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  1. Strawberry Ice Cream

    April 20, 2010 by elfqueen

    This is how I make homemade strawberry ice cream:

    1ST NIGHT
    Buy strawberries from best roadside strawberry stand in Bako. (Snow Rd for those who are not already in the know!)

    Go home and look up recipe online. (I picked Emeril’s from Foodnetwork.com.)  I only have cream on hand.  Thought that was what I would need!

    Snow Road Strawberries

    2ND NIGHT
    Go to store and buy half and half, and wash &  slice 4 cups strawberries. (Getting late-go to bed)

    Snow Road Strawberries are the bomb!

    3RD NIGHT
    Too busy with kids, no time for anything!

    Strawberry Plant

    4TH NIGHT
    That’s right it’s a cooking recipe, I’m too tired and I don’t feel like ice cream anyways. Go to bed.

    Snow Road Strawberry Field

    5TH NIGHT
    Better make that ice cream tonite while strawberries are still good!

    Call brother in law because he makes homemade ice cream and the recipe I picked out was confusing!  Get advice, cook up ice cream mix. Chill ice cream mix.

    Ice Cream Recipe

    Freeze ice cream mix in ice cream maker and after an hour get a measly 1 1/2 qts of delicious strawberry ice cream to split between 5 people!

    Homemade Ice Cream

    Bright side – By the time it is finished, kids are already in bed and I don’t have to share it with anybody!!!

    Hahahahahaha! Ok, I shared it with Hubby!

    Final Note:  I think that the ice cream could have been creamier.  I am going to try other recipes and compare!

    Category Foodie | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Happy Easter!

    April 5, 2010 by elfqueen

    Today was quite a day. It started out this morning with Easter Sunday Service. I had to be there at 8 a.m. for rehearsal for the Handbell Choir. I was up late last night cooking for Brunch this morning, but it was probably a good thing because I was too tired to be nervous. Here is a picture of the bells.

    Handbell Choir at Calvary Bible Church

    The service was beautiful and even though I made mistakes, my husband assures me we sounded wonderful and that he couldn’t tell at all. Isn’t he great? We played at the first service, which I don’t usually attend, because I attend Sunday School first service and then the second, Contemporary Service. Several people who I have never met approached me and told me how much they enjoyed the bells so my husband must have been telling the truth.

    Afterwards, I ran home and met my sister to finish cooking our brunch. It was divine. Here is the Grave Lax.

    Grav Lax Canapes

    And the Quiche Lorraine.

    Finished Quiche Lorraine

    Finally the Orange Glazed Ham.

    Orange Glazed Ham

    And one last time-the Fruit Tart!

    Fruit Tart

    Well we had a wonderful day and lots of family over to visit. All of the food was a hit.
    Not to mention celebrating the greatest day!

    Category Family, Foodie | Tags: ,,,, | 3 Comments

  3. Easter Brunch-Cooking with my Sis

    April 4, 2010 by elfqueen

    So I tried to cook my piecrusts today after a big failure last night. This is the first time I used rice as pie weights and I didn’t really like it. The rice stuck to the crust. I needed two crusts-one for the Quiche Lorraine and one for the Fruit Tart. The two I made last night were terrible. I think that I didn’t blend the butter well enough. Instead of the regular pie dish I used last night, I bought a quiche tin and a tart tin from Williams Sonoma today. (I’ve reached my limit for my weekly spending money allowance!)

    I baked a tart and a quiche crust again today. This time I use garbanzo beans instead of rice. Worked much better. I felt these crusts were more successful. When looking at the pictures now, I can see I needed to press the pastry into the ridges in the side of the tart pan

    We also made the Fruit Tart. My sister brought over the Pastry Cream she made last night.


    We paddled it in the mixer and poured it into the tart crust.

    Here is the finished Fruit Tart. It is beautiful!!

    Oh yeah-we also made stuffed mushrooms.

    I don’t have a food processor and my sister forgot to bring hers. When my husband heard, he offered to go to Walmart and buy a cheap blender/processor combo with HIS weekly spending money. Isn’t he a sweetheart?!

    Here is what all the ingredients for the strawberry vinaigrette looked like inside the food processor.

    Well I finished up with the orange glaze and ham after she left and I still need to do the canapes with the Gravelax. Tomorrow we will pop the mushrooms in the oven, finish up with the home fries, put together the salad and reheat the ham and the quiche.

    We don’t even know for sure who will show up for brunch tomorrow, but it really doesn’t matter. We had a really fun. Thanks to Cafe Med and their cooking class, not only did we get to try out several new recipes and techniques, we got to spend some quality time together in the kitchen doing something together that we both love-cooking! And for such a joyous occasion!

    Category Family, Foodie | Tags: | 3 Comments

  4. Easter Brunch

    April 3, 2010 by elfqueen

    My sister and I have been planning and preparing for Easter Brunch with our family for weeks. Last month I attended a cooking class at a local restaurant- Cafe Med, and the menu included Easter Brunch fare. The list was quite extensive and we are making nearly all of it excluding the Prime Rib and Eggs Benedict. We just didn’t want to overdo it and were concerned we wouldn’t have the time. I am playing handbells in the Easter Service at my church-Calvary Bible Church on Sunday so we really need to be prepare most of the meal ahead of time. Here is our menu for Sunday Brunch:

    Stuffed Mushroom Caps
    Ham with Orange Glaze
    Quiche Lorraine
    Home Fries
    Mixed Greens with strawberries, gorgonzola, candied pecans and strawberrie vinaigrette
    Home made Gravlax (cured salmon)
    Fruit Tart

    Yummy!

    We did the preliminary planning, and divided up the menu. I did the shopping yesterday as I have been on vacation all week. Bought the groceries at Winco and the total came out to only $80. Gotta love Winco! Well my sister is making the pastry cream tonight and I have been assigned the pie crusts, candied pecans and starting the Homemade Gravlox or cured salmon.

    Homemade Gravlox-Cured salmon

    The cured salmon takes 24-36 hours and then has to dry so I started it today. I also made the candied pecans. My first attempt didn’t turn out so well! Ooops.

    Failed First Attempt

    These were made with regular sugar. On my second attempt I used confectioner’s sugar and watched the time a little closer. These look a lot better!

    Final Candied Pecans

    Saturday we will be getting together to make the Quiche Lorraine, Orange Glaze, Strawberry Vinaigrette, stuffing for the Mushrooms, assemble the Fruit Tart and prep the Home Fries. Since we will have all the kids together we are gonna let them dye easter eggs ($.98/dz also at Winco). I will post on our progress later.

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    Category Family, Foodie | Tags: ,, | 2 Comments

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