Tag: Cooking

No Churn Homemade Maine Blueberry Ice Cream

When I was wracking my brain trying to come up with blueberry recipes, I remembered making ice cream in a bag back in my 10th grade biology class.  Unfotunately, that may have been the only thing that stuck with me from that class. But,  I thought that the recipe was would be  perfect to share here.  Now, the recipe itself is easy, but you may want to skip arm day at the gym before making this.  You are about to get one hell of a workout.

Ingredients:

2 Cups half and half

4 Tbs sugar

1 Tsp vanilla extract

2 cups of blueberries

You will also need:

Ice

1/2 Cup kosher salt

1 Gallon size Ziplock bag

Several plastic shopping bags.

Instructions:

Fill one of the shopping bags about half way with ice.  Keep in mind, it’s going to leak so I highly recommend double or triple bagging it.  Pour the kosher salt over the ice and let sit while making the ice cream mixture.  In a food processor, pour in the half and half, blueberries, sugar and vanilla and mix on high for a few minutes.  Pour mixture into ziplock bag and seal tightly.  Place the ziplock bag into the shopping bag with ice.  Shake for 10 minutes.  You’re arms will get tired, and time will go by slow, and you’ll worry that you did something wrong when it doesn’t harden.  Keep shaking.  I found that tying the shopping bag and rolling it on a table worked well too.  Once you feel the consistency get harder, pour mixture in a freezer safe container.  And there ya have it. Enjoy!

 

 

Turkey Meatloaf with Meme’s Meatloaf Sauce

Growing up, I didn’t care much for meatloaf, but it was a staple dish at our house.  We were the quintessential downeast Mainer, meat and potatoes kind of family.

Now, my house consists of me, my husband and my 28-year-old brother.  Most nights the decision as to what to have for dinner falls on my shoulders.  It’s my cross to bear.  My husband will happily eat most anything.  My brother is far more picky.  I’ve made turkey meatloaf a few times,  and he was having no part of it.  But he had a suggestion.  “Why don’t you make it like Meme does?”

I had no idea how my grandmother made her meatloaf.  I mean, how many ways is there to make it really?  I asked J.J how Meme made it.  He wasn’t sure either.  The only thing he knew for certain was that it came with some type of tomato based sauce.

So the other night, I called my Meme.  I told her I was going to make her meatloaf, and needed go over the recipe with her.  When I told her that I was going to make it with ground turkey instead of ground beef, you could sense the hesitation.  She was trying to be so nice. She said “Uh, well Darci, I just don’t know how that will turn out”. And  ” You can’t put tomato sauce with turkey!” I assured her that it would be fine.  I also had to give J.J. a pep talk. I told him that it would be fine.  He agreed to try it, and voila, he ate it all.  I win.

So here’s what I did:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together 1 lb Lean Ground Turkey, 1 egg, 1/2 a large chopped green pepper, 1/2 an onion finely chopped, and 5 or 6 ritz crackers.  Put mixture in a loaf pan and put it in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

When it’s done, lift the meatloaf out of the pan and put the pan on a burner and turn it on low.  Add a can of Tomato soup, half a cup of chicken stock, and a couple of tablespoons of wondra to thicken.  Heat the mixture until it starts to simmer.  If the consistency seems too watery, add more wondra until it thickens.  Once it’s the right consistency, I pour it into a gravy boat so everyone can serve themselves at the table.

So that’s that. But now, I’m curious… What was a staple dish at your house growing up?  Have you revamped it or changed it now that you’re the one cooking it?

Homemade Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts

For me, cooking and baking are best when easy.  I don’t often measure, and if any of my chef friends saw the mess I make when I cook, boys oh boys, they may disown me.  So, this is going to be a down and dirty, go with the flow recipe.  Have fun, take it easy, and every thing will come out just fine. I promise.

 

When you do a LuLaRoe party, they’re called a “Pop Up”.  I wanted to have a little fun with it and bring something special to each event. And I really like word play, so I decided to make homemade pop-tarts.  They’re a quite a few recipes out there, but they all seemed really time-consuming and way too complicated for my taste.  So, I simplified it, and they are absolutely fantastic, and best of all, super easy!

Start with pre-made pie crusts.  If you really want to go above and beyond, by all means, make your own, you overachiever you.  Most pie crusts you buy at the store come in a package of 2, which will make about 15 pop tarts.

Roll out the pie crusts.  When rolling it out, it’s going to be tricky to get it into an exact rectangle, but try as best you can.  The thickness should be about 1/8 of an inch thick.    Take a pizza cutter and cut the dough into rectangles or squares.  Mine were all different sizes but you should be able to get 7 or 8, 2×3 rectangles out of each sheet of pie crust.

Place half of the pieces of pie crust on parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Make an egg wash by mixing 1 egg with about a teaspoon or 2 of milk and brush that over the top of the pie crust pieces on the baking sheet.

To make the brown sugar cinnamon filling, mix 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon and a tablespoon of flour.  Mix it with a fork to get some of the clumps out.  Put a big spoonful in the center of each of each piece of pie crust.  try not to get it too close to the edge.

Then brush egg wash on the other pieces and lay them on top of the filling egg wash side down.  After all pieces have tops, lightly seal the edges with your fingers.  Take a fork and  crimp the edges. Then take a tooth pick and some holes in the top.  Put the baking sheet in the fridge and pre-heat the oven 350 degrees.  Once the oven is preheated, bake for 20 minutes

To make the icing, you’ll mix about a cup of confectioners sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon,  and just a few drops of vanilla.  Mix that together with a couple of tablespoons of milk.  The consistency needs to be pretty thick so it stays on the pop-tart.  If you need more milk, just add some slowly so it doesn’t get too thin.

Let the pop-tarts cool for a while and then frost.  All Done!!!