Summer A La Mode

I have literally only used my oven twice this summer.

Last week, to make this:

Rosemary Potato Chips (from my amazing CSA potatoes). 

And this: 

In that same oven. Breaded Eggplant (oven baked).

And this week to make this:

Dr. Fuhrman's Zucchini Bread (uses 4 cups of grated zucchs, yeay!)

And this:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie (I halved the recipe). OH YES. 

Otherwise, I've been mostly making things that can be minimally cooked (like on top of the stove for a few minutes) or not cooked at all.  And with this kind of CSA haul, it was pretty easy.

CSA Week #12 (8/15/12): A dozen potatoes, a big bag of giant shallots, zucchini (4), a pint of cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes (5), the most amazing tasting eggplant (3) , a HUGE bunch of scallions, ghost peppers (3), sage, parsley, and the BIGGEST watermelon in the world.

We got to our CSA pick up first and had choice of all the melons (they were outside the box, so we got to choose our own).  Of course we chose the monster one!

With which I made this:

Juicy Watermelon Sorbet (from Vegan A La Mode).  I used black and white chocolate chips to mimic the black and white seeds in the watermelon :-)  

I have made four ice creams so far from the book: PB Bombshell, Fresh Corn, Peach (with cookies instead of a raspberry swirl), and now the Juicy Watermelon Sorbet.  This is an amazing book!  

Other things I did not cook:

Raw platter from Week #12 with a Savory Cashew Dip 

Hazelnut Chia Pudding (4 T chia seeds, 1.5 cups organic hazelnut milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 T organic maple syrup. Shake in mason jar, leave in fridge overnight.  Top with walnuts, fruit, or anything else you like). 

More seeds.  A LOT more seeds.   

Our giant heirloom sunflowers were unbelievable.  So were the three other varieties (teddy bear, black-eyed's, and another kind I forget).

What have you guys not been cooking?

Peanut Butter Bombshell Ice Cream!

Oh MY.

Peanut Butter Bombshell Ice Cream

This is Hannah Kaminsky's recipe from Vegan A La Mode, the dream vegan ice cream cookbook I've been waiting for since I started making vegan desserts.  Seriously, the recipes are astonishing, the photos crisp, clean and gorgeous, and it's BIG, providing hundreds of innovative ice cream recipes of all genres.  

It's a STEAL at about $12 on amazon, but since I won Hannah's giveaway in April (yeay!!) it was free for me! Thanks, Hannah! 

Hannah gave me permission to blog the recipe, thus sharing a little taste of heaven with you guys.  This recipe tastes as creamy, rich and decadent as the most premium dairy ice creams. Thanks, Hannah! 

PB Bombshell Ice Cream

1 Cup Creamy PB 

*Trader Joe's for me!They have a great organic one, too, made from Valencia peanuts*

1/3 cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed

                          1/3 cup White Sugar I used 2/3 c. for a little added sweetness

2 cups Non-Dairy Milk (unsweetened almond or full-fat soy)

OR, what I used: 1 can of Organic Coconut Milk OR combo of both

(Combo would be like 1/2 can coconut milk + 1 cup soy or almond milk, etc.)

1 Tablespoon of Cornstarch 

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 ounces finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate (I used Sharffen Berger 62%) or

1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts (kiddo doesn't like nuts in things, so none for us) and

Hannah calls for 10 chopped sandwich cookies, which would be great, but I didn't have any.

Note: You guys know I try to use organic ingredients whenever possible, so mine was made with organic PB (TJ's Organic Valencia PB), and organic sugars (TJ's organic white & brown), and organic coconut milk (Native Forest, which is also BPA free).  Only things not organic were the cornstarch, salt and chocolate.

Method: 

In a medium saucepan, whisk peanut butter through salt and heat over medium heat until bubble begin to break on the surface and the liquid is thickened.  Whisk and scrape sides & bottom of pan frequently until the mixture comes up to temperature.  Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature (stirring every so often to quicken the cooling if you want).  Chill in the fridge for at least three hours.  Then churn in your ice cream maker following the directions of your particular machine.  Add cookies or chopped chocolate or nuts in the last few minutes of churning to incorporate.  Also, I add my vanilla at the very end because when I have added it at the beginning, I have had it totally prevent my ice cream from freezing (it's the alcohol, but alcohol-free vanilla tastes yucky to me, so just add it at the very end or skip it altogether).  Transfer to an airtight container, tupperware, etc. and freeze in the freezer for about three hours or until solid.  If you used coconut milk it will be VERY firm, so I take mine out and let it sit on the counter for about ten minutes before scooping.

Enjoy!

My husband wants me to make this into an ice cream pie :-)

Stay cool, everyone, gonna be hot for a while longer.  Gonna run out and check my zucchini now.

XOXO