Welcome to the Ice Cream Social 2012!

Welcome to the 4th Annual Ice Cream Social at Kitchen Bouquet...come in to the parlor and see what kind of frosty treats and ice cream goodies me and my blogging friends have to share!

Statistics show that we eat more ice cream in the United States per capita than in any other country in the world. But after doing a little research it became clear that Ice Cream in one form or fashion is popular the whole world over. 

Here are a few little tidbits you may not have known about ice cream from a global perspective

• The world's top 5 consumers of ice cream in order are: USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, Belgium/Luxembourg.
•  According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest ice cream sundae in the world was made in Alberta, Canada, in 1988. It weighed nearly 55,000 pounds.
•  According to Guinness World Records, the largest ice cream cone (as of January 2011) was over 9 feet tall. It was achieved at an event in Italy.

There are some pretty interesting ice cream flavors and creations worldwide.

Look at this colorful Phillipine concoction called Halo Halo!!! I'm not sure how this would taste but it sure is beautiful.

Ice cream in india is often flavored with exotic spices. Cardamom is a favorite.

 

In Mexico, ice cream bars called Paletas are popular. Don't these look refreshing? The picture is from Eastside Foodbites blog..check it out HERE. 

 

Turkey is famous for their "stretchy" version of ice cream, Dondurma. See Viewfinder blog for the source of the photo below.

 

The Japanese are the most "creative" with their ice cream selections and actually have flavors including eel, octopus, eggplant, and miso!! I think I will pass on those :-) However, in doing this ice cream research I did keep coming across these cute little Mochi Ice Creams. They are ice cream coated in a sweet rice shell. I have never eaten any, but they look so cute I thought I would give them a try. Easier said than done in a house without air conditioning on one of the hottest days of the year!!!

My efforts were not nearly as pretty! You try wrapping sticky rice dough around melting ice cream and see what I mean. I filled the Mochi with Haagen Daz Green Tea Ice cream. The end result is interesting..the sweet rice cover is not so sweet but interestingly textured. I will need to go try "real" Mochi Ice Cream now to see how mine compares! Recipe follows.

  While Mochi is an ancient invention the Mochi ice cream was created in 1981 at a California restaurant. As I was making the mochi I realized I had eaten it before many times at Chinese restaurants as they are often served filled with a sweet bean paste. My insides weren't so photogenic!

 Mochi Ice Cream

Adapted from this and this recipe

10 small scoops of ice cream frozen hard unless you want the mess I had on my hands

1 cup glutinous or sweet rice flour labeled as Mochiko - I found mine in the asian aisle.

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Cornstarch - a ton of it

Combine glutinous rice flour and water in a glass bowl. Mix well to paste, then add sugar and vanilla, mix until dissolved.  Lightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes. Remove from the microwave and stir well. Dough will very thick! Stir as best you can with a sturdy spatula. Re-cover and return to microwave; heat for 1 minute. When dough begins to inflate while cooking, and then deflates with the microwave door is opened – it’s ready! If dough doesn’t inflate during the previous one minute of cooking time, microwave for 1 additional minute. Remove the bowl from the microwave. Sprinkle a cutting board with a lot of cornstarch; scrape the hot dough onto the cornstarch and then pat the surface with cornstarch-coated hands. Stretch dough gently and use your hands to flatten it. Cut into 10-12 pieces. Place ice cream ball on a mochi piece and gently pinch the edges together to seal. Eat right away or return to freezer.

 We are probably all mostly familiar with the Italian version of ice cream...Gelato. I happen to think Gelato is the BEST form of ice cream created and guess what???? Despite its creaminess its actually lower in fat than most ice creams due to the fact its made with milk and no eggs!

I tried my hand at some Chocolate Gelato for my chocolate ice cream loving hubby Randy. He approves and so do I although chocolate ice cream is hardly ever my first choice. This version was actually made with skim milk (plus a little evaporated milk to give it a bit more body). Lactose free skim milk to boot!! I think I could have gotten away with pure skim. I'll try it next time. Give this simple recipe a try.  Four ingredients!!!

 Chocolate Gelato

Inspired by a recipe in Saveur

3 cups milk (I used 2 cups skim lactose free milk & 1 cup evaporated milk)
3⁄4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
3⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1. Bring 2 cups of the milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat, then remove from heat. Combine remaining 1 cup milk, sugar, cornstarch, and cocoa in a bowl, add to hot milk, and cook until sugar and cocoa dissolve and it begins to thicken (about 3 minutes). Mixture will be like pudding.

