Summertime Desserts

Desserts and Summertime go hand in hand, and one of my favourites is Strawberry Shortcake. Admittedly I cheated with this dessert and bought the pre-cooked angelfood cake. The whipped cream, however, was made from scratch. It was so good that I've vowed to never buy that crappy frozen whipped cream again!

Whipped Cream

2 pints heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavouring

Whip all ingredients together until mixture becomes thick. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving to make sure the cream stays firm.

Laissez l'etouffee..

Tonight was the night for Spinach and Mushroom Etouffee. The recipe was actually easy to follow, and was finished cooking quickly. I made a couple of small modifications, namely in adding in some tomato paste to add a little more depth to the cream of mushroom and cream of celery base, and using a bit more paprika to add to the smokiness of the dish.

I will say that the recipe is nothing like what Staci and i ate at Gumbo Ya-Ya's. It was good, but it wasn't on-par with traditional creole food. I'm going to keep looking around the net to see if i can find a vegetable etouffee or similar recipe so that I can try this again. Keepign the garlic, green pepper and onion a very small chop helps the overall dish. The bigger the pieces, the more apparent they are in the sauce, which only distracts from the texture of the chopped mushroom. Also, I'll probably use fresh spinach in my next attempt. The frozen spinach that I used tonight almost overpowered the complete taste palate. I think that had I cooked the dish for longer, maybe in a slow cooker, the spinach may have been tamed. Staci also thought that the cream of celery was too strong of a forefront taste, so if I use this recipe again, I'll likely use 2 of the cream of mushroom.

Outside the realm of "good for you food", I made Kheer tonight. Kheer is a rice dessert usually made with milk, cardamom, sugar, pistachios or cashews and raisins. I have my own recipe that I use most of the time, but this recipe is pretty close to how I make it. I usually add in some red or golden raisins, and on occasion, coconut flakes. It's a very sweet dessert, which means that you can usually get away with eating a small portion.

Try it! You might like it...or maybe you'll order pizza.

Late-night Jitters

I didn't make the roast chicken and potatoes tonight, but I did find something better: my own "Take That McD's Frappe!" recipe. Staci and I both are addicted to the caramel frappe that was just introduced by McDonald's. I wanted to try my hand at making one that would taste just as yummy, and cost a great deal less. Of course to be able to make this, we had to go out and pick a couple up to "taste test".

I think that the one that I made today was pretty good, and definitely close to being on-par with the McDonald's Frappe. Now, having the McDonald's one, and the home one, Staci and I are both up late with no sign of wanting to sleep.


Take That McD's Frappe
ormaybepizza original recipe by Alde

1 shot espresso, cooled
1 cup ice cubes
2 tablespoons milk
5 scoops vanilla ice cream
3 tablespoons caramel sauce
whipped cream

1. Add all ingredients to blender.
2. Pulse blender till ingredients are almost smooth.
3. Pour into glass, top with whipped cream and drizzled caramel sauce

I'd recommend that you use a really high-quality caramel when making this recipe. The better the caramel, the stronger the caramel flavour. I used a vanilla bean ice cream on this to give it a more pure taste, and went with a flavoured coffee, though regular of both would probably be just as good.

Try it! You might like it...or maybe you'll order a McDonald's Frappe.