Coffee Ice Cream: BAKED Sunday Mornings

Coffee is essential to me in the mornings.  Especially as the new school year approaches my two cups a day will be critical.  I am odd though in that I like my coffee as a vehicle for carrying other flavors.  I am all about the tasty flavored creamers, syrups and such.  I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of pumpkin spice flavors at the coffeeshops this fall.  Coffee is also one of the foods that Zach used to 'hate' but now enjoys (add to that list hot dogs and olives).  I'd like to think I had a little to do with his change of opinion.  If I would have made this ice cream previously he probably would have made a disgusted face and said ew.  Now he will gladly help me eat it!  It is rich and delicious and perfectly coffee-y.  The small addition of Kahlua is perfect.  I made just one change -- reversing the amounts of cream and milk.  I opted for 2% milk instead of whole since it's what we normally drink, so I used 2 cups of cream to offset the loss of fat in the milk switch and did 1 and 3/4 cups of milk.  It still turned out perfectly creamy and with great texture (not icy!).

You can find the recipe here and see how the other bloggers fared here and here.

Summer Succotash: Secret Recipe Club

For this month's Secret Recipe Club I was assigned Sweet Flours written by Allison.  Allison is a young mom with a sweet tooth!  Her lovely blog (such a great, simple, elegant design -- you should really check it out!) is filled with tempting sweets and treats.  So many that it was impossible to decide on just one, so I went the other direction and chose one of her savory dishes.  When I picked this recipe Zach was shocked.  I don't do lima beans, one of the typical main ingredients in succotash.  Limas and succotash were always one of my sister's favorite sides growing up (as were peas -- ick!) so I only ever thought of it as lima beans and corn.  I love that Allison's recipe got me to open up my mind about succotash!  


It was such a great recipe for summer -- it highlights the veggies at their best, barely cooked and so fresh.  We used corn that Zach bought that day at a farmer's market and the farmer said it was picked that morning.  Unless you're lucky enough to grow corn in your backyard it can't get much fresher than that!  It was delicious and quick.  The leftovers made a satisfying lunch.  I'm already envisioning a mexican version -- swapping in black beans and spices like cumin, paprika and fresh cilantro.  I did make a few changes -- I switched out cannellini beans for the butter beans, throw in some peppers, use an extra ear of corn, used all yellow summer squash and to double up on the seasoning since I had added in the extra veggies.

Summer Succotash
slightly adapted from Sweet Flours

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, chopped
5 ears sweet corn, cut off the cob
2 large yellow summer squash

1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 can (15 oz.) canellini beans, drained
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup chopped basil

Directions:

• Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. 
• Add the onion, corn, squash, salt and pepper to the pan.  Saute until tender, 5-7 minutes.  
• Add the beans and cook until heated through, 2-3 minutes more.
• Remove pan from heat and stir in the tomatoes and basil.
• Serve and enjoy!

Check out these links to see what other fantastic recipes were posted today in the Secret Recipe Club!