a fork, a whisk - whatever you've got. It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth). Add the melted butter, beaten egg, coconut sugar, and vanilla to the mashed bananas and mix with a wooden spoon until well blended. You will notice that the batter has a dark, caramel-like color because of the coconut sugar. Next, add the dry ingredients - baking soda, salt, gluten-free all-purpose flour, almond flour, and coconut flour. Mix until well combined. Grease/butter a 4x8 metal loaf pan and pour in the batter. In my experience, a metal pan works best; I have tried using stoneware and glass loaf pans and the banana bread comes out rubbery. Metal is the way to go!

Pop it in the oven for 60 minutes. I checked the center of the loaf with a knife to try to gauge whether it was cooked all the way through. I feared it would burn on the outside if I left it in too long, so I couldn't wait for the knife to come out totally clean, but it was pretty close.

After letting the loaf cool for about 10 minutes, I held my breath and flipped it out onto a cooling rack. It held together in one piece! It was a good sign! I hollered joyfully to my husband, “I made a gluten-free banana bread that didn’t fall apart!” Then I did a happy dance.

 

A few minutes later, we sliced into the loaf. It was only slightly crumbly on the outside and it was still moist on the inside. Better yet, the taste and texture were FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC! It might as well have been the recipe I had been making for the last few years. I did another happy dance.

I wanted to make sure this wasn’t some freak accident, so I stocked up on bananas and gave it another go, and the second loaf was EVEN BETTER. Drew had his first taste of it and declared, “This is the best banana bread I have ever had, gluten-free or otherwise.” He has been with me on this banana bread journey, so he knows that this is a very sweet victory I have won.

Better Than Famous Chili

Remember back in first grade when your teacher assigned you a “How To” project? You had to pick something you were good enough at doing so that you could explain to your classmates how to do it. I am about to travel back to that time with my very first How-To blog post. Hopefully it isn’t terrible.

In keeping with the introspective nature of my previous posts, it is time to talk about something that is of utmost importance to me. I LOVE soup. I could eat soup for every meal, everyday. One of the soupy varieties I like best is chili. It is one of my favorite things to make, it tastes delicious, and leftovers are even better. Despite this affinity, I rarely order chili out at restaurants; even though they brag about their “famous chili” on the menu (By the way, how can everyone’s chili be famous?), the bowl containing the so-called celebrity is usually a monochromatic mixture of meat and beans floating in a broth of oily tomato disappointment. Nothing else. I have been deceived! There has to be more than this! That can’t be the best you’ve got! Where is the color? The crunch? The excitement? In my world, chili is a reasonably spicy avenue through which wonderful meat, beans, AND veggies enter my hungry tummy. The vegetables are the secret to my Better Than Famous Chili.

The beautiful thing about chili is that you can adjust the ingredients to make it your own. Here is how I make mine . . .

I like to use:
- Olive Oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 lb. ground beef (I like to use 80/20 for chili)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- one small can of tomato paste
- one cup of beer (if you are 21+) (you can also sub chicken/beef/vegetable stock)
- one large can of diced tomatoes, with juices
- 3 cans of beans, rinsed and drained (I use black, kidney, and great northern)
- one red bell pepper, diced
- one orange bell pepper, diced
- one yellow bell pepper, diced
- one small zucchini, large dice
- ½ cup baby bella mushrooms, diced
- 1 pepper (You can use serrano, jalapeño, whatever you like. Remove the seeds if you want less heat.)
- 1 tsp. cumin powder
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 1 Tbsp. dried oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Toppings:
- sour cream, avocado, shredded cheese, onion, tomato, cilantro

Get started by heating a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a stock pot over medium heat. I never measure, I just make sure the bottom of the pot is coated. Add the diced onion and stir occasionally as it cooks. If you are using fresh garlic, add it in so that it has time to soften. If you are lazy like me and you are using the jarred stuff, wait until the onions are nice and translucent, then throw in the garlic and stir it around for a minute, but don’t let it go too long or it will burn and become bitter tasting and make your breath stink (and nobody wants that).

Break up the onion-garlic-fest by adding in the ground beef. Side-note: this might sound odd, but I think ground beef, and red meat in general, is so good looking when it is raw. Maybe that makes me weird? Regardless, it needs to be cooked, so break it up into bite-sized pieces, and make sure it all gets browned. If you don’t have one, the Pampered Chef Mix ‘n’ Chop tool is perfect for this job. I have seen a similar utensil at retail stores, too.

Once your cow stops mooing, stir in the tomato paste so that it coats the ground beef. (If you are under age 21, add your cup of broth and skip the rest of this paragraph, because you can’t buy or consume alcohol. Bummer for you.) Then, add in one cup of a beer of your choice; please, for the love of beer and chili, just don’t pick something akin to water. I used the gluten free Omission Pale Ale. Get excited about the beer getting all fizzy in the pot, and let it simmer for a few minutes so that the alcohol cooks out and the flavor stays in. Drink the rest of the beer during your short break.

After the liquid has cooked down, add the diced tomatoes and then let your favorite beans in on the party. I usually use three cans: one is black beans, one is great northern (they add a creaminess to the finished product), and then a can of some sort of red bean. Stir in the bell peppers, zucchini, and mushrooms.

Time for some fuh-lay-vor! Add your hot pepper of choice, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Admire how wonderful your chili smells as it simmers for a few minutes while all the spices meld into the stewy chili goodness. Meanwhile, prepare whatever toppings you like.

When you just can’t stand waiting any longer, taste your chili (without burning your tongue, please) and adjust any seasonings, if necessary. The zucchini and mushrooms should be soft but not mushy, and the peppers should maintain some of their crunch. Ladle into bowls, accessorize with toppings, and enjoy!

Get creative with it and add, subtract or adjust ingredients throughout the process to suit your desires. I like cheese, sour cream, and avocado with mine. I made some cornbread muffins to serve with the chili, too. Sometimes I skip the spoon and just use tortilla chips to shovel it into my mouth. This time, though, I enjoyed using our brand new soup spoons, which are more like small ladles! This tastes amazing hot out of the pot, is great leftover, and freezes well so you can do double duty and prepare a future meal while you cook tonight's dinner.

As a teacher, I have to say that constructive criticism is welcome; please let me know how I did with my “How-To” presentation!