Ice Cream Cones

One would think homemade ice cream cones are hard to make, but they are actually quite simple! These were a piece of cake for me to make and tasted great. Of course they aren't as crispy as store bought waffle cones, but have enough crisp to them to taste like a real cone.

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
• 4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter , melted and cooled
• 2 - 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup (50 grams) all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Vegetable oil and pastry brush

In a medium sized bowl whisk together (or use a hand mixer) the eggs and sugar until frothy. Whisk in the melted butter, milk and vanilla extract. Add the flour and salt and whisk until the batter is smooth. The batter should be quite thin (like a crepe batter) so add more milk if the consistency is too thick.

Heat a 8-9 inch (20-23 cm) saute pan over medium heat until it is hot. Reduce the heat to medium low and brush the pan lightly with vegetable oil. Pour or ladle about 3-4 tablespoons of batter into the pan and immediately tilt or rotate the pan so the batter forms a thin 5-6 inch (13-15 cm) circle. Place pan back on the heat and cook until the batter is set and you can see the underside is golden brown (3-4 minutes). Slip a metal spatula under the crepe and gently flip it over. Cook until golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat and slide the crepe from the pan onto your work surface. While the crepe is still hot, quickly start at one edge and roll the crepe into a cone shape. Squeeze the tip of the cone to seal it so the ice cream won't drip out. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Continue making the rest of the cones, lightly brushing the pan with vegetable oil each time. These cones are best if eaten the same day.

Julie's Tips:

• I've made these with molds, and without. They ultimately will work with or without, but now that I have some cardboard molds made by Jesse, I love them. He cut circles out of a cereal box and formed them in the shape of cones, about 5-6 inches long. Then, he covered them in tinfoil and I'm able to use them over and over again.
• Sometimes the tips don't stay shut when you pinch them closed. Melt a bit of chocolate and drop it in the bottom of the cone to seal it. Helpful and yummy!
• You really do need to roll the "crepe" around the mold as soon as possible after removing it from the heat. I flip the finished "crepe" onto wax paper then roll it onto the mold. To seal the edges and tip, I press gently on the counter from the inside of the cone mold. You can stick the handle of a kitchen utensil in there as well to seal the bottom.

Recipe taken from: http://joyofbaking.com/IceCreamCones.html

Pillsbury Dough Boy Crescent Rolls . . . Well Good Enough

• 2 pkg Active Dry Yeast
• ¾ C. Warm water, lukewarm
• ½ C. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 2 large eggs
• ½ C. Shortening (Part Butter)
• 4 C. Unbleached flour
• Butter or margarine, softened

Dissolve yeast in warm water, in large bowl. Stir in sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and half of the flour into the yeast mixture. Add the remaining flour blending until smooth. I did all this in the mixer. Scrape sides of bowl and cover with a damp cloth. (one that has been dipped in warm water, not a wet one.) Let rise in warm place. Until double. About 1 1/2 hours. Divide the dough in half, rolling each half into a 12-inch circle 1/4 inch thick. Spread with the soft butter and cut each circle into 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge beginning at the large end. Place, point side down, on a greased baking sheet. Curve to form crescents. Cover and let rise until double, 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a golden brown. Brush with soft butter. Makes 32 crescent rolls.

I needed crescent rolls that were slightly flakier than the usual recipe I use. I use these to make Broccoli Ham Ring. That's another recipe I've had to modify so maybe I'll post that later.

Lebanese Chicken

3-6 Chicken fillets (or 2 whole breasts)

3 medium potatoes

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 small or medium onion

1 1/2 C.-2 C. of the following-lemon juice, apple juices, and olive oil.

I mixed in more apple juice than the others, but you can modify to taste. I once went very heavy on the lemon-I added lots of lemon juice, plus I quartered a lemon and put it in with the rest. It was toooo zesty. So taste the mix as you add to make sure it's what you want.

1. Rub the chicken with salt on both sides.

2. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch chunks.

3. Slice in the onion.

4. Coat the potatoes

5. Add minced garlic to juice mix and coat potatoes and onions.

6. Place potatoes, onions and juice mix in a 9x13 (or something close to that-I use a rectangular dish that is smaller but I don't know the dimensions). Bake at about 250 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, uncovered.

