Your Own Ice Cream Parlor

Your house is now the main place for staycation. There's probably a pool set up along with a badminton ser or shuffleboard court. Add to the fun by creating your own ice cream parlor. There's so many good frozen products out there , the kids can have a field day.

Ice cream parlors were known for their elaborate sundaes and sodas. Make sure you have a variety of different fixings to begin. Start with the ice cream. There's always chocolate or vanilla but coffee works as does strawberry and chocolate chip mint. If you're worried about having two much dairy , then go for soy, almond or cashew milk ice creams. Oat milk ice cream is big right now and with good reason. Planet Oat's oat milk one tastes just like the dairy kind, creamy and rich. They not only have the usual chocolate and vanilla but also blueberry oat crumble,cookies and cream , chocolate peanut butter swirl and coffee fudge swirl. These work in any sundae or soda. As for the toppings, there are homemade and store bought. Hot fudge sauce is easy to make. Start with cocoa powder and cook with sugar , heavy cream and butter over a stove top. You can serve it freshly made or store it in a glass container. It can be reheated in the microwave or stove top for a second use. Caramel is another great topping, especially over vanilla ice cream. Smuckers has a sea salt caramel that's phenomenal. Of course there's whipped cream but now you can get non dairy  coconut  or almond nut milk Reddi-Whip, Toss a handful of nuts, M&M's or sprinkles for extra fun.Sliced fruit also is a nice topping too.

Ice cream sodas are  cool, refreshing treats. Many just plop a scoop or two into a glass filled with Coke or Pepsi. This is good but a real ice cream soda does have a bit more flair. Start with a root bear float. Put two scoops in a mug of well chilled root beer. It's the perfect marriage of flavors topped off with a good head of froth. As far as a true ice cream soda, start off with a seltzer. You can used a flavored one like cherry or raspberry for added taste. As for the ice cream, try a chocolate or vanilla one. Add one or two  tablespoons of chocolate syrup like U-Bet or Hershey's. Top with a fancy swirl of whipped cream. Add multi- colored sprinkles for extra fun. If you're not into ice cream then try an egg cream. This is the perfect summer treat. This deli special is just a mouthwatering mix of cold milk, chocolate syrup, namely U-Bet and seltzer. It's then just vigorous beating with a fork until a foam forms on top.Sip and enjoy.For coffee lovers there is the coffee float. It's just taking cold coffee, whether caffeinated or decaf, adding ice cream - try chocolate for a mocchacino vibe to it. Top with a generous squiggle of whipped cream. You can add a drizzle of chocolate or caramel too.

An at-home ice parlor is just one of the great aspects for a stay at home summer. Go wild with sundaes and sodas. Enjoy them as you catch sun and fun in your back yard.

Sweet Cold Desserts

There's something about ending a summer meal with a cold dessert. A slice of ice cream cake or pie tops off a supper or late lunch of spicy ribs or chicken. It's a cool way to finish, especially on a hot , humid day.

One of the coolest treats is the simple icebox cakes. These came about in the 1930s' when iceboxes became a fixture in American kitchens. Often these are a mix of cookies , pudding, sometimes fruit and whipped cream. One of the easiest is the famed Nabisco chocolate wafer log. This is also known as the zebra cake for the fun black and white stripes. It's just lining up chocolate wafers and mortaring them together with Cool Whip or homemade whipped cream. This forms a log which can be left alone or dressed up for birthdays and parties. A simple decoration of shaved chocolate is fine  but you can also sub in colored sprinkles for a more festive cake. A more elegant decoration is a scattering of strawberries and blueberries on the plate. The cake can also be made Magnolia Bakery style. New York's most famed bakery creates a cake shaped one with four layers of the chocolate wafers sandwiched between whipped cream. Nilla wafer cake is another icy treat that's easy to make. Layer the cookies in any kind of pan - glass or foil - and then layer with vanilla pudding, peaches, strawberries or blueberries and a layer of whipped cream.

Ice cream cakes are another frosty way to end a summer meal. They're easy to make at home, thanks to silicon cake and bread pans. I bought a silicon loaf pan which works perfectly in creating a two layer cake. I also have a smaller one that makes a cute mini cake. Again the Nabisco chocolate wafers are the perfect cake layer. DO NOT sandwich cookies. The creme filling will make for an over sugary , lumpy layer. Pulse the wafers in a food chopper and mix with melted butter or margarine to create a cake like layer. The first layer can be this or Hershey's hard shell which gives the top a nice crunchy, ganache look. Before you add the ice cream and crumbs ,brush a thick layer of it first onto the bottom of the mold. Then layer with your favorite ice creams. Add a second layer alone or with caramel  or the seasonal fruit. I recently made a vanilla and sea salt caramel loaf, using Soy Delicious vanilla coconut ice cream and Smucker's Salted Caramel. Keep in mind that the caramel does get the texture of salt water taffy when frozen. You can sub in pureed or chopped strawberries or raspberries for the caramel. Ice cream pie is another cool ,sweet dessert . Get a pre made pie shell and then fill it with whatever you want. Decorate it with puffs of whipped cream, hard shell or even candy. It's a nice alternative to a birthday cake for something different.

