Keeping this afloat.. with ice cream

I've decided to keep this blog alive with some additional recipes I've stumbled upon in the past couple of years. I'd love for you all to continue contributing to this blog!

Honey Jasmine Ice Cream (note: need ice cream maker!)
This is my second time making honey jasmine ice cream, and I must say, it's quite lovely. Adopted from an Epicurious recipe for Honey Lavender Ice Cream.

Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk (I typically only have 2%)
2/3 cup mild honey (1/3 cup of local honey)
1-2 tablespoon of jasmine tea leaves
2 large eggs

Directions

1. Bring cream, milk, and honey just to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, then remove pan from heat. Using a tea strainer, add tea leaves and let steep, covered for 10 minutes.
2. Pour cream mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard tea leaves. Return mixture to cleaned saucepan and heat over moderate heat until it just begins to bubble.
3. Whisk together eggs in a large bowl, then whisk 1 cup hot cream mixture in a slow stream. Pour egg and cream mixture back into saucepan. Return pan to low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 to 175°F on thermometer, less than 5 minutes. Do not let this mixture boil!
4. Pour custard through sieve into cleaned bowl and cool completely, stirring occasionally. Chill until cold in refrigerator, at least 3 hours.
5. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and let mix according to maker instructions. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and place in freezer overnight to harden.

always late but worth the wait BREAD PUDDING !

hello hello sorry for the delay friends as we all know, i take forever to do ANYTHING. enjoy!!!!

for the custard sauce, i usually just use vanilla extract instead of the vanilla bean, so i just combine egg yolks and sugar with the half n half and vanilla extract straight then heat the whole thing up together.

BREAD PUDDING ingredients
* 8 large eggs
* 3 1/2 cups whole milk
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1-pound loaf cinnamon challah or cinnamon-swirl bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
* 1 cup golden raisins

PREPARATION
Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Whisk eggs in large bowl to blend. Add milk, sugar, cream, and vanilla; whisk to blend well. Stir in bread and raisins. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake pudding uncovered until puffed and golden, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool slightly (pudding will fall). Serve warm with Spiced Rum Sauce.

VANILLA CUSTARD SAUCE ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups half and half
* 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
* 6 large egg yolks
* 1/3 cup sugar

PREPARATION
Place half and half in heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep 30 minutes.
Whisk yolks and sugar in medium bowl until thick. Gradually whisk half and half with vanilla bean into yolk mixture. Return mixture to same saucepan. Stir custard over low heat until thickened enough to leave path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 6 minutes (do not boil). Pour into bowl. Chill uncovered until cold, at least 2 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Discard vanilla bean before using.

World's Best Potato Salad

Adapted from the World's Best Potato Salad

Ling discovered this amazing potato salad recipe during the brief, sunny calm of March in between the two weeks of continuous rain and gray skies. The sauce can be halved as we had enough to make two yummy batches. Add the secret ingredient of crab sticks to achieve that special Ling-touch!

6 medium potatoes
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
6 hard-cooked eggs, diced

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
salt to taste
1/2 cup vinegar
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
1/4 cup butter
1 cup mayonnaise

1. Place the potatoes into a large pot, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork. Drain. Cool, peel and dice. Transfer to a large bowl, and toss with the onion, celery, 1 teaspoon of salt, and hard-cooked eggs.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, whisk together 2 eggs, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan. Stir in the vinegar, milk, and mustard. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in the butter. Refrigerate until cool, then stir in the mayonnaise.
3. Stir the dressing into the bowl of potato salad gently until evenly coated. Chill several hours or overnight before serving for best flavor.

Orange Raisin Cookies

This is from that apparently amazing dessert place in NYC, Serendipity. (spiao-ling corright? i donch know.)

Makes 3 dozen at least. Usually more. And more is great.

Unsalted butter for the pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup golden raisins
3 tablespoons grated orange zest (from 2-3 medium oranges)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet/tray.
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix until just blended.
5. Stir in raisins and orange zest.
6. Drop by the tablespoonful onto the sheet/tray, 1 inch apart, and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool on a rack. Store in airtight container. EAT.

"Cone" Muffin-Tops

Adapted from Basic Corn Muffins

We made these yummy cone muffins to compliment the Cayenne West Chili.  Luckily, it only takes about 15 minutes in the oven because I completely forgot about making muffins until I was finished making the chili. It's a good thing they're easy to make and Michelle was nice enough to help me make them! If you double the recipe and find yourself with excess, lightly toast a muffin and have it with butter and honey, or even jam. Nomnoms!

According to the All Recipes serving size, you should be able to feed 12, but our batch only produced about 9 muffins, possibly less.

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil (we used vegetable)
1 cup milk

Cayenne West Chili

Adapted from: Chili con Carne III and Flatlander Chili

You might notice that there is no chili powder listed in the ingredients. The reason? We didn't have any in our house :) So, I decided to load it up with Cayenne powder, cumin, and garlic powder in an attempt to make it more chili-like. I forget exactly how much chili powder I added, but know that any more than 3 teaspoons would kill the average-to-low spice tolerant diner. You can't really mess this up since you just anyhowly throw things into the pot and wait for it to reduce to a nice chili-consistency. Enjoy!

Serving size: A lot. 10 maybe?

1 tsp oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 gloves garlic, minced
2 pounds lean ground beef

1 (46 fl oz.) can tomato juice
1 (29 oz.) jar tomato sauce
1 tsp tomato paste
1/4 cup corn meal (optional)
1 green bell pepper chopped

>3 tsp cayenne pepper (anyhowly)
3 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp white sugar
1 (15 oz.) black beans
1 (15 oz.) red beans
ground pepper to taste