I decided to try something a little different with this post.  Instead of describing how to make them, I posted photos from each step.  If you hover over with your mouse, you can read the captions.  Be sure to head on over to Martha’s site for the complete recipe.

They are also good with a square of dark chocolate pressed into the middle.

I made a chocolate and vanilla ice cream bombe (bombe glacée) for Big E’s 11th birthday last month [last year]. This is a simple and delicious dessert that requires no special pan.

You will need:

2 cartons of ice cream (I used chocolate and vanilla)
1 package of Oreos
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
A large bowl
Plastic wrap

Take out the first carton of ice cream to soften. This will be the top layer of your finished bombe. I used chocolate.

Line your bowl with plastic wrap, both ways (top-to-bottom and side-to-side). This is your mold. Leave enough wrap hanging over to wrap the finished bombe.

Put your ice cream into your stand mixer and mix it with the paddle attachment to give it a smooth, spreadable consistency. This step is optional, but it does make the spreading easier.

Spread the ice cream into the mold, creating a bowl shape. Leave a space at the top.

Place one row of Oreos into a food processor and pulse into crumbs. Spread crumbs over the entire chocolate ice cream layer.

Put your bowl into the freezer to set the layer. It does not need to be totally hard, just hard enough to withstand putting on the second layer.

Prior to talking the bombe out of the freezer, take out the vanilla ice cream (or other second flavor) and let it soften. Then put it in the mixer, as you did with the chocolate.

Spread the vanilla ice cream so it is flat in the mold, leaving room for the final layer of crumbs.

Process another row of Oreos and press the crumbs into the top of the bombe. Cover with the over-hanging plastic wrap and put in the freezer until fully hardened.

Before removing the bombe from the freezer, make the whipped cream icing by whipping the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until a stiff, spreadable consistency.

Dip the bottom of the bowl in hot water to loosen the bombe and invert it onto a plate or pizza pan lined with a parchment circle. (Put the plate upside down onto the bowl, then flip the whole thing.)

Frost the entire bombe with the whipped cream icing. Freeze again to set the frosting. If you don’t plan to eat it right away, you can cover it with wrap after the icing is frozen.

Your bombe is now ready to eat!

Yum!

I was planning on attending a barbecue on Saturday, so I thought it was a great opportunity to try the Raspberry Macaroon recipe I saw on Martha Stewart.com.

I went out and bought some fresh raspberries and some fancy-pants raspberry preserves.  (It was the only kind I could find made with actual sugar, instead of high fructose corn syrup.)

I should have known something would go wrong when I couldn’t find my camera and had to use my DSi XL to take the pictures for this post, but I pressed on, determined to have a plate full of beautiful and delicious macaroons to wow the crowd at the barbecue.

I pressed a handful of mashed raspberries through a sieve to make a tablespoon of fresh raspberry puree.

I gathered up all of the the ingredients.

I followed the directions to the letter, twice sifting the powdered sugar and almond meal, making the meringue, folding in the sugar almond mixture, then the raspberry puree. Then, I carefully piped the cookies on the parchment paper that I had so carefully cut to line the pans.

I omitted the food coloring, but look at the beautiful pale pink color from the puree.

I peeked in the oven window to see the lovely feet on my little creations.

But then, something went awry.  When I tried to lift the macaroons from the parchment, the soggy, sticky bottoms stuck.

I don’t blame the recipe.  I think it was a good recipe overall.  I blame the high (very high!) humidity we were having.  It was as if the insides had pulled all the moisture they could from the air.  (After I left them out for a day or two, they were actually quite perfect in texture, in fact.)

Still, I managed to salvage just a few for a photo.  Ah, this is what I had hoped they’d look like.

The cookies themselves were delicious, with just a hint of raspberry.

But, I still needed to make something for the barbecue.  And I still had a jar of expensive fancy-pants jam.  So, I made Butter and Jam Thumbprints from foodnetwork.com.  I already had everything on hand, even a vanilla bean.

They were pretty good, I’m told, though I personally thought they were too buttery, if there is such a thing.

If you missed my previous adventures in macaroon making, you can catch up here.

Apparently, when garlic grows, it sprouts a curly, green shoot that must be cut off in order to encourage the garlic to continue to grow underground into the delicious root that we all know and love.  That curly, green shoot is the garlic scape, which you can often find at farmer’s markets in June.

When I got home, I immediately researched what to do with this new-found treat.

One popular recipe on the internet is garlic scape pesto.  Basically, you make pesto substituting garlic scapes for the basil.  Here are two recipes that I found: Garlic Scape Pesto and Garlic Scape Pesto.

I think the scapes would be excellent in a stir fry.  I also want to try to use them to make a dip, the way onion dip is made, substituting the scapes for the onions.

I did not have enough scapes to make either of those, so I made a spinach, garlic scape, and parsley open-faced omelet.  (All three of those ingredients came from the farm.)

I combined chopped, fresh spinach, chopped parsley, shredded mozzarella, salt and pepper with 5 eggs and mixed well.

Then, I sauteed the chopped garlic scapes in a small amount of olive oil for a couple minutes in a small pan.

Turning down the heat to med-low, I added the egg mixture and covered.  I let that cook until the top of the eggs looked set.  (You will totally be able to smell it when it is ready.)

Cut into wedges and serve.  Yum!

I had two scapes left over, so I cut them into fine pieces and mixed them into a package of cream cheese, covered with plastic wrap, and refrigerated over night.

Serve that up on your morning bagel and you will not be sorry.  It was amazing!

So, the next time you see these curly beauties at your local farmer’s market, be sure to snag a few.  They add a delicious, mild garlic taste to any dish.

But get them while you can – they are usually only around in June.

Make Curried Chicken Salad.

