Ice Cream for Breakfast, Clam Chowder for Dessert

February 7 was National Ice Cream for Breakfast day! We celebrated in fabulous style for the second year in a row. The Bourbon Pecan Praline is extremely good.

 

I suppose that technically the Manhattan Clam Chowder wasn't dessert, unless I consider breakfast and lunch as the first two courses. In that case dinner is dessert. Jason made the chowder and I prepared heart shaped buttermilk biscuits to pair with it. Valentine's Day is coming up so I think I little seasonal festivity is in order.

 

Chow Mein

I don't eat out at a lot of Chinese food places. They tend to be buffet oriented and generally look the same. They food also tends to be really high in sodium which is something I've paid attention to since my Mamaw was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and placed on a low sodium diet several years ago. Genetics can be a powerful thing.

I have eaten at maybe two or three Chinese restaurants with Jason but, he wasn't pleased with the quality of any of them. He lived in Taiwan for a while and has very particular standards. Plus, he loathes buffets.

He has however made some very nice homemade Chinese food including chow mein. The vegetables are fresher, the taste is lighter and I don't feel like my arteries are dying after the experience. This dish contained: celery, carrots, bell pepper, onion, fresh mung bean sprouts, noodles and chicken. I've been making an effort to eat this style of food with chopsticks and my skills are thankfully improving.

Homemade Chili

The weather has taken a turn to cooler temps once more which makes me want hot things. Hot tea. Hot chocolate. Hot food. Tonight's chili was pretty wonderful as "hot food". We use an old recipe that was picked up from a work acquaintance at a long ago work. Either I was a baby or not around at the time. Apparently, it won a prize at a chili cook-off. The most distinguishing feature is that cheese dip is applied to the center. It provided a contrast with the spiciness of the chili. It is also recommended to eat it with tortilla chips.

Taco Night Like A Taco Day

Apparently, tacos can make me break out into song. I came up with "Taco night, like a taco day. Taco night take your cares away!" I'm not saying it was a good song. I think it may have worried the people around me. What can I say, the tacos made me happy. The joy of taco night reminds me that food doesn't have to be fancy to be good.

Super Bowl

I am a converted Seahawks fan. Since Jason is from Washington, it seems that being a Seahawks fan is practically in his DNA. When his parents gave me a Seahawks shirt for Christmas in 2013, I felt that I had been officially brought into the fold. I'm a different person when I watch football. I yell at the t.v. and sometimes even make myself hoarse. This year's Super Bowl was a well played and exciting game. Am I sad that the Hawks didn't win? Definitely. But, as the saying goes, there is always next year.

Seahawk Cookies and Breakfast Dinner

Today's cooking activities are fairly self explanatory. This afternoon I baked Seahawks colored M&M and chocolate chip cookies in preparation for the Super Bowl tomorrow. I used peanut butter Ms which disperse a nice peanut butter flavor through the cookie. And for dinner tonight? A little breakfast love. Eggs, bacon and a croissant!

 

National Croissant Day

January 30, 2015 is National Croissant Day! What better time to finally try making croissants? This was the third day of preparation. I started by rolling out the dough to be approximately 8x44 inches.

 

Divided into triangles.

 

 

Once rolled into the correct shape, I allowed the croissants to proof for two hours. Some of the croissants I left plain and a few were filled with chocolate. The chocolate ones aren't bent into the crescent shape.

 

The croissants are egg washed twice. One before proofing and once just before baking.

 



 

They browned up a little faster than they should have so I decreased the oven temperature by about 15 degrees. Our oven is kind of small and sometimes it heats weirdly.

 

 

 

 

The texture was amazing. So light, flakey and tender. Picking one up was like handling buttered air. I couldn't be more pleased with how my first croissant attempt turned out and will definitely be making these again. The recipe I followed can be found here.