No Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream

So after the huge disappointment of the Margarita Ice Cream I didn't have much faith in this recipe. I decided to make this last night and googled the ingredients to pick up on my way home from work. I found a video of Nigella doing a demo of this recipe for the Today Show. In her printed recipe she lists 500ml double cream - that heart stopping impossibly thick cream that spreads like butter. But on the today show they used heavy cream. So I decided to go ahead with the heavy cream; A) it's cheaper B)it's lower fat. So I picked up some 18% table cream...but while in Metro I was having a hard time deciding between that and the whipping cream. I should have got the whipping cream. This is supposed to form soft peaks after a good whisking and that just didn't happen with the 18% cream. So last night after 10 minutes of non-stop, done by hand, whipping I still did not have any soft peaks. So I just decided that enough was enough and it was never going to happen. I put the still liquid cream in the freezer and hoped for the best. I let it set for 24 hours and after dinner tonight scooped myself a bowl. It was frozen but it wasn't creamy. It was too crystallized. I think my container was air tight enough..but maybe it wasn't??? I don't know. If I were to make this again I'd make it with whipping cream for sure. I think it'd be much better. But even still apart from that Nigella's ice creams are just way too sweet for me. The powdered sugar is so intense and it's way too much for my palate.

If you want to try making ice cream and you don't have an ice cream maker then give this a try. But you most definitely should be using whipping cream..and you may want to ease up on the sugar. Now after eating all that fatty ice cream I'm going to watch the biggest loser!

Carmel Croissant Pudding

Well, I have to tell you Lloyd totally ruined my pudding experience tonight. There I was sitting on my couch enjoying a bowl of steaming croissant pudding straight from the oven when Lloyd walked into the living room with something else steaming for me. Lloyd is my cat - my long haired Flame-Point Himalayan cat. And do you know what can happen to cats that have long fur??? Let me enlighten you. They get cling ons. Poo cling ons. So in walks Lloyd with his fur pants covered in 2 giant logs. It wasn't very appetizing.

So I had to leave my glorious pudding and grab up Lloyd before he started redecorating. I took him upstairs for a clean up - which isn't the easiest because if you think a cat doesn't mind having their nether region poked and prodded you can think again. There was a lot of escape attempts and plenty of low tone meows - if you can call them meows. But in the end Lloyd was clean and I was dirty. So then I had to wash myself up before I could return to my pudding.

Once I did get back it was still warm and comforting and I was even more glad for the strong boozy flavour of this dessert. However, even though this is a good dessert I can firmly say I will never make this again. I don't even want to know how many calories this has. Croissant plus double cream...heart attack city. It's great maybe for once a year but eat this any more often and you'll be buying new jeans because your ass won't fit in the ones you're wearing now.

Chowder with Asian Flavours

I really, really love making soups. It's so therapeutic for me. Baking is therapy for me too. If ever I feel stressed or stretched too thin if I can do some baking or soup making somehow I feel like all is right again after spending an afternoon in the kitchen creating. I was really looking forward to tasting this chowder. This soup kind of fooled me. I started with a huge pot and then it seemed ridiculous to have such a big pot, so I transferred to a smaller pot. Then in the end my medium sized pot was literally brimming so stick with your large pot. This came together without any problems. The taste was a little disappointing though. Perhaps it's because I just got regular cod instead of the smoked cod (because Metro doesn't have it) but I'm not really sure. This soup is good but I wasn't blown away by it. I really wanted to fall in love with this soup but I didn't. It is good and hearty but I think you can find a better chowder out there.

Green Apple Martini

Me and Green Apple Martinis have a long and sorted history. The most infamous encounter between me and the Green Apple Martini is my house warming party. I had about 6 too many. You can imagine what the house tours were like....plenty of swearing and pointing out everything that's wrong. The highlight of the tour being when I'd point out the exact spot that my cat had shat on the floor earlier that day. Yes it was a fabulous housewarming party. I had a chocolate fountain and I was sooooo hung over that I couldn't believe I'd have to clean that up with all the pain I was in. But when I finally made it downstairs the next "morning". I had a moment of clarity in my life. Husband and cleaned up everything from the house party!!! Including the chocolate fountain (which is awful to clean)!!! It was that exact moment in my life that I knew I married the right person. He knew I was terribly hung over, and rather than make me suffer through the pain and humiliation of cleaning everything up, he did it all for me. It was that moment that made me think "My God, I married the right person." And then I went back to bed to wallow in my hang over.

This recipe for Green Apple Martini differs from the one I'm used to because it uses a Green Apple Syrup. I couldn't find a Green Apple Syrup and I've been looking for months. So I decided to just go ahead and make this without the syrup. I used vodka instead of gin for this because vodka is my thing. So 1 part Vodka, 1 part Sour Apple and then I decided to use the iced apple cider in place of the syrup. I figured it's sugary and apple flavoured. Well I decided wrong. I wasn't good. I couldn't drink it all. So overall I can't tell you that this is good or bad because I never really made the true recipe. I'm sure if you can find some green apple syrup that it would be good. But what I can do is give you the recipe for the House Warming Green Apple Martini.

1 part vodka
1 part Sour Apple Liqueur

2 parts Granny Smith Apple Juice

Garnish with Granny Smith Apple Slice

Just don't drink 10 of them.

