Your Own Ice Cream Shop

 One of the most trips in summer is heading to the local ice cream shop. Yet these are becoming few and far between. Then there is the price. An average sundae can cost as much as six dollars just for two scoops with chocolate syrup. A better idea is making everything yourself .Besides it's more fun to create some sweet treats on your own.

The base of any ice cream shop is the ice cream itself. You can easily buy or make it depending on your schedule. Start with the basics  - vanilla and chocolate These work with any kind of ice cream dish. Vanilla and chocolate ice cream is easy to make.An easy vanilla recipe just calls for two cups heavy whipping cream, condensed milk and one tablespoon of vanilla extract.It's whipping the cream into soft peaks and then adding the remaining ingredients. There's no churning or even ice cream maker needed. Just place in a container and freeze for at least six hours or until firm. This also is the recipe for easy chocolate ice cream except there is also the addition of half a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, whether regular or Dutch processed.If you want something a bit more adventurous then try a coffee which is great with chocolate syrup or a berry  - the perfect way to use up fresh strawberries or blueberries. For the coffee add  a chilled half cup of coffee . Sub in whole milk for condensed. As for an quick berry ice cream.mash berries and cook with a bit of water and sugar in a sauce pan. Let cool and add to the vanilla mix..

Can you make cones too? Yes! ice cream cones do require egg whites to give it to that stuff texture that holds up to melting ice cream scoops. You'll also need super fine sugar , whole milk, whole flour and vanilla extract.It's then cooking them in an oiled skillet not unlike a pancake. Once baked into little cakes they're then shaped with a cone roller (where you can find on Amazon).  Waffle cones are a bit more cakier thanks to the addition of one whole egg along with the white of another for a good stiff texture. .A quarter of a stick of melted butter is also added for richness.  You can't use a regular waffle maker for this You'll need a waffle cone maker to give you a thinner ,crispier cone.  what about waffle bones that hols more ice cream along with sauce and toppings. You can use a regular waffle maker for this  along with an  everyday waffle recipe. It;s then putting the hot waffles into a bowl to shape them. Any ice cream treat needs a good sauce for fun and flavor. CHocolate sauce just requires water sugar  , vanilla extract and sugar to create a thin syrup  that's also perfect in egg creams. A decadent hot fudge sauce requires     butter, corn syrup for texture along with heavy cream,vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Caramel sauce  is another yummy topping. For a truly rich one use six tablespoons of butter mixed with  half a cup of heavy cream granulated sugar and water along with a small pinch of  flaky sea salt for contrast.

Imagine having your own ice cream parlor with Tim's of homemade yummy treat, You can. It's easy to make your own ice cream and sauces, sugar  and waffle cones and bowls to create perfection.

Mini D'Ouevres

 Making and serving hors d'ouevres may be a bit too much especially before a dinner or Sunday lunch. However shrink them down a few sizes and you have a fun change that everyone will like. Mini d'ouevres can be as simple or as complicated as you want.

Creating these little bites is easy, especially nowadays. I've recently discovered Keebler''s Club minis. These are fun little crackers with the original's big buttery taste. Imagine pairing them with any filling, from egg salad to cheese. I thought of Miyoko's Vegan Road House Spread a sharp vegan cheddar.

 

It's a fun way to intro soup or a chicken with any kind of veggies dinner. They're sooooo tiny!!!!! Yet they were a snap to make and fun to eat.

You can get creative with any kind of mini d'ouevres. Try making mini meatballs to be dipped into warmed tomato sauce. Another fun bite is Lilliputian pizzas made with slices of Italian bread topped with sauce and cheese. Both of these would be perfect before pasta aglia olio or cavatelli with broccoli. 

If you just want to only serve mini appetizers or apps, then think about cutting up Eggo waffles and putting half a chicken nugget on them. Serve with a drop of maple syrup. Another hearty one is stuffed baby bellas heaped with crumbled sausage bread crumbs and Parmesan. A more elegant bite is shrimp on polenta rounds or  smoked salmon on mini Triscuits.

Mini d'ouevres is a fun way to start a meal. Think tiny for a tasty bite. They may be little but they're packed with big punch of flavor.

Still A Day At The Fair

Thanks to the pandemic all the state fairs are on hold this year. Gone are the contests and the rides.Worst of all gone are the fun foods everyone loves and are the backbone of the fairs. Yet some food truck entrepreneurs are making the best of the situation.

