World Cup of Yum

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream with Peanut Swirl

I’ve been successful at mixing fun stuff into a vanilla ice cream base, so why not try a chocolate base? And what would I mix in? Chocolate-coated almonds and peanut butter! It is as good as it sounds. Guessipe Whisk the cream, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder together in a pot. Heat until the mixture…

Cheesy Garlic Jalapeno Frittata

In preparation for going out of town, I was using up everything I could from my fridge. That led to this Cheesy Garlic Jalapeno Frittata, which my boyfriend could not stop talking about. I usually have these ingredients (you can use any mix of cheeses you want, but I’ve noted one of my fav combos…

Horchata

An ice cold horchata on a hot day is so refreshing! But it’s not available everywhere, so why not make it myself? I started asking my Mexican friends (thank goodness I live in California!), and found that there are many variations in ratios, types of milk, sugar vs sweetened condensed milk, etc. and every family…

Berry Cobbler Ice Cream

I’ve been trying to come up with shortcut mix-ins for the fun ice cream flavors I crave, because it’s a lot of work to have to make mix-ins in advance of making the actual ice cream. I thought plain old saltine pieces might work as a cobbler mix-in, and I was right. Combine that with…

Kids Menu Katsudon

Katsudon is one of my favorite Japanese dishes – rice topped with deep-fried pork cutlet, egg, and onion simmered in a savory sweet sauce. It’s super simple to make, except for the deep-fried pork cutlet. One weeknight I was super craving katsudon, but had neither the ingredients nor the energy to deep-fry a pork cutlet….

Jelly Meatballs

A friend of mine introduced me to grape jelly meatballs, which are meatballs slow-cooked in equal parts grape jelly and bbq sauce. They were good, but a touch sweet for my tastes. It inspired me to make a version equally as easy but more to my liking. I air-fried the meatballs to give them a…

Summer Squash Casserole

I had a huge bag of shredded provolone from my cheese guy. Combined with summer squash and topped with panko for some nice crunch, my boyfriend devoured more than half of this casserole in one sitting. A double win because it’s very easy to make! Guessipe Mix together the eggs, yogurt, provolone, onion salt, oregano,…

Mango Cake

I got a box of huge, perfectly ripe mangoes, and after gobbling a bunch down and using a couple to make mango lassi, I still had one left. While I’m on Team Pie, I had some friends coming over who are on Team Cake (there’s just no accounting for taste). So I decided to use…

Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream

I wanted to make a cherry cheesecake flavor of ice cream, but didn’t want to have to make a whole cheesecake just to break it up as a mix-in. So I decided I could make cheesecake flavor ice cream, then mix in graham cracker pieces and swirl in store-bought cherry preserves. It worked wonderfully, and…

Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream

It’s strawberry season, and I couldn’t resist buying a giant double box of juicy, succulent strawberries from a roadside stand. After eating ourselves sick, I found we still had quite a few strawberries left. I also happened to have a couple leftover cupcakes from a dinner party, and it occurred to me that strawberry shortcake…

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream

Last time I visited the farm of my family friends in Hawaii, we harvested cacao and I came home with bags and bags of cacao nibs. I decided to try making a fancy version of mocha chip ice cream using some of those cacao nibs, and sweetened condensed milk like Vietnamese iced coffee. My only…

Chocolate Saltine Ice Cream with Cinnamon Nut Butter Swirl

My friend gave me a jar of cinnamon nut butter, with the request that I make some kind of dessert with it (and share it with him, of course). Since I’m on an ice cream-making kick right now, I thought maybe I could use the nut butter as an ice cream swirl. I paired it…