It's Almost Spring, and That Means Ice Cream

About 12 years ago, and young Elke purchased an ice cream maker at a flea market for $3. Jump to 2015, and she found it high up on a shelf, dusted it off, and decided to put it to use.

I drew inspiration for my ice cream from a recipe in Kinfolk Table, which was for a ginger ice cream with a kumquat compote. However, for my ice cream I made it ginger and mint, and I decided to leave out the compote.

This was absolutely delicious, especially because I had to wait 2 days to eat it! And remember, this will only work if you have an ice cream maker, but (from my personal experience) you can find them fairly cheap. #elkinthekitchen

Ginger Mint Ice Cream

Ingredients
1 cup fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped
3 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
3 large egg yolks

Directions
1. Place ginger in a saucepan and add enough cold water to cover. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain ginger and discard liquid.
2. Return ginger to saucepan and add sugar, milk, and cream. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat.
3. Whisk egg yolks in a heatproof bowl until light in color. Slowly whisk in a 1/4 cup of the hot ginger cream mixture. Then, continue to slowly whisk in the remaining mixture.
4. Return to a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for 7-10 minutes, whisking constantly. Never allow the mixture to come to a boil. You will know it is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
5. Remove from heat, and allow mixture to steep for 30 minutes. Strain the mixture into a large bowl and discard the solids. Stir in the chopped mint, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
6. Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker, following the directions supplied by the manufacturer. After the ice cream has been churned until it is firm, freeze for at least 2 hours, then enjoy!

Arugula and Black Pepper Parmesan Rose Sauce

I know it's been a few days since I posted last...This rainy week has got me feeling a little unmotivated, if you can't tell.

A few days ago I made a gorgeous pasta sauce to pair with some bucatini, which is my favorite type of pasta. The sauce was supposed to be a classic Alfredo, which is what my mother asked me to make...but then she left to go pick my brother up and I decided to mix it up a bit.

I knew that my mom wanted a cream sauce, but I always go for a red sauce, so I decided to compromise. I completely made this up from the ingredients I could scrape up from my bare fridge, but it all worked out pretty well in the end! Everybody was happy, and we all went up for seconds.

This sauce is simple and easy to make, while at the same time being full of flavor and open to your own interpretation. #elkinthekitchen

Arugula and Black Pepper Parmesan Rose Sauce 

Ingredients
5 mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
3 sprigs of thyme
7 cherry tomatoes, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 pint heavy cream
3 Tbsp coarsely chopped Parmesan, plus more for serving
2 handfuls arugula
salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 box pasta of your choice, I used bucatini

Directions
1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add olive oil. Once heated up, toss in the mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, thyme, and garlic. Sauté for about 5 minutes on medium/low heat, making sure not to burn the garlic.
2. Pour in a dash of cream and all the cheese, and cook until the cheese has melted a bit. Pour in the rest of the cream and cook, stirring, until it is simmering and has reduced.
3. Boil heavily salted water and cook your pasta until al dente.
4. Add salt and pepper the sauce to your taste, as well as some extra cheese if you'd like. Turn off heat and gently stir in the arugula. Once the pasta is done cooking, stir that into the sauce as well and enjoy!

Lemon Lavender Everything

I'm not the biggest fan of lavender flavored things. In general, I don't like the taste of flowery things much. However, lemon and lavender is one of the best (and most trendy) flavor combos out there. In the summer I make an amazing lavender lemonade. I'll share that recipe with you at a later date though.

Today I decided to share with you a Lemon Lavender Polenta cake that I found on food52. I baked it with my friend Liv, and we took lots of pretty pictures of it, but I'll talk more about that later.

The cake was beautiful and really simple to make. Plus, I love polenta and cornmeal and pretty much anything made from corn, so that was fun for me. Who cares that corn has no nutritional value? #elkinthekitchen

Lemon Lavender Polenta Cake (from food52)

Ingredients

200 grams unsalted butter, softened, plus some to grease the cake pan

170 grams caster or natural cane sugar

100 grams cake flour (all-purpose flour also works)

200 grams polenta or cornmeal

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

3 medium eggs

Zest of 2 lemons

Juice of one lemon

1 teaspoon dried (culinary grade) lavender

Directions

1. Line the base of a 9-inch springform cake tin (a slightly smaller one will work as well) with baking parchment and grease sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350º F. 

2. Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, 3 to 5 minutes. 

