Filed under: Failure, Ice Cream, taste by ramune

A few months ago I decided I wanted to buy an ice cream maker. Once the idea was in my head I could not get it out. When I couldn’t find the ice cream maker I wanted, I got mildly frustrated because I had these grand plans to create ice cream that would blow the world away (well not really, but it would be fun to send delicious ice cream care packages to friends). After a few hiccups, mainly getting screwed over by iKitchen when they sent me a refurbished maker and took far too long to reimburse me, I finally got a new working ice cream maker. I am not sure how it happened, but my ice cream maker sat in the closet unused for most of the summer . . . until this past week when I finally decided to take it out and put it to use.

I probably should have gone straight to Epicurious or some respectable ice cream recipe page, but I didn’t. I looked up “ice cream recipes” in Google and picked something that sounded good and relatively easy for my first batch: Crunchy Pecan Maple Syrup ice cream (I am not going to post the link because it’s not worth it). The recipe was simple . . . probably too simple. Even while I was making it I thought that it could use a few extra ingredients but I figured for my first time making ice cream I should just stick to the recipe. Unfortunately the recipe I chose was lame and although I am not happy with the results I thought I should post it anyway (it’s all part of the process anyway, right?).

The next time I make ice cream I am going to look up a few more recipes and do some serious research (Bobby Flay just did a throwdown that involved making Maple Spice ice cream . . . mmm). Maybe once it’s worth eating I will test it out on some friends. In the meantime, here are some photos of the process. I am still without a tripod so there are some shots I wanted to get and just couldn’t.

Roasting pecans

Mixing the ingredients

The final product, Crunchy Pecan Maple Syrup ice cream . . . mediocre.

Filed under: Uncategorized by ramune

This is just a wee note to let you know that if you hadn’t noticed you can subscribe to this blog using your favorite RSS reader (click the button to the right). If you had subscribed before you might want to subscribe again and replace the link. I just switched to feedburner so there might be some changes.

Thanks!

-R

Filed under: Baking, Collaboration, Friends, taste by ramune

My friend Elisabeth got married a few months back and for her wedding shower I gave her a cookbook called Cupcakes! and a muffin pan. Because the cookbook looked so good (yes I judge a cookbook by it’s cover and the pictures in it) I bought myself one as well. We had talked about getting together to bake cupcakes and finally did so this past weekend. After flipping through a number of pages of delicious looking (and sounding) cupcakes we narrowed it down to the Mississippi Mud cupcakes.

While I was at Fresh World buying the Oreos for the crusty bit, I picked up a few Asian snacks for Elisabeth and Ben (her husband). If you have a Fresh World near you and haven’t been yet, I suggest you check it out, it is a cultural experience. Fresh World is half regular grocery store, half Chinese/Korean/Indian/Hispanic grocery store (I won’t say world market because there is a lot missing from that list). I have seen a few stranger things there than I saw when I lived in China. Some of my favorites are “American Coffee” (Japanese version, in a can), pig uterus (among other strange animal parts), and the aisle full of Asian candies and snacks. I picked up some tasty chocolate/cookie goods for Elisabeth and “Fried Chicken Snack” for Ben . . . mmm. The greatest part about “Fried Chicken Snack” is that when you look at the ingredients there is nothing chicken about it.

That was a bit of a tangent, but I thought I would share. I am currently without a tripod and the lighting was not fantastic so I didn’t get quite as many good shots.

Crushed Oreo cookie crumbs makeup the bottom of the cupcake

3 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate in Elisabeth’s great measuring cups ready to be melted

Chocolate sour cream batter on top of crushed Oreo cookies and a few chocolate chips

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes! They are not the most photogenic but they sure pack a sugary chocolaty punch!

Bonus: Elisabeth with the Fried Chicken Snack pack

Filed under: taste by ramune

Note: I realize I skipped last week so I will make it up next week with two posts. I think I needed a wee break after the Cloisonné piece.

It’s that time of year when the Farmers Market starts getting some really tasty fruits and vegetables out on the stands. Some of my favorites are the colorful cherry tomatoes and berries shown below.

Cherry Tomatoes

Berries

Colorful Cherry Tomatoes