7. Remove pan from oven, and add chicken. Spoon juices over chicken. Put dish back in the oven for another 20 minutes. During baking, spoon juices over chicken a few times.

8. Serve with pita bread, or baguette. Serves about 2 people.

Optional-you can also add Roma tomatoes to the potato and onion mix.

Julie's Version of Applebee's Oriental Chicken Wrap

2 Crispy cooked chicken Breasts-sliced into very small bite size chunks

1 1/2 C. Cabbage or the heart of iceberg lettuce-chopped into strips

1 1/2 C. carrots, julienned

1 C. almonds, sliced or chopped

1 C. chow mein noodles (See note below if you can't find chow mein noodles where you are)

Teriyaki Sauce

Tortillas

Oil

1. Make your teriyaki sauce and let it sit in refrigerator until it's time to eat.

2. Prepare your veggies and almonds if you need to.

3. Cook your chicken: I dipped mine in eggs, then flour and homemade bread crumbs, then I fried them in olive oil until they were really crispy. Make sure the juices have been let out of them if you want really crispy chunks. For this wrap you want crispy chicken, and warm chicken so give yourself some time from when the chicken is done cooking to let them cool a little and to let them dry. While they are still warm to hot, slice the breasts first into strips, then into bite size pieces. Place in a bowl.

4. Heat about a Tb of oil in a small pan. Let your carrots cook for just a little bit (about 5 minutes). You want them still very crispy but cooked enough so that they aren't like an uncooked carrot. Remove carrots from oil and place in a medium bowl.

5. In a medium bowl, mix the carrots, cabbage, almonds and chow mein noodles.

6. Place a helping of the veggie mix onto a tortilla. Next, scoop a large spoonful of the chicken onto the veggie mix. You can either pour the teriyaki sauce onto the chicken here, or you can do it like they do in the restaurant: Dip the wrap into a container or sauce. Both ways or messy so pick your poison.

**No chow mein noodles? I couldn't find them either in my store so I modified which is the story of my kitchen. I found some ramen noodles and bought 1 package. When I was cooking the carrots, I added about 1/2 the package of noodles into the oil (break small chunks off), then added a teeny bit of water to the pan. I cooked the noodles until they were just about to start getting soft. This worked well because the noodles weren't rock hard, but were just crispy enough to add to the crunch value of the wrap.

***I made this recipe one day because I was REALLY craving Applebee's Oriental Chicken Wrap. It's one of my favorite meals. So since we don't have an Applebee's here, I searched online for some other examples and made my own recipe. I was surprised. My first bite tasted REALLY similar to the wrap I was craving like you wouldn't believe.

Teriyaki Sauce-Applebee's Style

2-3 Tb. Honey
3-5 Tb. Soy Sauce
2 Tb. Mayonnaise
2-3 Tb. Vinegar
1/2 Tb Dijon Mustard

Wisk above ingredients together. As you can see, I'm not real certain on my measurements. When I made my sauce, I really just added each ingredient without measuring until is had the taste and consistency I liked. My recommendation is to go heavier on the honey, and go light on the vinegar. This really did taste like the Teriyaki sauce I'd had at Applebee's.

Whip Cream

This is pretty easy and you probably know how to do this, but just in case, this is what works in Spain:

2 small containers of cream (Nata liquido-Montar) 200 ml each
Vanilla to taste
Sugar to taste

Using a hand mixer, mix the chilled cream in a chilled bowl until soft peaks form. Add a little bit of vanilla and sugar and mix enough to taste. Modify the amount of vanilla and sugar and mix just a bit more. You don't want to mix the cream too much or it becomes very thick. I've used this for whip cream in chicken salad, and for angel food cake. It's a pretty good substitute for the convenient tubs found in the grocers freezer.

Mexican Rice

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 cup of long grain rice
2 1/2 cups cold water
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. garlic salt or 1 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 cup of tomato sauce

In a skillet heat oil over medium heat. Add rice and cook until lightly browned. Add water and remaining ingredients, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until rice is tender.

From www.cooks.com