Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

If you've been out of the house in the last few days, chances are you're seen girl scouts out selling cookies. This is the perfect time to make this recipe because thin mint cookies are perfect for this recipe. When I first thought about making a ice cream cake I thought it was going to be very difficult but you will be shocked at how easy this is.

Shopping List:

-Two Boxes Thin Mint cookies

-Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

-Chocolate Ice Cream

-Heavy Whipping Cream

-Powdered Sugar

-Peppermint Extract

Step One: Crush 25 of the cookies into a fine powder in a ziplock bag. Melt 4 tablespoons butter and combine with cookie crumbs in bowl. Mix well. Press into the bottom of a 8 inch spring form pan and place in freezer until you're ready to use.

Step Two: Place mint chocolate chip ice cream in frig for 20 minutes to soften. Line the collar of the pan with full thin mint cookies. Scoop mint chocolate chip into pan (you can line and scoop in stages to help keep the cookies up). Smooth with back of large spoon. Place in freezer for at least an hour.

Step Three: Place chocolate ice cream in frig for 20 minutes to soften. Scoop chocolate ice cream over mint ice cream and carefully smooth. Return to freezer.

Step Four: For cream topping, whip one cup heavy whipping cream in chilled metal bowl until it forms soft peaks. Add 4 tablespoons powdered sugar and 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract and whip until stiff peaks form. Spread cream over chocolate ice cream. Freeze until firm, at least 6 hours or overnight.

*I used Breyers ice cream because it's all natural. What I thought would improve the appearance of the dessert would be to have a mint green layer, so if you're favorite ice cream is green go for it!

Curried Chicken with Couscous

My parent's have taken Justin and I out to this amazing Indian restaurant twice this month so I thought I'd return the gesture and invite them over for curry.

Shopping List:

-1lb Chicken Breasts

-4 Medium Carrots

-1 Medium Onion

-Curry Powder

-Golden Raisins

-1 can Coconut Milk (13.5oz)

-1 box Plain Couscous

Step One: Heat some vegetable oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Cut Chicken into one inch pieces and place in bowl. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Add to skillet and cook until no longer pink. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Step Two: As the chicken is cooking, peel carrots and slice thinly on a bias. Cut onion in half then slice lengthwise. Add oil to skillet and saute carrots and onion about 5 minutes or until crisp-tender.

Step-Three: Add 2 teaspoons curry powder, 1/2 cup raisins, and coconut milk to skillet. Salt and pepper. Stir well. Add chicken and reduce heat to low and simmer 3-5 minutes or until sauce starts to thicken.

Step-Four: Prepare couscous according to directions. Once done, fluff with fork.

Step Five: To construct, divide couscous among plates and spoon curry over couscous.

Breakfast Burrito

I bought a dozen eggs when I already had a dozen at home so I needed to figure out something to do with them. I also had a bunch of tortillas from Justin's birthday. Together that equals breakfast burritos!

Shopping List:

-8in Tortillas

-Eggs

-Bacon

-Salsa

-Mexican Cheese Blend

Step One: Cut ten strips of bacon into one inch piece and separate. Place in skillet over medium high heat. Stir occasionally until cooked thoroughly and then place on paper towel to pat dry.

Step Two: Scramble ten eggs with about 1/4 cup milk in a bowl. Cook thoroughly in skillet.

Step Three: To construct, place about 3/4 cup eggs in the tortilla and then top with bacon, salsa, and cheese.

*I have a small counter top convection oven that I used for this next step.

Step Four: Leave the tortilla open and place in oven on broil to melt cheese. Repeat. This will make about six burritos.

Step Five: If you are going to eat these immediately then wrap and enjoy. I had to take transport them so I wrapped them in foil and kept them in the oven until I was ready to go.

Creamy Mojito Torte

This was a very fresh tasting torte, however the rum flavoring was strong so if you don't like the cocktail I wouldn't recommend it.

Shopping List:

-Dark Rum (I used Bacardi Gold)

-1 box butter yellow cake mix plus ingredients

-Powdered sugar

-Lime x 3

-Cream Cheese 8oz

-Mint Extract

-Whipped Cream 12oz

Step One: Preheat your oven to 350. Spray and flour two 8-in torte pans and line bottom with parchment paper.

Step Two: Prepare the cake as directed except substitute 1/2 cup rum for 1/2 cup water. Divide batter evenly between two prepared pans. Bake 14-16 minutes.

Step Three: While the cakes are baking mix the glaze by combining 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons rum.

