Culinary delights

One of my very favorite things to do (thus the necessity for a re-designed kitchen aka the bane of my existence) is cook for people. I love reading cookbooks - watching cooking shows - and dreaming up new ways to create yummy things to eat. Strangely, I don't particularly enjoy EATING, but I love making food and making people happy when they eat what I've made.

I don't get to do it too often, though (remember "the bane of my existence"?), also partly because I hate to waste food, and it's just me & my younger brother around to eat the food most of the time. I do love to entertain, though, and ONE DAY my kitchen will be done... and my dining room will no longer have power tools littering the floor... and my back yard will be nice and level and have a beautiful deck with a table and chairs to accommodate all of my guests.

In the meantime, I do what I can. Nick particularly loves what he calls "Ruth Burritos" - I brown up a bunch of meat & onions and add chili powder and other various spices - mix in some fabulous fresh salsa and roll it all up in a tortilla with sour cream, more salsa, and cheese - we have those 3 or 4 nights a week sometimes. Cheap, filling, and super easy. When I can get some avocados I make guacamole too. Mmmm...

I love to make ice cream, and Saturday was our annual "Ice Cream Social" at church. In the past, I've made a phenomenal Bourbon Ball Truffle ice cream (silky dark chocolate laced with bourbon and studded with salted pecans... mmmm) as well as Stephen Alexander's favorite Chocolate Peanut Butter (also with the dark chocolate truffle base) among other creations. This year I came up with a Rice Pudding ice cream, inspired by a wonderful rice pudding recipe in one of Giada De Laurentiis' cookbooks and adapted from a Rice Ice Cream recipe in my "standard" ice cream cookbook.

First I had to cook the rice, then I had to make the custard with the rice and cream. The recipe later called for ground anise, which I'd never used - but I did have some Star Anise pods I'd purchased awhile back and never done anything with, so I decided to steep a couple of those with the rice and cream. After that cooked, I took out the anise pods and mixed the custard with the eggs and set it in the fridge to chill overnight.

The next day I plumped up some dried cherries and cranberries with a little cranberry juice and Grand Marnier, chilled those, and mixed them with the chilled custard and heavy cream - then turned on the ol' electric ice cream machine. The mixture froze beautifully and packed into a half gallon container for taking to the Social.

It was a huge success! I had several people come back for seconds. I'll make it again - it's delicious AND healthy. Ice cream for breakfast! ;)

My friend Kathy and I are going to try out a new restaurant today for lunch. I'll have to come back and report on it later.