Dill Pickle Ice Cream?
Yup. It actually exists and can be found at Walmart. My first thought was “ew!” And so was my second and third, etc. But I have this annoying best friend who can talk me into just about anything with barely a suggestion (it’s quite clear which one of us is the bad influence!) so I decided to give it a try. At least it was clearance priced at $2, marked down from $4.98
The verdict? It’s surprisingly delicious! It’s mostly sweet (vanilla?) with just a hint of dill pickles. Just enough to make you think “is that… dill pickle??” and not at all like eating pickles out of the jar. As far as I could tell, there are no pickle pieces in the ice cream and the pickle flavor comes from a swirl, except it’s just little specks and not a swirl. Next time I’m at Walmart, I might stock up and grab a few more of these clearance priced little pints of goodness.
I’ve tried their Sticky Toffee Pudding ice cream (good, but nothing really special), and the Hot Honey ice cream, which is a definite favorite. I love sweet & spicy (I love chocolate & spicy even more!!). Now who’s volunteering to try their (limited edition) Kraft Macaroni & Cheese flavored ice cream? Because it will.not.be.me!
Btw., I have discovered that Van Leeuwen also has scoop shops in several States, and two of them are in Dallas! Might have to talk Greg into taking me there for dessert after my birthday dinner later this month.
It’s What’s For Dinner
I thought I’d play along with Karen’s A Week Of Dinner blog-along, although I won’t have pictures of a whole week’s worth of dinners to share, because 1) I hate cooking!! Yup! I wish dinner would just make itself. 2) Most dinners I make just aren’t all that photogenic, and 3) When dinner is ready, I’d rather sit down to eat, than take pictures and have it go cold…cos you know, I never stop at just one picture and have to get different angles and such, to make sure I hopefully end up with something I like 😉
First dinner is Southern Pork BBQ On Buns, made in the crock pot (aka slow cooker). Found the recipe in a magazine years ago, and will include it below..
Southern Pork BBQ on Buns
3 1/2 lbs boneless pork shoulder roast, cut into 2 1/2-inch chunks, trimmed of visible fat
2/3 cup + 2 Tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 cup grated onion
2 tsp minced garlic
4 tsp hot-pepper sauce
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1 cup of your favorite bottled barbecue sauce (we use K.C. Masterpiece Original)
8 Hamburger buns
In gallon-size zip top bag, combine pork, 2/3 cup vinegar, onion, garlic, 2 tsp hot-pepper sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, salt and pepper.
Seal bag. Refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours; turn bag a few times.
Transfer pork and marinade to a slow cooker. Cover. Cook on low for 7-8 hours, until meat is fork tender.
Drain in colander over bowl, reserve 1/2 cup skimmed cooking liquid.
In a large bowl, using two forks, shred pork. Add reserved cooking liquid, barbecue sauce, and remaining vinegar and hot-pepper sauce until moistened.
Serve on hamburger buns with coleslaw on the side. Enjoy!
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Next for dinner was Nordic Potato Soup With Ham, also made in the slow cooker. This recipe was in the cook book that came with our slow cooker, and I’ll include it below as well. I served it with fresh baked Italian Herb bead.
Nordic Potato Soup with Ham
3 medium-size thin-skinned potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs total), peeled and diced
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 smoked ham hock (about 1 lb)
1 Tbsp dry dill weed
2 tsp grated lemon peel*
1/4 tsp ground white pepper*
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 Tbsp corn starch
1/2 cup whipping cream
Dill sprigs (optional)
In a 3-quart or larger electric slow cooker, combine potatoes, onion, ham hock, dill weed, lemon peel, white pepper and broth. Cover and cook on low until ham hock and potatoes are very tender when pierced (about 7 1/2 – 8 hours)
Lift out ham hock and let stand until cool enough to handle (we cut up the ham before hand and can skip this step)
Meanwhile, remove about 1 cup of the potatoes with a little of the broth, whirl in a blender or food processor until pureed. Return puree to slow cooker (or: use a fork to mash some of the potatoes against the side of the slow cooker to puree them)
In a small bowl, mix corn starch and cream; blend into potato mixture.
Increase cooker heat to high. Remove and discard fat and bone from ham, tear meat into bite-size pieces and stir into soup. Cover and cook, stirring 2-3 times, for 20 more minutes. Garnish with dill sprigs if desired. Enjoy! (Makes 4-6 servings)
2011/107: Mud Pie
Mm-mmh good! Can’t go wrong with chocolate ice-cream, Irish Coffee Liqueur ice-cream (too bad it’s alcohol free!) and chocolate cookies!
2011/026: Dinner
No worries, even though there was lots of food posted here lately, this is not turning into a food blog 😉
My third, and final, contribution to Scott’s food photography assignment.
First up is Monday’s dinner. Nordic Potato Soup with ham.
Next, Tuesday’s dinner. Spaghetti Bolognese (my mom’s recipe) and Garlic Bread.
