The Bitten Word

Jeni's Winners

We have had the most fun over the past few days reading all your awesome ice cream flavor ideas!

We've tried not to play favorites (and don't worry -- the cookbook winners have been chosen at random anyway). But some of these flavor combos sound amazing. Fig, Nectarine & Bleu Cheese Ice Cream with a Balsamic Ripple. Guinness Ice Cream with Chunks of Salted Pretzel. Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Honey, Strawberries, Candied Pecans & Basil. Sweet Japanese Sake Ice Cream with Black Cherries. Mmm!

(Also, we have to give reader Linda a shout-out for naming her banana-and-chocolate ice cream The Bluth Banana. That one made us chuckle, and it reminded us of a killer bumper sticker we saw last week. If you don't know what we're talking about, you need to marathon "Arrested Development" immediately.)

Can we please all quit our day jobs and open an ice cream shop together? 

Which brings us back to the cookbook giveaway. Which three Bitten Word readers won a copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home?

Beet Sorbet with Blackberry Ripple

adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

We are just loving all of your great entries in our ice cream flavor contest.  Peep sauce? Fig, nectarine, and bleu cheese ice cream with a balsamic ripple? Cajeta and banana? 

You guys are such a creative bunch! And our wheels are turning. 

We tried our own flavor combo this week, creating this Beet and Blackberry Sorbet using the method from Jeni (we like to think we're on a first name basis now). 

So let's round out our Ice Cream Week with a sorbet. 

Dream Up an Ice Cream Flavor and Win a Copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

This week, we've been talking about our latest kitchen obsession, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home. We've told you about the amazing Salty Caramel, and the yummy, fruity Pineapple and Sage flavor we tried. (And we've got a great final flavor coming up tomorrow!)

But what we really wanted to do is share Jeni's book with a few lucky readers of The Bitten Word. So we're doing a giveaway!  We reached out to Jeni's team earlier this week, and they graciously helped us out. So we're giving away a copy of Jeni's book to three of you!

Here's how you can win a copy.

Roasted Pineapple and Sage Ice Cream

adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Once we'd cranked out a batch of Jeni's Salty Caramel Ice Cream, we were eager to try her method for another flavor. 

So we looked at what we had on hand in the kitchen. When Zach's parents had come to visit a week ago, we'd purchased a fresh pineapple at the supermarket. Why, exactly? We're not sure. It was one of those "company's coming!" impulse buys that marks the arrival of visitors. ("Oh, maybe they would like to eat fresh pineapple while they're in D.C."  "Definitely." "And maybe some string cheese?" "For sure.")

Needless to say, the parents came, the parents went, and the pineapple remained untouched. So there it was, ripening upside down on our counter. 

Then, last week, Clay met up with his friend Rachel for coffee, and she showed up with a huge bag of pineapple sage that she'd plucked from her yard. It was beautiful and fragrant, and we instantly knew just what to do with it. 

Pineapple sage? It was a sign!

We got to work on a Roasted Pineapple and Sage Ice Cream.

Jeni's Salty Caramel Ice Cream

From Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

We have met our new hero, and her name is Jeni.

Way back in July, Rina -- a friend who we met through the blog and our go-to for Chicago restaurant recommendations -- sent us an email extolling the genius of Jeni Britton Bauer and recommending her (new at that time) cookbook, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home. 

We were interested (as we are in all of Rina's recommendations) but we didn't rush out and get the book. 

Why? The shame of our ice cream maker. It sits on the top shelf of a storage closet, rarely touched and seldom used. Did we need an ice cream cookbook to keep it company? 

We thought not.

And we were so, so wrong. 

When Food Photos Go Bad...

We thought you'd get a kick out of this photo, which shows the small-scale disaster that occurred while we were trying to photograph a slice of the Blackberry-Cream Layer Cake we wrote about yesterday.

We were trying to capture the light coming in through the back door of our kitchen, so we balanced the cake on a cutting board on our stovetop. Something fell on the board, the cake went flying and ultimately it did a face plant on our kitchen floor.

