I've had this recipe for Blueberry Gelato bookmarked for over a month now, and I finally got to give it a whirl. I'm an ice cream connoisseur, but if anything can topple my love for ice cream, it's gelato. Creamier, prettier, and less fat! Can I get an amen?!
The deliciously subtle blueberry flavor played off the tart lime accent beautifully. It was extremely simple and mixed up very well in our ice cream maker. Wouldn't the color make a beautiful couch or something? I'll for sure make the blueberry flavor again, but I'm itching to try a few other kinds first.
Top Three: Flavors of Gelato I Really Want To Make
1. Caramelized Pear
2. Peach Raspberry
3. Avocado
I know, the last one sounds totally bizarre, but at the same time, incredibly appealing (to me, at least).
Thanks, as always, to Rachel for feeding (pun) my love of trying new foods.
If there were a country that stood for forgetfulness, procrastination and eeking out deadlines, I would be their Queen.
You see Gretch sent me a super-in-advance email about Guest Posting, and I mentally noted, "awesome she asked me, yep, I'll do that this weekend." But then you see, there was this little thing about Batman and stifling heat in a house with no air conditioning. You tend to pass out and forget things, and then when you close your eyes you only see terrifying images of the Joker trying to put you in an oven.
Then, while catching up on blog posts, I read about Gretch's graduation and ensuing vacation to middle Earth. And I was all, "ya! That's semi-near my town! Maybe I'll run into Gretch and it will be super awkward cause it will be like I was stalking her but I wasn't because it would've been by complete coincidence!" And after that, I thought no more about ensuing implications of her vacation, like say, a guest post by moi.
And then finally today, (or whatever day you're reading this), I noticed a string of guest blogs on her website. And I was all, "Hey! Why didn't she ask me to guest blog! I would've loved to take over her.... Blerg!"
And that brings us to now. Hi, I'm allthewine. And I put the PRO in procrastinator.
Of course, I've got nothing prepared. I had thought of a few ideas, like:
-how I never win random contests (I think random.org has it out for me)
how Tina Fey needs to start a reality show about how to become like her (kind of like From G to Gents but awesome because it would star Ms. Fey)
-about what future lies ahead for Gretch post-college (Now I don't want to go on a rant here...)
-how I tried to order a Tracy Jordan meat machine (but they only ship outside of the United States) (possibly untrue)
-how much fun etsy window shopping is. (I know, right!)
-how unfair and totally not cool it is that the media is jumping all over this Christian Bale beat his mother story, when a) so not true, b) he "allegedly" verbally abused her, c) how can you even yell at someone in a welsh accent? d) he's perfect. I rest my case.
-how perhaps I should become a lawyer with such succinct reasoning as the above.
But you know, these topics are pretty much um... covered now.
I do have one thing though. One small thing that I'm not sure if you're ready for, but you better get ready because it's coming and it's going to be legend...wait for it.....
Fried Macaroni and Cheese Balls. (click for recipe)
....dairy.
Get it? Mac and Cheese? Dairy? Sheesh. But seriously, have you heard of these? Because I spent an entire afternoon googling recipes and pictures and oh ...my. I think they are heaven. And when you take a bite, It's a brand new day, and the sun is high. All the angels sing because you're gonna die. (Watch this if you have no clue where my brain is.)
So what do you think? Do Fried Mac and Cheese Balls get admittance to the Evil League of Evil or will they fight the good yummy crispy gooey good fight along side Captain Hammer, corporate tool?**
*And I know, No one has said 'whoops a daisies' for fifty years and even then it was only little girls with blonde ringlets.
A guest blog by Q
I asked her for a topic to write about for my guest blog, and she graciously responded with a list of awesome, intelligent, and thought provoking ideas. (I think I may have proved String Theory with just that list.) The topic of her awesomeness was on her list. Therefore, without any further ado--
Oh, wait. She said, "Kidding! Seriously!" after that particular item. Those parentheses always throw me off.
Well, in that case... Hmm...
Oh! I have it: Various Snack Foods and Their Merits. [insert evil laughter here]
Triscuits: Salty, crunchy, great texture, and with lots of whole grain! Wonderful for road trips. The recipes on the back of the box look fantastic.
Wheat Thins: Sweet, light, guilt-free snacking. I recommend Honey flavored.
Goldfish: Mildly cheesy with a pleasant texture, and not too salty into the bargain. Besides, what other snack smiles back?
Cheez-Its: Big flavor, small cracker. Very cheesy, very good. (Note to self: Try with apple)
Cheese Nips: A pale imitation of Cheez-Its.
Breakfast Cereal: And don't tell me you've never had a bowl of cereal in the afternoon.
Apples: Yum. And Apples to Apples is a pretty fun game, too.
Apples and Cheese: Go ahead. Be European.
Ritz: Buttery and far too good for your own health.
Ritz with peanut butter and marshmallows baked until the marshmallows are golden and warm and wonderful: 'Nuff said.
Popcorn: It's a whole grain, which means it must be good for you, right?
So...anyone else make cheese this weekend? Just me, then? Okay.
I whipped up a batch of paneer, which in the past I'd always confused with the Panera Bread Cafe. I've heard good things about both and they're both food related, so it's understandable.
