#18 Recipe: Gelato AND #76 Mini Adventures: Homemade Ice Cream

So we went to Target last night and found an amazing deal: an ice cream maker for only $20! What a steal! Now, I love ice cream of course, but I ADORE gelato. I go nuts for the stuff! So, to celebrate our fantastic find, we found this amazing recipe for gelato.

Honestly, it isn't the easiest stuff to make - mostly because it takes so dang long. I just wanted to get that goodness in me! But you have to be patient, and it is quite rewarding when you're done.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar, divided
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
(And then whatever other flavoring you want. We just added macadamia nuts and caramel. That's Anth's favorite!)

To make it, you combine the milk, cream, and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook it until the sugar dissolves completely.

In a separate bowl, whip the egg yolks and remaining sugar together until they are thick and pale yellow. I did this with my kitchenaid and it worked quite well - I could tend to the milk on the stove while it was mixing up (wow, I'm thankful for than invention!). Then pour a little bit (1/2 cup or so) of the milk mixture into the eggs and stir, then add it all back into the saucepan. Stir constantly until it starts to get thick (the recipe says thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon - whatever that means!) but it does start to get thick after 7 or 8 minutes. Then add vanilla.

Now this is the important part - you have to wait until the mixture is completely chilled before you put it in the ice cream maker or else it won't work. We discovered this quickly. We actually tried putting it in when it had only been in the freezer an hour or so (and hot liquid does not cool very quickly in the freezer, even after an hour it was still lukewarm) and it did nothing. We left it in the fridge overnight, and tried it again today and it thickened into ice cream almost instantly.

We added the macadamia nuts just before taking it out of the ice cream maker and then added the caramel after serving.

Sooooooo yummy! I really want to try different combinations! Plus, it isn't really all that bad for you - only 3/4 cup sugar total, and mostly milk instead of cream. I don't know the exact calorie count, but it seems very healthy (and don't anyone try to correct me!).

In addition to being a new family recipe, this was one of our mini-adventures that we decided to do together, and it ended up being a lot of fun. Sugar always makes for a good bonding experience!

#18 Recipe: Arancini

So I tried out this sicilian dish last night. It was more complex than most anything else I've ever tried - there are 3 different multi-step processes you have to go through, but it turned out pretty good. Anthony actually really liked it, despite the fact that somehow in my world of amazing intellect I mixed up the mozarella cheese with hash browns. Hash browns?! Are you kidding me?! Yeah, I didn't notice until afterwards. Hey, they're both shredded and white and my darling husband put them both in clear plastic bags right on top of eachother! How in the world would I have known different?! I mean, I guess I could have tasted it, but I wasn't thinking that it could be anything other than mozarella cheese. Hash browns come in a big red bag, I know, I've bought them before!

But, they still turned out pretty good. Fortunately, I made enough of the filling that I can try to make them again (with the cheese this time) later this week.

Anyway, here is the recipe, from Rachael Ray's website:

Rice Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked rice
1 quart chicken stock or bouillon
3 tablespoons softened butter
4 egg yolks
1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Filling Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 pound ground veal, beef, chicken or pork
1/4 pound mozzarella cut into half-inch cubes
1 can tomato paste (6 ounces)
1 can water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup frozen peas

Frying Ingredients:
4 egg whites, slightly beaten
2 cups bread crumbs
Enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the pan 2 inches deep

Preparation

For Rice:Combine rice, chicken stock and butter in large pan. When chicken stock begins to boil, turn heat down low; stir rice once, then cover pan tightly and simmer until all liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Rice should be soft and slightly sticky so that it will hold together.Set aside rice to cool. Add egg yolks and parmesan cheese to cooled rice; stir well. Refrigerate while making the other parts of the recipe.

For Filling:In a saucepan, heat extra virgin olive oil and sauté onions and celery until golden, about five minutes. Add meat and brown. Stir in tomato paste, water, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes. Add peas and cook for five minutes longer.

To Fry:Add enough extra virgin olive oil to a pan with high sides so that it is about two inches deep, then turn to medium-high heat. While extra virgin olive oil is heating, shape rice mixture into round balls, about 1/2 cup each. With your finger, make a hole in each rice ball. Add one tablespoon of the meat filling and the cheese cube and cover the holes with more rice. Dip rice balls in egg whites and roll in bread crumbs until thoroughly coated. Drop carefully into heated extra virgin olive oil, a few at a time, and fry until golden, turning around for about 3-4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Serve warm or at room temperature and with a side dish of tomato sauce.

*Changes I made: I made the rice with my rice cooker, and used just a little bit of extra virgin olive oil instead of the butter. I also eliminated the salt from the filling (because I just don't need the extra sodium) and the peas as well (because I couldn't find any fresh peas - only frozen, which I can't stand). You also don't need to use a full 2 inches of olive oil to fry them (the stuff is expensive!) so I just went about a 1/3 inch deep and was more careful rolling the balls around. I just did one at a time.

Oh, and the rice balls ended up being pretty big - larger than my fist. There was enough to make maybe 5. I probably should have worked the rice a little bit more in my hands so that it wasn't so thick around the filling. Then I could have made them a little smaller as well. Either way, one rice ball each was enough to fill up both my husband and myself.

I'll update after I try it out again.

#18 Recipe: Egg Noodle Casserole

My first recipe.

And it didn't really turn out very well. I mean, the flavor was good, and my husband will tell you that, but I attempted to make my own noodles, and apparently they don't cook quite the same way as the storebought kind. Meaning, I kind of didn't cook them enough. At all.

Ok, and it took me nearly two hours to complete a simple recipe. (Part of that was running to Fresh & Easy to get the ingredients that I thought we already had...)

Overall, I definitely want to try the recipe again. I'll just make sure I cook the noodles longer!


Egg Noodles

2 1/4 c Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
3 Eggs

Combine ingredients in mixer until clumpy. Then hand mix to form a large ball of dough (add flour if too sticky or water if too dry). After you have a ball of dough, attach it to the dough hook on the mixer and mix on level 2 for about 2 minutes.

(This is where my love for my mixer comes in - I put the dough in the mixer, walked away for 2 minutes, came back and it was magically done! I love this thing!)

Let dough sit for 20 minutes before rolling out, then cut into desired shape and let dry for at least another 20 minutes. Boil noodles until cooked thoroughly. (Takes a bit longer than you might expect, at least for me).


Chicken & Noodles

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth (more or less, depending on thickness)
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
4 chicken breasts
Seasoning salt to taste (I used Laury's)
Onion salt to taste (not too much or else it is just too salty!)
Crushed black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon (ish) extra virgin olive oil

Sautee the garlic with the olive oil and add diced chicken breast. Cook thoroughly.

Add the cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup, then the chicken broth until you get the desired consistency. Season with the seasoning salt, pepper, and onion salt, but again, not too much or else it will be really salty (and there is already plenty of sodium in the soups).

Add the egg noodles from above when it is all done and voila! Easy yummy food!

I think if I were to do it again though, I would add a little bit of sour cream, and maybe some fresh chopped green onions instead of onion salt, but I always try recipes as close to verbatim as possible before improvising.