Gianduja (Chocolate-Hazelnut) Gelato

I've been planning to make this for two years, and having tasted it I wonder what the holdup was.  I think it's technically an ice cream instead of gelato, since someone once told me that gelato has less air beaten into it and needs to be made specifically in a gelato machine.  But who needs technicalities?

Gianduja is a chocolate containing hazelnut paste.  If you're a fan of Nutella or just the combination of chocolate and hazelnut, you need to try this.  The nuts also lend an almost sandy texture to the ice cream.  I like my ice cream smooth, so I might run it through some cheesecloth next time.  I'd also sub in some bittersweet chocolate for the milk chocolate for a deeper flavor.

Feta, Shrimp & Vegetable Orzo

I didn't intend for this to look like fried rice, but between the wok and the shape of the pasta it couldn't be helped.  I've been eating this dish a lot lately, since it's nice and light for summer and uses up goodies from the farmers market.  I based it on a linguine recipe I found online years ago, but have long since ceased using a strict recipe, and I chucked the white wine (go ahead and add some if you really want to).  Lately I've been using orzo and adding various squashes I find from the market.  It's quick, fresh, and delicious.

As for my own produce, my tomatoes are still taking their time ripening.  I did harvest my first eggplant of the season today, and I've been snipping some flowers from the yard.  This apricot rose starts out as this pretty orange, then as it opens it changes to shades of pink and red.  The white hydrangeas look nice and rustic in my ice cream machine bucket.

Chocolate Buttercream Cupcakes

There are many cupcake flavors out there, but when it comes to me and sis our favorite is always good old yellow with chocolate frosting.  They weren't made this week, the week of the 100-degree high in Boston, but earlier when sis visited and requested them.  I've tried a similar combination before, but I was looking for a better buttercream recipe.  This is it.  The one I tried last year involved a sugar syrup, but syrups and caramels are just not my friends.  This one's easier and just as freakin' good.

Making the cupcakes was straightforward and simple, except I halved the recipe and even then only had nine paper liners.  So I sprayed the unlined wells with cooking spray, but don't follow my example.  The cupcakes still stuck to the pan and browned faster.  There was still a bit of batter left so I dug out two silicone baking cups, only to remember why I don't like baking with silicone.  The cake always breaks or sticks to the sides when you unmold it.  Paper is just the way to go.  Afterward, I started the buttercream, cooking the egg whites and sugar a bit to dissolve the graininess, then beating the mixture into a soft meringue.

The mixture is transformed into buttercream when you add the softened butter, and then flavored with melted chocolate.  We piped, then kicked back with a cupcake (or two).  Sis thought it looked like a lot of work, but you've got to put in a little love if you're not using Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines, right?

Wedding Barnyard Buttercream Cupcakes

So, I only helped decorate these.  I just returned from a few days in Denver, where I went to my friend Debbie's wedding.  She and her husband, Jose, served up these cute farm-themed cupcakes at their wedding.  They were a big hit at the reception, and I saw one little nephew snag a cupcake when everyone else was starting on appetizers.

The decorations were made almost entirely of buttercream.  Or, But-R-Creme, as Jose, a food scientist, informed me.  Apparently you can't legally call a product buttercream if it's made with shortening and no butter.  I only helped with the easy parts, namely the sheeps' wool, the pigs' mud, and the grass.  Debbie and Jose did the detailed work... the faces, tails, ears, etc.  Both the wool and mud were piped without a tip; you just keep piping bumps without lifting so you don't get points.  The "grass" was piped using a grass tip.  And Jose used a finer tip to make the pigs' curly tails.  The chickens got little chocolate buttercream eyes.  But the eyes for the pigs and sheep... mini chocolate chips!  The sheep are my favorite.  Tweezers would have been handy, since I felt like my fingers were melting the chips.  It was a fun, late-night, eve-of-wedding activity.

There was no stuffy, fondant-covered cake for the wedding.  It was a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, personalized with a marzipan family of figurines made by Debbie, an artist and art teacher.  The family member on the left is Pork Chop, their cat.  The marzipan was colored and then sculpted and molded around a pretzel to stick into the cake.  Debbie told me Jose was hollow, which I thought was some harsh criticism before I realized she meant marzipan Jose.  The real-life couple looked amazing on their wedding day.

