Posts

Chonky Boys: The Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches that Scream Summer!

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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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Edible Flowers: Bachelor Buttons (+Avocado Toast with Creamy Herb Scrambled Eggs)

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Edible flowers are everywhere this time of year!  Today, I'd like to introduce a new favorite of mine -- Bachelor Buttons.  They're an easy-to-grow annual from the Asteraceae family, native to Europe and Asia and bloom from summer to early fall.  Depending on where you live, they may be called Cornflowers or Blue bonnets.  With a very subtle cucumber taste, I call them delicious!  Their vibrant color and mild taste make them a perfect garnish for both sweet and savory foods. Thanks to my best pal, Kelly (who understands my taking a fancy to eating flowers) for gifting me a blossom; which after a day of beauty in a tiny vase on my windowsill, became the garnish for my avocado toast with creamy herb scrambled eggs.  A single bloom has dozens of smaller flower-like pieces, making them a very compact, yet bountiful source of culinary adornment. I'm not going to tell you how to make Avocado Toast (hint:  it's avocado and toast), but I am happy to share how I p
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How to Make Authentic Mole -- The Original AwesomeSauce (+Enchilada Recipe)

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Three of my adopted children are of Mexican (Yucatan) descent and my eldest son, who is passionate about cooking, asked to learn how to make authentic mole for his "Family Heritage" culinary project.  After doing my research and culling the best of the best recipes, we made a batch of the most incredible mole I've ever tasted.  With more than 30 ingredients, it's not a quick and easy recipe, but the results are 100% worth it and can make more than one full meal.  The depth of this sauce is incredible.  The flavors are so exquisitely blended that your taste buds will be incredibly blissed out.  The best part of this recipe is that it not only makes one meal (a boatload of sauce with chicken that you load into warm tortillas with rice), but you end up with enough sauce to make enchiladas and then maybe even a little bit more.  My kids have been putting it over tamales and their breakfast eggs in the morning.  This literal AwesomeSauce has become
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Nostalgia Food: Old Fashioned Apple Hand Pies

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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'
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How to Make Perfect Berry Breakfast Pastries {recipe + video}

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These lovely little pastries are always a hit with my Year Two students during our puff pastry unit.  They're easy to put together and are definitely one of my favorite sweet treats to make for breakfast and brunch events. This recipe is perfect for beginners because it uses store-bought puff pastry.  It takes very little time to pull together the ingredients, and in less than an hour, you have delicious, flaky breakfast pastries bursting with fruit flavor. The sweetened cream cheese strikes the perfect balance between the sweetness of the fruit and the buttery puff pastry.  Here's my video on how to make them: How to Make Berry Breakfast Pastries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGqHfWWgHJU Print With Image Without Image Berry Breakfast Pastries Yield: 18 pastries Author: Jenn Erickson Prep time: 10 M Cook time: 30 M Total time: 40 M A few simple ingredients give way to an exceptional little breakfast treat -- a great way to use seasonal
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Garlic Toast Points with Marbled Beet Chevre and Edible Flowers

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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
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Goat Cheese Cigarillos with Olive-oil Cured Nasturtium Leaves {Recipe & Video}

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Wild Nasturtium flowers have long been prized in the culinary world for their vibrant petals and peppery flavor that lend themselves well to salads, compound butters, and garnish.  But how about the leaves?  This is a question I asked myself a while back during one of my foraging forays.  Nasturtium leaves are so abundant, I just had to try something! It turns out, the leaves are perfect for a quick blanching, then used as a vibrant green wrapper for tasty fillings.  I came up with this very simple way of wrapping mild chevre inside the blanched leaves, then letting them cure in olive oil, black peppercorns and lemon zest overnight. If you're curious about how the leaves taste, they are very mild.  Blanching removes any bitterness and bite.  The texture is very delicate.  They are more tender than grape leaves. Served the next day over toast points rubbed with a garlic clove, these small bites are not only beautiful, but the taste is out of this world.  If you love goat chees
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