Adventures in Unemployment Cooking

On a brighter note - (I've been side tracked again from continuing London, we'll pick that up again soon, I promise!) today the unemployed Trinh and I have been experimenting in the kitchen (God help us). We decided to start with something simple . . . and then we decided that was too simple and needed to challenge ourselves. So in addition to Popsicles, we added strawberry ice cream . . . and French Macaroons. You can guess where the wheels came off the wagon.

For our Popsicles we decided to start with a basic strawberry, a Choco-pb-banana Popsicle, a coffee, and last an Earl Grey tea Popsicle. Strangely, the grocery store didn't have Popsicle sticks, so we improvised. I had some leftover bamboo skewers from a previous cooking attempt which we cut down to size. Also not owning any Popsicle molds we decided to use Dixie cups.

Please note, I'm like my mother, I don't measure when I cook and bake. Well, I kind of do, but it's more of an eyeballing attempt.

The basic strawberry is simple enough - (Trinh says we should have added a little something special and made it a daiquiri). Take a pint of fresh strawberries, take the stems off, and cut in half. Add a little honey, 1/4 of sugar, and a dash of lemon juice. Blend. This makes about 6 Dixie cups.



For the Choco-pb-banana: List of ingredients: 3 bananas, jar of peanut butter, jar of chocolate spread, milk, and chocolate chips. Take 2 bananas, 1/2 cup of peanut butter, and 1/2 of chocolate spread (think Nutella-like), and a 3/4 cup of milk (we used Skim). Blend. Next take last banana and slice into circles. Next put a few chocolate chips at the bottom of the Dixie cup, then spoon in a little of the mix, then add a banana slice, layer of mix, and then top off with chocolate chips.

For the coffee and tea-sicles - the tea requires 2 tea bags of strong tea in a cup and for the coffee one standard strong cup. Let it cool to room temp. Add a mixture of 1/2 cup of sugar in each with a 1/2 a cup of milk (we used 2%). If you just freeze the coffee or tea without the milk and sugar all you get is frozen coffee or tea - not much of a popsicle.

For more fun Popsicle ideas check out BlissTree or Growing a Green Family

The ice cream was a straight forward process as I own an ice cream maker (haha!) - a product of my many years working at Williams-Sonoma (who I love and adore!).

As for our French Macaroon . . . as the saying goes - Tomorrow is another day. Evidently we folded too much . . . and I didn't get a picture of the destruction. Rest assured, I will next time. It wasn't pretty. The poor things were flattened and crispy.

Trinh and I will be working on our savory skills next week when we attempt Pesto and homemade hot sauce - also it will be our first canning event! Hang on to your booties people, we're in for quite a ride!