Not-So-Rocky Road Ice Cream

Last week I was in Denver visiting my sister. One of the many perks of visiting her is getting to use her kitchen. She has lots of fun kitchen gadgets that I don't have at home, so I take advantage of them when I'm there. This last trip, I put the ice cream maker to work a couple of times. As I've mentioned before, she recently bought Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, a delicious ice cream cookbook with all sorts of different recipes. Some of her recipe are a bit too out there for me, like beet ice cream, but others sounds delicious. This recipe was definitely a winner.

I have always loved rocky road ice cream, but ever since I was a kid (and I don't really know why I always do this) I pick around the almonds. By the time I get to the bottom of a tub of rocky road, it's just a pile of rejected almond pieces. Go ahead and add some smoked almonds to this ice cream if you absolutely love them, but I was thrilled to finally have rocky road ice cream with all the good parts, but none of the rejects. The praline sauce is a very necessary addition to the rocky road creation. You can make it a few days ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in your fridge. It would also be a great topping for a bowl of store bough ice cream if you don't have the time/resources to make yourself homemade ice cream. If your are also a fan of Jeni Britton Bauer's recipes and like to keep tabs on what's what, this chocolate ice cream recipe is called milkiest chocolate ice cream in the world.

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Rosanne Cash's Potato Salad

Last summer, my sister mentioned that she found a great potato salad recipe. Somehow, we both forgot about it until I was visiting her last week. We wanted to have the first barbecue of the summer and I asked her if she knew of any good potato salad recipes to make as a side. We both had one of those "haven't we had this conversation before?" moments and she quickly pulled up this recipe. I have to admit that potato salads are one of those dishes where I find mayo acceptable. I try to avoid it for many reasons in my everyday cooking (I once worked in a restaurant with giant tubs of mayo, which is extremely off putting when you see it on a daily basis), but there are a handful or traditional, old school recipes that wouldn't be complete without the addition of mayo.

Roseanne Cash (Johnny Cash's daughter) created the original recipe for this potato salad. Deb from Smitten Kitchen tweaked it by adding more seasoning to it, and I just made one change. I try to avoid using raw onions when I can. I don't mind them, but if I can easily swap red or white onions for scallions in a recipe, I usually do it. Also, go ahead and make half of this recipe if you're cooking for fewer people. This make A LOT of potato salad. If you prefer red onions over scallions, feel free to use them instead. This potato salad is a great, all American type of recipe that makes an excellent side to any summer meal.

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Grilled Steak with Avocado Salad

I've been visiting my family and friends back at home this past month and have been on an avocado kick the whole time. We're lucky to have readily available, delicious avocados here in California, so I've been taking advantage of it. I can't even count how many times I've made guacamole or sliced avocado into a salad. The other week I was flipping through the pages of Sunset magazine and came across this steak recipe. It looked delicious and luckily I had almost everything at home to try it out (I used yellow onion instead or red onion for the sake of not going to the grocery store).

I ended up loving this recipe and didn't do the best job of sharing the avocado salad. Sadly, I didn't have any tortillas at home, but this would be delicious wrapped in a warm tortilla. If you're not a fan of red or yellow onions, you could always use scallions instead since they have a milder flavor, which I sometimes prefer. This is a great dish to make for any kind of summer barbecue, whether it's for a few people or if you increase the recipe and make it for guests.

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Strawberry Butter

A while back I ran into the dilemma of what to do with strawberries that didn't have a lot of flavor. It turns out this problem has come up again. I love a perfectly ripe strawberry that's bursting with flavor, but the last 2 time I bought them they were pretty sad excuses for strawberries. Yes, they looked beautifully red and delicious, but the taste was not impressive. This time, I decided to take those berries and make some strawberry butter.

Strawberry butter is a great way to switch up your standard toast with butter. It's sweet and the added sugar brings out the hidden flavor in the berries. I imagine if the strawberries are flavorful to begin with this might be even better. But I was really happy with the result of this butter. It's great on English muffins, scones, and pancakes. You can adjust the sweetness to your preference really easily, but I like mine the way the recipe was written. You can also swap in different berries, like raspberries, if you have them on hand. In the recipe, the berries and butter are blended together in a food processor, but if you don't have one, you can get away with smashing all the ingredients together until you get the right consistency, which is what I did.

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Quick Thai Curry

 
For years I have been lucky enough to have friends who make amazing Thai curries. For some reason I was never involved in the making of any of these, but I always loved them. When I came across this recipe and saw how easy making a curry can be, I had to give it a try. Yes, technically this can be even more homemade if I were to make my own chili paste, but the stuff out of a jar tastes great too. Make this oh-so-easy curry for an impressive, last minute dinner. It took me 20 to 25 minutes total, including washing and chopping time.

I made this recipe with whitefish, but shrimp was used in the original. Feel free to use either, or any kind of fish that would stay together during the cooking process. You can double or triple this recipe really easily if you're cooking for a crowd. This curry is not spicy (the store bought chili pastes aren't too spicy in general). You can definitely add some heat to this if you want to in a number of way. Adding in some finely chopped Serrano peppers, putting in a spoon of sambal sauce or sriracha, or just tossing in some crushed red pepper flakes are some options.

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