Chop up your cold, leftover chicken breast.

Put it in a bowl, with raisins, walnuts, and diced onion (optional).  Really, you can use anything for this.  I know someone who uses grapes and pecans.  You can use pine nuts.  Really, anything.  It’s your thing, do what you wanna do.

Next, you mix in some mayo, curry powder, salt and pepper.  Use some good curry powder.  It makes all the difference.

Now, serve it up on some fresh baked sandwich bread or a bed of salad greens.

You won’t regret it. ♥

We got some turnips the past two weeks that were from last year, so I decided to make roasted chicken with root vegetables.

I cut up turnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, and onions into pieces, and sliced some garlic.  I tossed them in a bowl with a generous drizzle of olive oil, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

Then I placed split chicken breast halves (with bones and skin) on to two sprayed baking sheets, spaced far apart.  I sprinkled the chicken with coarse sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Then I brushed them with a mixture of olive oil that had a little melted butter mixed in.

I used this really nice Kitchen Aid brush with floppy bristles that my 13-year-old son bought me for Christmas.  (My kids know me so well!)  It’s great for brushing sauce on meat.

Even a small amount of butter makes a huge difference in flavor, so don’t omit it unless you absolutely have to.

Then, I arranged the veggies on the pans, around the chicken, and sprinkled everything with a little bit of thyme.

I baked it for 30 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 450-degrees, until the veggies were tender and the chicken’s juices ran clear (test internal temp for safety).

The vegetables were amazing!  The chicken was good, too, but I am a veggie lover, so that was my favorite part.  The vegetables were slightly caramelized on the bottom and they were so tender and sweet.

I never went to a Chi-Chi’s restaurant, when they were still in business, but I used to buy the Chi-Chi’s Sweet Corn Cake mix at the supermarket for our Cinco de Mayo dinner every year because my boys love it.  This year, I was not able to find it at the only local grocery store that carried it, so I decided to try to hack the recipe.

I located the ingredients and directions to the Chi-Chi’s mix online.  The directions gave me the ingredients that need to be added to the mix and the cooking time and temperature.  The ingredient list told me the rest of the ingredients and an idea of the portions, since ingredients are always listed in order from greatest to least.  I used my baking know-how and experience to figure out the rest.  The results were delicious – and kid approved!

Surprisingly, there were no added preservatives or flavor enhancers, which is nice.  You can buy the Chi-Chi Sweet Corn Cake Mix at Amazon.com, if you don’t want to make it yourself.

If you do, I’ve got your number.

For the mix:

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup masa harina (found in the Hispanic food section)
1/4 cup corn meal
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking powder

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk.

Add to that:

1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup water
1 (15 oz.) can cream-style corn

Mix until well combined.

Pour into a bread loaf pan (9×5-inch).  Bake at 350 for 40 – 50 minutes, until it appears dry on the top.

Serve up a scoop and enjoy!

I used the Chocolate Macaron recipe from David Lebovitz, even though I am not in France.  I hope he doesn’t mind.

I don’t think I mixed it enough after I added the meringue to the other ingredients – or something, I’m not sure – but the batter did not smooth out after piping.

So, yes, my chocolate macarons look like a little doggie visited my kitchen and left me presents.  Gross, I know.

But, and this is the important thing, I assure you they were divine.

I think these make a wonderful and light cookie to have plain, but macarons just beg to have filling, so I filled them with some vanilla custard.

Hmm, something’s still missing.  How about vanilla custard and sliced strawberries?

There, that’s better.  But you just know that is going to shoot right out the back when you bite into it, so you can always serve it like this.

Any way you serve them up, these chocolate macarons are delicious!

I took some pictures with my phone, but they are not blog worthy.

So, I dug way back into my photos and realized that I never told you about my birthday presents, back in April.

In addition to getting the new Nintendo DSi XL on the day it came out, I also got a new Emeril griddle and the America’s Test Kitchen “Let’s Get Cooking” DS game.

The game is really cool.  It gives you step-by-step instruction, has technique tutorials, ingredient lists, and allows you to plan future meals and have multiple chefs divide the duties.

Best of all, my 11-year-old son used it to make us a dinner of Sloppy Joes – all by himself!

And, it has the best – no, seriously, the best – pancake recipe.  Ever.  Perfect for my new griddle.

This time, I tried the Parisian Macaron recipe found at Martha Stewart.com.  Unlike the last recipe I tried, this one has standard baking measurements, not weights.  The benefit there was that I didn’t have to get out my scale.  The drawback?  Have you ever tried to measure gloopy egg whites with a tablespoon?  Not easy.  (FYI: 6 tablespoons is 3/8 – or halfway between 1/4 and 1/2 on your 1 cup Pyrex.  Trust me, it’s much easier.)

Even though the recipe did not call for aging the egg whites, I did.

This recipe was easy to use.  It calls for whisking the powdered sugar and almond meal, but I ended up running it through the sieve because it looked a little lumpy.

Next, make the meringue.

I added in a little (just three drops) of yellow food coloring to the meringue.

Now it’s time to fold in the dry ingredients.

Then, pipe out circles onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, let sit for a bit, and we’re ready to bake!

What should I fill these lovelies with?  How about some lemon curd?

What a perfect gift for my mom for Mother’s Day.  She loves lemon!

Just wrap the box with some pretty punched paper and a bow, and it’s ready to give!

I felt like this recipe was a little bit simpler to follow, perhaps, but the result was not quite what it was the first time.  There are two reasons that come to mind.  (1) The measurements are not as precise.  (2) I used a wooden spoon to prop the oven door, which I did not do last time.

At any rate, these were still amazingly delicious!  My mother and my sister both absolutely loved them, and you will, too!