Maple ice cream

  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup (see note)
  • Dash of salt
  • Whisk together cream, milk, syrup & salt.
  • Freeze as directed in ice cream maker. This will be soft serve texture.
  • Transfer to air right container. Freeze 2 hours or until hard.
  • Serve a scoop in a warm waffle.
Into the freezer.
On a warm waffle

I used grade A syrup which is a light tasting maple syrup. For more maple flavor, use grade B or any labeled dark amber. I prefer the lighter flavor.

Maple roasted pork roast

  • 1 small boneless pork rib roast (sirloin also works). About 3 pounds.
  • 3 tbsp whole grain mustard
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 cup apple juice or cider
  • 2 Granny Smith apples cores and cut into 1/2” slices
  • 1 onion, cut in half, peeled; and cut into 1/2” slices
  1. Preheat oven to 425
  2. Season roast all over with salt and pepper. Add a drizzle of oil to the pan and Lightly brown roast in cast iron skillet. Remove from heat.
  3. Into hot skillet, place apples and onions. (Optional)
  4. Mix mustard and maple syrup. pour over roast
  5. Pour apple juice into skillet.
  6. Cook in oven 30 minutes or until roast is 160 degrees.
  7. Serve with apples and onions.
Mustard and syrup. I like the trader Joe’s sample packs with different strength flavors.
I didn’t brown this time because I was lazy. You can skip this step too.
Okay I forgot to take a picture before carving because I was hungry and it’s just so good.

This recipe doesn’t really need measuring. I love it so much that I can’t believe it’s as easy as it is. This would taste great if you leave some of the fat on it. My store tends to trim almost all off because they sell the fat separately. However, even well trimmed, it’s delicious. I had leftover roasted potatoes and rice the last time I made it so that was my sides.

Chili seasoned corn

  • Six ears fresh white corn
  • 2 hatch chilies (or 3 Anaheim)
  • 1.5 tbsp chili powder
  • Salt
  • Olive oil
  • 3 tbsp butter
  1. Toss chilies in small amount of olive oil. Enough to coat but not drown them
  2. Roast on gas grill set to high. Turning so the are equally charred in all sides. If no gas grill, broil on high, but keep an eye on them and turn until charred in all sides. Place in bowl & cover with plate.
  3. Cut corn from cob. Using a bundt pan, place end of corn on center piece and cut corn so that it falls in the bundt pan. Using dull side of knife, scrape the con to extract the corn “milk.” (Corn milk is optional). Repeat until all corn is cut from cob.
  4. Put butter in 12” cast iron skillet or other 12” skillet. Melt butter on medium high heat. Add corn.
  5. Take chilies out of brown and scrape skin off with a knife & discard. Dice peppers & add to skillet. Mix well & turn up heat to high.
  6. Cook while stirring about 3-5 minutes until corn is brown in places. Remove from heat. Add chili powder & salt to taste.
Charred pepper
Cutting corn off cob
Diced peppers
Seasoning added but not stirred in
All mixed in.

I love fresh corn & hatch chilies, and my daughter loves the chili corn at Disneyland, so I threw this together to please both of us. Cook the corn quickly so it retains its crunch. I like raw corn, so I cook this high & fast.

Honey ice cream

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp vodka
  • 1/2 cup honey
  1. In a saucepan over medium heat add honey, cream and salt and heat until steaming but do not let it boil. Keep an eye on it.
  2. Remove from heat and add the milk and vanilla. Whisk well. Chill in fridge 4 hours or overnight. You can also chill in freezer if you need it to go faster. Just stir frequently to prevent freezing.
  3. Stir in vodka just before adding to your mixer. The vodka helps with texture and can be omitted.
  4. Freeze in ice cream maker until soft serve texture. Transfer to air right container and freeze until hard.
Honey vanilla with some chocolate shavings.

I was looking for recipes that don’t include refined sugar and had a hard time finding a simple honey ice cream. This is adapted from a more complicated recipe to be easy. No eggs. Minimal cooking. no drizzling honey in later.

There is a distinct honey flavor, so use a nice honey if possible. I buy orange blossom honey for this.

I made some honey chocolate shavings that ended up weird. 2oz unsweetened chocolate melted and mixed with honey to taste. Spread in parchment paper and rolled up. Put in the freezer until hard, but it didn’t harden even in the freezer and stayed chewy. It was odd but not bad.