2010/355: Bonus 2: Nutella Turnovers
Another bonus? Aren’t you lucky?! 😉 Something tells me there are going to be a few bonus posts in the next few days. Guess that’s what happens when you’re late, taking Christmas-themed pictures, or start baking cookies on the Monday before Christmas!
Speaking of baking…. I was making these little Kiss Pies today. I saw the recipe yesterday, and HAD to make a trip to the store to get the ingredients. Would you believe Walmart was OUT of Hershey Kisses??!! Well, not completely out. They had some Kisses with Almonds (Melissa can’t eat nuts because of her braces), Dark Chocolate Kisses (not a big fan of dark chocolate, but I’ll eat it if I have to) and Cookies ‘n’ Cream Kisses (eh). There was one lonely bag of Milk Chocolate Kisses, but that was sliced open, and I wasn’t going to buy that. So I asked Greg to stop on his way home from work and pick some up (he got the Chocolate Meltaway Kisses), and baking these little pies would have to wait until today.
The Kiss Pies were really easy to make, although I did run into a little problem…. some of the pies popped open during baking (especially the ones where I re-rolled the dough) and didn’t look as pretty as the ones on the Picky Palate Blog. Those were perfect for a taste test, though. The kids were in other rooms when I tasted one, and I shouted: “OMG, they’s awful!!! They’re so gross, I’ll have to eat them all by myself!”
I don’t know why the kids didn’t believe me, because they still wanted to try one… and loved them!
We still had Hershey Kisses left over, and I made a quick trip to the store to get more pie crust, and made some more. Of course then I was out of Kisses, but still had pie crust left. What to do.. what to do? Nutella!! We always have some in the house, so I put a little but of that hazelnutty goodness in the center of the pie crust circles, folded them over, sealed them, and baked them just like I did the Kiss Pies. Soooo good!! Not enough Nutella filling, though. I think next time I will add more, and then top it with another pie crust circle.
2010/329: Bonus – Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hope everyone had a wonderful day with their loved ones, and a delicious Thanksgiving dinner!
It was just the four of us, and of course the turkey cooking did not go without a mishap or two. The plan was to brine the turkey and deep fry it, and all was well at first. Greg wanted to put the turkey in the brine on Sunday, but I talked him into waiting until Tuesday morning. We have this big orange 5-gallon cooler that we use just for brining turkeys. Greg put the turkey in the cooler, added the brine, and then some ice on top, that he decided to put in Ziploc bags this year, so the brine wouldn’t get watered down too much. Not sure if he checked the ice during the day… the cooler was in the kitchen during the day, and then Greg put it on the back porch late Tuesday afternoon/early evening. After we went to bed, I asked him if he checked the ice, and he said no. Did he get out of bed and check? Nope.
Wednesday morning he brings the cooler back into the house and minutes later tells me that the brine felt cold but the ice was completely melted (Should have listened to me, right?), and he was worried. I suggested checking the temperature of the brine, and it turned out to be around 54 F…. not safe in my opinion… and we ended up throwing the turkey away to be on the safe side, and buying another one.
This one stayed in the refrigerator until it was time to cook it. No brining this one! The plan was still to deep-fry it, but the weather decided not to play along. Wednesday afternoon at 4pm it was 84 F and just twenty-four hours later it was only 42 F, cloudy, drizzly and windy, with temperatures expected to drop below freezing by Friday morning.
Greg made an herb butter and roasted the turkey in the oven. All went well at first, when a couple of hours into roasting, I hear some cursing coming from the kitchen. The oven had been turned off!! It most likely happened when the timer went off, to remind Greg to baste the turkey, and instead of leaving it alone, he pressed the Cancel button, which not only made the timer “END” display disappear (it would have disappeared on its own), but turned the oven off as well! And of course he didn’t realize that until the time went off again!
But, in the end, the turkey turned out delicious! No mishaps to report with the side dishes that I cooked. I made pumpkin bread for dessert, but everyone was too stuffed after dinner, to eat dessert. Guess that can be breakfast tomorrow…
2010/217: A Taste Of Home, Part 2
This is what was missing in yesterday’s photo. A real German Bretzel… with butter! Yummy!
2010/216: A Taste Of Home, Part 1
I saw my friend Claudia at the pool last week and she told me about this German Deli in the DFW area. Of course a trip there was a must, and we went last Saturday. I was in heaven, and could have literally bought half the store! Instead, I settled on just a few things, and we’ll just have to go back some time.
All the goodies we bought
This is what I was happiest about finding: Almdudler! My favorite soft drink! It’s made in Austria and a blend of apple and grape juice, flavored with alpine herbs (whatever those may be). It’s a carbonated drink that tastes similar to ginger ale, but much better. Too bad they didn’t sell it by the case!
The German flag colored ribbons they tied to the handles of their paper shopping bags were a nice touch.