2. Set aside to let cool, then cover with plastic wrap or wax paper touching the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate overnight. Process mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

So remember the stretchy ice cream?  Gelato is also supposed to be stretchier than other ice creams as well. Can you see the stretchiness in this piece? Weird huh? Still melty though! So I had to pop this tiny little piece in my mouth immediately after this picture was taken.

 

Finally I come to France. 

 

They have great ice cream too in such beautiful clean sounding flavors. I opted to make a cousin to ice cream..the French sorbet which has no dairy whatsoever in it but somehow ends up tasting quite smooth and somehow creamy. I have oodles of blackberries beginning to ripen so I went with what I have fresh and I did not go wrong! This is to die for right now with the high temps we've had this week. Super refreshing!

Blackberry Lime Sorbet
Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

4 cups blackberries, fresh or frozen

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

splash of tequila (optional - I opted for about a teaspoon)

Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Puree the blackberries in a blender or food processor with the sugar syrup.  Press the mixture through a large mesh sieve to remove the seeds, then stir the lime juice into the sweetened puree.  Add a splash of tequila, if desired.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Source: adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Hope you enjoyed the world tour of ice cream! I'll close with an Ice Cream Colors mosaic.

Now's the time to grab a bowl, scoop some in and get some toppings going while you browse all of the fabulous ice cream posts my blogging friends have created. If you have an ice cream related post please add your link below and link back to this post at your blog. Anything ice cream related is welcome! It can be a favorite recipe, ice cream product, ice cream dishes, ice cream memories, ice cream anything! Just join right in. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day Early!

My friend Kathleen over at Cuisine Kathleen hosts a Blog Crawl during the week of St. Patrick's Day every year.


I haven't been blogging much but wouldn't miss this particular event because it's a lot of fun :-) I haven't been doing much in the way of cooking or baking lately, but saw the cutest idea on Martha Stewart and I decided to recreate. Martha Stewart (of course) did a way better job but I will share anyways! It's fat free too!


Please take the time to go check out Kathleen's blog post as well as the blogs of all those linked up. Should be fun! Better yet go do your own post and add your link HERE.

~Welcome to the Ice Cream Social 2011~

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Ice Cream Social at Kitchen Bouquet! I look forward to this all year and can't believe the time has finally come to have y'all come into the parlor and share all your ice cream creations & posts.


I can't think of a better way to spend time with friends and family than to eat ice cream together! It's hard to not be happy and have a smile on your face when you are enjoying such a cool treat :-)


Hope you all enjoy the social as much as I know Iwill!


With so many wonderful things "Ice Cream" out there in the world its hard for me to narrow down my choices when it comes to choosing something to share for the social. This year I decided to recreate a couple of favorite store bought or Ice Cream Truck treats.



There are so many goodies now days in the freezer case!


But there are just some classics that stand the test of time


If you really want a challenge try your hand at this Frozen Treats ID Quiz at Slashfood. I failed miserably, but did get a few correct! If nothing else it will give you a few blasts from the past.
TAKE THE QUIZ

The history of ice cream treats and ice cream trucks is a little sketchy. The late 1800s saw the invention in Europe of such things as the Ice Cream Sundae & Ice Cream sodas.



There was also a European tradition of bicycle peddlers of ice cream at the turn of the 20th century and this was brought to the United States.


1904 saw the fabled introduction of the ice cream cone to America at the Worlds Fair.


In 1920 the Good Humor trucks started rolling.


1934 was the year the Eskimo Pie entered the scene.


1940 saw the opening of Dairy Queen.


And so many more things followed!



Today I am going to focus on a couple of my personal favorites - The Ice Cream Sandwich & The Nutty Buddy!

For a base for these two yummy treats, I started with an absolutely yummy Double Vanilla Ice Cream recipe.


I wanted to try and duplicate the flavor of the Dreyer's Double Vanilla I love so much and I think it came close.


Double Vanilla Ice Cream
From the Ice Cream Maker website

1 C milk

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 C cream

5 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Warm milk in a sauce pan.
   
