The Honey & Fig Incident

A neighbour of my grandparents stopped my Grandpa on one of his daily walks one fine summer evening and offered him some figs off of her tree. He took a few and my Grandma sent him back for more with a basket teasing him about "going to Grandmother's house" and to make sure she didn't have a long furry nose and sharp teeth. Anyway, he brought back a few pounds or so and my Grandma washed them and ran them through her ancient grinder. She scooped some out for me once we found this recipe for honey & fig cookies.

Since our figs were fresh, we figured maybe a cup and a half to two cups and I think I added almost two cups to the batter. The batter ended up being almost too loose for cookies, so we decided to bake it in an 8"x8" pan lined with parchment paper. That dang cake baked for one hour and ten minutes and it was still a tad doughy in the center but we pulled it out anyway. It turned out very dense and chewy but not bad at all. I also added the rest of the figs I had scooped out on top about halfway through baking so they would caramelize on top and not seem so plain. I'm weird like that.

Recipe taken from 80 Breakfasts.

1¾ C flour
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
¾ C honey
¼ C butter
2 eggs
1 cup dried figs, soaked in hot water and coarsely chopped
1⅓ walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with baking paper

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.

In a saucepan, heat the honey and butter until the butter melts. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a bowl whisk the eggs. Pour in the honey mixture (once it’s cooled) and continue to whisk until blended. Stir in the dry ingredients. Lastly, add the figs and the walnuts and stir until just incorporated.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on the prepared cookie sheets, spaced at least 1-inch apart. Bake in the oven for 8-12 minutes, or until the cookies are nicely browned and spring back when gently pressed. Transfer to cooling racks. Cool completely and store in airtight containers.

Modifications
The honey I used was ultra dark. When I say ultra dark, I mean I thought it was molasses when I saw it sitting on the counter.
The fresh figs, of course.
I used about half a cup of walnuts and a little more than half a cup of pecans. Neither were chopped, so i just smashed them with the bowl I used to sift my dry ingredients in their baggies.

In Need Of A Booze-free Cold Butterbeer Recipe!

I have less than thirty-seven days to find a recipe for a non-booze cold butterbeer for the midnight show of Harry Potter. If you should know of such a recipe, please feel free to hook me up with it and I'll be sure to share the product. :D

Ice Cream!

The day before yesterday, I took the liberty of using up one of my grandma's ripe bananas and make a half batch of banana ice cream. Now I just have an awkward random amount of heavy cream left. I can't find the recipe on tastespotting at the moment and can't be bothered to try and hunt it down at the moment as I've got it written down at my grandma's. Anyway, let it freeze up overnight and it was rather tasty although all the banana bits sunk down to the bottom. Then I accidentally left it out on the counter overnight because I'm smart like that. So I'll be sure to post the recipe when I've got my hands on it again because the temperature is starting to rise and honestly, who doesn't like ice cream?

A couple weeks ago, I also ended up buying a copy of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop and was so excited to get it home and pore over all the tastiest ways to fatten up my beloved friends and family. *wrings hands in a sinister fashion* Don't worry, I really do love you all and it's all for the best. I promise. Anyway, I need to be sure to take that and another ice cream book my mom bought me for valentine's day over to my grandma's where all of my kitchen shenanigans take place for future use. And I need to make more ice cream sandwiches with my 'slighty-burned-but-I-tried-to-fix-it' version of David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Caramel ice cream. Maybe with saltine crackers as the ice cream itself is rather rich and was far far too sweet when sandwiched between cookies. Ideas, anyone?

Peas & Broccoli!

Today, my grandma had me go out to the garden to pick some peas. I ventured out in my pajamas in the 100˚degree weather we have today, which is absolutely disgusting, by the way. Anyway, she came out a bit later to start picking the broccoli and helped me get some peas I missed. I've yet to try the peas except for popping open the pod and eating them in the garden, but the broccoli was so so so delicious just steamed, then buttered then sprinkled with salt and pepper. It was sweet and far better than any of the broccoli I've eaten ever. I'm half-tempted to even try eating it raw and I normally hate raw broccoli. Anywho, I remembered to take some pictures while I was outside and figured I'd post them here. I also have some lemon-lime-strawberry creamsicles in the freezer waiting to be taste-tested, so there I'll be sure to post about those soon. And hopefully I'll get my act together and remember to bring a half-decent camera over so you don't have to look at my bogus 1.3 megapixel sidekick pictures.



stripped broccoli plants


tasty tasty peas

Key Lime Pie Dream Ice Cream [sans pictures]

There’s something you should know about me…

I get ridiculously excited over cooking up something new. Excited to the point where I think about it constantly and it’s almost all I can talk about. It’s a miracle I still have friends and family speaking to me at this point.

A while back, my grandma acquired some mysterious lemon-looking things that were labelled as limes. I asked about them, but seeing as she didn’t know anything about them I set out on an Internet quest to find out what they were. It turns out that they were fully ripe key limes. I for one was beyond excited and got to recipe hunting to see what I could make with them. My sister recommended key lime pie, but I wanted something different.

Something else you should know about me…I don’t particularly like citrus flavoured things. Orange juice is one of my favourites, but I can’t honestly say I like anything lemony or limey unless it’s Skittles or gummy bears (and believe me, when I realized I liked those Skittles, I thought I was turning over a new leaf.)

Anyway, on my hunt I came across a recipe for Key Lime Pie Dream Ice Cream and it struck me as perfect. I proceeded to ask around to see if people would actually eat it if I made it and everyone seemed willing to give it a try. If anything, I have a couple friends who are crazy about citrus-y stuff and would be more than willing to take it off my hands.

I followed the recipe exactly except I used half heavy cream and half low fat coconut milk instead of regular old half and half hoping I could get a coconutty undertone. The flavour from the milk wasn’t strong enough so I think next time (yes, next time. In the near future, I assure you) I’ll use half coconut cream and half coconut milk and hopefully that’ll do the trick. Oh, and I didn't use any ginger, limoncello, or lime zest but it turned out lovely anyway. Very rich and almost too sweet, a couple small scoops are more than enough to satisfy any sweet craving you have going on.

Sorry for the lack of photographic evidence. The only camera I usually have on me is my ultralame sidekick camera. So I promise the next time I make this, I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures. I've got a few other frozen sweetstuffs stashed in the freezer I'll be sure to take pictures of and post about in the next few days.