Coconut & Lime gave a recipe a couple weeks ago and I was intruiged. It didn't seem too hard. The ingredients are basically whole milk and lemon. Simple, right? It did require an adventure through the aisles of Albertson's, which I like to call The Epic Quest for Cheese Cloth.
Here are my thoughts:
1. Once milk heats up, it froths up very fast. There was some spillage onto the super hot burner and now we have this burn mark that we can't get off of our stove. Oops.
2. It's because of this that I don't think it got quite as hot as it needed to be. I still added the lemon juice anyhow and let it curdle, which is a pretty cool process to watch.
3. The draining took longer than I thought and was quite messy.
4. The yield was much less than I anticipated--that was a bummer. I only got about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup, when the recipe said I'd get 1 1/2 to 2 cups.
5. The texture is similar to mascarpone and it tastes a bit like unsalted ricotta.
6. So far, I've tried it with rice and cinnamon and vanilla--that was tasty. Even better was Sunday dinner. We made sausage marinara sauce and mixed a bit of the paneer in with that. Yum. Next time I make it, I want to try Saag Paneer.
Fun fact: I bought the plate with three other vintage poster style dessert plates on Saturday at the dollar store of all places. Better yet, they were only sixty-six cents because the store's going out of business. They're enough to keep me satisfied and smiling until I can afford these.
P.S. I went this whole post without making a "That's so cheesy!" joke. You should be proud.
Or
In Which I Get Ranty About Something Really Stupid
(Consider yourself warned.)
We got a letter from the apartment management tonight--exterminators are coming to take care of the invisible ant problem tomorrow. Okay, I understand the need to take preventitive measures, but it's at a really inconvienient time AND they made us move all of the furniture out from the wall. Which is large and heavy and laaaaaame. I don't know, it's really not that big of a deal, but I just was so not in the mood tonight to cope. And I don't know if they meant all the stuff from our closets, too, but that crap is staying right where it is. With the help of my stronger roommates, we were able to get everything moved, but it was still a pain. In the moving, I found a dollar behind the chest o' drawers. In this situation, there is only one process for an instant pick-me-up.
1. Drive to the fake downtown.
2. Sing along at the tippy-top of your lungs to the following songs on the radio: Lamar's On the Wings of Love, Miley Cyrus' See You Again, and Sean Paul's Temperature. Strange mix, but even stranger that I knew the words to all three.
3. Purchase this little beauty from Mickey D's.
4. Scarf it down faster that you can say "I'm lovin' it."
5. Hope that the rest of the week goes better.
P.S. Can I get a holla for the new iPhone?
P.P.S. I graduated from high school exactly three years ago. This makes me feel simultaneously very old and very young.
P.P.P.S Back tomorrow with some semblance of normalcy.
-Take a walking tour of your town. Meander from the park on the east side to the park on the west side and revel in the fact that all the rain from the past week has made everything a thousand different shades of green.
-Eat orange sherbet and otter pops, because hey, why not?
-Stay up so late reading Airhead that you fall asleep with the lights still on.
-Finish Airhead and wish its sequel was out right now.*
-Change your hairstyle twice in one day! (I got the bangs and trim done earlier in the afternoon and the BFF dyed it late Saturday night.)
-Eat copious amounts of fresh Filipino food with friends. (Also, alliterate!)
-Sing your lungs out at the 1964: The Tribute concert.*
-Consequently, bemoan the fact you were clearly born in the wrong era.
-Watch the last half of Sky High. (I get such a kick out of this movie.)
-Wonder where May went.
-Go to church.
-Take a nap in a hammock.**
-Make a big decision as to where you'll be this upcoming fall.* (In my case, it'll most likely be heading out on an 18-month mission for my church!)
-Eat roast and po-tay-toes for dinner.
-Eat peach cobbler and funfetti cake for dessert, because hey, why not?
-Discover daytrotter.com and try to figure out why you didn't know about it before.
* Slated for a future blog post.
** HIGHLY recommended
And since Elise asked so nicely, here's the end result of les cheveux.
If the bangs look a tad uneven, it's because I apparently have this long-forgotten and irksome cowlick where my part used to be. So, uh, just overlook that and trust me that it looks much better IRL.
I've got big stuff planned for this week! Be very excited.
Does anyone ever (Edit: Fetch! I hate it when I don't catch my mistakes, especially when it's 24 hours after posting!) really make those recipes they have on the back of the box?
I didn't think so.
1. Apricot Jam--With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good. (Honestly, the name Smucker's doesn't sound that appealing. Good jam, though.)
2. Leftover cream cheese frosting from Pioneer Woman's Carrot Cake. (Ree is my latest blog obsession! Anyone that can convince that it'd be fun to give up my modern comforts and fall in love with a smoldering hot cowboy and herd cows has to be someone very special, since I'm, uh, mildly terrified of cows. Shut up!)
3. Peanut butter and melted marshmallows--some assembly required. First, you take the graham. Wait, wrong recipe! (I'm on roll with the Sandlot references! "I thought you said the great bambi...") Okay, place about 6-8 crackers on a pan and spread with your choice of peaunt butter and top it off with three mini marshmallows. Place under the broiler for a few minutes until the marshmallows are golden brown. Sandwich another Ritz on top. Then you scarf. Kind of messy, but good! (Have lots of milk nearby.)
Tangent time! I love Target more than Jenna Fischer loves, well, Target. Enter here to win a $100 gift card.
