Crazy Easy Ice Cream

This is the awesomest, easiest recipe ever. Honestly, I didn't think it would work but miraculously it did. You can add any mix-ins you want, I did nutella and bananas. PREPARE THYSELVES.

2 cups(1 small carton) heavy cream
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup (8 tbsp) nutella
2 bananas

Stir together the first two ingredients until it gets kind of thick. The original recipe I found says to do it until it forms "stiff peaks" but I was still traumatized from trying meringues earlier, so that didn't really happen.

Next, drop in your nutella and keep stirring. At this point, you need to get your bananas liquefied: but not all the way, little chunks in the ice cream are pretty sweet. So use your electric mixer, or whatever equivalent you can dig up.

Then, all you have to do is cover it and put it in the freezer until it's set up. That's all. ISN'T THAT AMAZING?!

If you want it softer, fold in some whipped cream before you put it in the freezer.

(from here, check out the krispy kreme, mmmmm)

Cookies for a Panda Party!

In case you didn't already know, some people are actually pandas cleverly disguised as humans. When their birthday rolls around, it's best to cook these. (Miraculously found here, just in the nick of time.) I edited it a little because I wanted to only use dough, and I ran out of vanilla.

2 1/2 cups flour
2 sticks butter, or 16 tbsp
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Black food coloring (if available)

Stir together both sugars and the butter. Next, add your yolks. (I tried saving the egg whites to make meringue cookies, and holy moly my arm hurts from stirring= bad idea.)
Anyway, then all you have to do is stir in your flour until it becomes clumpy. Separate out a little less than a third, and put that in a smaller bowl and stir in the cocoa.


PAIN.


It's best if you have the black food coloring here, even though it's something you only have around during Halloween. However I have the baking genius of my buddy Ms. Jennybeans to thank for my wide selection of food coloring and holiday sprinkles. Anyway, this is why you'll want the black...

Your dough will look like crap. Literally.

So there's that. Anyway, using about half-ish of your darker dough, make two long cords of brown and sandwich them in between three sheets of the white. Then roll it up into one long log, making sure it's really tight and mushed together or it will fall apart in the oven. Wrap it all in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, and leave out the rest of the darker dough for the ears.





















Yes, that is my grizzly piggy bank in the background.

Okay, so this is the fun part. Preheat your oven to 325, and grease two pans. Start cutting the log up into 3/8" slices. Since my dough still got mashed up after that, I made up a maneuver where I wrapped my thumb and index finger around the slice and pinched the cookie together starting at the center and working my way out, turning as I went.

The pandas get smaller as you get toward the end. Awww.

Once you have all the panda heads made and put on your baking sheet, pinch off enough from the leftover black doughball to make little balls about twice the size of peas. Do the same pinchy maneuver to make them more like a thick coin, then slice it in half. You now have two little semicircles for ears that you have to attach to the head VERY thoroughly. Mash them if you have to, mine all started falling off.

Pre-Oven pandas.

Cook them for about 15 minutes, and cool a little before eating so they stay in tact. Makes about 30 little bears. Also...

Luckiest lady in the history of everything.

Disaster Apple Cake

Yay! Now that the art ed application is turned in, I have time to reflect on Wednesday's poor kitchen choices. The plan was to make a simple cake so I could stop worrying about this deadline, but then I saw this in the store...

OMG APPLE CIDER TEA.

So I had to buy it. And what better excuse than making apple-flavored cake? Anyhow it was downright scary at some points, but since it only took two days for the two of us to eat, I think it turned out fairly well.

Cake....

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup water

2 apple(cider) tea bags

3 apples

Glaze....

(by this point I was a little delirious, so take this with a grain of salt and make it however it looks/tastes best to you)

½ cup powdered sugar

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

tiny bit milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and cube your apples. Grease your pan(I used my fancy 9x13 glass one, thanks mom!) and throw in the apples, maybe a little lemon juice on top to stop them from going all brown. And whatever you do, don't do what I did and mistake the grease for soap suds then freak out and re-wash the glass like a crazy person.









...Obligatory apple chopping montage...

2. Heat your ½ cup water and let the tea bags steep for a while.

3. Stir together butter and sugar in a bowl. Add everything else up through milk in order, one at a time. Finally once your little bit of tea looks nice, stir it in. Warning: this looks AWFUL.


Ironically, this also looks like something out of my portfolio. Anyhow, pretend it isn't there and mix it in. Then, pour it over the top of your apple cubes and cook for around 35 minutes.




3. While it's cooking, all you need to do is make the maple glaze. Just stir all together, make sure it tastes vaguely like maple, and netflix some Law&Order:SVU. Woohoo, guilty pleasure!

4. When it comes out, pour the maple glaze evenly over the top and let sit for a few minutes. It will soak in and get extra moist. While it's still hot, put it in a cup and enjoy!

Needs pecans and some ice cream. Mmmmm...

Sunday Morning Muffins

Warmed with vanilla ice cream for dessert? NOM NOM NOM

Fruity, Crunchy, and good for breakfasts all next week! From my Nancy Drew cookbook, recipe doubled. It was super easy to make, and very nice with the sun coming in the kitchen window. Looks like you can play with this recipe pretty much however you want, and it will probably always be delicious. It's getting warmer, so I can't wait to eat them outside on my way to work and class! So here it is....

3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

¾ cup(ish) granola or nuts (I used the smallest bits left in a box of Kashi GoLean Crunch)

8 tbsp butter or margarine

2 eggs

1 cup milk

4 cups strawberries and bananas (or any other fruit)

Mix first 4 ingredients together, then stir in granola. Next, cut up your fruit. The original recipe only called for 2 cups of fruit, but strawberries are big and usually like to hang out with bananas. So you can use any amount you like- 4 was pretty good for me. Anyhow stir them in, then add the butter, eggs, and milk. Cook in greased muffin cups at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.

mmm...butter.

Yeild: 23 Happy Little Muffins!