Kitchen Creations! Ice Cream, Cheese, Cherries

The past weekend, Alex and I were really creative in the kitchen! That's what happens when it's stormy outside and weekenders are loud. It keeps us indoors and when we have the motivation, we are very creative! :) I started my cheese making this weekend! The above picture is the before shot of Mozzarella...

And here is the after shot! :) Please check out the full post on my other (new) blog Rainy Day Cheese Making! I admit, I had some ifs/ands/ors and buts...but for my first attempt at making cheese, it was a great experience and a well-deserved notch under my cheese making belt! The next cheese will be Cheddar!

Summertime is pretty much the only time we eat fruit; well, other than frozen berries all winter in our smoothies. We bought a watermelon the other day and Alex had the idea of adding some spiced rum to it. Most recipes call for an entire bottle of rum for a watermelon, yeesh! I don't want to get drunk off my fruit lol...I just want flavour. So we kind of put together some "winter" spices (nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise) and added orange rinds and fresh vanilla bean to the rum.

We're going to let that sit for 24 hours, taste it, then add half to the watermelon. I really enjoy Captain Morgan's White Spiced Rum and we're hoping we can recreate that flavour on our own. I'll report the results in a few days!

I made this Country Peach Ice Cream a few weeks back, but never had the chance to post about it! It's made very differently from the other ice creams I've made. This one is made with egg yolks. A custard is cooked and then everything is strained and brought together a day later in the ice cream maker. I can't say I'm a big fan of this style of ice cream, called "French Style". Alex loves it though, so I'll keep making this one for him with different flavours.

We still had about six pounds of cherries left so Alex spent some time pitting them. He used a wine bottle to hold the cherry and pushed the pit out with a chop stick. If we venture further into cherry stuff, we'll definitely be investing in a cherry pitter! We kept the pits because...

Alex decided on trying out some Cherry Pit liqueurs! Disclaimer: YES...I know that cherry pits DO contain cyanide...so I'll be feeding Alex a little bit of this liqueur daily for the insurance money....lol...I watch too many old movies. Actually there is so little cyanide in these that you need to actually consume over a thousand cherry pits (chewing them) to suffer any kind of poisoning, so we're good! :) We tasted it last night after simmering it for a while and wow...have you ever had Peter Heering Cherry liqueur? Well, it's close! This will sit undisturbed for a good 3 months as well.

Another new creation! I made a "Croque Monsieur" pizza! :) That made two days in a row of pizza, lovely! :) We had leftover "all-dressed" from Saturday night (using the new Mozzarella I made!) and last night I made a cheese sauce (from my Croque Monsieur recipe), loaded it with ham and sprinkled on some Gruyere and ground thyme...I can't describe the deliciousneess of this in words! :) Definitely a keeper!

More ice cream making! :) I made Coffee Ice Cream this morning. I decided at the last minute to add some Bailey's and it was just wonderful. Ice cream making has become a nice hobby for me!

This is the last of the fresh (inexpensive) strawberries! Gosh these fruit "seasons" don't last too long. I'm making another strawberry ice cream - but this time I'm making a "coulis" type of syrup and straining it before I freeze it. The last Strawberry Ice Cream was good, but the strawberry bits were too icy to enjoy. I'll report how this turns out in a few days! The rest of the strawberries will likely go to dessert tonight.

So I'll end my Monday post with some pets...always a sweet way to end a post! :)

(I had to actually verify that today was Monday...I'm so content with my lifestyle, I lose track of time!)

Oscar and "Mr. Wrinkles".

Pavlov and Marlene. Anyone seeing Pavlov in this photo might think he'd have us for dinner! He was just in the middle of a yawn when I got this photo!

Happy Monday to all! :))

Odds and Ends

Alex found more of the danthius flower that's been growing wild near our cedar trees, different colours. I'm going to look those up in my seed catalog for next summer, they're so beautiful! Tonight we have a full moon, it's called the Full Buck Moon of July. I got this photo through the porch screen last night before the storms came in. Another name for July's full moon is the Full Thunder Moon which is much more appropriate for us. Here's an interesting tidbit of lore:

"Thunder in weather that is hot

Causes milk and eggs to rot."

