Rice Krispie Treats with Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar

No matter how old I get, I still have cravings for these childhood treats. How can one resist the crunchy combo of crisped rice cereal and gooey, melted marshmallows? A bit of maple syrup, brown sugar, and toasted pecans are added here to bring some autumn flavors to the mix.

Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter
1 16 ounce bag of miniature marshmallows
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup toasted pecans
11 ½ cups rice cereal

Instructions
Grease a 9x13 pan, or line with parchment paper. Melt butter over medium-low heat in large pot. Add the brown sugar and maple syrup and stir until the brown sugar has dissolved. Add the marshmallows and stir until they have melted. Take off heat. Add the sea salt and vanilla and stir. Add rice cereal and toasted pecans to the melted marshmallow mixture and then press into prepared pan. Let cool.

Day 164.5 Orange Sherbet with Amaretto

About a week ago I received an offer to sample and review a cookbook. Now, I'm over-the-top busy with work, not to mention that we have to temporarily move out of our house to have renovations done (thank you, New England winter, for the ice dams that sent water pouring into every bedroom). But when I saw the title of the cookbook, I couldn't pass up the opportunity: Ice Cream Happy Hour - 50 Boozy Treats You Spike, Freeze and Serve, by Valerie Lum and Jenise Addison. I mean really, what better way to relieve stress than to sit down with a beautiful bowl of boozy ice cream? Yes, please.

The brain children of this book are two New York City women who started experimenting with spiking ice cream  in their tiny Brooklyn kitchens. Valerie Lum, is the baker at Bierkraft in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she specializes in baking brownies, blondies and cookies. Her partner in this wonderful endeavor is Jenise Addison, who grew up in Queens, graduated from the French Culinary Institute and now spends her time brining, curing, butchering and fermenting at Bierkraft. After months of experimenting with various formulations and spirits, the two hit on the ideal ice cream-to-booze ratio and perfected the chemistry. They figured out that they could fit as much as an entire cup of 80 proof alcohol into 1-quart of ice cream to achieve ideal consistency and flavor. That's some beautiful alchemy. Needless to say, this is decidedly grown-up ice cream and is not meant to be dished up to your eager toddler...or curious teenagers.

Ice Cream Happy Hour is organized by tantalizing categories: Boozy Ice Creams, 80-Proof Specialties, Cocktails in a Cone, Tropical Treats by the Scoop, Spiked Sorbets and Sherbets, Tipsy Sundaes and Floats. Following a lively introduction, the book gives simple, easy step-by-step directions (including photographs) on how to make and spike, temper, thicken and chill the custard; dissolve the gelatin (the thickening agent that counteracts the alcohol's thinning properties) and churn the ice cream. Once you understand the process, the authors suggest you boldly go where no other has gone and experiment with your own combinations, of which there are so many, they couldn't all be included in their book.

I chose the Orange Sherbet with Amaretto recipe because I love sherbet as it's such a nice, creamy cross between ice cream and sorbet. Plus, I dig anything with amaretto in it. Lastly, this recipe is very easy, requiring no cooking.  I must admit to taste-testing this sherbet more than once as it was churning. It's reminiscent of an orange cream-cycle with a just right dose of almondy amaretto - absolutely bowl-licking delicious!  Once the construction crews are out of my house, I fully intend to try the following more complex recipes from Ice Cream Happy Hour: Caramel with Spiced Rum, Fig with Barley Wine, Ginger with Dark Rum, White Russian and Cosmopolitan. The boozy possibilities as positively endless!

Lemon juice, orange juice and sugar form the syrup

Whisk it all together until completely blended

Add milk - now you've got yourself a cream-cycle!

Dissolve gelatine

Icy cold amaretto...mmm

Whisk in gelatine and amaretto, then immediately pour into ice cream maker and churn

Orange Sherbet with Amaretto (Recipe reprinted with permission from Ice Cream Happy Hour, authors and Ulysses Press)
Makes 1 quart

1 cup sugar
2 cups fresh orange juice
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice.
1-1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract or almond extract
1 packet (1 Tbsp.) gelatin
1/3 cup cold water
3/4 cup cold (refrigerated) amaretto