2010/138: Bonus: Birthday Lunch
I met with a friend for a very belated Birthday lunch today. I met Claudia at the gym sometime last fall, when I walked in shortly after her and someone at the front desk mentioned to me that she was from Germany, too. He also mentioned to Claudia that I was from Germany (well, close enough anyway) and we bumped into each other (not literally) a while later and introduced ourselves.
We ran into each other from time to time and chatted for a few minutes each time. When we found out that we’re the same age, AND our birthdays are only within about two weeks of each other (I’m the older one 😛 ), we decided to celebrate together when the weather was warmer. Unfortunately sick kids, vacations, bad weather, and busy schedules prevented us from meeting up… until today! And I have to say that we picked the perfect day, because it was just beautiful outside, and we did ask for a table outside.
We met at the restaurant at 11:30 am and didn’t leave until 2:10pm, when we had to go because it was time to pick up the kids. We probably could have sat there all day otherwise 🙂
2009/108: Hershey’s Orange Creme Kisses
I have to admit, I never would have bought these myself, because they just didn’t sound all that appealing. I got these in the mail from a friend as a thank you a few weeks back.
They tasted much better than I thought! Not that I got to eat very many of them, because the kids ate most of them 🙂
What May I Serve You for Dinner Tonight?
These vegetable soups are reserved especially for Melissa. As punishment. Why, you wonder? Because she hates taking showers and will do anything and everything to avoid them. But, she knows mom and dad won’t let her get away with that, so she waits until 5:30 pm (which is dinner time in this house) to get in the shower… taking f o r e v e r to a) get into the shower, b) take a shower, and c) get dressed, hair brushed, etc. Which, of course leads to her not eating dinner with the rest of us and her dinner getting cold.
Sooo…. new rules for Miss I-don’t-wanna-take-a-shower: 1) No more having to be reminded to take a shower and 2) Don’t wait until it’s dinner time. You ignore one or both of these rules and you get vegetable soup for dinner.
I thought that she hated vegetable soup even more than showers, but out of the three cans that I bought, there is now only one can left. She only ate part of the other two cans, though. Sat at the dinner table until it was time to get ready for bed.
Comfort Food
And this is the way to eat it, right off the spoon!
Some of you were wondering about my setup, so I decided to take a picture of that, too. This is my kitchen counter, stove is on the left and the microwave is on the right (in the corner, facing the stove). Then to the right of the microwave is the sink, and kitchen window. If yesterday afternoon had been sunny, you would have seen the sunlight reflecting on the counter, and giving me enough natural light to avoid using the speedlight.
Playing With Food
Pepperoni pieces for eyes, a carrot nose, and a slice of pepperoni (with part of it bitten off) as the mouth. All of it stuck in veggie dip.
My silly, silly child. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you whose work of art this is!
I Hate Eggs
Except for these! Greg’s deviled eggs. They are sooo good, I could eat the whole tray by myself… all at once! Greg doesn’t believe me and says that I couldn’t do it. Guess I’ll have to prove him wrong some day.
Btw. I didn’t always hate eggs. I used to like them, until I ate waaaaayyyyyy too many of them one Easter, when I was still a kid.
Things I Love – part 2
Peanut Butter Cookies
I was in a baking mood yesterday and first made some coconut cookies, and then tried Heather’s recipe for peanut butter cookies. You can find her recipe here
http://heatherleggettphotography.wordpress.com/monday-meals/
They are the BEST peanut butter cookies EVER!! I planned on making them with just the regular flour, but then didn’t have enough of it. Luckily we still had some whole wheat flour from when Greg made power bars a while back. Good thing, too, because I think the wheat flour makes all the difference. The kids like them, too. I made them wait until after dinner to try one… listening to Sara beg for two hours!! She ate her dinner in record time and then finally got to eat a cookie! After she was done, she went into Melissa’s room and as she walked past me she said “boy, do I want another one of those!” Seems to be her new favorite thing to say when she likes something and wants more!
This morning, when she was eating breakfast, Sara said to me “Mommy… thanks for baking the BEST COOKIES!” Awwww…
Check out my Monday Meals page for the Coconut Cookie recipe.
Hi, my name is…
… Michaela, and I’m a chocoholic.
Chocolate of choice is milk chocolate Dove (because Godiva is a luxury), but I found these new Hershey’s Kisses while browsing the Valentine aisles the other day. They’re “New York Style Cheesecake cream” filled. Very good!!
The kids like them, too. I gave Sara a few yesterday morning after she ate her breakfast, and after she was finished, she walked past me and said “boy, do I want some more of those!” Haha!
Blueberry Smile
Found this bowl on my kitchen counter like that this morning. Left there by Sara after she ate some blueberries.
She seems to be doing a tiny bit better today. Still coughing, nose still runny and red, still a lowgrade fever, eyes still red and tired, but she’s not quite as clingy as she was yesterday. BUT, it’s only been about two hours since she woke up.
The Daily Click 