food

Yesterday when I went to the dentist to get a crown that I was supposed to get back when I had bronchitis but had to reschedule and it turned out I needed a root canal. Luckily my lovely dentist just sent me elsewhere in the same building to another lovely lady who happened to have enough time to do it right then so I got it over with immediately but still, Unexpected Root Canal does not make for the best of Tuesdays.

So last night I decided I deserved a treat and I’d been meaning to try making almond milk ice cream for awhile so I made vanilla toffee bourbon almond ice cream. With coconut. Because I could.

I started by looking up almond milk ice cream recipes to get ideas and found this great list of vegan ice cream recipes on Buzzfeed. This is not a real recipe because I was winging it and not really measuring anything, but this is what I did:

I put a lot of unsweetened almond milk in a pot and added about a 1/3 cup of coconut cream, around 1/4 cup agave nectar, a shot or so of bourbon and maybe a tablespoon of vanilla extract. I simmered that for awhile until everything was blended nicely and then I cooled it in the refrigerator for a few hours.

I mixed it some more before putting it in the ice cream machine. I also had a bar of this:

I put about half the bar of it in a ziplock bag and hit it with a hammer until it was basically chocolate almond toffee dust and added that to the ice cream. I left a bit aside to crumble on top. (This does, I realize, make this recipe non-vegan but if there’s such a thing as vegan toffee that would work, or any candy crumbly something. I’m not vegan, I’m an omnivore with an aversion to gluten who likes to save the dairy in her diet for cheese.)

It is probably the best thing to ever come out of the ice cream maker (though the strawberry prosecco sorbet runs a close second) and still felt light and almost sorbet-ish but the coconut and the toffee gave it a nice richness and I’m sure the bourbon didn’t hurt.

Might try it again with peanut butter cups instead of toffee.

I am getting my wisdom teeth removed this morning. I may be unreachable for the next while because I plan on being medicated and sleeping a lot but I will do my best to catch up once I’m coherent again.

I spent most of the weekend making soup. I like soups and I am getting better at making them. Potato leek is always one of my go-to soups because it doesn’t have that many ingredients. (I add an onion to mine and basically that’s it: little bit of oil onion leeks potatoes broth boil blend season eat.)

And we also recreated a soup we invented mostly unintentionally while in Florida. It was an attempt to do something with all the random things we had on hand and it turned out so well that I made it again to have while I can’t nom solid foods. It’s delicious again so that first attempt apparently wasn’t a fluke and it does appear to be a good and proper soup.

So here, have a sort of recipe for a soup that doesn’t have a name. I should give it a name. Butternut Squash Golden Beet Yummy Soup? Hrm. I’ll come up with something eventually. In the meantime…

Peel and cube one butternut squash. Peel and cube one bunch of golden beets. Toss all the cubes in olive oil (or other oil of your preference) and salt and pepper, spread on baking sheet and roast at 400. After about 30 minutes, add a cubed apple to the mix and continue roasting for another 15-30 minutes until golden brown and soft.

Meanwhile, slice an onion. Put a little oil in the bottom of the soup pot and toss the onion in and let it cook until almost caramelized or so. Add a tablespoon or two of chopped ginger near the end.

Add the roasted squash beets & apple to the soup pot and just cover with broth of your choosing. Stir and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Blend the heck out of it with an immersion blender which is super useful for soups or in batches in a regular blender.

Season to taste (I added a bunch of turmeric to this batch and it’s lovely) and serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of bee pollen or drizzle of honey.

This would be so much better if I had a pretty picture of the soup right here. My apologies. If I have one later in the week I’ll add it, currently the soup is in containers in the refrigerator and very orange but not particularly pretty.

I’m glad I actually really enjoy food that doesn’t involve chewing, but I still hope tooth pulling recovery mode doesn’t last too terribly long.