marionberry chip royale ice cream

when it comes to ice cream, the geek and i agree to disagree. we usually buy his and hers cartons of ice cream because we like different things. he'll go for the gallon of cookie dough or mint chocolate chip; i'll pick the pint of some limited edition or seasonal concoction (haagen daz, please bring back the reserve hawaiian lehua honey & sweet cream. thank you).

a couple years ago, we found an ice cream we both loved- raspberry chip royale from dreyers/edys. we both thought the combination of sweet cream, tart berry, and chocolate chips was magical. unfortunately, we must have been the only ones in love with the flavor, because it's no longer available- at least not in our stores.

blueberry mochi

have you ever experienced a recollection where you aren't quiet sure if what you're remembering actually happened or if your mind is playing tricks on you? where you know many of the details are true because you're remembering something that was once your normal, even if your actual memory of that specific moment is hazy?

i am probably being a bit confusing, so let me explain.

while sorting through old recipe cards, i had one of those moments. i found a recipe for blueberry mochi, written in my handwriting- or in my handwriting of ten or fifteen years ago. i knew i'd never made this recipe, but i did have a memory of copying it down.

my family and i are at my grandmother's house for a visit. as always, she's brought out an assortment of canned beverages and cups on a small circular wood tray. i split a can of something with one of my parents and settle in for our visit. on these visits with my grandmother, we'll have our drinks, watch some tv (usually the gameshow network), then head home. if my grandmother attended a recent church function, she'll bring out an mix of desserts and point out which ones were good or not so good. apparently every function at her church ended with lots of extra desserts, and everyone went home with a sample of leftovers.

on this occasion, she brings out a recipe. while i can't remember what it was written on, i can still hear her telling me, "write this down. oishii."

oishii means 'delicious' in japanese. from my stoic grandmother, this is high praise. unfortunately, i remember feeling lazy, not wanting to hand-copy a recipe, and saying something like, "nah, that's okay."

apparently this recipe is really delicious, because she insists, "no, this is good."

my dad steps in and tells me to copy it, so i do. not because i really want a blueberry mochi recipe, but because my grandmother and now my father are telling me to.

now i am glad that i did since my grandmother was right, it is good. she passed away two years ago, and it's been even longer since she was well enough to live unassisted and go to church functions. finding this recipe card brought back happy memories. while i'm not sure if the details are completely accurate, the wood tray of drinks and cups, eating church function left-over desserts, and watching the gameshow network were all part of our regular visits that i'd almost forgotten.

for anyone not familiar with mochi, it's traditionally made by pounding cooked sweet rice until individual grains have broken down and reformed into a chewy blob of slightly sweet goodness. this recipe modernizes the idea, creating what can best be described as a blueberry cake with the chewiness of mochi. it uses sweet rice flour, or mochiko, so no pounding is required.

hot chocolate ice cream

over the holidays, we went to visit the geek's family on the east coast. i came home with a large canister of hot chocolate mix in my suitcase.

the geek's grandmother originally received it as a gift. she wasn't sure what to do with so much hot chocolate mix so she gave it to the geek's mom. his grandma just brought it over one day, she didn't try to regift it, in case you're wondering. well the geek's mom offered it to me, and though it weighed a ton, who was i to turn down free chocolate in any form?

so here i am, the third owner this large canister has seen. i am determined to be it's last owner and to put it to good use.

while i could just add a scoop to my morning coffee or declare hot cocoa the official drink of our household, i wanted to do something different. like a hopeful matchmaker, i have been pairing hot chocolate with other desserts in my mind for a while...hot cocoa panna cotta? the texture of panna cotta kinda weirds the geek out. hot chocolate cream pie? the geek is not a fan of pie crust. just as i was about to resign myself to a mug of cocoa with every meal, i remembered a seasonal ice cream i had last winter. hot chocolate ice cream. the geek loves ice cream. we have a winner.

an added bonus- i can check something off my 2013 list of things to do! yay!

cinnamon & brown sugar cream cheese frosting

these cupcakes turned out okay. while i loved the frosting, the banana cupcakes turned out more like banana muffins or banana bread bites. the muffins were delicious and if i were trying to make banana muffins, i would be quite pleased with how these tasted.

but i was trying to make cupcakes. cups of cake. not cups of bread. cupcakes!!!