Peach ice cream for 2qt machine

  • 2 cups peeled and diced peaches (about 2 large peaches)
  • 1 1/14 cup sugar measured as 1/2 cup, 1/2 cup, & 1/4 cup
  • 5 yolks from large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 cup milk, whole or 2%
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Dash of salt
  1. Toss peaches with 1/2 cup sugar and let sit for 30 min to an hour to release juices. If peaches are hard, put sugared peaches in small saucepan and cook on low until soft (time varies based on how low your low is. Can take 30 minutes more or less)
  2. Mash peaches with a fork until pieces are small.
  3. Drain peaches. Reserve juice for later step. Put both juice & peaches in the fridge.
  4. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cream, milk, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and the salt. Heat over medium-low heat until steaming but not bubbling!
  5. Meanwhile, for two minutes, whisk egg yolks with 1/4 sugar.
  6. Slowly pour in 1/2 cup of the hot cream mix into the egg yolk and sugar whisking constantly to temper the eggs before adding them to the saucepan. Slowly add another 1/2 cup of hot cream, whisking constantly. You don’t want scrambled eggs!
  7. Add egg mix to saucepan. Heat over medium low while stirring with wooden spoon until temp reaches 170-175 Fahrenheit. About 3-4 minutes. Will be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.
  8. remove from heat & add vanilla.
  9. Strain through fine mesh strainer and add reserved peach juice.
  10. Transfer to a bowl & chill in fridge four hours or longer. Also can chill in freezer and stir every few minutes.
  11. Freeze as directed by your freezer instructions.
  12. If using kitchenaid freezer as I do, I add a large bowl of ice below ice cream freezer & I swear it helps it freeze faster. That may be in my head. Took me about 15-20 to get to soft serve stage with the ice beneath it. Use level 1 power.
  13. Add peaches & stir 30 seconds. Transfer to airtight container. Freeze until hard (4 hours or more)

Fried apples and onions

  • One large sweet onion
  • 2 Granny Smith Apples
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • Salt
  • Optional: 2 tbsp sugar
  • Cut onions and apples into slices 1/2 inch thick
  • Melt butter in skillet over medium heat
  • Add apples and onions.
  • Mix well in butter then let cook untouched for about five minutes. When slices are browning, toss. Continue to cook until onions and apples are brown and soft. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Add sugar if desired.
  • Serve with pork chops or ham. Or eat by themselves!
Don’t slice to thin or apples will disintegrate
Cooking but not done.
Yumm!

This is a dish I don’t think needs a recipe. Slice up apples and onions. Cook in butter until they look good. Eat. It’s also a dish I thought everyone knew about, but it isn’t.

Goes with any pork product or by itself.

Easy plum cake

  • 4 cups sliced plums
  • 1 yellow boxed cake mix
  • 3/4 cup melted butter
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Layer 9×13 dish with sliced plums.
  3. Sprinkle boxed cake mix over plums.
  4. Drizzle melted butter over cake mix
  5. Bake 50 minutes or until golden with nicely browned edges.
Our new house has a plum tree
Bottom view of plums with cake mix and butter on top.
Top view before baking
Top view after baking
Plum cake

We have a plum tree. I like plums, but they don’t “store on the tree” the way citrus fruits do, so how do I eat a tree full of plums? Make an easy plum cake. I picked up som Duncan Hines mixes for $1 each recently, so with my dollar mix, my free plums & the butter, I spent about $1.50 on this cake.

The plums have such a sour skin, but the flesh is sweet plus the sweetness of the cake mix led me to add no sugar to the fruit. You can add cinnamon, but I like tasting the plums as is.

To slice, I ran a knife around the plum’s indentation and then twisted the plum apart. Sliced the seedless half and then sliced around the seed.

Not a Recipe: how to remove excess burr medic burrs from lawn

We bought a house! It’s an older home and just a little too small for our family, but it has a really nice kitchen with lots of counter space and storage and a large dining room with more built in storage.

Now the yard… it’s a blank slate. As in, not much has been done with it. There is a large empty section filled with black mulch and exposed weed fabric and weeds. I’ll be working in some drought tolerant plants for that area. Eventually, we want to do the whole yard, but that is outside of our budget. Which is spend as little as possible to make it look FINE.

So the rest of the yard is mostly dead grass and weeds. we bought some grass seed to fill in the thin spots and hope to have a lawn that is fine, but not lush, until we can replace it. I think lush lawns look great, but water is very expensive in California, so the less I can use the better.

I was pulling weeds today in the front yard to prepare for the grass seed. My 11 year old son was dethatching in another part of the yard. As I moved across the grass, my knees hit burrs. Not a couple. I looked closely, the ground was matted with burrs! ugh!!!

I can pull the burr medic that is already there, I need to remove the burrs from the ground so I make sure the grass seed can touch the dirt. If I had a shop vac, I’d vacuum them up, but I don’t, so I did the next best thing. Use an old towel.

Pick a day when your green yard waste bin is empty or close to it. Lay an old towel or blanket on the latch with the burrs. Gently press the towel into the burr patch. Gently pull it up. Fold, and carry to your green yard waste bin and shake the towel. Most of the burrs will fall off. Repeat. This is time consuming, so be prepared. The pictures below show a third pass with the towel. it won’t pick up ALL of them but it’s making the yard more manageable.