Well known food writer Marissa Conrad wrote about the plight of fair food vendors in yesterday's New York Times Food section. State fairs are known for their different takes on classic foods. This is where fried butter was born and deep fried turkey legs were created. Now the fairs throughout the country are completely closed and it's hard for them to make any kind of income. However some are finding creative ways to keep the food trucks going.There's even an app , created by a fair food enthusiast along with a Facebook group, Fair Food Finder has a whopping 179,000 members plus a Google map of 139 Minnesota vendors Some fans found their fix at the Anoka County Fairgrounds where three vendors parked. They were in traditional state-fair trailers and sold not just fries but also ice cream, cheese curds  and freshly fried mini doughnuts. The fair can come to you too. Stephanie Shimp once made her fair treats in the famed Blue Barn, a fixture at the Minnesota State Fair. She took out a loan and bought a decommissioned grocery truck , Now she travels throughout the state, selling her best loved recipes.There's chicken in a waffle cone and Nashville chicken on a stick.

The state fair can come to your block too. Again Ms. Shimp was hired to feed Corey Mathisen's block party in early August. There was social distancing and mask wearing but everyone did have a good time. It wasn't just about eating. He invited a group of kids to raise money at the event. One group, Kamryn and Friends collected more than $70,000 for food relief drives and Minneapolis area businesses. Some of there were Black owned and destroyed during the unrest after the George Floyd incident). Brenda Smith Parish tried another route. Since she couldn't sell her food at the Des Moines State fair she sent out a social media blast and hoped for the best. It worked. Between 500 and 600 cars show up each week for her gyros, corn dogs and lemonade. Her parents also are vendors and this has helped them too with their stands, All American Grill and Turkey Time. There's even an acoustical guitar player that plays for visitors. For those who don't have this luck, there is State Fair To Go.It's based in Minnetonka, Minnesota and sells boxes full of all sorts of state fair  treats for $59.95. There's Elliot's Up North Corn Dogs, Rosie's French Fries and Sweet Martha's cookies to enjoy.

There may not be any state fairs this year. However you can still enjoy the treats at home or in your driveway. At least it's a taste of the fair , much needed during these  stressful times.

Souvenir Recipes

One of the best things about vacations is the slew of souvenirs we take home. They can be tee shirts or shells, maybe even jewelry or salt and pepper shakers. Yet the best ones are the food memories, souvenirs perfect for our kitchens. No matter where we go, there's a recipe we're bound to recreate.

Foreign vacations mean foreign foods. It's easy nowadays to recreate dishes from across the globe. Recipes can be easily gotten and translated, thanks to the Web.If you were lucky enough to lounge on Mediterranean beaches, you probably got to lunch on pissaladiere slices or a bowl of pasta vongole .Pissaladiere is relatively easy to make.It's a short crust base topped with a yummy mixture of anchovies , olives and onions spiced with thyme sprigs. Pasta vongole is simply linguini with clams. Again homemade is an easy make. Use fresh clams (none of the canned stuff) and boil them. reserve the juice or broth.It's then cooking chopped clams in them with a little white wine, red pepper flakes and garlic. If you spent July sunning on Mikonis or Karpathos and Kos, then you may be hankering for stuffed grape leaves or dolmades. Fill grape leaves (which can be easily bought at Trader Joe's) with a tasty marriage of arborio rice and pine nuts along with raisins, chopped onions, and mint. You can  add meat, usually ground lamb.

You can still bring back recipes even if you stuck close to home. South Jersey has a variety of fun dishes and boardwalk snacks. Taylor ham, a Boardwalk specialty can be recreated in a variety of dishes.It is good on a soft roll, Atlantic City style, especially when the bread sops up all that melted butter, yet you can also have it as a side with scrambled or sunny side up eggs. Seafood is big  along both of New Jersey and New York coasts. Go to your local fish monger for fresh seafood. You can make an easy dipping sauce using just ketchup and horseradish that's perfect for everything from clams to shrimp. Boardwalk fare can be easily copied. Frozen custard is a treat and can be created on any stove top. It's an egg rich custard that's then poured into an ice cream maker. A fun, spin, popular at many shore ice cream parlors is frozen custard served in a hot waffle boat. The last requires a special machine but you can make fresh  ones with a regular waffle maker.Homemade fudge is a Jersey classic and must have.It's super simple to make, both over a stove top and microwave.Use semisweet chocolate and condensed milk for a Boardwalk must have.

A summer traveled is a summer full of souvenirs. Recreate your tastiest ones in your kitchen. It' s a way of still having the best time all year round.

A Variety Of Fries

One of the foods we love so well is French fries. We have them with our breakfasts, lunches and dinners. They make a great snack, whether at a  stand or on a beach. Nowadays , there are so many . what to choose from? Which is the best?

