Little Debbie Ice Cream Review

Recently, Little Debbie announced that they are turning seven of their classic snack cakes into ice creams with Hudsonville Ice Cream. I immediately put it on my schedule to grab them as soon as they came to my local Walmart. When I got them home I immediately tried a spoonful of each. Let's break down each flavor.

Honey Buns:

This is the one I was honestly looking forward to the most. The ice cream consists of what tastes like a vanilla base with little donut pieces and a swirl of cinnamon sugar. This is the only one that I thought might be too sweet. The donut pieces are a little tougher than I expected, but are still good. The swirl has a surprising amount of nutmeg flavor and I love it.

4/5

Strawberry Shortcake Rolls:

Probably the best one here and a really solid ice cream. The vanilla base is perfectly complimented by a sharp strawberry creme swirl. The little pieces of shortcake are a great texture contrast. It is a surprisingly adult flavor, not too sweet at all.

5/5

 Zebra Cakes:

Again, I was really looking forward to this one, and it was honestly the most disappointing one here. Surprisingly bland with cake pieces and a little ribbon of chocolate. Honestly the one I am least likely to finish.

2.5/5

Oatmeal Creme Pies:

The only other disappointing one. Seems like it is just vanilla ice cream with cookie pieces, and there are not enough cookie pieces for it to just be that. The pieces are nice and chewy and soft, like you would expect.

3/5

Nutty Bars:

Pretty much rocky road. A vanilla base with peanut swirl and chocolate covered ice cream cone pieces. really solid. I wish it had more peanut in it, like a peanut butter ice cream base, but it's a really great expression of this snack as an ice cream.

4.5/5

Cosmic Brownies:

Another one that they just nailed! Chocolate ice cream, the iconic sprinkles, and brownie pieces. Surprisingly, it is not an overwhelmingly sweet ice cream. If you like cosmic brownies, this one will perfectly hit that itch.

4.5/5

Swiss Rolls:

Again, a solid chocolate ice cream. Not too sweet and really well balanced. The marshmallow swirl and cake pieces are a fantastic emulation of the snack cake. Marshmallow is not personally a preferred flavor of mine, but I cannot fault them on execution.

3.5/5

Altogether, a surprisingly great collection of ice creams for such a limited run event. I honestly hope they sell well enough to keep them going, or to encourage other manufactures to throw their hats into the ring. If you can find them, try them. I do not think you will be disappointed.

Apple Butter BBQ Sauce

One day my SO posted on twitter that she was missing one of her favorite meals from when she was in college: quesadillas with apple butter BBQ pulled pork. After doing a bit of research, I found that it really was just apple butter mixed with BBQ sauce and it tastes amazing with my delicious BBQ sauce.

Ingredients:

17oz bottle of Apple Butter

BBQ Sauce

Directions:

Mix together one recipe worth of BBQ sauce with one bottle of apple butter until smooth and evenly mixed. Enjoy!

Serving suggestion: works amazing with pulled pork.

If you like what you see here, please consider supporting me on Patreon!

Food for Protesting

So things are going crazy in the States right now. Black Lives Matter and other groups are protesting the public lynching of George Floyd, one of hundreds of Black people to die at the hands of the police in the last decade.

If you are going out to support the protest, and you want to help provide some supplies, I am putting together a list of recipes that are easy to make in large quantities, easy to portion, and can be kept hot in a crock pot or similar for a long time.

Chickpea Curry

This is a vegan curry that is still plenty creamy and is quick and easy to make.

Chicken Tikka Masala

An easy to make crowd pleaser that is easy to sub out things like cream and yogurt with coconut cream and easily swapped out protein to make a vegan or vegetarian option.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Classic family favorite, keeps well, portions well, cheap and quick to make.

Bring water, milk, masks, snacks, anything you can to help. If you are white, be a shield, not a savior, be a partner, do not take control. 

If do not want to join the protests, for whatever reason, please consider donating to local bail funds and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Also, make sure you are registered to vote. Vote early, vote often.

Oatmeal Bread

Well, it certainly is crazy out there. Covid-19 has people panic buying, so I am going to go over how to make a couple of staple, in my opinion, products that seem to be flying off the shelves, starting with a loaf of my favorite oatmeal bread.

Ingredients:

Bread

365 gr bread flour
1 cup rolled oats (old fashioned oats)
2 tbsp butter or oil
1.5 tsp salt
4 tbsp honey
3 tsp instant yeast
1.25 cup warm milk*

Topping:

1 egg white**
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp rolled oats (old fashioned)

Directions:

I recommend using a stand mixer for this, it's a pretty loose dough that is hard to manipulate by hand.