So. Many. Burrs.
Old towel on the spots.
Third pass. Still picking up burrs.

American Potato salad (for 12)

  • 4 pounds marble potatoes (or Yukon gold and red bliss mixed if you can’t find marble potatoes)
  • 3 hard boiled eggs chopped
  • 6 scallions white and green slices thin
  • 2 celery ribs chopped fine
  • 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp celery salt
  • 1.5 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
  • 3/4 cup mayo (plus more if needed)
  • 2 tbsp whole grain mustard
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 jalapeño seeds and ribs removed and chopped fine (optional)
  • 2 tbsp sweet or dill relish (optional)
  1. Boil whole potatoes about 25 minutes until a knife tip pierces easily, but not until skins split. You want the chunks to hold together when you cut them. I start checking them at 20 minutes. Drain. *see note below.
  2. Immediately cut potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces and put in a bowl. Sprinkle with vinegar, celery salt, onion powder and let cool. Seasoning while warm helps the flavors penetrate better. Add a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper (you can taste at this point but don’t over salt at this stage. You can add more later)
  3. When potatoes are cooled, add eggs, green onion, celery, parsley, and, if using, jalapeños and relish. Stir in mayo and mustard.
  4. Once everything is mixed in, using a beadle, mash a few times into the bowl to break some of the potatoes but not to make mashed potatoes. Having some broken up potatoes helps the creamy texture without having to overmayo the salad.
  5. Adjust seasonings according to taste.
  6. Serves about 12 or more depending on how many side dishes your bbq has.

Whole marble potatoes in pot
Cut up potatoes (this is only some)
Ready to mix
Finished!

I hate sweet pickle relish in potato salad, so I had to learn to make my own. I tried a lot or recipes, but none worked with my tastes, so I tweaked until I got this.

If you don’t have fresh parsley, skip it. Do NOT sub in dried. It just doesn’t work. Tonight, I skipped the parsley because I forgot to buy it!

Celery salt is the key ingredient. Until I used celery salt in my potatoes, it didn’t taste right. I will not make it without it. It can be overpowering, though, which is why I augment the celery salt with regular salt.

Note: marble potatoes can sometimes cook unevenly if you get the three version kind. My purple potatoes were much softer than the Yukon gold. If you have some potatoes that are more cooked than others, that’s okay. Some mashed up potatoes help give the potato salad a creaminess mayo alone won’t give you.

Regarding relish. Adjust the amount to your taste. I don’t tend to add sweet to the entire bowl because I don’t like it, but everyone else does. I’ll set some aside for me with dill relish and add sweet to the rest.

Chocolate cream pie

  • Pie crust for single crust pie, deep dish, or two pie crusts for two regular size thinner pies.
  • 1 1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp espresso powder
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 3 yolks from large eggs
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 cups milk
  • Whipped cream (ready whip or homemade. For homemade you need 1 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla)
  1. Bake pie crust(s) according to package or recipe directions. My husband likes store brand generic regular size frozen pie crusts that come in a tin already. The recipe makes either two regular thin pies or one deep dish. He likes them thinner, so I make two regular thinner pies.
  2. Place butter, chips and vanilla in a large bowl (2 qt or larger)
  3. In medium saucepan with heat off, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, espresso powder, salt. When mixed and lump-free, stir in 1/2 cup heavy cream and whisk until smooth.
  4. Place the saucepan over medium heat, and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup heavy cream and the milk. Whisk constantly while bringing to a boil. This takes about 15 minutes. Once it comes to boil, continue stirring and let it boil one minute. Should reach around 200 degrees if you have a thermometer. If you don’t, that’s okay. If you let boil for one minute it should be up to temp. It will be a thick pudding like consistency.
  5. Turn off heat and pour hot mixture over chips and stir until chips and butter are melted and pudding is smooth.
  6. Pour into cooked and cooled crusts. Place plastic wrap or buttered parchment over top to keep a skin from forming. This amount will fill one deep dish or evenly divide between two smaller crusts.
  7. Chill in fridge 3 hours or overnight.
  8. Top with whipped cream

To make whipped cream

  1. Chill mixing bowl of stand mixer and mixing whisk in freezer.
  2. Pour 1 cup heavy cream into chilled bowl. Whip until whisk leaves tracks.
  3. Add sugar and vanilla and whip until cream holds medium peaks

Topping idea

  • Shaved chocolate curls.
  • Pulse remaining chips in food chopper or blender until powdery. Dust top of pie with this.
Finished pie
Processed chips.

I totally neglect to take pictures of my cooking, so I will update this post later with pics of the different steps. I make it a lot. The pudding holds its shape very well when slicing, and it’s pretty easy to make. I made this for Father’s Day because it’s my husband’s favorite. I made chocolate curls the first few times, but the chocolate dust is just way easier.

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