I'm a Corndog Millionaire!

Corndog car air freshener. Don't really know what to do with it.

I Oooooh for Ice Cream

So it's 12:37am in the morning and I'm eating my second bowl of ice cream. I can't stop. I'm afraid I might eat the whole carton. There should be a phone number for this. Someone to talk to. Someone to get me off this ledge. Today it's Haagen Daz's Five ice cream in mint. Five is Haagen Daz's new line of all-natural ice cream that is crafted with only five ingredients for incredibly pure, balanced flavor... and surprisingly less fat! I love the refreshing flavor and zing of mint ice cream but I hate the chewy chocolate chips that usually comes with it. That's why Five is perfect for me. It's just the ice cream without the unnecessary frill of chocolate chips. Simple, unadulterated, perfect! The ice cream isn't too sweet and has the texture between ice cream and sorbet. Last week my favorite was Ben & Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie. I don't mind the chocolate cookie because unlike chocolate chips it doesn't turn into a waxy chewy ball in my mouth. Think cookies & cream but instead of cream it's mint! Yummy! I also like Breyer's vanilla ice cream, Haagen Daz's coffee ice cream covered in chocolate almond crunch ice cream bar, lemon Italian ice from the pizzerias, coconut sorbet off the carts in the street, and Pinkberry with fruity pebbles and mangoes. But my all time favorite, the one ice cream flavor I would have to pick if I had to eat one flavor for the rest of my life, is definitely Haagen Daz strawberry.

What are your favorite ice cream flavors and brands?

Food2

Do you see Spike in the picture?

What do you find at the end of a rainbow?

Rainbow Cookies of course!

My friend Roger loves the rainbow cookies that are sold in Italian bakeries. I love almond paste and will use any excuse to bake with it. I found this recipe on epicurious.com and it got great reviews. I doubled the recipe to fit a half sheet pan instead of a 13 x 9 pan.A good tip is to softened the butter until it was creamy in the microwave. This makes it easier to incorporate into the almond paste, a trick I learned at work while making almond biscuit. My batter took longer to bake then originally posted on epicurious. I think it all depends on your oven so I would definitely watch it and check for the edges to get brown and pull away from the sides.

Rainbow Cookies
adapted from Epicurious

makes one half sheet pan

Almond Paste 14 oz
Sugar 2 c
Butter 6 sticks
Eggs 6, separated
Almond Extract 2 1/2 t
AP 4 c, sifted and then measured out
Salt 1/2 t

Raspberry or Apricot Jam 15 oz
Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate 20 oz
Butter 4 T

1. Make sure almond paste, butter, and eggs are at room temperature.
2. Grease 3 half sheet pans and place parchment paper in each pan allowing some to overhang. This will be used later to lift the baked cake out of the pan.
   
3. Soften butter in microwave for 20-25 seconds. Whisk or stir by hand until creamy.
4. Beat egg whites until medium stiff. While whites are beating and frothy stream in 1 c of the sugar. Place into a bowl that has been tared on a scale. Divide this number by three to be folded into batter later.
5. Break up almond paste by hand into the same mixing bowl you used for the whites. Using a paddle, cream almond paste and rest of sugar. Try to break up all the lumps. Add creamy butter a little at a time. Make sure there are no lumps. Cream until fluffy and white.
   
6. Add yolks and almond extract. Then add the flour in 3 installments. Scale batter evenly into three bowls using a scale. Add desired food coloring to each bowl. I did red, yellow, and green. Start off with a 5 drops of gel color and add more if desired. Fold color into batter until uniform.
7. Divide the whites into the three bowls evenly by using the calculation you did in step #3 and a scale. Fold whites into batter.
8. Spread evenly onto half sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees F until edges get brown and pull away from the sides of the pan, should be 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool.
9. Heat up jam in the microwave. Pull cakes out of the sheet pan. Spread half of the jam on the first layer and put a layer of cake on top. Add the rest of the jam and then the last layer. Weigh down with a sheet pan. Allow to set for 2 hours.
10. Melt chocolate and butter over bain marie. Spread half on top of cakes. Place a piece of parchment on top of chocolate and using the back of another half sheet pan invert the cake over to expose the bottom. Spread the rest of the chocolate on and allow to set.
    
11. When the chocolate has set invert the cake using a cutting board on top and flipping the whole thing over. Peel off the parchment paper and cut using a knife that has been dipped in hot water and wiped on a towel.
    

Fruit of my Memories

What happened to the days when watermelon had seeds? When we had "real" fruit and not that genetically altered crap that we have now? I don't think I even remember how watermelon taste anymore. Stop force feeding my fruit with sugar! Fruit should have seeds. Strawberries shouldn't be pumped up with steriods to be the size of my palm. Apples should not come shiny and blemish free. Fruit should taste like fruit. The more it is genetically altered to taste sweet the more fruit flavor we are losing. What are our kids going to think? Are they going to grow up not knowing the burst of flavor that can come out of a nickel sized wild strawberry? Are they going to grow up to be superficial brats, thinking you can't judge a fruit by it's brown dimply skin! I petition to stop this madness. Bring back the fruit of our yesteryears! Stop mating my fruit to make new kinds! Bring back simple plums, not that hybrid pluot, plumelon, plupabananaberry crap! Ok I think I need to take a break and simmer down.