after the salmon opener to the grilling season i thought it was prudent to turn to meat!
scrounging from the fridge i topped the 100% grassfed organic burger with carmelized onions, garlic, a titch of jalapeno and topped it with organic valley feta and eventually doused it with worcestershire sauce.
the flavors mixed perfectly!
some might recall i’ve been concocting purple moon ice cream which is my 100% organic homage to the froot loopy blue moon ice cream without the artificial food coloring, or other mystery ingredients. it took a few iterations but i’ve finally perfected the recipe.
nearly everyone – young and old – who taste it, loooooove it ( you can’t win everyone over ). if they’re familiar with blue moon they say it’s even better than the original, which is not terribly surprising given the delicious organic valley dairy ( yes, i’m the ov milk and cream brand manager and i’m biased. but really, the quality of the ingredients always matters, and with ice cream they might matter even a little bit more. ) and real fruit and citrus flavors. if they’re not familiar with blue moon, then they just think it’s super great ice cream with a bright fruity flavor and a smooth mouthfeel ( thanks to the heavy whipping cream and vanilla pudding ).
a few unsolicited remarks:
get out of here! this is the best ice cream i’ve ever had!
are you kidding me? how did you make it sooooo good?
omg. you need to start selling this.
i didn’t do anything magical. i think most people are just used to mediocre ice cream and using the best ingredients really highlights how extraordinary ice cream can be.
of course, odin is the only critic that matters to me. he loves it and says it’s his favorite ice cream. that’s all the praise i need to put it into permanent rotation.
basically, after the original experiment, i tried a bunch of things that didn’t work and the final recipe is close to the first with a few key changes. the quantities are doubled to make a full batch in standard ice cream mixer. the amount of raspberry juice was tweaked to give more natural color and flavor and maybe most importantly, the vanilla pudding is added after scalding the milk, not in the last 5 minutes of mixing. let me tell you from hard won experience, a little vanilla pudding is good. too much is not 🙂
ingredients
1 cup organic valley whole milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup organic valley half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla oil
3 cups organic valley heavy whipping cream
6 teaspoons vanilla pudding mix
2 cups frozen raspberries, pureed and strained through fine mesh sieve ( makes about 1 cup of juice )
2 teaspoons lemon flavored oil or 1 teaspoon lemon extract
directions:
1 cup of milk scalded in pan.
add 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt. stir till dissolved.
add 1 cup of half and half.
add 3 cups of heavy whipping cream.
add 6 teaspoons vanilla pudding mix, slowly. mix well.
add vanilla, raspberry, lemon flavoring.
chill in fridge till very cold.
put in ice cream machine for 20 minutes
transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for at least 4 hours.
enjoy!
i had a very specific craving for a chicago style hot dog. so i went to some effort to get all the ingredients from memory, or at least as close as i could get in rural southwest wisconsin on short notice. no poppy seed buns and i had to substitute pepperoncini for pickled sport peppers, but hey, my mouth was watering as i assembled the glorious dogs and OH THE HUMANITY I FORGOT THE TOMATO SLICES!
sigh.
100% chicago style consists of all beef dog topped with yellow mustard, chopped white onions, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, pickled sport peppers and a bit of celery salt.
how do you make bacon popcorn with pasture butter even better? with cheddar!
it’s awesome.
i have to admit this powdered cheddar cheese is not organic. i couldn’t find any organic powder when i was out and about so i compromised with non-organic. you can be certain i’ll be ordering a pound of the fronteir organic white cheddar powder in the near future.
i saw a passing reference on twitter to bacon popcorn and i wondered how on earth i could get to my age and have never of heard of or tried two of my favorite things together.
Ms6 has confiscated the bowl of bacon-fat popcorn because "Dad stop eating a handful at a time!!!"
— John SJ Anderson (@genehack) November 16, 2013
and since we semi-regularly make bacon we have little containers of bacon fat sitting around, so bacon popcorn could be a great way to use up the grease.
ingredients
1/2 cup bacon grease
1 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
0.5 stick organic valley pasture butter
directions
1. i really don’t need to tell you how to make popcorn in a pan, right? probably not. but just in case you’ve forgotten, here you go. melt the bacon grease in a large – at least 6 quarts – pan. throw in a test kernel. when it pops you’re ready to add the rest of the popcorn.
2. add the rest of the popcorn and shake the pan back and forth constantly so the unpopped kernels stay on the bottom and eventually pop.
3. when the popping slows down to almost stopping, remove from heat.
4. melt the pasture butter in a small pan. you could use a lesser butter but trust me you want to pair up the bacony flavor with the delicious pasture butter flavor.
5. put the popcorn in a paper grocery bag and slowly drizzle a small amount of melted butter over the popcorn. shake. add salt to taste. shake some more. repeat until the butter is gone.
i’m sure there are plenty of ways to fancy it up with powdered cheddar cheese or bacon bits but the basic recipe is excellent with it’s subtl-ish bacony flavor combined with the taste of the extradordinary pasture butter. definitely a keeper.
frida was veeeery interested in what i was doing while heating the bacon grease 🙂
Frida waits while I make bacon popcorn https://t.co/6g1EpItdwv
— Eric C. Snowdeal III (@snowdeal) November 16, 2013
i was eating dinner at driftless cafe and finished it off with an excellent panna cotta ( i was reminded by the staff that they use organic valley half and half and organic valley heavy whipping cream which always makes me happy to hear 🙂 ) and it made me wonder why i didn’t make a homemade version. it’s easy to make, uses two of my favorite ingredients and can be the used as the base for a nearly infinite number of variations. perfect!
we have plenty of frozen peaches to use in the freezer so i thought i’d start with a maple panna cotta with peach coulis similar in spirit to this strawberry panna cotta and this peaches and cream panna cotta shots.
i used agar-agar flakes in lieu of animal gelatin because, well, i generally try to avoid animal gelatin. i’m guessing a panna cotta purist might scoff at using agar.
ingredients
panna cotta
1 1/2 cups organic valley half and half
1/2 cup organic valley heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons agar agar flakes
peach coulis
12 peach frozen quarters
1 tablespoon sugar
1. in a small saucepan, heat the the half and half, heavy whipping cream, maple syrup, sugar and agar flakes until simmering for 5-10 minutes or until the agar flakes are completely dissolved ( to be honest it was impossible for me to completely dissolve all the flakes so this batch had a few tapioca-like chunks in it. perhaps someone has a good tactic for getting them to dissolve completely. )
2. transfer mixture to ramekins, cover and put in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
3. heat peach frozen quarters and sugar with a small amount of water until a thickened peachy sauce is formed.
4. puree peach sauce in blender
5. after the panna cotta has cooled and firmed in the fridge, pour the peach sauce on top
i’m no panna cotta expert, but i believe it’s supposed to have a consistency just slightly thicker than pudding and this batch was pretty close. unsurprisingly, the maple and peach flavors were quite complimentary. A++, would make again!
how do you make bacon and blue cheese breakfast tortillas even more awesome? with fresh jalapenos from the the cosmos organicos garden collective!
obviously any jalapenos will do, but fresh is best 🙂
top with a little sriracha sauce and you’ve got yourself a fiery flavor extravaganza!