Childhood Memories

I have a fondness for sense memories that involve food.  As I strolled through the market doing my grocery shopping yesterday I had a sudden craving for tapioca pudding. This creamy snack reminds me of afternoons at my Grandma's house. It's a total comfort food. I had to get some. I like the combination of creamy custard and the little snap of the tapioca pearls (I know people hate this for the same reason!).  I wandered to the Jell-O aisle (have you been there?! It's CRAZY!) and bought a box of Island Brand small tapioca pearls.  

I decided to put my own spin on the flavor by adding some warm spices.

Here are the directions according to the package.    

1/2 cup Tapioca
3 cups Milk
2 Eggs
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla. 

Combine Tapioca, milk and salt in a 1 1/2 quart pan. Stir until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, uncovered, over lowest possible heat, add sugar gradually. Beat eggs, mix in some of the hot Tapioca mixture very slowly to equalize the temperature of the two mixtures (to avoid curdling). Return all to pan. Bring to a boil, stir 3 minutes more over lowest possible heat (or longer to achieve pudding consistency). Stir constantly. Cool 15 minutes then add vanilla. Serve warm or chilled.

Instead of adding the vanilla after the pudding cooled, I added in the final stirring/cooking stage.  I also added: 1 tsp each of cinnamon, cardamom, freshly grated nutmeg.  I topped each serving with a few chopped almonds

I let the pudding sit and cool a little to firm up.  But, I like to eat it warm.  It's almost a good substitute for ice cream in the winter!  

Summer Cooking: Grown Up Ice Cream Sandwihes

I love ice cream sandwiches, the plain old chocolate wafer and vanilla ice cream are one of my favorite  summertime treats.  But, with a bunch of peach ice cream in the freezer, it was time to get creative.  I was thinking the other day that a delicious cinammon and oatmeal cookie would make a good sandwich for that peach ice cream.  Yes, I fantasize and dream about food on a regular basis.  However it's been too hot to bake so my cookie plans were pushed to the back of my mind.  Then, Bon Appetit posted a delicious looking photo gallery of gourmet DIY ice cream sandwich recipes. 

My mouth watered just looking at the photos.  It had to happen.  I prefer and welcome the challenge to make things homemade when I can, but instead of heating up the house to bake cookies, I headed to my favorite locally owned grocery, Gateway Market.  They have a nice selection of baked goods including super delicious big cookies. I picked out the last two ginger cookies and Ryan opted for a cinammon cookie known as snickerdoodle (what a silly name!  even for a cookie!!). 

Here's how I constructed my grown up ice cream sandwiches. 

First I set out the ice cream so that it would soften up just a bit.
Then, using a mason jar, as a cookie cutter, I made cookie circles and saved the edges for later!

I placed the cookies flat side up and topped one side with a scoop of peach ice cream.

I then put the second cookie on top of the ice cream and gave it a little squish. 

I wrapped them up and placed them back in the freezer, hoping they'd firm up. After about 45 minutes, Ryan and I unwrapped and bit into our ice cream sandwiches. 

The dense, chewy cookies, now a bit cold, made for a very messy sandwich.  I had to handle it a little differently than the traditional thin chocolate wafer variety,  but the mess was well worth it for a Tuesday evening treat.

What is your favorite summertime treat? 

Have a great day! 
xoAllison

When Cravings Attack: Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Have I mentioned that my sweet tooth is about the same size of my head?

If there's one thing I love equally as chocolate it's peanut butter.  One of my favorite comfort foods is toast with peanut butter and jelly. Or toast with peanut butter, banana and honey. Mmmm..... 

The other night, I was struck by a craving for Reese's peanut butter cups and a sudden urge to make them right away.  Having never made them before, I googled hoping it would be an easy fix (this is one great reason to keep a well-stocked pantry!!) and I was not let down.  It should be no surprise that there were a wide array of easy DIY peanut butter cup recipes out there and I was happy to learn that they were relatively easy with ingredients I had on hand. 

I based mine off some recipes I read on Allrecipes.com.  Here's what I think went into them.  It all happened so fast I am trying to remember... and they are long gone by now.

2/3 cup peanut butter

stick of salted butter, melted

1 cup finely ground graham crackers

approx. 2 Tbsp. honey

Mix the above together and spread in the bottom of a pan. (some recipes mentioned using a 9 x 13 pan or a brownie pan but I was going for about a half recipe so I used our bread pan.)  put in freezer.

meanwhile melt approx.

1/2-1 C chocolate chips

in the microwave in 20 second intervals until melted. 

Spread on peanut butter stuff.  Put back in fridge or freezer until solid. 

I had to stop myself from scarfing the whole pan down right away. I was good and shared with my husband and they lasted about three days.  There was not time to get a picture... so click here and pretend these are mine. :) 

It wasn't until the day after that I remembered my friend Aimee makes amazing homemade peanut butter cups that is pared down and way more health conscious than the stick of melted butter version I made.  She was kind enough to share her recipe with the Kitchen Table Friends...

Aimee's PB & Chocolate Squares

1 1/2 cups crushed Cheerios
1 1/2 cups natural peanut butter
1 12 oz bag chocolate chips

Combine Cheerios and peanut butter and mix well. Press mixture evenly into a 9”x13” pan. Melt chocolate chips in microwave. Spread over peanut butter mixture. Chill until just set and cut into bars.