Blackberry Crisp

I haven't been blogging because I've been vacationing at the cottage. October at the cottage is amazing! The colours are just so beautiful. I never want to leave in October. I love having fires and being cozy in the cottage listening to the crackle of the flames at night. Ahh, but then back to reality. Chug-a-lug back to work. Or so it was for one day. Today I went to the office and there was no power. So after waiting for a while and still no power I came back to my humble abode to finish up the work day from here. But what was great was that I could bake while I worked today. So I made this fantastic Crisp. I didn't want to pay 5 dollars for a half pint of blackberries. So I bought a bag of mixed frozen berries that had blackberries in it.

This crisp is really simple to make and I like that it has yummy oatmeal and almonds making up the crust. I used agave nectar in place of the white sugar but I did stick with the demerra sugar for the crust. Bake at 400 for 25 min and you will be eating heaven on earth! Sooo yummy!!! So delicious!!!!! I ate a ton of this! It's cold an rainy here today and this was perfect, perfect, perfect to make me feel warm and cozy and snuggle up with my kitty kat Lloyd on the couch. I highly recommend giving this recipe a shot. You will not be disappointed.

Liver with Bacon and Charred Onions

Does this plate look like a heart attack or what? I couldn't bring myself to cook a piece of liver. I mean who eats liver???? My Dad does. I'm still traumatized by the plates of liver and onion prepared in my mother's kitchen. I just couldn't do it.

So I got Husband a nice piece of steak. Well actually he got himself a nice piece of steak. And when he bought it he said to me "Don't make this in the fry pan. I hate steak cooked in the fry pan." To which I agreed verbally but didn't commit to mentally. I still had to think about it. I mean if Nigella says pan fry, shouldn't I pan fry?

Well, when push came to shove I figured the poor bugger should at least enjoy the steak if he's gotta eat it. I mean I'd hate for the cow to have been slaughtered and end up being a shitty meal. The least I could do for both Husband and the cow is make it a better meal. I mean for me, if I were to end up on some one's dinner plate I'd a least want them to have said I made a good meal. Not eat my thigh and then say plegh! that was gross. No, I'd want them to say "Gawd, that was delicious!". I mean if they're going to eat me either way. Obviously I'd rather not be eaten at all.

So I BBQ'd the steak but followed everything else as per Nigella's instructions. This looks like a heart attack to me and I'm going to tell you I don't see the difference between eating this meal and punch to the heart. But who am I to judge? Everyone strays from their healthy meals now and then. You do have to live after all. But if this dish appeals to you, for the sake of your own health don;t make this a regular. Everything is cooked in oil and bacon fat...I'm almost regretting feeding this to Husband at this point. Ah well, I did make him healthy salad to go with it. Maybe they'll balance each other out. (hopefully!)

Flan

Question: How many times can a person fart in your yoga class before you become exasperated?

Answer: 3.

Yes, at this evening's yoga class we were doing the downward dog and "Pffft" there it was for all to hear. The Farter. About 3 people over from me...or at least that's what is sounded like. The first time a few people laughed. The second time, less people laughed. The third time, no one laughed. By that point the joke had worn off and everyone was hoping not to catch the stink amongst all the deep breathing. I guess we could be thankful that it wasn't one of those farts that smells like a skunk died in yer arse and spreads like hell fire through the room. Yes, I guess there's that bright side.

Anywho, now to the other eff word..Flan. If you've still got an appetite this flan is pretty tasty. I've had a few samplers of this and either they're all great liars or it's very yummy. One thing I will warn you about though is the melting of the sugar is not for the inexperienced. It's not incredibly difficult but it requires patience and a certain amount of culinary skill. I had to bake this SOB forever too. Much longer than Nigella instructed ..nearly double the time to be honest. Perhaps there was too much water in my water bath...Or maybe my oven wasn't hot enough. I'm not 100% sure. But I got there in the end. And while it does make for a nice treat I doubt I'll make this again. I'd rather have a creme brulee.

Namaste.

Brandied Bacony Chicken

There are 3 ingredients to this recipe and they are all listed in the title. This is very simple to prepare. But can you bake a chicken? I'm telling you that you can. You only need one thing, and that thing is a meat thermometer. Get yourself one of those and you can cook anything. Well, anything meat that is.

So what you do is you fry up some bacon in a pan. Then you deglaze the pan with the bacon fat and Brandy. Here's where I strayed. I didn't want to go spend money on a bottle of Brandy when my house is bursting with alcohol. I just needed to research what would be the best substitute of the alcohols I already had. So after reading up on Wikipedia what makes a Brandy a Brandy, I came up with using Iced Apple Cider as my sub. This was a gift that Husband got thru work and has been sitting in our fridge "chilling" for about 6 months. So I popped the cork and deglazed.

Then I stuffed the chicken with the cooked bacon and poured the brandy-bacon sauce over said chicken and popped her in the oven. Then I waited for the meat thermometer to beep at me. Which it did nicely, and Husband had another lovely meal.

But now back to the Iced Apple Cider. This is a relatively new alcohol coming out of Quebec apparently and I was shy about trying it. But OMFG it's pretty damn good. I had 3 liqueur glasses of this just while the chicken was cooking. I've no idea if the chicken was great or not but what I can tell you is that Iced Apple Cider is pretty delicious!