Category Archives: Recipes

Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream

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A couple weeks ago I splurged and bought a couple boxes of my favorite Girl Scout cookies, Tagalongs and Samoas.  For anyone who isn’t a cookie freak like me, Tagalongs (aka Peanut Butter Patties) are crispy cookies layered with peanut butter and covered with a chocolaty coating.  Samoas (aka Caramel DeLites) are vanilla cookies coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut, and laced with chocolaty stripes.  After nibbling on them here and there, I had half about a half a box of each and decided to dust off my trusty ice cream maker.  The result… ice creamy goodness!

Girl Scout Ice Cream 019Samoa Tagalong Ice Cream
makes about 1 quart

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • A pinch of salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 8 Samoas, chopped
  • 8 Tagalongs, chopped

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Add vanilla extract.

2. To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the heavy cream into the bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Gradually pour some of the warm milk mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula (about 5 – 8 minutes).

5. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly. Preferably overnight.

6. Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  During the last few minutes of churning, pour in the chopped cookies.

Girl Scout Ice Cream 015This makes a delicious ice cream!  If you have other cookies, please us those instead.  But I especially love the combo of chocolate, coconut, caramel and peanut butter.  What Girl Scout cookie combo would you put in your ice cream?

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Better with Bacon

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I’m so lucky that Jay is such a great cook!  While I was still working, I had absolutely no motivation to assemble meals.  Once in a while, we would scour our cookbooks to find some inspiration.  Jay was flipping through my Tyler Florence cookbook and spotted his Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with Tomato Vinaigrette recipe.  It looked simple and delicious, and with a few tweaks it made our way to our hungry bellies.

IMG_3856Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 10 large shrimp (about 1 pound), peeled and deveined, tails on
  • 5 bacon slices, halved
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 green onion, thinly sliced on the diagonal, for garnish
  • Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

Tomato Vinaigrette Ingredients

  • 1 ripe tomato, halved, seeds squeezed out
  • 1 garlic clove
  • Zest and juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions
For the vinaigrette:  puree the tomato, garlic, lime zest, lime juice, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a blender until smooth. Pour in the oil and puree again until emulsified and slightly thickened. Refrigerate.

Wrap each shrimp in a piece of bacon, overlapping the ends so they stick together. Place a large skillet over medium heat, drizzle with a 1/2-count of oil, and heat just to the smoking point. Lay the shrimp in the pan (do this in batches if it’s crowded) and sauté until the bacon is crisp, tossing so the shrimp cook evenly. To serve, spoon the tomato vinaigrette on each plate. Garnish with green onion and cilantro leaves.

IMG_3857This recipe was amazing! The rich, bacony shrimp went perfectly with the tomato vinaigrette. I even had some leftover vinaigrette to use with salads later in the week. We will be making this again very soon.  What do you like to wrap in bacon?

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Eat Some Pao

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8

Watching a Red Lobster commercial and seeing those cheddar bay biscuits this weekend triggered a need for some cheesy bread. Then Jay brought up those amazing cheese puffs we’ve eaten at Brazilian steakhouses. We looked up a few recipes and it seemed surprisingly easy to make. Jay liked one recipe and I liked another one, so we had a bake off. Here is the winning recipe, which was adapted from Epicurious. It’s the one I chose of course! Hehe.

photo3Pao de Quejio (Brazilian Cheese Puffs)
makes about 24 puffs

Ingredients

  • 2 cups tapioca flour*
  • 1 cup milk (reduced fat or whole)
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 3/4 cup Queso Fresco, grated
  • 2 eggs

* Tapioca Flour can be found at specialty markets such as Whole Foods (where we got ours, Bob’s Red Mill brand) or Asian markets and is also called manioc starch or tapioca starch.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In the meantime bring the milk, salt, and butter to a boil in a sauce pan while constantly stirring mixture.
3. Once boiling remove the mixture of milk, salt and butter from heat.
4. Slowly add tapioca flour, stirring constantly until thoroughly mixed
5. Add the cheese and eggs to mixture
6. Mix until smooth (dough will be gummy)
7. Use a mini muffin pan, and fill each cup all the way up
8. Bake until golden brown, usually about 20 minutes

photo2Eat while hot. Cooked puffs can be stored, in the fridge as long as it’s kept covered and then warmed up on a low setting in a toaster oven. You can also save any unused dough for about 2 days in the fridge. Plus, these little babies are naturally gluten free!

photo1These were so delicious! The little puffs tasted exactly like they did when we ate them at a restaurant. They are slightly crusty on the outside, and have a soft warm center. I could eat these babies all day. Unfortunately, Jay’s puffs (the one in the picture above on the left), were a little dry. He attributes my win to the butter content of course.

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