Friday, June 20, 2014

June 20, 2014

I made it!!! I just finished my summer grad class, and to top it off it was my last class prior to student teaching.  I can breath and relax a little.  It is a very, very good feeling.

We did manage to sneak in a few recipes this week in between completing my final projects and getting the kids to and from all their summer activities. Ice cream, fried chicken and savory muffins were all voted keepers.  Based on these recipes you would think we were out picnic-ing all week!

Ryan's mom is visiting this week, and she took over the reins while I was at class on Thursday, and the kids just couldn't rave enough about her fried chicken.  So although I didn't make it myself, the kids all voted it a keeper and we had to include it!  And as for the ice cream - my mint plants were begging to be made into ice cream, although we ended up using extract and not fresh mint.  And once the ice cream turned out so well we decided to make Hannah's favorite flavor - cookie dough.  Both are super easy, and really delicious.  If you have an ice cream machine, give one of them a try!

I made the savory muffins with salmon for dinner early in the week and we all agreed it was a keeper recipe.  A nice change of pace from traditional biscuits but not hard at all.  They are definitely best served right away, but are okay if you heat them up the next day.  But fresh out of the oven - yum!

Not sure what is on the test kitchen list for this upcoming week, but I've been eyeing tortilla recipes...we shall see!

Happy Cooking!

New Recipes
Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Grammie's Fried Chicken
Sesame Cheddar Mini Muffins

Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream


Ingredients
* 2 cups 2% milk
* 2 cups heavy whipping cream
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 tsp peppermint extract
* 1 cup miniature chocolate chips

Directions
1. In a large bowl, stir the milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla and peppermint extracts together until the sugar has dissolved.  Place in the fridge for at least an hour.
2. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.  After 10 minutes, add the chocolate chips.  Once the ice cream has finished and is thick spoon it into a container and freeze for 2 hours to ripen.  Enjoy!

Notes
Delish!  We loved this.  I was inspired to make mint ice cream because of our mint plants, but I don't know how to incorporate my fresh mint yet (probably need to figure out how to make an extract),  So, we had peppermint extract on hand and this turned out great.  Super easy, and yummy!  My friend who doesn't even like mint chocolate chip ice cream loved this!!!!  Give it a try!

FYI - this makes too much ice cream base to be churned at one time in my ice cream machine, so I make it and then pour in half at a time.  I am lucky enough t have 2 freezer bowls for my ice cream machine, so it works out!

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Ingredients
* 2 cups 2% milk
* 2 cups heavy whipping cream
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 cup chocolate chip cookie dough (recipe follows)

Directions
1. In a large bowl, stir the milk, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract together until the sugar has dissolved.  Place in the fridge for at least an hour.
2. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.  After the ice cream has finished churning fold in the chocolate chip cookie dough. Spoon it into a container and freeze for 2 hours to ripen.  Enjoy!

Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
* 5 tbsp (just under 1/2 cup packed) brown sugar
* 5 tbsp sugar (just under 1/2 cup) white sugar
* 4 tbsp butter, softened
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 3 tbsp 2% milk
* 1 cup flour
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1. In a medium bowl mix together the brown sugar, white sugar and butter until well combined.  Stir in the vanilla and milk.  Mix in the flour until well blended.
2. Scrape the batter onto wax paper and form into a loaf or log shape.  Freeze for 1-2 hours or until firm.
3. Cut the dough into small pieces to add to your favorite ice cream.

Notes
This makes too much to go into my ice cream machine at one shot, so I do it in 2 batches (I luckily have 2 bowls for my ice cream maker).  The first batch I made I added the cookie dough about 15 minutes into the churning, and when it was done we had created cookie dough flavored ice cream with chocolate chips.  Super yummy, but not what we intended.  The second batch we churned the ice cream until the end and then hand folded in the chunks of cookie dough.  Perfect! 

Grammie's Fried Chicken


Ingredients
* 2 eggs
* 1/4 cup mayonnaise
* 2 tbsp water
* 1/2 cup flour
*1 1/2 tsp paprika
* 1 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 tsp pepper
* 2 lbs of boneless chicken breast
* vegetable oil

Directions
1. Mix the eggs, mayonnaise and water together in a shallow bowl.  In a second bowl combine the flour, paprika, salt and pepper.
2. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture and then dredge in the flour.
3. Pan fry the chicken in vegetable oil (approximately an inch) in a large saute pan until golden on each side.
4. After pan frying bake in a 325 F oven for 30 minutes.

Notes
My kids think this amazing and scrumptious!  (And Ryan and I agree!) 

Sesame-Cheddar Mini Muffins


Ingredients
* 1 tbsp butter
* 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
* 1 1/2 cups Bisquick (I used my DIY Bisquick)
* 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
* 1 egg
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
* 1 tbs butter, melted

Directions
1. Heat oven to 400 F. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. Melt 1 tbsp of the butter and saute the onion in the butter over medium high heat for approximately 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the Bisquick and 1/2 cup of the cheese. In a separate bowl, stir the egg, milk and onion until well blended.  Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined and moistened.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.  The recipe should yield 18-24 mini muffins.  Sprinkle the muffins with the remaining cheese and the sesame seeds.  Drizzle the melted butter over the muffin batter.
5. Bake the muffins for 12-14 minutes or until golden.  Serve warm.

Notes
This made 24 mini muffins for me, and  12 minutes 30 seconds was the perfect amount of time in the oven.  These were delicious and very easy!