A summer meal deserves a sweet, cold ending A  slice of ice box cake or ice  cream cake or pie is the perfect dessert. It cools you off while you enjoy the end of a delicious warm weather, lunch , supper or dinner.

The Flavor Star

How do chefs get the flavors right? How do they balance sweet with sour? Or add a dash of unami in a dish? They may have help - not just from the spice rack but also from the flavor star. It's appropriately named because for many chefs and home chefs it's their guiding North Star.

The Flavor Star is a chart showing the five flavors - salty, sweet, bitter, sour and unami, that savory taste usually associated with meats. namely steak.Using the chart can help in leveling a recipe's complex array of flavors , along with improving a dish's taste.Flavors can enhance each other. For example add a dash of salty to sweet and you've got a sensation. Home bakers for centuries have known that a pinch of salt brings out a cake's sweetness, Ramp that up a notch - add a dash of sea salt to chocolate chip dough or caramel and their sweetness plus other flavors such as chocolate and butter intensify. Here's an experiment you can try that exemplifies it. Take a heaping teaspoon of a caramel, topping - Smuckers is the best - and sprinkle some small nuggets of sea salt on top. Now eat the whole dollop, Yes, you do taste the salt, it's the first thing that hits you  - but you also taste the sugar and cream as if for the first time. Another example is the addition of something sweet to a salty tomato sauce.Without sugar, honey, or even carrot slices, the salt might be too tangy and even unpalatable.With the sweeteners, the sauce  is mellowed, savory without any lingering harshness of flavor.

You can download and print out the chart if you want. It's easy to remember what to do. If a savory broth  is too blah or bland, then give the dish a dash of soy sauce or miso. Anchovy paste is both unami and salty It is wonderful on steak (as any Piedmontese chef will tell you) . It brings out the meat's rich mineral flavor. It also brings out the flavor of vegetables, such as Savoy cabbage and Swiss chard. For a tasty sauce for these and even London Broil, make bagna calda, a Piedmontese "hot bath" primarily made of anchovy fillets., butter, olive oil, and garlic. The food's flavor will be the best you've ever had and you'll wonder why you didn't try this sauce before. As for foods being too bitter, a dash of sweetness helps. Even vinegar such as balsamic and apple cider can cut a savory dish's sour taste. You can also stir in a drop of maple syrup or dark honey too. If you don't have those then ketchup or barbecue sauce will do. Sour balances out spice and sweetness. If a dish is just too hot them  flick a teaspoon of sour cream or yogurt on top of it. As we all know spicy also helps both sour bland and even sweet bland. A chocolate cake with a kick of chili pepper makes for an exciting dessert. It just using the flavor star for a memorable bite.

 Make the Flavor Star your North Star. Use it to create memorable meals, desserts, and treats.  They'll be remembered for their incredible tastes.

Make The Ordinary Extraordinary

With the holidays coming up many home chefs feel too tired to cook this week, many home chefs are taking it easy this week. Meals will be simple, with home chefs saving the more elaborate fare for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Yet those simple meals can be made with an easy flourish. It's not even labor intensive. It's just simple food with a few extras.

One of the easiest meals to make is soup. Canned soup is nice.It's easy to heat up and serve. What makes it even better is serving hot rolls with it along with a salad. Some stores such as Acme have in store baked biscuits. These can be turned into, hot just from the oven ones simply by covering them with a wet paper towel and popping them into the microwave for thirty seconds.. This gives them a tender moist crumb along with being perfect for a pat of butter.They go great with any kind of soup from tomato to any cream. A soup that 's quick to make but has a true homemade taste is Bear Creek.It's just adding water to a powdered mix and stirring for fifteen minutes. They have great flavors like potato and cheddar beef along with an instant chili.If you;re still craving true homemade think frittata. This is the omelet's Italian cousin and can be made into a delicate crepelike concoction. Home chefs can add fancy extras such as pancetta or even truffles. Serve with a light Reisling for even more luxury.