(so far my milk and eggs are fine, am I pushing my luck???) :)

Marlene's Thunder Shirt arrived. Just in time too. Poor dog...she is so terrified of thunder and lightning. We are in full-on thunderstorm season and sometimes I wonder if she's just too far gone for anything to help. It's hard to tell but I think this is helping her a little bit. She seems to calm down more easily. I took this photo when the power went out last night during a big storm. Normally she doesn't stay on the bed, she'll try to hide, so maybe that's progress? I'll do anything to help her! The other three dogs slept through the whole thing!

For dinner the other night, I pulled out my "Potato" recipe book and made French Quarter Potatoes. The original recipe calls for it to be spicy and hot (Creole mustard, Andouille sausages, cayenne, peppers)...but I made it to suit our digestions. It has sausages and chicken with a mustard and Worcestershire sauce - VERY tasty and easy to make!

Last night's dinner was from the freezer. Fish and Chips with a cilantro tartar sauce that I made. It's just my Tartar Sauce recipe with chopped fresh cilantro. It gives it a nice flavour. It was the monthly shopping day yesterday and freezer food on 9 hour shopping trips is a relief! We're all set until August now in the food department! Maybe a trip for fresh veggies in a few weeks, but other than that, I'm happy to stay put and not go further than my porch!!

Here's what was in my Cheddar Cheese Making Kit. For anyone interested, it makes 8 batches:

- Rennet Tablets (10 tablets)

- Cheese Culture - Mesophilic Culture (which I can also use to make Cream Cheese!! Woohoo!)

- Cheese Cloth

- Calcium Chloride 

- Cheese Salt

- Basket Mold

- Thermometer

- Plastic Disc - For Pressing

- Orange Coating

- Natural Bristle Brush

- Recipe Booklet

Honestly, I could have bought the ingredients separately as I already have a thermometer, cheese cloth and a brush...plus I'd bought some of the additives already for Mozzarella....but I wanted my first attempt at Cheddar to be easy. The box says "Just Add Milk" so that sounded easy! 

As I venture more into Cheese Making, I'll be posting here on my blog; but I've also reserved a new blog address called Rainy Day Cheese Making. :)) What do you think of the title? :) There's nothing there right now but I'll be adding as I go! If you'd like to follow me there, I'll be very happy about that! :)

It's thundering again all day today...perfect day to start making cheese! Enjoy your weekend! :)

Goodies In The Mail and Cherry Bounce!

Isn't this hummingbird beautiful? This is just part of a gift box I received from my sweet Blogger friend Joyce at Octoberfarm. When Joyce told me she was sending me a surprise, I was thrilled!

The hummingbird is part of a mirror chain, homemade by Joyce! My photo does not do this justice at all! Alex and I tried to find a spot to put it but we had nothing high enough where the curious dogs couldn't reach, so I folded the chain in half. It's almost taller than I am! This is just the temporary home until we can get up a little higher! The sun shines on the mirrors and makes pretty reflections all over the yard!

I also received a lovely cozy looking matchbox with an owl candle holder! Joyce said I worked hard on my porch and I deserved a gift. I never expected this!

My owl friend is now on my porch and in use! :)

And a bag of chocolates from Salem Massachusetts was a wonderful touch!! Thank you so much Joyce!!! This really made my day. :)

Another package in the mail was my cheese making supplies. Yup, I'm going to become a master cheese maker! (ahem...we'll see!) I bought a kit for Cheddar, and the fixins for Mozzarella - which I'll try making first. I'm really getting into the cheese making culture (no pun intended)...I'm already planning to make Brie, Camembert, Gouda and Blue Cheese...only thing is I need a better set up because these cheeses age for around a year or more and need to be in a humid and temperate environment. There are solutions if you don't have a "cheese cave" (I WILL have one next to my wine cave in my dream home!!)...I have to read up on that some more!

Cherries are very cheap this week...and this week only sigh. This happens every year. Sometime in late June or early July, the Washington sweet cherries arrive and are $1.99 a pound, then suddenly a week later, they are up to $3.99 a pound and so on! Alex and I bought a TON of them. He likes to experiment with cocktail cherries, so he's aging some in different spirits and we'll see how they taste next year. We also made Cherry Bounce which is a homemade cherry liqueur infused with whisky or brandy. We used whisky and in four months, we'll be tasting it! More cherry experiments to follow! :)

Jack is happily rolling around in the grass with his toy/prey "Mr. Curly"...I think we named the toy that when we were watching lots of Three Stooges lol...anyway, he demonstrates perfectly the joy we're all feeling today! The lovely gifts, the cherries and the sunny HOT weather that has finally arrived in the mountains!!!