   
2. Mix in salt and sugar.
   
   
3. Slice vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape the seeds from the beans with the tip of a sharp knife. Add the beans and the pod to the milk.
   
   
4. Remove from heat, cover and allow to cool.
   
   
5. Whisk the egg yolks.
   
   
6. Gradually pour the milk into the egg yolks, beating constantly, then return mixture to the pan.
   
   
7. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until custard thickens slightly and reaches about 80C (170F). Custard is ready when it coats the back of a spoon.
   
   
8. Pour cream into a bowl. Set the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice and set a sieve over the cream.
   
   
9. Strain the custard into the cream and mix.
   
   
10. Cool, stirring often.
    
    
11. Add vanilla extract, mix well.
    
    
12. Chill overnight, then transfer to ice cream machine.

With this ice cream I went on to make some really yummy ice cream sandwiches! Look at this 1905 Jersey Shore beach scene that has Ice Cream Sandwiches being sold for a penny a piece! You'll have to enlarge the picture by clicking on it in order to see the sign.


Ice Cream Sandwich
From Family Fun website

Ingredients

• 1 stick margarine
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• Half-gallon carton vanilla ice cream (or homemade)
  

Instructions

In a medium-sized bowl, cream the margarine and brown sugar (using margarine instead of butter and brown sugar instead of granulated sugar produces a chewy, soft cookie). Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, stir the cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to the margarine mixture. Beat until well combined. Gather the dough into a ball and chill for at least 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick. Use a ruler and a sharp knife to cut out rectangular pieces. (I cut cookies to match the ice cream I molded in little pans)


Transfer the cookie rectangles with a spatula to an ungreased baking pan. Makes patterns with fork tines.


Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool on a cooling rack.

Meanwhile, cut rectangular blocks from the ice cream. To do this, peel back the half-gallon carton from the ice cream, and cut 1/2-inch-thick slabs that are roughly the dimensions of your baked cookies. Return the blocks to the freezer. (I used my homemade ice cream and patted it down in little pans that were the same size as the sandwiches I wanted.)


Once the cookies have thoroughly cooled, place one ice cream block between two cookies. Trim the sides with a knife, wrap the sandwich in foil or plastic wrap, and freeze for several hours. Repeat until you have used all the cookies and ice cream. Makes enough dough for 6 large sandwiches.

In addition to the traditional sandwiches I couldn't help getting a little more creative.

For these sweet pink hearts I mixed some fresh strawberries with one of my new faves - Coconut Pineapple from Dreyers. Its really great and must be more like sherbet because its lower in fat than most!



Moving on to the Nutty Butty! Ahhh I have such nice memories of buying and eating Nutty Buttys while visiting my grandparents & my Auntie Gussie on my Dad's side. I can't even remember the name of the little store we would go to to buy them, but I can picture it in my head as just a tiny little place. I'm sure there were other things to chose from but Nutty Butty was my pick. Although I haven't seen them in years I found that they are still being made by the Purity company.


Here's a close up of what they look like. The one on the left is the traditional Nutty Buddy!


Here is the way it came packaged. You would pull the top off and then peel back the paper.




Per the ever handy dandy Wikipedia, the "Nutty Buddy" was originally created and produced by Seymour Ice Cream Company, which was located in the Port Norfork section of Dorchester, Mass. and named after its owner, Buddy Seymourian. Seymour Ice Cream ceased operations in the 1980s.

I followed the directions found at This Charming House blog.

Nutty Buddys

What You'll Need
Sugar Cones
Ice Cream, softened
Crushed Nuts or Sprinkles
Smuckers Magic Shell
Wax or parchment paper
Scissors
Tape

What To Do
Set up your cones on an upside down egg crate or in a bowl full of rice. Shake the Magic Shell well, and pour a bit around the rim of the cone and swirl (you may need to use your finger) to create a thin coating on the inside of the cone. Then pour a generous bit into the bottom of the cone. Put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Wrap your cones in paper, and cut tops to about 2" above the edge of the cone. Fill them up with the soft ice cream to about an inch above the top of the cone. I used this nifty parchment/foil that Martha Stewart puts out.


Put them back in the freezer to firm up (about 1 hour). Add some Magic Shell on top of the cones & quickly add chopped nuts or sprinkles.




Put them back in the freezer for a few hours until firm. Enjoy!!!