Make the syrup: In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, orange juice, and lemon juice together until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Whisk in the milk and vanilla or almond extract.
Cover and chill the syrup for at least 4 hours.
Once the syrup is completely cold...
Dissolve the gelatin: Pour water into a small saucepan and evenly sprinkle the gelatin on top.
Allow to sit until the gelatin appears to have absorbed as much water as it can, about 2 minutes. This is called blooming.
Gently warm over low heat and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved in the liquid, about 3 minutes.
Spike the syrup with the cold amaretto and gelatin mixture: Refrigerate the alcohol until completely cold (do not try to speed up the process by putting it in the freezer, which may make the gelatin set up too much before added to the syrup.
Pour the gelatin into a medium bowl and whisk the cold alcohol until combined. Do not attempt to kip this step by pouring the alcohol directly into the saucepan with the gelatin.
Pour the cold orange syrup into a large bowl. Stream the alcohol and gelatin mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the syrup and whisk until thoroughly blended.
Churn the sherbet: Pour the cold mixture immediately into the ice cream maker and churn for at least 20 minutes. Due to the alcohol content, you may wish to churn it longer to get the desired thickness. If you don't want to serve the sherbet immediately, or you want a firmer texture, transfer it to a freezer-proof container and freeze for several hours before serving.



© 2010-2011, What's Cooking in Your World? Sarah Commerford/All Rights Reserved

100 Perfect Pairings Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love

Developing new and enticing recipes that will bring out the best in a variety of wines is a challenge I relish. I have a huge collection of food and wine pairing books, not only because I am fascinated by it but also because for several years I developed recipes for MyWinesDirect, an online wine retailer. Coming up with new recipes to go with yet another Cabernet or Chardonnay required not only creativity but also a deeper understanding of how food and wine interact.

I have only written about a few of the books in my wine pairing collection because frankly, not very many of them are worth telling you about. The bible is of course What To Drink with What You Eat. It's where I go first for inspiration. But I also love the 100 Perfect Pairings books by Jill Silverman Hough. The first was 100 Perfect Pairings Small Plates to Enjoy with Wines You Love and the second out now is 100 Perfect Pairings Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love. She not only provides recipes, but really digs into how to pair and the tricks to making matches that sing.

The format of the two 100 Perfect Pairings books are the same, as is the general overview information about each wine. Each chapter features a different wine, and dishes that pair well with it. There are six white wines and six red wines (ok one is rose). They are the most common wine varieties you're likely to find. While the first book focused on small plates, the second in the series is all about main dishes. Each recipe has a tip, some insight into what makes it a good dish or a good pairing or even suggestions for how to round out the meal. On my list to try: Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken with Garlicky Ranch Sauce with Viognier, Chicken "Cocoa" Vin with Merlot, and Steak and Radicchio Caesar with Cabernet Sauvignon. If you are new at pairing food and wine or do it all the time, these books will be welcome additions to your cookbook collection since they function as reference books too. Jill Silverman Hough makes pairing food and wine easy and fun.

Grilled Chicken Salad with Soy Vinaigrette

Hot off the grill, this chicken has a flavor that is powerfully umami. It is a classic recipe from Jenn's mom’s kitchen, and it is usually the last thing we’ll throw on the grill at night. It requires almost no effort to cook, and it’s a great way to stretch our cookout into the next day, when we’ll chop it up and mix it into a fresh salad. The balance of smokiness, spices, herbs, veggies, and soy vinaigrette makes this the one salad we look forward to. We like to use a lot of parsley in this dish to help complement the soy and red wine vinegar.

Ingredients

Grilled Chicken:
Marinate ½ – 1 lb of chicken breast in

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp basil

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp parsley

¼ tsp ground pepper

Dressing:
¼ cup soy sauce

1/8 cup canola oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 ½ tsp honey

¼ tsp Dijon mustard

splash of Franks red hot sauce

1/4 tsp pepper

¼ tsp oregano

Salad:
1 head iceberg lettuce, chopped

2 carrots, shaved

½ cucumber, sliced

2 scallions, chopped

1 cup parsley, chopped

¼ red onion, sliced

grilled chicken, sliced

Instructions

Marinate the chicken for at least 8 hours. Heat grill to medium high. Once hot, spread canola oil on grill grates, and place chicken down over the hot coals (or gas flame). Cook until one side has started to caramelize, and flip. Cook again until both sides are slightly charred. Remove from grill and chop into half-inch thick pieces. If you are refrigerating the meat for later, wait to chop until after you heat it back up.

In a large bowl, toss all salad ingredients.