Celebrations, Appetizers and Doggie Birthday! :)

I've mentioned before that Alex and I don't go out too much and when we celebrate holidays and events, it always revolves around delicious meals that we share together. For Canada Day, I decided to have a day of appetizers! For lunch, I made Mini Croque Monsieurs, mini pizzas (red and white!) and Mini Quiches. The quiches were ham and Cheddar; and tomato and Feta. The Croque Monsieurs are DIVINE. For the pizzas, I made my usual thin crust Basic Pan Pizza Dough, and after pre-cooking it for a minute or so, used a cookie cutter to form the circles. The topping is just pizza sauce, fresh Mozzarella, a little Parm and some basil.

It was pouring rain on Canada Day, so we stayed indoors. I don't know what we were thinking...but we decided to give all four dogs a bath. This is the aftermath! They even pulled down the shower curtain lol...sore backs prevailed. But now they all smell like oranges until they dirty themselves all up again!

We definitely deserved a cocktail after that! Alex made some cherry Old Fashioned's with Canadian Whisky. I bought a bag of fresh sweet cherries with the intention of doing some kind of drink, and he came up with this one. It was so good! I got the idea originally from this recipe: Bourbon Cherry Old Fashioned's. But we wanted to try Canadian whisky (Canada Day of course!) and Alex added different bitters and sweeteners...very tasty!

With our cocktails, we had more appetizers before dinner. I made Fried Stuffed Olives, the recipe called for "deep fried"...I fried them in a pan with butter, so they didn't get that full-on deep fry look, but they were delicious!

I stuffed each olive with Blue cheese. Wow is all I can say!

"Meat and potatoes" for dinner in the form of chicken bites (the ones I used in my Tomato and Bread Salad); and Roasted Baby Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Creme Fraiche. Alex made his secret rum barbecue sauce for dipping.

How could I resist a red and white dessert? :) The strawberries are fresh, sweet and local, so I made strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Doing a day of appetizers is a lot of work, but I really had a lot of fun in the kitchen. 

Yesterday morning I made a broccoli quiche for brunch. (It's the same recipe as my Asparagus and Cheddar Quiche, but with broccoli instead). 

This is another "keeper" recipe, it was delicious! Check out my pie lifter. I got it as an "add on" item when I made a purchase through Amazon last month. Add on simply means it's a real deal but you have to spend the minimum $35 for an order to get it so cheap. The idea of this pie lifter is that you bake it under the crust so that the first slice comes out perfectly. I haven't tried that yet, but it still works pretty well, though the handle could be longer.

We've started a new tradition for the pets. :) Yesterday it was 2 years since we adopted Charlie. Each year on their adoption dates, we're going to celebrate the pet's birthdays. :) We don't really know all of their ages, but it's fun! I made Charlie a Spoiled Dog Cake and decorated it with Pupperonis and liver treats, doesn't that sound delicious? :)

I had the other three dogs on leash while Alex gave the birthday girl her cake.

She DEVOURED it! We had to stop her about a quarter in because she was loving it too much! We shared the rest of the cake with the other dogs. Next birthdays are all three cats together in August.

Keeping with the canine theme so to speak, we had what we call "European Hot Dogs" for dinner. :) This is Alex's dish. He cooks Italian sausages, layers them on toasted buns with melted Swiss cheese, then tops them with caramelized onions and mushrooms, sliced olives and a homemade honey mustard sauce. Delicious!

I made my Chocolate Fudge Swirl Ice Cream too! It was SO chocolaty...my only comment would be to make sure to really strain the ice cream very well before putting it in the ice cream maker. There were "crumbs" of chocolate, which was okay, but if you want a very creamy ice cream, double strain to get the little chocolate bits out. I'm sure Alex and I have gained weight during the last few rainy days what with me keeping busy in the kitchen lol...but this morning, we're FINALLY getting some sunshine! I hope my garden starts to grow again, it's been stalling for the last few weeks because of the rainy weather.

Our cute little house guest Pavlov will be with us at least another week! :) His owner is having apartment trouble in Montreal, to that I say, no surprise. Montreal can have nice areas, but most apartments are crap and landlords don't care. When he saw the place it looked great. When the previous tenant moved out, there was water damage on the floor, holes in walls and mold. Poor guy, he has to get work done before he can enjoy his new home. I'm glad my city days and apartment days are over!