Step Four: When cakes are done baking remove from oven and let stand five minutes, then invert onto cooling rack. Leave them on rack until cooled. *to make sure that the cake comes out in one piece use a knife to go around the sides, then gently hit the bottom and sides of the pan to shake it loose.

Step Five: For filling, zest and juice two limes. In bowl combine 2 teaspoons zest, 3 tablespoons juice, cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon mint extract, and 1 cup powdered sugar in bowl. Whisk until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. Fill a pastry bag fitted with star tip with filling.

Step Six: To construct the torte put the one of the cakes on your serving plate well side up and then brush the top well with glaze. Spread half the remaining filing into well of cake. Place the other cake on top well side up and brush with remaining glaze. Fill well with remaining topping and garnish with piped stars and quartered lime slices.

ENJOY!!!

Tex-Mex Chicken & Rice Skillet

I've decided to continue my blog and to get things started I'm going to try to do five new dinner ideas over the next five days.

I started tonight with a Tex-Mex Chicken & Rice Skillet recipe from The Pampered Chef 29 minutes to dinner book.

Shopping List:

-1 can mexican-style corn

-1lb chicken breast

-Taco Seasoning

-Instant white rice (2 cups)

-Chicken broth (2 cups)

-Salsa Verde (1 1/2 cups) *maybe I was the only one that didn't know what this was exactly but just to help you find it it's the green stuff.

-Fresh cilantro

-Shredded mexican cheese blend

Step One: Heat a teaspoon of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.

Step Two: Drain the corn and pat dry with a paper towel.

Step Three: Once the oil starts simmering add the corn in a single layer and let it cook without stirring for about 5 minutes. You want the corn to caramelize on one side. Once it has remove from the skillet and set aside.

WARNING: The corn can start to pop out of the pan like pop corn so be careful.

Step Four: While the corn is cooking cut up the chicken into one inch pieces then mix the pieces in a bowl with a tablespoon of taco seasoning.

Step Five: Cook the chicken in the corn skillet for 5-7 minutes until it's no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Once it's done cooking, remove from pan and set aside.

Step Six: Add a teaspoon of oil to the skillet then add two cups of instant white rice and stir to coat with oil.

Step Seven: Add broth and salsa, bring to simmer, and then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer about 5 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Step Eight: Spoon the chicken over the rice mixture, and then sprinkle with cheese and corn. Cover and let stand 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Finally sprinkle with roughly chopped cilantro.

Christmas Party Ideas

This is my first year really out on my own and I can't wait to host my first Christmas part. My parents were never into hosting parties so this is totally new to me but I do have some ideas which I'm going to share. 

DISCLAIMER: I have not tested any of these so if it doesn't work don't blame me. 

Christmas Wreath: I got this idea from a friend who's hosts a Christmas party each year. You would make a rice cripsy treat mix but with cornflakes instead of rice cripsies and add a little green food coloring. What I'm thinking will be best is to add the food coloring to the marshmallow mix first and then add the cornflakes. Then shape it into a circle on a piece of parchment paper (this will let you transfer it onto your serving plate without worrying about making a mess or the wreath sticking) and add and few red hots here and there to look like berries. 

Pine cone cheese ball: I got the idea to make my own cheese ball and then shape it into a pine cone and add sliced nuts to the outside to look like a pine cone. 

Rice cripsy gingerbread house: I saw the FoodNetWork Challenge were they were building a city out of rice cripsies and got the idea to do the same for my gingerbread house. Last year I got a kit and just felt like I didn't have enough options but I don't fell like I'd be able to correctly bake the gingerbread in the creative shape I want. My solution is to make the house out of rice cripsies, this will let me create any shape I want and to change it at any point because I can just shave it away. I'm also thinking about doing a less traditional design and decorations, but I'm still working on it. 

If you have any ideas about what else I could do for my Christmas party please comment. 

Turkey Tips

This year for Thanksgiving we tired something new with the turkey. I had been watching a bunch of FoodNetWork and learned how much I was doing wrong. Instead of stuffing the turkey with stuffing, which we normally do, we filled the turkey with apples, oranges, and a few lemons. 

I learned that this is suppose to help keep the turkey really moist and that the stuffing can really dry out the turkey. 

What also really helped my turkey turn out perfect this year was basting the inside just as well as the out, now you only get one shot at basting the inside of your turkey and that's before it starts cooking so don't try to when it hot. 

While your turkey is cooking cover the main section with foil this will keep that part from getting too done too fast.