In a small bowl, whisk all dressing ingredients until emulsified. Drizzle over the salad.

Spicy Sugar Snaps

A quick whisk of some chile oil, soy sauce, and sesame oil and you have a spicy dressing for some sweet sugar snap peas whipped up on no time. A sprinkling of sesame seeds adds a bit of nutty flavor.

Ingredients
8 ounce bag of sugar snap peas, steamed
1 teaspoon chile oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds

Instructions
Whisk chile oil, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a small bowl. Drizzle over peas and sprinkle sesame seeds.

Day 164! Slovakia - Mushroom Soup (Hubová Polievka) - Up Next, Solomon Islands

This recipe comes courtesy of a great Slovakian website, slovakcooking.com, that I discovered while searching for a meal to represent Slovakia. If you're into Central European cooking, this is a terrific resource that includes traditional food, photographs and descriptions that make the recipes easy to follow, not to mention lively writing and anecdotes from the author, Luboš Brieda. Luboš lived in Slovakia until moving to the U.S. when he was 14. Missing his country and it's traditional cooking, he started a blog dedicated to the dishes he enjoyed growing up. Although it was difficult to choose from the many recipes he has posted, I chose mushroom soup, or hubová polievka - because ever since my friend Ben took me mushroom foraging last week, I've been on kind of a shroom bender (and I mean that in the most legal way). This dish is easy, traditional and perfect for a cool fall night. I used fresh crimini mushrooms because I spotted them in the store and they looked gorgeous, but you can use dried or standard white button mushrooms if that's what's available. And, of course, this soup has bacon in it, and any one who knows me, knows I'm a bonafide bacon fiend. Thank you, Luboš!

The Slovak republic is a land locked country in Central Europe that is bordered by the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary. Slavs first arrived in what is now present day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th Century during the migration period. Throughout history, regions of Slovakia belonged to various empires, such as Samo's Empire, which is the first known political unit of Slavs, as well as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Czechoslovakia (with a few others in between). During WWII, a separate Slovak state briefly existed, and between 1939-1944, Slovakia was a dependency of Nazi Germany. From 1945-1991, the country was ruled by Czeckoslovakia, but by 1993, Slovakia declared itself an independent state. A beautiful country known for it's mountains, skiing, scenic lakes, valleys and rivers, Slovakia is also the world's largest producer of cars, claiming production factories for Volkswagen, Bratislava, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Kia.

Slovakia's somewhat temperate climate is warm in the summer and cold in the winter. Although there is no such thing as "Slovakian" food, the cuisine varies from region to region and is influenced by traditional customs and peasant cooking. Food tends to be simple, yet hardy and very easy to prepare, often using just one pot. Heavy on meat, especially pork,  potatoes, dumplings, thick sauces, cheese also dominate the culture. Cabbage, beans, corn, lentils, dense, chewy bread and seasonal fruits are all enjoyed in Slovakian homes and restaurants.

Crimini Mushrooms - But you can use dried or white just as easily

Potatoes give the soup texture and thicken up the stock

Mmmmmm....Bacon - no more need be said 

Sour Cream - I couldn't resist using this little Carnival Glass dish I picked up for a buck

Hubová Polievka - Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Soup -Hubová Polievka - (Recipe adapted from slovakcooking.com)

1 ounce dried, or 8 ounces fresh mushroom, sliced (I used fresh crimini)
5 cups water
3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 sliced smoked bacon, chopped
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. sour cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

Peel and cube potatoes and add to a large pot with salted water along with sliced mushrooms. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
Meanwhile, fry the bacon until crisp. When done, pour off most of the fat and add the flour, stir until combined, then add to the pot with the potatoes and mushrooms.
Simmer until potatoes and mushrooms are soft, then add sour cream and stir to combine.
Season and serve along with good hearty bread - I used pumpernickel rolls.


Final Assessment: Delicious! A simple, hearty soup, that goes well with thick slabs of bread and butter. I'll bet it would be even better tomorrow once the flavors had a chance to meld...but there isn't a drop left!

© 2010-2011, What's Cooking in Your World? Sarah Commerford/All Rights Reserved

How to Eat for $7 or Less a Day

Welcome new readers! If you found my blog in the US News & World Report story about living on a budget on Yahoo! Finance and are looking for budget shopping and cooking ideas, please check out my Hunger Challenge posts. You'll find recipes, tips and more.

Thanks!

Amy