Getting Nerdy.

Out of a lack of anywhere else to store this information, which I've decided will be very important at some time in the future -

I've decided it would be a perfect idea to have an Independence Day Ice Cream Social (not this year, some year in the future, which is why I need this somewhere that can be looked up in the future).

And to make it that much more Martha Stewart-esque, there would need to be homemade ice cream in 13 different flavors to represent the 13 original colonies... (this was decided because 50 different flavors for the states is getting a bit out there, and there were 56 individual signers, so that's also too many).

This whole project was conceived last week, when I learned that the Library of Congress, in their American Treasures collection, has a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe hand written by Thomas Jefferson (which made Virginia's flavor really easy to pick).

My list follows -

Vanilla
Chocolate Fudge
Maple
Toffee Pecan
Nutmeg
Gingerbread
Strawberry
Blueberry
Apple
Peach
Coffee
Tea
Beer

By state - with alternatives (and explanations).
Virginia - Vanilla (Thomas Jefferson)

Massachusetts - Tea (Boston Tea Party) or Cranberry (state fruit) or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (state cookie)

New Hampshire - Maple (2nd largest syrup producer) or Pumpkin (state veggie)

Maryland - Chocolate Fudge (after the icing from Smith Island Cake, the state dessert)

Connecticut - Nutmeg (state nickname)

Rhode Island - Coffee (after the local favorite "Coffee Cabinets", a coffee & ice cream mixed dessert)

Delaware - Beer (Dogfish Head Brewery's 90 minute IPA ranked Best Beer in America - they have, seriously, no other foods of note, unless you consider Chicken an ice cream flavor. A last resort could be stealing Peach from Georgia, as Peach Blossom is the state flower.)

North Carolina - Strawberry (state fruit)

South Carolina - Toffee Pecan (technically native to the Mississippi valley, Alabama's state fruit and Texas' state tree, with Georgia the largest producer and South Carolina not even in the top 5, however their state fruit is peach... and Georgia has 1st claim, and Delaware 2nd so since it's South Carolina's second largest crop we're giving them Pecans.)

New Jersey - Blueberry (Highbush blueberry state fruit)

New York - Apple (State fruit and muffin) or Cheesecake (state dessert)

Pennsylvania - Gingerbread (Pennsylvania "Dutch" heritage)

Georgia - Peach (state fruit, largest US producer) or Sweet Vidalia Onion (state veggie - if you want to hand over Peach to South Carolina or Delaware, Vidalia Onions should be able to make a semi-sweet & savory ice cream)

Yea!

P.S. I made banana bread ice cream yesterday that D says is good, strong banana flavor, creamy enough (better than a lot of store bought ice cream, but not better than all :), it's been doing it's final freeze in the last 20 hours, so we'll see how it ranks tonight. Meanwhile I've started a Cardamom flavor today.

If all turns out well I'll write my recipe for making ice cream without an ice cream maker... hint: it takes a lot longer :)

Quote of the Day.

"You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose."

-Leo McGarry The West Wing

Recipe. For Referrence.

I don't have any photos, maybe I'll take some later, as there's a lot left over...

but in the middle of the day, yesterday, it struck me that I wanted to go out with D for Thai food that night (if being his first day at his new job), and then decided instead of going out, why didn't I just make Pad Thai, as that's what I wanted. Then I talked to D (who was between training and meetings) and he told me he'd had it arranged for a week that he was having dinner with a classmate, but that dinner could certainly be my homemade Pad Thai - so I had three. Then, at D's urging, I called two other classmates, and one brought her boy (who we never seem to see, and had yet to be over to our place) so then I had six! (I'm pretty sure Emily Post and Irma Rombauer always said to never serve company a dish you've never made before, but what do they know???) And I scurried off to the Good Food Store to find Tamarind!

I read a couple different sites' recipes for Pad Thai and then made a totally huge quantity and we have heaping gobs left over, but I'm going to try to approximate a recipe for two (generous portions), so I'll have it for future reference.

First the sauce -

1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup Thai Palm Sugar (I used Zulka unrefined cane sugar, as I guessed it the most similar, easy to find replacement, I would think the lighter brown sugar would work too)
2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
1-1/4 teaspoons Tamarind Concentrate
1-1/4 teaspoons dried chili powder (I made two kinds, one with Chipotle powder, one with mild chili powder, use whatever chili powder you like best)

Dissolve the sugar into an equal part water in a saucepan, then add the other ingredients... taste... expect it to be on the saltier side, but add more chili powder if you like it spicier.