Tastes Like Summer: Mango Sorbet

I make this every summer.  I know summer's not quite here yet, but it sure feels like it.  Sorbets are easier to make than ice creams (no tempering!) and also usually fat free, since they lack cream.  This sorbet has only four ingredients: mangoes, sugar, water, and lime juice.  Cool off after a scorcher with this one.

To cube a mango, run your knife along the pit to make two halves.  Then make crisscross cuts on each half, turn them inside-out, and remove the fruit.  Cut the remaining fruit along the stone as best you can.  Puree it in a food processor, and add the sugar-water and lime juice.  I love this ice cream machine.  It's big and heavy, since it's got a built-in compressor, which means no advance chilling of bowls necessary.

Lick the beater, anyone?  I made a double batch and put it through the machine in two runs.  The finished product is ready to eat but should go in the freezer for another two hours.  I should note to the uninitiated that ice creams and sorbets are not an instant gratification thing.  You prepare all the ingredients, and that usually requires some level of cooking to dissolve the sugar and slightly cook any eggs in the recipe.  Then the mixture must chill in the refrigerator for at least a few hours, and overnight is better.  For a quick fix, 7-Eleven is still the way to go.

And those strawberries from my last post?  I was excited to find they're blushing a slight red and will soon be ready for the pickin'.

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

It's Memorial Day weekend, and that means a couple months of sweet corn, burgers, ribs, and pulled pork sandwiches.  This pulled pork recipe, like many others of its kind, calls for being made in an oven and not the grill.  I find that's also the case for ribs, and I've come to prefer making ribs in the oven to avoid that char you get so easily on the grill.  I also love how easy this pulled pork is -- just marinate, cover and bake for a few hours the next day, pull apart, and you're done.  And unlike other pulled pork recipes I've tried, this one is truly pull-apart tender; no shredding with your knife is required.  It's a great hot-weather dish.

And speaking of hot weather, my little vegetable and herb garden is taking off.  We prepared a raised bed for the first time in our yard.  Removing the sod was the hardest part, and we kept the rest simple.  No poured concrete or deep barriers, since it is a rented house after all.  We've got four varieties of tomatoes --Early Girl (top right), Sun Sugar (a yellow variety), Roma, and Grape -- along with parsley, chives, buttercrunch lettuce, and eggplant.  There was originally more lettuce, but some of the young plants got drowned in heavy rain, as did my strawberry plants.  I cursed Mother Nature and went off to get more strawberry plants, but the store was all out except for what they called these urban planters.  It was more than I planned to spend, but it's got almost a dozen strawberry plants, and a cool pot.  It already has some green fruit and beautiful white flowers.  I'm excited for my upcoming summer bounty!

That includes peonies.  I'm crazy about these flowers.  Too bad they're such slow growers and last so briefly.  I planted the one in the top right photo a few years ago, and it finally had one bloom this year.  Just one bloom.  I had gotten so impatient I bought a potted one (lower left), and it also yielded exactly one bloom.  I just can't win.  At top left is a shrub that blooms every spring, but I have no idea what it is.  The Sun Sugar tomatoes, at bottom right, have begun to sprout flowers that will bear the fruit.

So back to that pulled pork...

I used a tenderloin instead of the pork butt the recipe calls for, since that was what I had in the freezer.  I was concerned it might turn out dry because tenderloin isn't as fatty as butt (go ahead, snicker), but you might be able to see that this tenderloin had some fat.  It was also half the size the recipe called for, but that's OK for our household of two.  We've still got leftovers for today!  I also have a confession: I didn't use the barbecue sauce the recipe includes, or even make my own.  I resorted to a storebought bottled sauce, but it was still delicious.  Come on, I had to work Memorial Day weekend!

Black & White Biscotti

This ain't no toothbreaker.  You know those biscotti that are so hard you think you're going to crack a tooth?  These are nicely crunchy without threatening any of your dental work.  I was shivering on an un-springlike day, wanting to warm up the house with some baking.  Yeah, I know I could have simply jacked up the heat, but there's something about the aromas of baking and the prospect of a project.  Biscotti was on my list of things I haven't tried baking yet, and I was drawn to this two-toned variety on the King Arthur Flour blog.  It's very simple, yet homey and comforting, exactly what I was looking for.