Social Treats

This past weekend we hosted our annual Ice Cream Social for the CSA members. It was a great afternoon with agreeable weather, fun visitors and plenty of good food. We also had lots of requests for recipes so here are the most requested of the foods served at the event:

Chocolate Zucchini Birthday Cake

2-3c. grated zucchini

2 c. flour

1 ½ c. sugar

1 tsp salt

½ c. oil

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1/3 c. cocoa

2 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together, pour into greased & floured 9 x 13” pan. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes.

When cool, frost with Hershey’s Cocoa Frosting

1 stick butter

2/3 c. cocoa

3 c. powdered sugar

1/3 c. milk

1 tsp vanilla

In a medium mixer bowl melt butter, add cocoa and stir until combined. Alternating between powdered sugar and milk, add to cocoa and butter, mixing between. When thoroughly combined, beat in vanilla.

Makes +/- 2 cups.

BGF Chocolate Ice Cream

5 (1 oz) squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1 (14oz ) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp instant coffee granules
2 c. half and half
2 c. whipping cream


In a large mixer bowl, beat chocolate, condensed milk, vanilla and coffee granules until coffee is dissolved. Stir in half and half and whipping cream.
Pour into ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.
Makes about 1 1/2 quarts.
Recipe adapted from : Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook

BGF Zucchini Bread

3 eggs                                         1 tsp soda
3 c. sugar                                    1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs vanilla                                 1 tsp salt
3 c. flour                                     3 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 c. grated zucchini                1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 c. oil                                         1/2 c. dried cranberries (optional)
                                                    1 tbs fresh grated ginger (optional)


Combine eggs, sugar and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to egg mixture. Then add zucchini, oil, cranberries and ginger. Mix well. Put into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.


Rosemary Butter Cookies


1 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp minced fresh rosemary (for more herb flavor, grind rosemary with some of the sugar)


Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs one at a time, beating until blended.
Combine flour, cream of tartar and salt, gradually add to butter mixture. Beat at low speed until blended.
Stir in rosemary (or rosemary sugar mixture).
Shape dough into 2 (10-inch) logs; wrap each log in wax paper & chill at least 2 hrs.
Unwrap dough, cut each log into 1/2" slices and place on lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool. Yield 3 1/2 dozen.


Recipe source: Gloria Beebout (BlueMom)

Ice Cream Resolution

You will have to read today's earlier post titled "Torture" for the following photo to make any sense...


...ahhhhhhh...French Silk Bliss!
(thanks, Maggie!!!)

Torture

Those of you who know me, know that I am rather a connoisseur (addict) of ice cream, especially homemade ice cream. I come by this trait honestly, between our household and my parents we own 5 ice cream freezers (for 4 people, but we share!) We hold an Ice Cream Social every year for our CSA members and most larger family gatherings include some kind of homemade ice cream.

Well, last Saturday at the farmers market, my dear friend Maggie arrived at our booth with a full quart of her own homemade french silk ice cream base! This stuff is like a swoon, a scream and a sigh all rolled into one. I wanted nothing more than to rush home, pull out my little Cuisinart ice cream freezer and whip that baby into service. Alas, it was only 9 am and we still had 3 hours of market left and then some errands to run before we even got back home.

When we finally arrived, and the market stuff was all unloaded I started looking for the Cuisinart...hmmm, where was it? I knew I had used it since moving from Houston, so we hadn't done anything foolish like leaving it behind. I looked everywhere....well, everywhere except the far east door of our storage closets in the back porch. It is buried behind a pile of coolers, spent honeycomb waiting to become filtered beeswax, holiday decorations and the 55 gallon honey extractor.

I kept asking Sean if he remembered seeing the ice cream freezer, hoping that he would volunteer to find it, as he is rather skilled at spelunking through the storage closets, but he replied that he hadn't seen it, and didn't take the bait to help me find it. (hm, no ice cream for him in the eventuality that I EVER find the stinking machine).

Finally I had a moment of extreme determination and I scaled the pile and managed to open the east storage door...
See the barely visible shiny object, half hidden by the cardboard box...yep, that's it and there was no way I could even touch it while standing on a step stool, let alone get it out of there.
This was really an inhumane form of torture for a Beebout, anyone who knows us well will attest to it.

There are few things that would have pushed me forward at this moment, but ice cream is one of them. I will spare you any more of the ugly details, but spurred on by the thought of Maggie's french silk ice cream, the Cuisinart is now on my kitchen counter and the freezer bowl has been in the deep freeze for 24 hours, so later today, I am going to sit down to one luscious bowl of happiness...and I'm not sharing either!