Even the simplest of desserts can be turned into something extraordinary too. By no everyone is sick of all those holiday cookies.Try a store-bought angel food cake, such as the loaf ones from Stop & Shop. Pair it with sliced strawberries which can be bought fresh and whipped cream. Sliced peaches can also be used too..It's a nice, refreshing break from all those heavy holiday fruitcakes and desserts, almost like a return to summer.Another simple extravagance is sherbert in citrus. This is te time for oranges. Why not scoop them out and replace with layers of  unseeded orange slices and orange sherbert. The same can be done with lemons and limes too.Just remember to remove the seeds before preparing. Even though it is chilly out, a simple dish of vanilla ice cream can be a treat. Top it with one of Smucker's rich fudge or salted caramel toppings. These can be warmed in the microwave for a warm gooey treat.An even more luxurious treat is drizzling a good brandy over the scoops.It's a nice way to unwind after a hectic day of shopping or work.

Make the simple luxurious just by adding little extras to your meals and desserts. It makes for easy but lush eating. Perfect for this time of year.

Smuckers Sundae Side

Everyone hears Smuckers and think jams.That is true.The company does produce a wide and delicious array of jams and jellies but they also have a line of syrups and toppings ranging from the gourmet to All American.All that is needed is ice cream and a spoon and you can create a fun summer sundae. Smuckers was the company behind the hard shell coating on ice cream.This is what you usually get at ice cream chains like Dairy Queen.It starts out as a thin liquid and then hardens to a crunchy shell.This was an instant hit when it went public almost thirty years ago.It's still fun to use.Smuckers now has expanded the flavors from just chocolate to caramel, fudge, pink lemonade rainbow sherbet and root beer.There's even a dark chocolate and pretzel one for a taste of salty and sweet.They are great and different if you're creating a kids cone bar at a summer birthday party.They also have regular syrups too as well as toppings.The company has some fruit ones such as pineapple and strawberry.It also has the jarred toppings which have always been classics.Try the old fashioned butterscotch with their pecan or walnut syrups or layer hot fudge and marshmallow toppings for making a rocky road sundae. Smuckers has a sophisticated side as well.There are gourmet toppings that could also be used on crepes or dessert waffles.I've tried their chocolate coconut which is amazing. It is so rich and thick, it's more like a pudding.It was good with ice cream but it can be used for so many other desserts like a sauce for beignets.The other flavors are salted caramel which would even be good as a spread for brioches and croissants.There is also dark chocolate and hot fudge.You could serve these last two with sliced strawberries or sliced bananas as a spin on a fruit sundae.Smuckers also has the syrups in squeezable microwaveable bottles for a true hot sundae experience.These are in both light and dark chocolate as well as with caramel and butterscotch,.There are also sugar free toppings, both in the fruit and the microwaveable caramel and chocolate.Splenda is used instead of sugar so the taste is still pretty true to the original flavors. Make Smuckers your go to with ice cream this summer.You can make fantastic sundaes and cones.Try a hot fudge sundae or a fruity split. Go sophisticated with their salted caramel or chocolate coconut ladled over a crepe or waffle.Smuckers let's you go wild with creating sweet treats.

Jams and Jellies

This is the time of year that calls for jam or jelly on a hot buttered English muffin or toast. It's the perfect weekend afternoon snack.However these versatile preserves can also be used for a number of other dishes as well. Whether for glazes or fillings, jams and jellies can be put to good use in any kitchen.They're not just for afternoon tea.

Jelly is actually one of the oldest recipes in the world. The ancient Romans had recipes for preserving fruits.Jelly and Jam making reached high art status during the Renaissance and it's during this time that marmalade was created, invented especially for Mary Queen of Scots. Her physician made a special mix of oranges and sugar to prevent the young queen's sea sickness when she moved from the French court to the Scottish. one. There is even the lore that the word comes from "Marie est malade" or Marie is sick (however it could come from marmelo , the Spanish word for quince).The American colonists too jam making to heart and several varieties were invented, using indigenous berries and fruits.Commercial jam making came in the 1800s and in 1897 even a jam council was created. The biggest jam maker of the time was Jerome Smucker, whose jellies are still big sellers today. The Twentieth Century brought about the invention of everyone's favorite grape jelly by Paul Welch in 1917.

Jam and jellies are versatile. You can easily spread them on French toast for a different spin on a breakfast classic . Marmalade as well as apricot jam along with apple butter (a type of jam) are excellent fillings for dessert crepes. Tired of maple syrup on your pancakes? Then try a strawberry or blackberry jam for bite and texture. These two also make wonderful cake fillings for jelly rolls and devil's food cakes.Jams can also be used as glazes for meat. Apricot jam is wonderful as a glaze for pork loin as is marmalade and plum jam.Peach jam can be used on chicken to give the skin a crunchy, savory- sweet taste. You could also use it on chicken kabobs too.

jams and jellies can be used for a variety of dishes from savory to sweet. However they're also good topping a hot buttered English muffin or slice of toast. Have them as you please, either in a cozy tea or as a different ingredient in any meal