Featuring my thick and nuggy Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookies, these ice cream sandwiches are the stuff that summer dreams are made of. If you've ever had the Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich at Disneyland , you are going to LOVE these! These big and bold chocolate chip cookies are based on a recipe from my culinary school studies at Auguste Escoffier, but with a few modifications to give them that Jennuine touch. They make the perfectas book for a fat slice of real vanilla bean ice cream. And those mini chips? You just gotta have that extra cronch! Thank goodness this recipe only makes 8 sandwiches, otherwise I would be eating them for breakfast lunch and dinner. This way, my big family can help save me from my inner child diet-saboteur. Print With Image Without Image Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches Yield: 8 Author: Jenn Erickson Loaded with chocolate chips and buttery, brown-sugary vanilla flavor, these mall-sized cookies form a perfect partnership with a
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THE ROMANCE IS OVER ~ in which Duran Duran, St. Patrick, teen heartthrobs and the French Catacombs unite for a common cause ~ IRISH SODA BREAD
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Many moons ago, in a time best left buried admist the other scrap and rabble of my youth, I worked for a brief spell at an Irish pub. It was largely a lesson in humility, for reasons I won't delve into here (but I will tell you that the uniform involved a kelly green bow tie and hideously unflattering shorts of the same color). The one good memory of the place is that of their Irish Soda Bread. It was baked fresh every day in the restaurant's enormous basement kitchen. The sweet, toasty, nutty perfume that wafted from the kitchen and through the catacomb-like hallways was the only thing that kept me from succumbing to the heebie jeebies that the subterranean parts of this old building conjured.
The bread was nothing much to look at. It was a humble, round loaf; light brown and a little powdery. But one bite, and everyone was hooked. This deceptively simple looking bread possessed an uncanny complexity -- a slight sweetness offset by the salty bite of the baking soda; the nuttiness of the wheat and the toasty crunch of the crust...heavenly! I haven't been able to find anything quite like it since.
While perusing a recent issue of one of my food magazines, I came across a recipe for Irish Soda Bread. A quick review of the ingredients and I was confident that this could be the key to recreating that amazing bread from my past. The article was written by Andrew McCarthy -- yes, that's right ladies, THAT Andrew McCarthy:
THE Andrew "I swooned over you most of my teenage years" McCarthy. I fell "madly in love" with him in Pretty In Pink. I was sure that if only I could turn an old dress into a prom gown, that I too could win his heart. I forgave him his indiscretions in Less Than Zero, wanted to tear Andie MacDowell's hair out in St. Elmo's Fire, and looked beyond the obvious creepiness of his obsession in Mannequin (I'm not sure I could have done it if they had used one of those Old Navy mannequins, but I digress). Oh Andrew! How I longed to gaze into your dreamy blue eyes! If my parents had only sprung for the new subscription to Hot Dog from Scholastic, I would have gladly taken down my Rick Springfield poster and replaced it with the 'Bonus' poster of you. You would have hung right next to John Taylor from Duran Duran. That would have been so rad.
So, when I saw this mouth-watering picture of (no, not Andrew McCarthy...get your mind out of the gutter...I'm a happily married woman) Irish soda bread and read that it was the result of my teen hearthrob's search throughout the Irish countryside for "the ultimate", I knew I had to try it. My expectations were high. The recipe hailed from Ireland; from a famous castle no less! But alas, I must tell you that the love affair is over. Andrew and I are no more after he failed to deliver his love in the form of the Scholastic Hot Dog Subscription Bonus Poster in 1986, and now the Ultimate Irish Soda Bread recipe in 2010. I hope Mr. Rook will take me back.
Not wanting to bore you, nor disparage the good name of the food magazine (that I adore) or the celebrity I pined over nearly a quarter of a century ago, I will simply tell you that the recipe fell short of my expectations. Perhaps the humidity was too high or too low. Maybe the oven wasn't properly calibrated. I'm loathe to admit it, but I can't rule out the possibility that I made a mistake. What resulted was edible, but crumbly and heavy. I looked over the recipe a dozen more times trying to figure out what went wrong. I decided to take matters into my own hands, using my own skills, experience and culinary know-how. I culled my recipe books and the internet reading dozens of recipes for Irish Soda Bread. I studied techniques, the commonalities and the differences, and combined everything I'd learned into an original recipe that I felt would bring me back to the "ultimate" bread that I remembered.