French fries come from the Belgians but also  French chefs have made them for some two hundred years. There have been some hot  debates about their origins for the last century  A reference to them in  the Gerard family archives ,mentions potato batons being fried as early as 1680 in Meuse Valley of what is modern day Belgium.Inhabitants of the Belgian towns of Namur, Andenne and Dinant has the custom of fishing for smaller fish in the Meuse River. They were fried and eaten.When the river was frozen over, fishing became impossible so the locals cut the potatoes  into small pieces and fried them instead. Thomas Jefferson had them made in the White House in 1802 and the first recipe for them came in 1856 in Cookery For  Maids Of All Work.  The English also grabbed onto the recipe with the first chip shop  opening in Yorkshire, somewhere around  West Riding in 1854. The Germans also jumped on the fry bandwagon, in the 1850's easily pairing them with their wursts.The first frozen fries were created by the JR Simplot Company y in the 1940s; Now fries include sweet potatoes and parsnips. They can be very thin such as the shoe string or thick like the plank kind.

What's being cooked in most households? Is it frozen or fresh? Frozen  is an easy choice. It's just preheat the oven, toss a few on an oiled cookie sheet and bake for twenty to thirty minutes in a 400 degree oven.There are some very good brands out there. Stop & Shop has their own in house line of different cuts. Their crinkle cut fries bake up really well. They're crispy without being too greasy when baked along with having pretty uniform sized pieces. Ore-Ida has excellent microwave fries which actually taste as if they've been cooked in a fryer. They have a nice crunchiness on the outside and a meatiness on the inside. For good waffle fries, try the Alexia brand. The brand was created by a chef who wanted to elevate everyday sides and he has done so with both Idahos and sweet potatoes. He even has Parmesan flavored as well as rosemary, truffle oil, and olive oil and  different combinations of all four. You can make them yourselves.it is a bit labor intensive but worth the effort.
start with Russet or Idaho potatoes and cut first into slices  and then into batons or sticks. Let them soak in ice water over night to draw out the starch. The next day, drain the water and pat the sticks
 dry  with paper towels. Fry until they're  golden and slightly brown. Sprinkle with sea salt and serve.

Fries are good whether  as a side for burgers and chicken strips or as a fun snack with a cold drink. Make them yourself or heat up a tray of frozen ones. either way , they're a meaty, crunchy treat.

The Urge For Summer Food

Sometime in January or even February everyone gets a hankering for summer dishes, whether they be salads or ice cream. It could be that the cold weather is getting to us or we just miss those flavors. Don't deny yourself that grilled burger or ice pop. Go for it  - despite the temps

Who doesn't miss a juicy flame broiled  burger? You can still barbecue if the weather is crisp and cold. Fire up the grill, using any charcoal left from the previous summer. Wood chips can also be used too to give more flavor. The same goes for ribs and chicken too. Think of this method when you're busy with Super Bowl cooking too. If it's too snowy, sleety, or rainy, then use an indoor grill. There are some very good ones out there such as the Hamilton Beach or Proctor Silex . The  George Foreman Grill also has a panini press for sandwiches. If the weather thaws a bit then think of a picnic at your favorite park or beach. Even if the temps dip, you can still pack hoagies and salads, but also include a thermos of hot soup or hot beverage to warm you up. Salads too can be made. You don;t have to wait til Memorial Day to b real out the slaw and macaroni salad. The winter provide Savoy cabbage, a much more tastier leaf than the average cabbage.You can make it the same way as your warmer weather slaws. Macaroni salads are also welcome along with potato salads. In fact, these would be the preferred dishes for a pot luck football party.

The winter strangely also brings a taste for ice and ice cream. You can still have popsicles. Stores still sell them however you don't know how long they've been in the freezer section. Make your own by using molds and juice. Better yet try the Zoku Slushie Maker. This cup takes any drink and turns it into a refreshingly chill slushie. Use already made coffee drinks for a refreshing afternoon snack or a Pepsi for a bracing treat after grueling housework.If you;re on a healthier bent. then
use fresh juice r smoothies to pour into the chilled inner cup. For some reason we crave ice cream when the weathers gets frosty. Indulge yourself. Cones can still be bought so have fun with them.They're a rainy day treat . Dip the cones tops in melted chocolate and sprinkles for added flavor. Waffle bowls are a summery treat and they can be adapted for winter cravings. Hot fudge or hot caramel can always be poured in top. Hot fudge is easy to make and it's so good on something as simple as vanilla ice cream. The same goes for caramel sauce It's just three ingredients - butter , heavy whipping cream and sugar. Both sauces can also be drizzled over fruit or that most summery of cakes - the pound cake.

Indulge those summer cravings with summer foods. It's a nice break from heavy winter flavors and foods. Go for the burgers and ice cream while the weather is still chilly.