okay, enough of the sugar tantrum. off to hunt for the perfect banana cupcake recipe.

in the meantime, please enjoy this frosting recipe. it works well on banana muffins and sandwiched between two gingersnaps. it would also be lovely on banana cupcakes, a spice cake, a yellow cake or if you're the geek, a spoon.

fruit dip

have you ever had a sound or a smell evoke memories from your past? maybe you're driving along and a song comes on the radio, and just like that, you're back in college or high school or summer camp. or you smell  something familiar baking and you're suddenly back in your childhood kitchen.

me? when i hear smashmouth's all-star, i'm instantly happy. i'm back on a roadtrip with friends and find myself singing loudly and badly - just as i did years ago when it played almost hourly on the radio. cool water? one sniff and i'm once again in middle school. i swear, so many boys wore it that you could probably smell our campus from a mile away.

the taste of this dip has an effect on me too. it transports me back to the 80s, where i'm still a kid, cartoons are my world, and apples and dip are the best treat ever.

while i associate this dip with the 80s, who knows when this dip was actually invented? it has only two ingredients - cream cheese and mashmallow fluff - and both have been around for ages (the newer of the two being the fluff which made it's appearance in the early 1900s...thank you wikipedia).

the nostalgic part of me probably loves this dip for what it represents...simpler times and a higher metabolism.

chocolate zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

i first met chocolate zucchini cake in college. on my way to my campus job, i'd often stop at a sundry shop to pick up a coffee or grab a soda. while standing in line one day, i picked up the moistest chocolate cake i'd ever seen. it wasn't until it was half-way devoured that i read the label...chocolate zucchini cake. zucchini? i had to read the ingredients to be sure that the zucchini in the name was really the vegetable and not some fancy baking technique. indeed it was! who knew?

not only was the cake moist and delicious, it had a vegetable in it! for a college student with questionable cooking skills and eating habits (24 hour pizza delivery did not help), this qualified as 'eating healthy.'

after college, i got a 'real' job and no longer frequented the university campus. i soon forgot all about chocolate zucchini cake....until last week. i saw it listed on a menu and decided to figure out how to make it at home.

eton mess

strawberries and cream are delicious together. add in crushed meringue, and it gets even sweeter. for sweet tooths like me, sweeter = better. eton mess is a  cool, creamy, and rich dessert. it's simple to make and a treat to eat.

on several occasions, the geek has announced that he does not like meringue. we'll see how he likes this; if he doesn't, it just means there is more for me!

adapted from nigella lawson's eton mess recipe (and reader comments) on foodnetwork.com. for more information on the history of this dessert and it's name, see this wikipedia article.

banoffi or banoffee, delicious no matter how you spell it

i can still remember the first slice of banoffi pie i ever ate. a co-worker had brought the pie to an office potluck and when i took i slice, i was expecting banana cream pie. instead, i tasted something a bit more sublime. it was sweet, creamy and heavenly. the crust was more subtle than a graham cracker crust. the toffee was rich and more complex than pudding. the banana kept it from being too sweet and added texture. the whipped cream kept it light. everything melded together perfectly. after that first bite, i had found my new favorite dessert.

the original banoffi pie had a homemade crust. i've also seen recipes with a graham crust. the version i ate had a crust made out of digestives (a type of english wheat cookie), so i've used them here as well. i made the pie pictured here to take to an event, so i used some extra ingredient to build individual banoffi parfaits for myself and the geek to enjoy.

banana bread with personality: banana bread with chocolate and ginger

banana bread...comforting.

chocolate...bliss.
crystallized ginger...zingy.
bake them together...mmmm...genius!
 
the house smells amazing while it bakes, and the bread itself tastes even better. it's moist but not mushy, sweet but not too sweet and just when you're about to be lulled into calm contentment, the crystallized ginger adds a snappy twist; it's delicious.

lemon cornmeal cake

in the season of gingerbread and peppermint, a lemon cake may sound a bit out of place. the flavors of the holidays are all about comfort and warmth, and lemon, as the geek proclaims, delivers a "real punch in the face." after a month of hearty holiday eating though, the bright and tart flavor is a welcomed palate cleanse. the cake itself is lightly lemony; the real sweet, puckery goodness is in the glaze.