Egg yolks

It being my birthday, I made myself my favorite cake - angel food. Marbled angel food, which means two cakes. Two dozen egg whites needed, and two dozen egg yolks left over.

James's birthday is about two weeks after mine, so I froze half the yolks to use for a couple yellow cakes for him (well, one for him and one for the kid to take into daycare). That left a dozen egg yolks left. I know they're cheap, but I hate to just throw them away. I thought about making mayonnaise for chicken salad sandwiches, but that's a lot of work and I probably won't even eat all of the chicken salad, seeing as how I usually forget to eat lunch and/or dinner most days.

So, what to do with all those egg yolks? Ice cream! I don't have an ice cream maker, or a candy thermometer, but it still turned out pretty good.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Pour 4 c heavy whipping cream and 1 c milk into a pan with some vanilla and heat up. Meanwhile, mix 4-6 egg yolks with 1/2 c sugar. When the milk is hot, whisk the egg mixture into it, then mix in 1 c sugar. Cook over medium-low heat until it reaches 170 degrees, or it sticks to a spoon, or you're sick of cooking it. Pour into a shallow 9x13 freezer-proof pan and stick in the freezer. Every hour or so, stir it up so it won't form crystals. Et voilá - ice cream that is much yummier than anything from the store.

Birthday!

Jax turned three, so I made him some birthday treats.

1. First I made some apple pie/tartlet thingies - diced apples tossed with some cinnamon, brown sugar, and flour, baked in puff pastry squares in muffin tins. But they looked really good, and really, what three year olds want gourmet apple pie/tartlet thingies?
2. So I made some yummy yellow cupcakes and took those to daycare, still warm from the oven. There were a few extra (I sent two dozen, not knowing how many floaters would be around for birthday snack time), and I asked Jax if he wanted to give them to the office people. No, he said, he wanted to take them home and eat them. Smart boy.
3. The best, however, was his cake. I asked Jax what kind of cake he wanted, and he said blue cake. The next day, muffin cake. Finally he said chocolate race car cake. Sure, I can do that. My grandma gave me a ton of old Wilton cake pans, so in addition to race car I also have a semi, jeep, old model T Ford, station wagon, van, and coupe. The race car pan was really big, so I decided to go for the coupe, because, as I see it, anyone can make a race car cake - it takes someone special to make a 1976 Datsun 280Z cake. And oh yeah, I'm that special. Jax said he wanted it to be yellow, so I made it retro '70s yellow. Pure awesome. And delicious, of course, but that goes without saying.

Spicy vodka plum chicken

I'm usually hesitant to try out a new recipe, and when I do, I don't follow it exactly. I have some oranges and plums to use in the next few days and was searching for an orange-glaze chicken recipe when I came across this. It calls for green onions, but I didn't have any so I left them out. I wasn't sure about it until I took a bite - delicious! And of course I made enough sauce (mixed it together in a dish before adding some to the drippings) that I can freeze some and marinate chicken in it later. This was a wonderful combination of sweet and spicy, plus the addition of the vodka in the jam I think made it even yummier.

Spicy vodka plum chicken
some Chinese five spice powder
several pieces of chicken
1/2 c plum jam (I made my own in the bread machine, of course - 4 plums, 2 tbsp pectin, 1 c sugar, and 1/2 c vodka)
1/2 c chicken broth
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Heat a little oil in a skillet. Coat the chicken in the Chinese five spice powder. Cook the chicken in the pan until done; set aside. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan drippings and cook until thickened. Put the chicken back in, coat it in the sauce, and cook for a few minutes. Serve over rice.

Roasty risotto

Recently I've been trying to stretch our food budget without resorting to eating crap (something I will never ever compromise on - I will let my family starve before I allow ramen into our house, no matter how cheap it is). Some of my useful methods:

• Look through all the weekly ads, make a list of what's on sale, and stock up.
• Discount meat! We have an extra freezer, so if I see a good deal I grab it and save it for later.
• Freeze leftovers for lunches.
• Reuse leftovers in creative ways - for example, meat can be thrown into chili or a casserole.

Last night we had a crockpot roast for dinner (I usually don't buy these unless they're discounted or on sale - this one was BOGO). What little meat is left will be made into chili tomorrow, along with some pulled pork from the freezer from another past dinner. But what about the broth? I'd cooked the roast with carrots, potatoes, a packet of Lipton's onion soup/dip mix, and some water. Since I didn't make gravy, I had about 2-3 cups of liquid left. Sure, I could've thrown it away, but it was really flavorful. So, I used it for roasty risotto!

Usually I make my risotto with white wine and chicken stock. This time I used red wine to compliment the beef flavor. Once cooked, I mixed in a jar of mushrooms. I think a cheese like gruyere or provolone would've been best, but all I had on hand was Italian 5-cheese blend (mozzarella, Romano, provolone, Parmesan, and Asiago), so I mixed that in as well as an additional half cup or so of Parmesan. Yum!!

More awesome jam

I'm on a jam kick right now, ever since I realized how incredibly easy it is to can my creations.

Today I made banana butter (like apple butter, only with bananas). Yum!

Banana Butter
7-8 ripe bananas, mashed
5 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/5 c sugar
1 tbsp rum
cinnamon
ginger
allspice
nutmeg

Put everything into the bread machine and set for jam. Wait 1 hour 20 min. Eat.

Filled 9 4-oz jars.

Awesome jam

Plums were on sale at the grocery store, so I bought a bunch. What to do with them? Make jam - strawberry plum vodka jam, to be exact. Yum! I also canned it, in cute little 4 oz jars, to give out for Christmas presents. They're cooling right now, so I'm really hoping they seal right - this is my first time ever canning anything.

Here's the recipe (I actually measured things this time!):

Strawberry Plum Vodka Jam
1 lb strawberries, washed and cut into chunks
5 large plums, peeled and cut into chunks
1 c sugar
2 tbsp vodka
1/2 tbsp pectin

1. Put the fruit into a food processor and pulse until it's in small chunks.
2. Throw everything into a bread machine.
3. Cook on jam setting.
4. Can.

I ended up with 10 4-oz jars of jam, plus a little left over to eat immediately.

Sourdough starter

When I was in St. Louis last winter I bought a sourdough starter that I've just started using. I've made three types so far and have vowed to never buy commercial bread again, because with a bread machine it's sooooooo easy to make delicious varieties. I started out with a recipe from a sourdough bread machine book, with cheddar, garlic, and chives added, to make rolls. They were good but not exactly what I'd wanted.

For the next batch I just modified the recipe that came with the starter. I threw in a cup of Asiago cheese, which canceled out some of the sourness of the bread and made for a loaf that will be great for sandwiches. I've also been using milk instead of water.

Next I tried for brioche. I'd made a bunch of jam - strawberry cherry jam and nectarine jam, also in the bread machine - and needed something to put it on. I added half a cup of sugar and some cinnamon. It's good toasted with jam, but not as sweet as I'd like, so I'm going to try it again today with more sugar and possibly honey or molasses.

Any other combination suggestions?