Using the bread dough hook of your stand mixer, gently bring all of the bread ingredients together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Once everything is incorporated and a sticky, gluten-y mass has formed, knead on medium high speed for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth.

Place the dough ball in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour. It should nearly double in size.

After an hour remove the dough and press it out into small (6"x8") sheet before rolling it into a log. The easiest way is to fold the upper corners in and then roll it into a log. Place in a greased loaf tin and allow to rise for 1.5 hrs or until it rises about an inch above the tin.

When the loaf is nearly ready, preheat the oven to 350.

Before placing your loaf in the oven, whip the egg white with the water and brush over the top before sprinkling on the rolled oats.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the internal temp reads 190. If the top browns too quickly, cover with tin foil to prevent burning.

Turn it out on to a rack and cool completely before slicing.

*Putting the milk in warm helps the dough rise faster, a slower rise will yield more flavor, but you might need to adjust the amount of time you let it rest.

**I know that separating eggs is a bit of a pain, but a whole egg will brown quicker than just an egg white. This might fool you into thinking the bread is done too soon, which might ruin the loaf.

Cheddar Bicuits

Well, I gave you a recipe for biscuit mix, I guess I should give you something to make with it too! These cheesy cheddar biscuits are great by themselves or as a side with some good BBQ. This is a really simple recipe that is quick to whip up if you just need to add something to dinner.
Feel free to add other things to the dough like chives or green onion or even cooked bacon bits. This is really just a jumping off point.

Ingredients:

2 cups biscuit mix
½ lb cheddar cheese
½ c milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.
Mix together the biscuit mix and the cheese before pouring in the milk and kneading to form a stiff dough. Feel free to hold back some of the milk to keep the dough from getting too wet and sticky, you want to be able to work it without adding extra mix.
Roll out into ½ inch thick sheet and punch out 2 inch rounds and place "shoulder to shoulder" or gently touching each other on a lightly greased or lined baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool for 10 minutes before enjoying with butter or with pork belly or your favorite BBQ

DIY Biscuit Mix

So awhile ago I inherited a treasure trove of recipes from my grandmother. It included a lot of things that can be made with Bisquick. A lot of them looked like they could be pretty fun to experiment with, but first I had to come up with my own baking mix. This is a modification of my own buttermilk biscuit recipe and, while it does need to be refrigerated, it can keep for two months if sealed and even longer in the freezer.

Ingredients:

500 gr AP flour
2 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ c buttermilk powder
½ c shortening, butter, or lard chilled and cut into cubes

Directions:

In a food processor combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk powder.
Pulse a few times to make sure everything is combined.
Add your choice of fat, one cube at a time, and pulse until incorporated before adding the next one.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two months.

National Junk Food Day

Today is National Junk Food Day! I cannot think of a recipe of mine that more represents the spirit of the day then my Grillswith. You start with a donut, fry it a little more, and add ice cream. Which is also appropriate because it is National Ice Cream Day! Two for one! I love it when a plan comes together.

Checkout my Grillswith recipe here. It is one of my most popular, and with good reason.

Meatballs in Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

Sauce:

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh oregano
2 tbsp fresh basil
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 oz whiskey
ladle of water or pasta water

Meatballs:

2 tbsp fresh oregano
2 tbsp fresh basil
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 c parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb ground beef, veal, pork mix (often sold as "meatloaf mix")
1/3 c bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk

Directions:

Sauce:

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it shimmers.
Sauté the minced garlic until nicely browned.
Pour in the can of crushed tomatoes, bring to a simmer and then lower the heat to just maintain a simmer.
Stir in the salt, herbs, and whiskey and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it from burning.
If the sauce gets too thick, stir in a ladle full, my ladle is about half a cup, of water. The best would be water from cooking pasta, but just a ladle of water will do fine.

Meatballs:

Preheat oven to 400ºF and and grease or line a baking tray with non stick paper.
Mix all of the ingredients for the meatballs together in a mixing bowl until everything is just combined. The more you handle the ingredients the tougher your meatballs will be, so less is more.
Form into 1" balls, or golf ball sized balls.*
Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through and lightly brown.

If you time it right, you can get these all done at roughly the same time. Add the meatballs to the sauce and serve over pasta, or ladle some sauce over pasta and place some meatballs on top, however you want to serve it. Enjoy!

*If you are going to be making a meatball sandwich like a meatball sub or meatball parm, make the balls a bit larger, you will just have to adjust your cooking time accordingly.