Goat Cheese and Breaded Shrimp Salad; Making Chocolate Ice Cream

We've pretty much given up the idea of sitting on our couch lately! We accept that they are pet couches now! Here are Jack and Charlie waiting for Alex to wake up. I woke up way too early again today, a gal can't live on 6 hours sleep - at least this gal can't! I'm so tired, I might need a nap before bedtime. ;)

Chocolate to the rescue!!! :) I try to use my time wisely in the mornings because it's just way too easy to find an inch on the pet couches and watch my British comedies...which is fun, but it makes me lazy first thing in the morning. I decided to start the Chocolate Fudge Swirl Ice Cream!!! I'll post the recipe if it works out!

I could dive right into these bowls and you can bet the spoons are licked clean lol...The left bowl is the soon-to-be ice cream. The right bowl is the fudge sauce. These go into the fridge all day and tonight I'll be making the ice cream. This is the third ice cream I'm making, I still have to post about the Country Peach Ice Cream too. 

Tomorrow is Canada Day. It's also Canada's 150th birthday! :) I made these little flags to decorate our dessert for tomorrow. I have a nice day of appetizers planned, a red and white dessert and a red cocktail!! :)  I love Canada, I'm so grateful to be living in this beautiful country! :)

Last night's dinner was AMAZING, if I do say so myself! :) I had a bunch of thises and thats in the fridge, so I put together a Goat Cheese and Breaded Shrimp Salad with Toasted Baguette. It was very easy to make and quick too! The baguette is to spread the warm goat cheese on; and those shrimp were so tender and delicious! I wanted to use my own lettuce, but we have a house guest coming and I want to save it for those Cobb salads I'm planning for that dinner. I added some of the garden peas to the little salad too and ME, the PEA-HATER, loved them! They tasted more like green beans to me, I'm pretty thrilled!

Wishing all of you Canadians out there a very Happy Canada Day!  And SUNSHINE.

Sipping and Nibbling

This is not what we're sipping and nibbling on! But the pets are. :) We had a wee little scare. Our "solid as a rock" cat Leo refused to eat yesterday. The dogs get into everything, they eat grass, dirt, sticks...Jack even fancies Kleenex - so when they lose their appetite, I never worry too much unless it lasts longer than a day. But the cats are indoors and there is very little they can snack on in the house, since it's very catified and dogified! Leo must have gotten into my vase of wildflowers, which I thought was up high enough...but we found some petals this morning with little cat teeth marks in them. All I could think of was that I poisoned our cat because I didn't keep these flowers far enough away - anxiety kept me sick all day yesterday. I spoke with our new vet (she's wonderful and even speaks to me in English!) and she gave us a lot of advice. She said wait 24 hours, then see if he'll eat his favourite food, and he did! Of course, if you give one pet some tuna, you must give all of them tuna!!

"My ball!!" Here's Leo back to normal...with Jack looking on while chewing his ear. My fear is based on ignorance and worry. I can figure out what to do when the dogs need home care, but I'm clueless about cats. Thankfully all turned out well! The wildflowers will either stay on the porch or up on the highest inaccessible shelf in the house!!!

So on to the nibblies....

Aaah, the joy of pizza. This has become one of our favourites: apricot jam, prosciutto and Blue cheese. We had leftover pita bread to use up so we made some little pizzas for dinner.

Another Rain and Alex favourite: Mozzarella, Old Cheddar and olives. 

For dessert/after dinner sipping, we made strawberry milkshakes - using the homemade ice cream!! Alex splashed a bit of brandy in each shake and the flavours were unbelievable! We had these on the porch, trying hard to ignore the whining dogs on the other side of the door!

Since I'm playing the waiting game with the rainy weather these days, I've been in the kitchen a lot more. This morning for brunch I made Huevos Rancheros with Refried Beans. Ooh yum!

This is my version without the yolks. You may note the itty bitty little amount of cilantro on each dish? My cilantro is NOT growing much this season. I'm sure it's the lack of hot days. At least we're getting a little bit though! Mexican food isn't Mexican food without cilantro (in my opinion!)!

Our sweet little house guest Pavlov will be leaving us in a few days, sigh. This makes me sad. He is the sweetest little dog and he's been clinging to me, even to the point where Jack walks between him and me lol...Our friend is coming some time over our long Canada Day weekend for a few days to visit and then Pavlov will be gone, we're really going to miss him! Sniff! :)