Too bad! (And you have no proof that we scooped part of this off the floor and ate it, so quit insinuating that we did.)

Blackberry-Cream Layer Cake

Everyday Food (April 2012) 

Zach's mom and stepdad came to visit this past weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend -- D.C. at its spring finest. We had some delicious meals (including a sojourn out to Four Sisters, the best Vietnamese place around the District), saw a few sights and generally tried to spend as much time outdoors as possible, soaking up the gorgeous spring sunshine.

For dinner on Saturday night, we wanted something light and springy. We did an all-veggie meal of grilled spring onions with a mustard sauce; a yummy asparagus-and-cheese tart we'll write about soon; and a wilted salad of spinach, fresh peas and sauteed red onions (which had a dressing of hot bacon grease, so we suppose it wasn't quite a vegetarian meal after all. Sue us.).

For dessert, we wanted something really special, but still light and springy. Enter this Blackberry-Cream Layer Cake.

Escarole, Kale, White Bean and Tomato Lasagna

Martha Stewart Living (April 2012)

If you're a big fan of traditional lasagna, there's a recipe in this month's Martha Stewart Living that may seem like sacrilege. 

As part of a feature on how to incorporate more kale and other greens into your diet, this Escarole, Kale, White Bean and Tomato Lasagna is billed a healthy take on the Italian classic. 

We had to know: Can a lasagna that uses no noodles, no meat, no bechamel and no ricotta be a good stand-in for traditional lasagna?

The 9 Food Magazine Recipes We Revisit Most Often

Cooking through food magazines is great. But there's a downside to spending so much time testing new recipes that we want to feature the blog: We very rarely make the same thing twice.

Still, there are a number of recipes that we've returned to time and again because they're just so darn good. 

Here are the 9 food magazine recipes we've featured on the blog that we revisit most often. You can click the images below to go directly to those posts. And below the photos you can read a bit of new commentary about each dish. 

   

   

   

Here's why we keep coming back to these recipes:

Chicken and Israeli Couscous with Tomato and Lemon: This recipe taught us to love Israeli couscous, and it's a love affair that's still ongoing. 

Eggplant Parmesan For Two: It's our all-time favorite eggplant recipe and indispensable in the summer when our CSA share gets eggplant heavy. 

Baked Eggs in Tomato-Parmesan Sauce: Often called Eggs in Purgatory, we've seen similar recipes in magazines ever since we first made these in 2008. They're a go-to weeknight meal for us. Crusty bread optional but highly encouraged.. 

Scrambled Eggs with Ramps and Asparagus: We make this dish every spring and we've already made it once this month. When we can get them, we use ramps. Other times we just use asparagus. To us, this dish is April. 

Soy-Glazed Flank Steak: Our go-to for a simple flank steak. We've made it so many times that we don't even refer to recipe anymore. The marinade is just great. 
 
Fresh Corn Pancakes: Every summer we can't wait for fresh corn to come into season so we can make these pancakes. If you can't wait, sub in frozen sweet corn. They're better with fresh, but sometimes you just need a fix. 

Overnight Oatmeal: Steel-Cut Oats in 10 Minutes: When we first learned how to shortcut cooking steel cut oats from Food & Wine, it was a revelation. The recipe is printed on just about every oats package, but every time we make oats using this method, we think of F&W. 

Chili-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin: Another recipe from way back in 2008. Martha taught us how to properly make a pork tenderloin and we've been doing it that way ever since. 

Risotto with Butternut Squash and Sage: It's a basic risotto but absolutely delicious. We've been thinking about it (and making it again) ever since 2008. 

 

Do you have favorite food magazine recipes you revisit all the time? Share the love! 

 

Malaysian Beef Rendang

Fine Cooking (April 2012)

"Kami bekerja sepanjang hari di depan dapur yang panas," everyone!

That's Malaysian for, "We slaved all day in front of a hot stove." It's a handy phrase to know in case you decide to make this Malaysian Beef Rendang.

We kid, we kid! Well, sort of.

But if you do make this, there's another Malaysian word you should learn: "lazat."

And that means "delicious."