Slow Cooker BBQ Spare Ribs

To me, nothing says 4th of July like a plate of ribs. Grilled and especially smoked ribs might be the definitive expression of the art, but nothing gets consistently quality results like a slow cooker. Also, the 4th in my area is promising to be a rainy one, which will push people inside and grilling in bad weather is only fun to a select group of odd balls (like me). So, to make sure no ones celebration is spoiled, here is a good recipe to use if it (literally) rains on your parade.

Ingredients:

1 rack of spare ribs*
½ C brown sugar
2 tsp salt
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp red pepper
BBQ sauce**

Directions:

Cut the ribs in half so they fit better in a slow cooker. Pat dry with some paper towels to help the dry rub stick.
Mix together everything remaining except the BBQ sauce and rub onto the ribs. Make sure you cover both sides and every edge.
Place in a slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5-6 or until they reach an internal temp of 190-205 F. Yes, this is way higher than the done temp for pork, but ribs, especially spare ribs, have a lot of fat and collagen in them. This needs to be rendered out for the ribs to be their best. If you cook to the usual pork temp of 160 F you will have much tougher and fattier ribs. This makes it difficult for low and slow methods to over-cook ribs, but it is easy to under-cook them.
Once they have reached temp, remove and let them rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting into portions. I like to get them into pairs so people do not have to commit to a half or full rack, but can still take a plateful. Toss in BBQ sauce and serve, with plenty of napkins, to a grateful world.

*This recipe was specifically made with spare ribs in mind. If you are using baby-back ribs, you might need to adjust times.
**I made this dry rub to specifically go with my BBQ sauce recipe by using the same base of spices, but any sauce that goes well with some sweet heat will work great.

BBQ Sauce

We are nearly at the 4th of July so it is time for cookouts, grilling, good food, and time with friends and family. By far one of the most common condiments needed for a successful cookout is a quality BBQ sauce. Why not impress your friends and be the talk of the cul de sac with a homemade BBQ sauce? It is amazingly easy to make and a great way to add that last layer of finger-licking goodness of a classic cookout.

Ingredients:

1½ C ketchup
½  C brown sugar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp mustard
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp hot sauce

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pot and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and the sauce is smooth.
Store in a squirt bottle or jar in the fridge.
See, told you it was easy.

Recipe Collection

I apologize for not posting during the month of June. I can make excuses about how school was commanding all of my time, and that would be true. However the real truth, then I was sad. June is probably always going to be a  rough month for me since it contains both Father's Day and my father's birthday. For anyone who is new here, my father passed away in September of 2016.

 In June, we also moved my grandmother out of her Independent Living Community and into an Assisted-Living Community. This brought up some more complicated emotions and did not really do anything to improve my emotional outlook.

Obviously I'm not alone in this, I go through this with my wife by my side and with my whole family. I cannot thank them enough for their support.

With the sappy stuff out of the way, let's move on to the fun stuff. Part of moving my grandmother out of her apartment involved me getting most of her recipes. I now have a treasure trove of recipes from as far back as the early 1950s.

Many of these are from friends of the family, many are my grandmother's originals, and some even come from my great grandmothers.

Some of these are a little odd, and definitely a little old school, but I'm excited to give them a try. I’ll be spending a lot of the summer trying them out, modifying them, and posting them here for you. I also plan on making some more videos for you all to enjoy.

Please pay attention to this space, there is a lot of great stuff coming.

PS. I'll be sharing my finished products here, but if you want a look at the process, be sure to support me on Patreon.

Chicken Carnitas

After spending some time eating vegetarian, I am trying to cut back on the meat I eat, and to eat more sustainably. This means relying more on chicken and fish as my staple proteins, rather than beef or pork.

This means I need to get a bit more creative to keep myself satisfied, so when a friend of mine asked for a chicken carnitas recipe to help him out, I jumped at the challenge.

Ingredients:

4 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
4 cloves of garlic
1 medium yellow onion
2 jalapenos
¼ c olive oil
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp oil

Directions:

Put the chicken thighs in a slow cooker. Peel and crush your garlic, peel and quarter your onion, roughly chop your jalapenos. Place everything, except the last 2 tbsp of oil, in your slow cooker and toss to make sure it is all well combined.

Cook on low for 6 hours.

Once cooked through and tender, remove the chicken and drain the liquid through a mesh strainer and reserve.

Chill both for a few hours or over night.

You can skim the fat off the liquid once it is cool, or stick in the freezer for an hour to make it easy to scoop off.

Once the chicken is fully cooled shred-it using either your hands or a fork or chop it into small pieces.