3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, polenta, and baking powder, then beat some of this into the butter/sugar mixture, followed by one egg. Alternate adding dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while. 

4. Finally, beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and lavender. Then pour, spoon, or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven, about 40 minutes. (Please remember that depending on altitude, cooking times can change. Higher altitudes usually require a slightly longer time.) 

5. It may seem a bit wobbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester (I actually just use a slender steak knife) should come out clean. Transfer it from oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.

For the Syrup

Ingredients

Juice of 2 lemons

125 grams granulated sugar

Icing sugar, for topping

Directions

1. Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan. 

2. Once the sugar has dissolved into the juice, leave it for about one minute more and then you’re done. 

3. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester, fork, or skewer. Be careful not to tear the cake too much if using a fork or a skewer, as it is delicate. Pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin. 

4. Before serving, sprinkle icing sugar (using a sieve) over the top of the cake. Then slice and serve.

I'm back! (and cooking up a storm)

Hi all! I am so sorry about how I left you guys hanging these past few days. As you know, I was travelling, and then I was getting back into the swing of being home! Plus, trying to get Baz to forgive me for leaving is a full time job. Since I've been home, I've been cooking and baking like it's the end of the world, so over the next few days, be ready for a bunch of posts!

Today I will stick with something simple. A smoothie! It has been my breakfast everyday this week, partly because it tastes so good, but mostly because I need to recover from a week of eating without any sense of consequence.

Smoothies are usually simple, even though a lot of people think they are difficult to make well. I think we can attribute that to the fact that store-bought smoothies are so damn expensive, it makes people think they couldn't possibly replicate it. My smoothies are simple and healthy and they look really pretty. See?? #elkinthekitchen

Elke's Simple Smoothie

Ingredients

1/2 banana

3 strawberries, sliced

1/2 cup blueberries

1 cup kale

1/4 cup slivered almonds, plus more for topping

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tsp honey

1 Tbsp ground flax seeds

1 tsp chia seeds, for topping

Directions
1. It's pretty simple...throw everything in the blender (aside from the extra almonds and the chia) and liquefy. The kale will make it green, but don't fear because the blueberries turn it back to a pretty color. Feel free to use frozen fruit, because it's cheaper, easier, and tastes just as good. Also, the measurements can be very loosely followed. If you like different fruit, or you want it to be more or less sweet, do whatever you feel! This is just my basic recipe.
2. Pour some smoothie into a pretty glass, sprinkle the chia and almonds on top, and enjoy a healthy start to your day.

Bacon Maple Popcorn: Good for Any Day of the Week

This recipe is short and easy. Similar to the last recipe, I don't have many pictures (I only have one) but that's due more from the fact that this recipe is so short, I could really only take one picture.

This recipe is so awesome, I've been making it for years. Since I was 15. So that's pretty cool, it's kinda part of my history. It requires five ingredients, and about 15 minutes of your time. The most fun part of this recipe is that you cook the popcorn kernels in rendered bacon fat, instead of vegetable or olive oil, which is what I'm used to doing. Also, it only requires one pot and another smaller bowl for the microwave (eek, I know, microwave?? It's only to melt the butter, so don't judge me too harshly).

Whatever event you make this popcorn for, people will love it. And people will love you! Even after it's been sitting out for a couple of hours, and the party is winding down, and there's only 4 people left, when the popcorn is soggy from age, it still tastes delicious. But maybe the delicious part is enjoying it with people you love...Nah, it's the bacon. #elkinthekitchen

Bacon Maple Popcorn

Ingredients
3 strips of bacon
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
3 Tbsp salted butter
3 Tbsp real maple syrup

Directions
1. In the same pot you plan on using for the popcorn, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon, but leave the rendered fat. Put the bacon strips aside and let cool.
2. With the heat on medium-low, drop one popcorn kernel into the rendered fat. Once the kernel pops, your fat is hot enough, and you can add in the remaining 1/2 cup of kernels. Put the lid on the pot and shake back and forth until you hear the popping com to a stop, about 3 minutes.
3. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Once the butter is melted, add the maple syrup and stir to combine. Chop the bacon into little bits. Pour the maple butter over the popcorn, and sprinkle the bacon, and mix together with a big spoon, or your hands!
4. Feel free to add anymore butter or maple syrup to your popcorn, I won't tell anybody! I add extra sometimes too, because who cares? Enjoy!

