Coffee Toffee Cookie Ice Cream Cake

 

OK. You have to make this cake right now before it gets too cold outside and all you crave is pot roast and chicken & dumplings. In Minnesota today you may have believed it was hot enough outside to consume an ice cream cake. Mmmmmhmmm, Minnesotans talk about the weather all the time. Cuz it's zany and unpredictable and it's our birthright. But I digress... cake! You must eat this. Its as simple as making cookies (you can make cookies, right?) and scooping ice cream (I know you can do that!).

Tomatillo Salsa

My CSA cup runneth over this month with tomatillos, red, yellow, and orange tomatoes, eggplant, kohlrabi, basil, turnips and kale. You shoulda seen me haulin' that box to the car - who needs Bodypump?

I've never been inclined to cook with tomatillos and that is why I absolutely adore being part of a CSA. I'm challenged to think outside of my box and do something I've never done before. I'm thinking this salsa will be the base of a chicken or pork stew/crock pot dinner later this week. Yum? I hope so. 

Cold Beet & Bulgur Salad

This posting is the biggest un-recipe I've ever posted. Its not really a recipe, its more of a way to use up vegetables and other odds n' ends in the refrigerator. After I haphazardly decided to un-thaw 4 cups of bulgur, there sat the bulgur, waiting, wanting. One cup of bulgur consumption later I'm left with 3 cups of bulgur. Bake bread? Too busy. Make soup? Too many leftovers. Toss with beets? Yes! What pairs deliciously with beets? Carrots, celery, green onion, orange juice, walnuts and feta, that's what! 

Blueberry Muffins with Sage Essence

Can you have enough blueberry muffin recipes? I think not. It's such a classic combo, but now with a twist - Sage. The sage in this muffin is very subtle, hence "essence" in the recipe title. The sage give the muffins a slight earthy flavor. Very fabulous. Yes, a muffin can be fabulous in my world. 

BBQ Spareribs

If you live in Minnesota the weather comes up in almost every conversation with friends, neighbors, teachers, fitness instructors, you name it. We talk about the weather - it's our thing. Our weather has extreme changes in temperature and atmosphere, one day it will be 55 degrees, windy and cold and the next its 85 and sunny, the hottest, most humid day you can imagine. Its a whirlwind of confusion and oddness and I think that's why we love to debate on the weather here in the good ole' Twin Cities.

Anyway, what got me started on today's weather rant is because it's absolutely gorgeous in Central MN today. Lovely day. Sunny, breezy, crisp and delicious. A day that inspires a charcoal grill, unfortunately, it's Monday so no one really wants to "fire up" the charcoal grill after a long day of work, but I know what you could do...Get yourselves some ribs for a Saturday grill-fest and think about firing up the grill until Saturday (because that will make your week go by so much faster - insert facetious tone here). Yeah, good plan.

Corn Chowder

My overabundance of sweet corn has turned into chowder. I'm a tad late posting a corn recipe mid-September...I made this a little over 2 weeks ago, but I somehow think that people are still eating corn from their gardens. Thus, they must be getting sick of corn by the middle of September and need a good chowder recipe. How's that for justification?

Like most recipes I create, this one was born after a web search gave me Tyler Florences' version (bacon-less) and Saveur's version (bacon-ed up). I obviously had to have bacon in my chowder, so I've made a hybrid of both of the recipes. 

Herb-Marinated Shrimp Wrapped in Basil & Prosciutto

Things I shouldn't do: 

1. I shouldn't blog while hungry. Always ends badly. Think me in the pantry eating Swedish fish and Pirate's Booty (yes, I have a 5 year old).

2. I shouldn't shoot my blog photos while hungry. Always ends with photos that are not as beautiful as I would hope for. Photos that are passable (today's photos), but kinda sloppy because all I wanted was to consume the photo's subject.

Things I should do:

1. Find out why peanuts keep coming out of the washer at the end of each cycle. My children don't eat peanuts. I don't store them in my pockets. I don't have a pet elephant. Strange.

2. Cook more things on skewers. Or "kabobs" as us Midwesterners call it.

3. Make more should and shouldn't lists.

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

Summer is coming to an end...hurry and preserve all you can! Especially tomatoes. Because tomatoes at the grocery store during a Minnesota winter taste like mealy, mushy, watery, unflavorful disgusting-ness. And that is something you do not want. Ever.

The term recipe is a loose term here. Not really a recipe at all, I'd say. More of a technique, a method, a fun way to make your house smell delicious beyond compare. There are no measurements in this recipe, which you may love or hate. Its one of those toss this in, toss that in kind of thing. You just have to feel the tomato love.

Sweet Corn Pancakes

Yesterday I wanted to kill somebody. Like real homicide. CSI: Minnesota. Today I had my first experience with coding HTML. And coding HTML incorrectly completely ruins your whole blog layout which in turn makes you start crying and beating your head with the sides of your hands because you have no idea what you did or how to change it back makes your life difficult.

Being a blog novice I haven't yet fully realized the consequences of changing formatting, dabbling with the layout, or messing with the HTML. Key words: haven't fully realized - until yesterday.

Gyros

If you do nothing else meaningful in your life this week other than eat this gyro your life will suddenly be meaningful. Your life will be utterly fantastic. Downright joyous.Your life will be...actually it will be none of these things. You'll be the same person you were before you ate the gyro, only fuller. Sorry. I tried. But you should still make these for dinner! Lamb! Say it with me: LAMB!

Muffin Tin Quiche with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Cottage Cheese

Do you need breakfast ideas for busy mornings? Mornings that you seriously couldn't fathom conversing with anyone, but you're forced into conversation because two little beings are asking to be fed and clothed and for some odd reason don't understand mime? They don't understand that talking is not allowed until

Margarita Pie + Door County

This week has been absolutely wonderful for my soul and being! Back to school has got probably all parents leisurely sipping coffee in luscious peace and quiet wondering why they need to have summer vacation anyway to be the best time for all parents. Having a kindergartner had me feeling like a back to school newbie. Watching my son get on the bus for the first time was a roller coaster of emotions, but I've stabilized and processed this new experience and feel just great! The cliches are true, they grow-up so fast. Bittersweet. 

Grilled Tofu with Wasabi Honey Glaze

In my quest to make you believe (and maybe myself, too) that I have a somewhat healthy way of cooking and eating - which I'm totally failing at because apples are not healthy when you eat them with cream cheese - I present to you (if there even is a "you") tofu. However, tofu is not really healthy at all. Tofu is made of soy and I think soy is actually bad for you. Something about it disrupting your endocrine system. Hormones going berserk. So in an ever-failing quest to be healthy, I give up. Tomorrow I'm posting something about mixing sugar with sugar and topping it with white flour and chocolate chips. Not really. But close. 

Creamy Caramel Fruit Dip

Welcome fall.  I know, I've been whining about summer leaving, but doesn't every woman have the right to change her mind? Yes, we do. Its chilly here in Minnesota today - so fun to pull out the boots. A lovely Labor Day celebration at Dassel's Red Rooster Days. I wish I had remembered my camera to document 3000 pounds of chicken atop charcoal. I'm questioning that number, but it sounds like the right amount if I were to guesstimate how many chickens are needed for everyone in Dassel to eat half a chicken per person.