I was pretty excited by how they came out! The taste was really close and the look was pretty dead on except I'm not sure how they get they chocolate to drip down the sides!

Can't wait to see what all of you have to share! Any ice cream related posts are welcome. Please add a link to your post mentioning the Ice Cream Social so that we can all enjoy each others posts! The Social will be going on all weekend so don't worry about being late to the party. In fact I will keep the linky open until the end of the month. Thanks for coming to this year's Social!






Please also take the time to visit A Musing Potpourri's Ice Cream Social on Sunday!

I'm also adding my link to the following this week:
Sweets for Saturday at Sweet as Sugar Cookies
Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads
Fat Camp Friday at Mangoes and Chutney
Sunday Scoop at I [heart} Naptimes
This Week's Cravings at Moms Crazy Cooking

Great Cooking Magazine Challenge March 2011

A couple of weeks ago I threw out the Great Cooking Magazine Challenge again. This is an event for all of us to attack that stack of cooking magazines, clippings or printed out recipes. If you're anything like me you have plenty of material! The idea is to try something new. Don't worry if you didn't know about the challenge until now. Just take some inspiration and come back here to share what you tried. The linky will be open for a month.

I got a new Sunset magazine recently because I was attracted to the beautiful waterfall on the cover. But they always have pretty good recipes too. The March edition was no exception. I'm the only one that likes seafood in my house, so sometimes on the weekend I will do fish or shrimp for lunch for just me. So the Halibut Parchment Packets sounded just up my weekend cooking alley.


I like to cook with what I have on hand, so I had to make a few changes but I stayed pretty close to the recipe. It was tasty and something different for sure!

Halibut (or Tilapia!) Parchment Packets with Coconut Almond Rice
March 2011 Sunset Magazine

• 3/4 teaspoon red curry paste (I used green curry paste)
  
• 3/4 cup canned coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons slivered almonds
• 1/8 tsp chili paste (my addition)
  
• 1/2 cup basmati rice (I used regular rice)
  
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened flaked coconut
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 4 halibut fillets (6 oz. each) (Tilapia worked well!)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 pound asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into 2-in. pieces on the diagonal (I omitted)
  
• 1/4 pound sugar snap peas
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
• Lime wedges

1. Preheat oven to 400°. In a small bowl, whisk curry paste & chili paste, gradually adding coconut milk. Transfer 1/2 cup sauce to another bowl; set bowls aside.

2. Toast almonds in a small saucepan over medium heat until golden, 3 minutes. Stir in rice, reserved 1/2 cup sauce, 1/2 cup water, the coconut, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until rice is tender, 16 to 18 minutes.

3. Season halibut (or other white fish) with remaining 1/4 tsp. salt and the pepper while rice cooks. Cut 4 pieces of parchment, each 12 by 14 in. Set a fillet in center of each, then mound asparagus and peas on top (some may roll off). For each packet, bring 2 opposite sides of parchment up over ingredients and fold several times to seal. Bring other sides up and fold to seal. Place packets, folded sides up, on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until fish is just opaque (poke with a sharp knife to check), 10 to 15 minutes. (I used the parchment lined with foil and it needed a bit more time to cook. I upped the temp to 450 for the final couple of minutes.)

4. Microwave remaining 1/4 cup sauce to warm. Divide rice among 4 plates and top each with fish and vegetables from a packet, discarding extra liquid. Drizzle sauce over dishes and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve with lime wedges if you have them.

My note: I didn't have unsweetened coconut, but rinsed the sweetened coconut I did have. Gotta improvise!

I made enough to bring for lunch this week. That office break room microwave won't know what hit it :-) Beats the heck out of Lean Cuisine!

So whatcha got cooking? Show us what you tried. Leave your link below and please link back to me in your post. That way everyone that reads your blog can see everyone else's magazine recipes too! There aren't many rules here..just cook something new!

I'm joining in over at Beth Fish Reads for her weekly Weekend Cooking event.

Happy St. Patty's Day

My friend Kathleen over at Cuisine Kathleen hosts a yearly St. Patty's Day Blog Crawl. Its always lots of fun and I wouldn't dream of missing it :-) Its always a challenge for me though because I really don't have an Irish heritage or even many green things in my house. So I like to turn it into a kind of Green scavenger hunt. Be sure and check out all of the other fun posts at Kathleens.