Chicken Makes Everything Better

So, after my last post, I'm sure you're all wondering how my travels went. Although my flight was a total of 45 minutes, I spent 10 ours travelling, between delays, and deicing the plane, and cab rides. The only thing that got me through all of that was knowing that my friends were buying ingredients for me to make dinner with when I got there. Yes, I was looking forward to making dinner for people at 10pm after a full day of travelling. What can I say? It's what I love to do.

The grocery list I texted my friend right before the plane took off went as follows: "I just need chicken thighs (bone in and skin on) lemon, garlic, thyme, and polenta. I'm assuming you have salt, pepper, and olive oil." I guess I should have been a bit more specific, because I got boneless, skinless thighs, and precooked polenta in that weird cylindrical shape, and all the olive oil they had, which was about three tablespoons. I was a bit disappointed, because as my friends' father says, "boneless, skinless, tastless." It's okay though, I worked with what I had. I found some baby arugula in the fridge, as well as some onions and mushrooms which I sauteed, and put those all together as a nice little side salad.

It all ended up very nicely. The chicken was garlicky, lemony, and covered in thyme an oil, which spooned over the fried polenta was amazing. The arugula was perfect underneath the buttery and salty mushrooms and onions, and it all tasted better because it was the first meal I'd had all day.

The only regret I have is that I was so tired that I didn't have the forethought to take pictures while I was cooking. So, this is going to be a pictureless post. If it helps, I can post a cute picture of my kitten that my mom sent me instead.

Beautiful Baby Boy Baz

There we go! Isn't he perfect? You don't have to answer that, because I already know that he is. Okay, enough of that, let's get to the food. #elkinthekitchen

Chicken with Garlic, Lemon, and Thyme

Ingredients

1 package of chicken thighs, bone in and skin on, there should be 4 or 5 pieces

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 lemon

4 sprigs of thyme

2 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Thinly cut 4 slices of lemon, and save the rest for juice. Unwrap the chicken and place the thighs in an ovenproof baking pan. I used a glass Pyrex dish that I found in my friend's kitchen.

3. Sprinkle the sliced garlic and the the sprigs of thyme over the chicken, then place the lemon slices in the dish. Use the other half of the lemon to squeeze some juice over the thighs. 

4. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper (I'm usually pretty generous with both of these in this recipe). Pour the olive oil evenly over the dish, and you're ready to put it in the oven.

5. Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes, The skin on top should be crispy, and the meat on the inside should be devoid of all pink coloring. If the chicken is still pink, you need to put it back in the over for a few minutes.

6. Pair with some nice crusty bread, polenta, or even some rice! When you pour the oil from the chicken over any carb like that, the result is amazing. Enjoy :)

Airports Aren't Fun... But Muffins Are!

Here I am, on a cold, snowy, wet Sunday afternoon, sitting in the Philadelphia International Airport, waiting to hop on a plane to the equally, if not more, cold, snowy, wet Boston. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than ecstatic to be going to Boston. All of my best friends live there, I'm seeing my favorite band play a show, and I get an entire week off from working my two jobs. It's just that the vibe of the airport is bringing me down.

I'm also a bit hungry, but I won't eat anything here because, well, in the simplest of explanations, I am a giant food snob. Is that really a surprise though? I think not. This is what got me to thinking about my most recent obsession: blueberry, oatmeal, and flaxseed muffins. I first found this recipe on food52, but I added a few changes to my version of the muffin, after having made them a few times.

These things are the absolute best, I'm telling you guys. Not only are they moist and delicious, but they are full of fiber and pretty good for you. Though let's be real, that's not the reason I ate so many of them.

So, if you're sitting in a stinky airport and need something to daydream about like me, or if you're in your cozy home trying to think of something fun to snack on, this is for you. #elkinthekitchen

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

5 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2/3 cup ground flaxseed

4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 eggs

3/4 cup coconut oil

3/4 cup water

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup shredded carrots

2 cups blueberries

1/2 cup walnut pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with your favorite cute paper liners!

2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, flaxseed, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

3. Mix in the eggs, coconut oil, water, and buttermilk until the dry and wet ingredients are just combined. Fold in the carrots, blueberries, and walnuts. Fill each paper liner to the top with batter, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

4. After the muffins cool, feel free to eat as many as you want, because who cares? We're all covered up in big sweaters and scarves anyway! 

These muffins are super moist, so they keep for a while. If you wanted to wrap them in saran individually, that's cool, but not necessary. At the very least, all you need to do is lay a piece of saran on top of the plate that the muffins are sitting on.