To reheat, pour 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat in a large pan, once the oil is shimmering, add your shredded chicken in one layer and sear without moving for 2 minutes to build up the characteristic crust. Poor in reserved one cup of cooking liquid and stir until heated through.

Serve on warm tortillas with chopped red onion, chopped cilantro, and crema or sour cream. It also works great on nachos and it keeps well in the freezer.

Chickpea Curry

I was looking around for a quick vegan curry because I have discovered that cream sauces aren't agreeing with me right now (something that makes me incredibly sad every day) and I wanted a curry that was made to not have meat or dairy in it so I did not have to figure out weird substitutes. I came across a recipe for a chickpea curry that made some odd choices so I took the chance to refine it and came up with this tasty concoction.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 large white onion
½ tsp salt
2 medium tomatoes
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cardamom

½ tsp cinnamon
13.5 oz can full fat coconut milk
1 16oz can of chickpeas

¼ C chopped cilantro

Directions:

Finely dice the garlic and the onion and roughly chop the tomatoes. Heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and saute until lightly browned, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Add the onion and the salt and saute, stirring frequently, until translucent before adding the tomatoes and cooking until the tomatoes start to break apart. Sprinkle in all the spices and fry them, stirring constantly, until they are super fragrant.
Reduce the heat to low and pour in the coconut milk and chickpeas, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick and creamy. Add the chopped cilantro and serve, preferably over basmati rice.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you are having a great St. Patrick's Day! I gave up meat for lent, so it is not quite as fun for me as it usually is, but I am making do. I'm currently working on an Irish Soda Bread recipe that I should have up in time for next year.

Here are the Irish themed recipes I have put out to help you enjoy the "spirit" of the holiday!

My St. Patrick's Day shake is a great drink for parties, especially if you are enjoying better weather then I am right now.

While my Irish Redhead is not strictly speaking Irish or green, it is Irish themed and that seems to be enough reason to drink it in America!

Scrambled Egg Curry

When it is time to go grocery shopping and all you have is a few random ingredients around your house, it is a great time to throw together a curry.
I had leftover pieces from some of the things I had made last week, and somethings I had planned on making but didn't have time, and a curry is usually a tasty way to use up a few odds and ends.
Since this one is made with scrambled egg, it is very quick, no stewing or simmering. Just saute some veggies, fry some spices, throw in your eggs and serve. It is great by itself or on a bed of greens.
I also recently discovered that one of my little sisters tried curry for the first time recently. She is scared of trying to make it at home because she does not want to smell up her house too much. This one is a bit more mild, so I hope she will give it a try.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter
2 small tomatoes, diced
1 red onion, sliced
1 tsp salt
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
6 eggs, beaten

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and toss in the tomatoes, onions, and salt. Saute until they are nicely softened but are still bright and colorful, about 2-5 minutes. Stir in the spices and let them fry and hydrate for a few minutes. Once they are nice and fragrant, pour on the beaten eggs and stir constantly until just cooked. Remove from the heat and serve.

Cheat's Mac'n'Cheese

The base of pretty much any homemade mac and cheese (especially stove top) is usually a cheese sauce or bechamel sauce. This is made by cooking flour in butter and using the resulting roux (pronounced rue) to thicken milk which cheese is then melted into. This is a cheat because it avoids that entirely and uses sour cream and the starch left on your pasta to get a good sauce.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of ground spicy sausage
2 lbs of pasta (I recommend either macaroni or rotini)
1 lb of cheddar cheese, shredded
1 lb of sour cream*
4 C of milk

Directions:

Brown the ground sausage until cooked through. You can use links, but Laura hates the casings so I just use the sausage meat. I recommend doing this in 1 lb portions, otherwise you could pull too much heat out of your pan and you will end up with boiled sausage which just is not as good. (Alternatively, you could entirely skip this if you don't want sausage in your mac'n'cheese.)

Cook your pasta according to the package instructions and drain it thoroughly, but DO NOT RINSE IT, the starch that it still clinging to those noodles is vital in making a good sauce later.

Stir everything in to the still warm pasta. If you move quickly, and have everything ready to go, it should all melt in and form a smooth, creamy sauce. If it has cooled down, put the pot over a low heat while you stir. If the sauce is a little too liquid, just keep stirring, the sauce will thicken as the starch expands.

*If you use a 16 oz/1 lb container, that is a 2 cup container, you can use that to measure the milk so it makes fewer dishes.

Chili con Carne for Red Dead Redemption 2

So Red Dead Redemption 2 came out recently, and it looks amazing. I am one of the unhappy few that does not own a device that it is available so I hope that, this time, Rockstar feels like bringing the game over to PC. Sorry, PC gamer problems, you all are here for the food.