Now you can set it aside. You can make it ahead and stick it in the fridge, or do all the other prep first and then make the sauce, either way, warm up the sauce slightly right before you use it, so it goes in the wok warm and not cold.

The Rest -

1/2 package Thai rice noodles (approx 7-8oz), soaked in slightly-warm water for 10-15 minutes (save the rest, dry, for another day)
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts, finely chopped
1 cup or more of bean sprouts
1/2 bulb garlic, minced
1 bunch green onions, bottoms sliced thin, green tops cut in 1-2" lengths
1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 lime (only 1/3-1/2 will be used - I recommend the rest for garnishing cocktails)
2 eggs
2 servings of "meat" (I used pre-cooked shrimp, but seared tofu or cooked chicken or any combination thereof would work)
Peanut Oil

So you've got your sauce ready and warmed, your noodles soaked, and your ingredients prepped and within arm's reach of the stove. We'll be dividing all the ingredients in half and cooking in two separate portions. The smaller quantity of noodles in the wok allow them to cook all the way, quickly, without getting sticky, clumpy or mushy.

Pour approx. 2 tablespoons oil in the wok and allow to warm. Add half the garlic and white parts of the green onion. Now sprinkle in half the noodles, holding the clump of noodles above the pan and shaking it, so they fall in loosely and not sticking to each other. Run your cooking utensil along the side of the wok, down underneath the noodles and flip so they all get to be in the oil.

Drizzle about 1/3 of the sauce over the noodles and take your time stirring the noodles until the sauce is well distributed.

In the middle of the wok, add half the bean sprouts and green onion stalks, 2 tablespoons of peanuts, and 1 serving of shrimp (and/or tofu/chicken), then drizzle the rest of the first half of the sauce directly onto these items and fold in (you can separate the sauce into two equal quantities before you start cooking, to more easily keep track of how much you're using in the first batch).

Then push the noodles to one side of the wok and crack an egg onto the bottom. Quickly scrap the egg off the bottom of the pan to mix it up a little bit (alternatively, you could crack and scramble the egg in a separate container then pour in). Let it cook a few seconds, then I slide the cooking utensil under the pile of noodles lifting it up and allowing the egg to spread across the bottom of the pan, then I set the noodle mass back down on top of the cooking egg, which breaks it up. Give it a minute to cook most of the way, then stir everything around so the egg is well distributed.

Now pull out a noodle and eat. It will be chewier than Italian pasta noodles, but shouldn't be hard-chewy, if it's hard-chewy keep stirring and cooking till it's soft-chewy :)

When ready, plate it with a generous sprinkle of cilantro on top, and repeat with the second half of ingredients. When you're done cooking, take a spare plate or serving dish and make little piles with the rest of the peanuts and cilantro, along with several lime wedges and serve this along side. If you like things spicy, consider also putting a small amount of chili powder out or, if you're D, just grab the bottle of Sriracha and go to town...

the bad news, is this dish has over 1300 calories per serving, though as I said, these are generous servings, so you may end up saving some for later (if you're me), or just eating it all (if you're D). Good news is that each serving (half the recipe) has 52 grams of protein per 55 grams of fat... so it's freakin' chock full of protein (shrimp and peanuts leading here, with egg and noodles helping). For a healthier dish, leave out the peanuts (reducing the fat almost by half and the protein by 1/5th, for a 1,000 calorie dish with 41 grams of protein per 34 grams fat).

Anyway - this was calculated using The Daily Plate, where I created a custom dish using the exact ingredients and quantity in my recipe, but I can't seem to link directly to the dish's nutritional breakdown, so I'll just give you the rundown...

Calories - 1312
Fat - 55 grams
Cholesterol -463mg
Sodium - 1843 mg
Carbs - 156 grams
Sugar - 46 grams
Fiber - 10 grams
Protein - 52 grams

And everyone seemed pleased with it, though, granted, a lot of alcohol was consumed by some, so their critique might not be creditable...

Quote of the Day.

D gets home from being off at the Uni most of the day, and declares -

"I thought of two great ways we could ruin our marriage...

we could both go to the same law school at the same time,

or we could ride TransIowa together, on a tandem."