Homemade Ginger Vanilla Ice Cream

Holy crap. Ever since little Evan did a post about ice cream made with Mimic-creme, I've been wanting to try it out. They have it here at the Drug Emporium, an enormous Walgreen's type store with a secret health food store in the back called Vitamins Plus. I always forget it's there until someone reminds me, but they have a ton of selection and better prices than Whole Foods and Kroger.

So I picked up some Mimiccreme thinking I would try Evan's method, only to discover than when your refrigerator has a ice maker, you don't own ice cube trays. On Monday, when it was supposed to be a state holiday, I stopped by work just to check my e-mail only to find out that we were supposed to be there anyway only no one told me. I felt like that imaginary time in jr. high, when everyone changed the time of the party and conveniently forgot to tell the smelly kid. I am the smelly kid.

So I was stuck at work, feeling sorry for myself, and decided to buy an ice cream maker. It's the grown up version of "fuck this, I want some ice cream." The feeling passed, and I didn't end up buying one, mainly because there were too many choices and I've never used one before. That night, however, we had a couple of Couchsurfers coming back to Vermont from California, and as we were pulling out of the driveway to hit the grocery store, Jay spied something in the back of their car. "Is that an ice cream maker?" It, indeed, was. After dinner, they brought it in and made ice cream. It was magical.

We put in about a cup of liquid per person, which ended up being some Mimiccreme and some soy milk. Then we added a little bit of vanilla, some ground ginger, and (in a stroke of brilliance) ground up chunks of candied ginger. We added some extra sugar, too, but the result came out too sweet, so I think in the future I'll taste it and keep it more creamy and less sweet. The ice cream maker the girls had was a Rival brand that one of them had picked up at a thrift store for $5. It had an inner container for the creamy mixture and an outer container for the ice and salt. They used a whole canister of table salt and layered it with the ice until it filled up, then plugged in the machine that magically made the ice cream.

I think the whole thing took about 45 minutes. I am buying an ice cream maker.

Pizza with Teese Cheese

Adieu, VeganMofo. I had a great time and it really kicked my ass into blogging again. I promise that even though October is done, the posting won't stop. It might lighten up a little, but who knows. This week I was out of town for work and then in stupid CLE all day on Wednesday. If a CLE is mandatory for all newly licensed attorneys, it should be equally applicable to all areas of practice and not some kind of civil lititgation love in. That's all I have to say about that.

I finally gave in and ordered some Teese. I was sort of holding out, thinking I'd make it back to Chicago soon and try more, but I heard they finally released the cheddar flavor so I caved. I'm so glad I did, because it's awesome. One of the good things about having a boyfriend who works at a pizza place is that you can bring your own ingredients and make pizza with their dough and their ovens. Actually, most of the pizza places here will let you bring in your own cheese, so it's not that big of a deal except that it's free. For this one, we brought the mozzarella Teese, fresh oregano, vegan pepperoni, and local shitake mushrooms. I ate like five slices last night and then another for breakfast this morning.

It doesn't taste like cheese. I cheat often enough that I remember very clearly what cheese tastes like, and this ain't it. That said, it tastes really, really good. And, of course, it melts. It melts and it browns and it looks just lovely. I mean look at it. While it didn't taste like cheese, it tastes close enough that it didn't make me feel deprived, and I think that's what's important when evaluating an analog. I'll post again when I think of something fabulous to do with the cheddar, but I definitely recommend the Teese.

Portuguese Flor de Sal

Some girls have a few beers and realize, when they sober up, that he was neither cute nor an actual music video producer. I have a few beers and realize, when I sober up, that I spent $12 on salt. Fortunately, expensive salt is less shameful than skeezy hook ups and, as it turns out, it's really good! I've been using it since I got it on salads and pastas and roasted eggplant. It's got kind of a tangy spicy thing going on that reminds me of these mangoes they sell on the beach in Thailand. They're little slices of sour green mango and in the bottom of the little plastic bag there's some mixture of spicy chili and sugar. In American cooking we tend to separate our flavors more than I've noticed elsewhere: something is either sweet or spicy or savory. While this is definitely still predominantly a savory flavoring, it's a nice twist on plain salt and a good way to challenge your palate.

Spinach Dip

So, here comes another admission that I've succumbed to the ease of a canned vegetable. Again, it's the kind of vegetable that in some ways is best when it's cooked until it's beyond soggy and well into the territory of almost-disintegrating. Spinach is, of course, also great fresh or steamed, but for purposes of a dip I like it easy to mix. Frozen spinach, the cut up kind not the whole leaf kind, would probably also work here. To the drained can of spinach I added about 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) Vegenaise and 1/4 cup Tofutti cream cheese, then added a chopped up tomato as an afterthought (which is helpful because the vitamin C makes you more able to absorb the iron in the spinach). I've been going crazy with the Vegenaise lately. I saw an episode of PPK where they talk about the grapeseed kind being superior and I finally got around to trying it. It's AMAZING. I don't even like mayonnaise really but I could eat this stuff straight. The spinach dip is pictured with some pita flat bread that has an alarming number of calories but is so worth it when you toast it a little.

Beanie Weenies

I sometimes get inexplicable cravings for trashy foods: sloppy joes and chili mac and cheese were both recent, and today came yet another in the form of beanie weenies. Here's my lunch, with the aforementioned trailer park cuisine sitting next to a baked sweet potato and some green beans. I just dumped a can of vegetarian baked beans in a pot and cut up a few tofu dogs, added those, and simmered it for a while. I love sweet potatoes because they're supposedly healthier than regular potatoes and just as easy. If you put them in the microwave for about 4 minutes they cook through and the skin just peels off like a jacket. Then I just cut it in half and slathered it in margarine. The green beans were from a can, but much improved with garlic salt. That's my teapot in the background. I'm kind of a tea nerd but that's another post entirely.

And speaking of flavored salts, the beanie weenies were a little bland at first, so I figured it was the perfect canvas on which to try a new favorite product: Bacon Salt. It really was the perfect complement and took the beanie weenies from marginal to spectacular. Check this shit out.