me make food

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Theresa made up some peanut butter bars from scratch following a recipe from good housekeeping and added choc chips and a chocolate drizzle. They were really good warm.

Theresa honed her cake ball skills up a few notches this weekend. We were invited over to my brothers house for some grub. I brought two loaves of no knead bread and Theresa made cupcakes and coated cake balls.

So it is the vanilla and chocolate cake crumbles, but way lighter on the frosting mixed in to make them lighter and more cake like. A core ball of one kind of cake surrounded by the other kind. Then dipped in the opposite almond bark and covered with coconut, cake crumbs, and colored sugar. They were the best batch yet. Not overly sweet or dense. My fave was the coconut ones.

I posted about the red velvet cake balls a day or so ago. We figured if we used Theresa’s checkerboard cake to make dual filled cake balls. We made ours from scratch the whole way. Man are they good.

Of course Alton Brown showed her the way.

2 3/4 cups sugar
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 tablespoons butter, plus more for greasing pan
1 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped, roasted nuts, optional

Grease an 8 by 8-inch pan with butter. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar, chocolate, 1 1/2 tablespoons of the butter, half-and-half, and corn syrup. Over medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved and chocolate is melted. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove the cover and attach a candy thermometer to the pot. Cook until the thermometer reads 234 degrees F. Remove from the heat and add the remaining butter. Do not stir. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes or until it drops to 130 degrees F. Add vanilla and nuts, if desired, and mix until well-blended and the shiny texture becomes matte. Pour into the prepared pan. Let sit in cool dry area until firm. Cut into 1-inch pieces and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

I have read about this and needed to give it a try. Made some last night (thats where the pics come from) using some thick peppered bacon. I did not follow the directions close enough and it was meh…. It was good but the bacon was not done enough.

So this morning T’s dad got me some bacon from the farmers market and I decided to try again. I followed the recipe much better, I actually flipped the bacon and added more coating. After it cooled it was pure heaven. The cayenne pepper added a bite, I also added some black pepper. It truly tastes like bacon candy and is delicious. I cut the first batch into bite size pieces and am working on the second batch right now. Gonna bring it over to my brothers party tonight for some others to experience.

Fresh raspberries blended up and swirled in vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately I did not mix it enough. The frozen fruit is hard as ice, the rest is normal vanilla. Hard to scoop, but delish.

Huge fan of Alton Brown’s good eats. I followed his vanilla recipe, but left out the preserves. I hear is called Philadelphia style since it contains no eggs. It actually turned out tasting like ice milk you can pick up from DQ, which I love. It is not as thick or rich as Ben and Jerry’s for sure.

I rushed it a bit, only 4 hours of chill time before I churned it. Heck I bought the ice cream maker over a week ago and only got one sorbet out of it. I wanted the cool goodness. It did not firm up too much when I made it. A real runny soft serve, but it froze up really good. The vanilla was not as intense as I would of liked it, but still nummy as hell.

We have wanted one of these for a while. Jake mentioned he got an ice cream maker and had made some good stuff. We opted for the kitchenaid one. It cost a bit more than other makers, but figured it was worth it. Picked it up yesterday but had to freeze the bowl for 15 hours. But it is best to chill your mix for 6 hours or so anyway.

Oh man this is good. Tastes just like a skor bar cept I did not add any nuts.

Hella simple too.

1/2 cup of salted butter (one stick)
1/2 cup of brown sugar packed. ( I used dark brown)
one tablespoon of water. helps it all mix up.

- on med low melt butter and sugar and stir constantly. The goal is to keep it mixed, separation is gonna ruin it.
- bring heat up to just below medium and keep stirring.
- goal is to get to 290 degrees and it should take 10 + minutes. Stirring constantly. No higher than medium heat. your arm should get tired mixing it.
- candy thermometer is essential.
- once it gets to 290 - 300 mix in 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda stir to mix and drop on waxed paper.

Right near the end temp it will get strange, keep mixing it and get that soda in quick and to the waxed paper. Other wise the butter will seperate and you are hosed.

add some milk chocolate iffin you want.