I was inspired by the games Southern setting to make this amazing Chili con Carne. My wife says it is the best chili she has ever had, but she is obligated to compliment my food. It is a really great chili and would serve equally well as an entrée or topping for chili dogs, eggs, or chili cheese fries.

I also need to add an obligatory apology to my friend Jay. He hates cinnamon in chili. I think it gives it a quick dash of sweet heat, he sees it as an abomination. Oh well, I will make him eat it anyway!

Ingredients:
¼ lb. of bacon, diced*
3 lb. of ground beef
1 large white onion, diced
1 tbsp salt
2 jalapeños, seeded and minced
2 red fresno chilies, seeded and minced
1 serrano chile, sliced
40.5oz can of kidney beans, drained
28oz can of crushed tomatoes
½ tsp ground red pepper
1 ½ tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp of cinnamon (sorry again, Jay)
1 tsp cocoa powder

Directions:
Heat a dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat and brown the bacon until all the fat is rendered out and the bacon bits are crispy. Remove, drain, and set aside for later. Next, brown the ground beef in the bacon grease in 1 pound portions, removing each portion after it is well browned. You are going to be simmering the beef later so it does not matter if it is not cooked all the way at this point.

Once you have evacuated all of your beef, add the onions and salt and sweat the onions over medium to medium low heat until they are translucent and soft. Next, stir in all the chiles and sweat down until soft.

Dump in all the spices and cocoa powder and fry them until they are looking toasted and are stinking up your house something good.

Finally, pour in the can of tomatoes and the can of drained beans, and add your reserved meat back in. Bring to a simmer and simmer, stirring regularly, for 20 minutes or until a nice thick gravy is covering your chili.

Optionally, serve with plenty of cheese, sour cream, and corn chips.

A really fun party idea is to keep your chili warm in a slow cooker and let your guests serve themselves in individual corn chip bags and load up on toppings. Some people call this a "walking taco" I just think its amazing.

*Pro tip: it is way easier to chop bacon up into a fine dice if you stick it in the freezer for an hour to get hard, not enough to freeze through, but enough to be stiff. That makes it way easier to dice up.

For Rebecca

One of my sisters is undertaking the "No Meat November" challenge and I am here to support her. She asked me to put together some great recipes that are either vegetarian or pescaterian. Here are some of my favorites:

Vegetarian:

Quinoa Salad with Candied Walnuts:
A great dish that I love to throw together. It features quinoa, which is a high protein grain that works
great in cold salads.

Mushroom Risotto:
This was really intimidating to make, but it is actually really simple. A lot of recipes have really confusing descriptions and instructions and I tried to make sure mine were very clear and user friendly. I served this with some seared tofu to make a good full meal.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa:
This dip is really good, but I slightly over complicated the recipe. It is pretty easy to make this recipe in a skillet as I described or can just be stirred together cold.

Guacamole:
Guacamole is actually one of my favorite things to make in the winter because I love to make it with pomegranate and you can only really get a good price on those around this time of year.

Not Beef Stroganoff:
This one takes advantage of the fact that mushrooms are really meaty. It is pretty simple to take a traditional and replace the meat with mushrooms. While this is a great recipe, I do need to take a new picture for it.

Here is a link to the rest of my vegetarian recipes, which, given how much I like meat, I have a surprising amount of.

Seafood:

Shrimp Bisque:
Dear God this stuff is good. As the weather gets cold, this is a perfect thing to warm you up with a little spice and a little alcohol.

Cream of Crab Soup:

Another fantastic soup for this time of year. This one is made that traditional way, only white ingredients, but it is easy to make it Maryland style, just add Old Bay!

Maryland Crab Cake:

I have nothing else to say about this one, just make it. It's amazing.

Miso Soup:

While I provided a traditional set of ingredients for this one, it really is fridge velcro. You can put pretty much anything into it that you want.

Crispy Skin Salmon:

This is a easy and simple application of my new favorite way to make salmon. This recipe includes detailed instructions on how to make this amazing dish. 

Bourbon Maple Pepper Salmon:

Ok, the title is a bit of a mouthful, but this is really good stuff. If you have not made crispy skin salmon before, I would recommend taking a look at the previous recipe to get a really good idea of how to do it.

Steamed Mussels:

Pretty much the best mussels I have ever had. It is spicy, but amazing. It is not strictly speaking pescatarian, since it includes sausage, but it is easy to leave that out and still have a great dish.

Video: Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire Food Review

Here is a little video of me and some friends reviewing some of the eats your can get from the PA Renaissance Faire

Video: Weekend Update with the Viking Chef