What better place to hunt for GREEN than the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. There was a "Once Upon a Time" theme and the Wind in the Willows display had some really interesting glass green grasses.



I fell in love with this cute little green moss


At the Alice in Wonderland exhibit, Alice found a nice grassy green lawn chair to sit on!


How about some beautiful green orchids?


Vertical growing was seen in several of the exhibits. Green growing up!



Now this is taking "Going Green" to a whole new limit. I wonder if there is a putting green on the roof?


I loved these lush green steps


Apart from the fantastic display gardens there was a lot of fantastic window shopping and plenty of cool green things.




I'd love to have one of these washed green figures on my garden fence


More green glass - this time bamboo


These fat funny green leaves seemed to be a big attraction at the Monrovia display


There were even green houses on display.


This big green ball was a great find on my scavenger hunt


And this green gate..which was part of the gate competition would be beautiful leading into an Irish cottage


More green glass...this one a fountain


I was tempted to bring this green flutterby back to my garden


Ahhh now we're getting really warm or..er...green!


And finally I found the green prize...sending a virtual one to Kathleen for being such a fantastic host.



So I always have great intentions of doing an Irish spread or setting a beautiful green table, but somehow my big plans never quite pan out. So instead of the whole shabang we get a few wee bits o' green from my kitchen and a tiny leprechaun of a table setting for two. I was going for kind of a Green with a pot of gold at the end of a Rainbow kind of thing. What I ended up with was a bit of a mess lol!



I tried my hand at a green 4 leaf clover napkin and learned a couple of things. Square napkins are not always square and its looks a lot easier on the video!


I saw this bouquet at the grocery store and fell in love with the little green mums



The exact same color green as the inside of my new rainbow bowls


Under everything is my Mom's tablecloth that I confiscated when she brought it out for my wedding. Please pardon the dark photo. It is really a lot lighter cream than shown below..see above! Plus green leaves!


And finally the Pot of Gold along with two cute green grass patterned glasses I found at Goodwill.



My Green Food Contributions...hardly Irish, but Green none the less. How about a pot of green and gold otherwise known as Mangoes and Kiwi!



I was planning on doing an avocado dressing and salad, but when I peeled this smooth skinned Bacon Avocado it was so creamy and good I ate it at the counter as fast as I could slice it!


The next Green from my kitchen is about as close to Irish as I made it this go round and that's only because I had some Guiness left over from last year...Beer Braised Collard Greens


The greens cooked up really yummy though.


Inspired by recipe found HERE at Budget Bytes.

Beer Braised Collard Greens
2 T olive oil
1 med onion chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
12 oz beer
Chicken bouillon or base plus 2 cups water or 2 cups broth
1 large bunch collard greens, washed, stems removed and chopped
1 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
black pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a large pot and allow to come to boil with lid on. Once boiling stir will and reduce heat to low. Simmer until greens are desire tenderness. Collards can cook for a very long time without getting mushy. Mine went for 2 hours but would have been good well before that. Stir every 15 mins or so.

And finally my crowning GREEN Glory....GREEN GOOK (also known as Watergate Salad). I'm not sure if anyone else calls it Green Gook. I think my family made that up lol. This was a staple with Sunday dinners at my family when I was growing up. Some versions call for marshmallows. We mostly skipped that. Its been years since I've had it and I have been thoroughly enjoying it! It's not the prettiest dish, but it certainly is Green!



Green Gook - found on the Pistachio Jello Instant Pudding box & suited to my taste

1 can (20 oz.) DOLE Crushed Pineapple, in juice, undrained

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Pistachio Flavor Instant Pudding

1 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans

1-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping or equal amount of whipped cream

Mix all ingredients. Stir well. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving or eat it right away like me.

Kathleen...sending thanks for being such a great friend and hostess. It was another fun time this year!

An Irish Prayer

May God give you

For every storm, a rainbow,

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

May the strength of God pilot us,

May the wisdom of God instruct us,

May the hand of God protect us,

May the word of God direct us.

Be always ours this day and forever more.

I'm having a Great Cooking Magazine Challenge this weekend on Sunday March 20th. Please join me with your magazine clipping inspired recipes! See this LINK for earlier events.

I'm also joining in for Table Top Tuesday & Janmary's St. Patrick's Day Bloggy Carnival.