Today I had two trusty kitchen assistants, ages 2 and 5. I enjoy cooking with friends and family and figure that if kids can do it, then perhaps it might inspire others to try the same with their children when the recipe is shared. The girls had fun dumping the ingredients into the food processor and making it "pulse". They competently brought the dough together with a wooden spoon and patted (perhaps a bit too overzealously) the dough into the pan. It was so quick to put together -- ten minutes tops. And only took 40 minutes more to bake. A wonderfully, homemade bread in less than an hour -- fantastic! We baked two separate loaves, in separate batches to be sure that the recipe was foolproof. To our delight, both loaves were perfect! They were golden, toasty, nutty, and had just the slightest hint of sweetness. I enjoyed a slice, slathered with butter of course, and then another, and another... The bread is said to keep for weeks when wrapped tightly, but if your family is anything like mine, it won't make it past the dinner table.
An Irish friend shared with me recently the fact that the American St. Patrick's day is yet another example of how our country goes over-the-top with customs and holidays brought over from other lands -- that Leprechaun mania, green beer, corned-beef and cabbage, and pinching people who forgot to wear green grew more out of our own immigrant culture and American commercialism, than as a true reflection of native Irish culture. She assured me, however, that Irish Soda Bread is the real deal. So, while I have just as much fun as the next guy on Main Street U.S.A. setting Leprechaun traps with the kids, putting together a cute green ensemble on 3/17 and stinking up my house with a bubbling pot o' corned beef, I'm also happy to be sharing a culinary experience with my children that is a bit more authentic.
I hope you'll give this recipe a try for your next St. Patrick's Day celebration.
Our valley is simply bursting with wildflowers and foliage at this time of year. I've been making point of getting outside a little bit every day for for a nature walk around our property, identifying various flora and finding ways to use them to add beauty, whimsy and flavor to the foods my family enjoys. Enter: The Blue Fiesta Flower, a member of the Borage (Baraginaceae) family. These are larger than the Borage blossoms typically used for garnish, but they have a similar lemony-cucumber flavor with a touch of sweetness. They bloom March through May in Central through Southern California and as far South as Nevada and Western Arizona. They can be found on mountain slopes, streambanks, woodland, coastal bluff and desert scrubland. Contrary to their name, they are purple. To enjoy the Blue Fiesta Flower, gently wash in cold water before use. Remove the bit of bristly green just behind the petals (sepal & receptacle). Keep refrigerated if not using immedia
Who doesn't love a pie that you can eat with one hand while vacuuming, updating a resume, getting a child down for a nap, helping another child with a history report, and folding laundry with the other? Clearly, only people who don't like pie, and this isn't for them. This is for us: Pie People. For me, the pocket pie obsession started in childhood with the iconic, mouth scalding MacDonalds apple pies. If you were around in the 1970s, you'll remember: crisp & flaky, buttery & slightly salty, with blistered crusts that concealed a molten center of perfect apple pie filling. If you possessed the willpower to wait for the lava interior to cool, you were rewarded with the greatest American invention since the fast food burger AND the apple pie together, which in a weird sort of way, they were; after all, they were fried in beef fat. Those things were pure magic (or at least that's what my 6-year old self thought). These days, I'
When I was a kid, my favorite board game was CLUE . I loved the mystery, the intrigue and taking on the role of amateur sleuth. I've passed my love of the game down to my two girls, and I was excited when my youngest expressed an interest in having a CLUE party for her birthday this year. Here's what we did: The Invitations To set a dramatic tone for the party, I created invitations inspired by the playing cards from the original board game. The invitations came in two parts -- a Character Card that introduced the character assigned to the guest and a Party Card that included all the details for the party. To further link the party to the game, we glued a weapon piece from the board game to each party card (which we were able to purchase as a lot from Ebay). You can download the invitations for free below: Party Card, side A Party Card, side B * I created a mystery party experience that was child-friendly, and the kids all had a blast