Competitive Eating - 1 Gallon of Ice Cream

The other day I was enjoying a lovely beverage at Town Hall Coffee. I was waiting  for Marine to finish working. I am not certain how we got onto the topic, but ice cream was brought up.
Me, being ME, I boasted how I could probably eat a gallon of ice cream in 45 minutes,For 50 American Dollars.
Honestly, I would probably do such a thing for free.
Then I actually wondered... Hey there are competitive eaters out there...What is the standard for ice cream eating competitions?
Chocolate or Vanilla? Does the competitor have a choice of  flavor?
I began my search.
First, can it be done?Second, will I get sick?Third, how long do I have?
1. yes, you can eat a gallon of ice cream.2. Depending on your tolerance to lactose, you may have to deal withA. either vomiting or B. extreme diarrhea.3. The fastest anyone has eaten a gallon of ice cream is 8 minutes. It was vanilla.
it was this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Bertoletti
Patrick Bertoletti is a competitive eater.and a damn good one. Just look at all the records he holds!
I hardly doubt I can eat a gallon vanilla of ice cream in 8 minutes.But I am still fairly certain I could eat a gallon in at least 45 minutes.
I wonder what the rules for using Imodium AD are?

Birthday Cake and Stand Mixers

It was my birthday on Friday! My lovely friend Amy came to visit and spent the night, and on Saturday morning I made myself a cake for Sunday's celebration with my family. I originally wanted to make this chocolate opera cake, but it would have been far too time consuming to undertake without a stand mixer... which I didn't own until Sunday afternoon!

For my birthday I really wanted just one thing - a Kitchenaid stand mixer. And I got one! (Reference: See picture above) A 5 quart mixer in pistachio (which I really think should be renamed mint green). Words just can't equate how happy I am - every time I walk into the kitchen it makes me smile :) and now I can cross it off the list!





Oh yeah, so back to the birthday cake. Since I didn't have a mixer yet, I wanted something impressive but not too labor-intensive. I decided to go with Deb (smitten kitchen)'s chocolate peanut butter cake. The only change I made was to use a tad more chocolate in the peanut butter chocolate glaze... making it more of a ganache than a glaze, really.





The cake was delicious. The peanut butter doesn't overwhelm the delicate chocolate cake layers, and the semisweet ganache ties everything together. Birthday cake success!



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Oh, and if you're wondering what I first made in my new mixer....

Marbled Brownies






They're kind of addictive. The kitchen smelled so sweet while they were in the oven! The true test of the stand mixer will be chocolate chip cookie dough though. I mean, I know it can handle it, but I'm curious to see if the cookies made in the mixer bake up differently than the ones I mix by hand. It's a project I may undertake tonight, after Shawn's done making dinner (sausage & peppers & onion)!

I'll let you know how my little 'experiment' turns out!

Herb & Garlic Dinner Rolls

My contribution to Saturday night's dinner were homemade herb & garlic dinner rolls. I've tackled yeast doughs on a few occasions before, so the technique and all the waiting is nothing new to me, but these are the first fancy looking rolls I've made!

1 1/4 cups bread flour, + more to work into dough
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon combination of dried herbs: oregano, basil, thyme

- Stir together the yeast and 1 1/4 cups of flour.
- In a saucepan heat and stir together milk, sugar, butter, salt, garlic and herbs until the mixture is warm to the touch and the butter melts - about 120 to 130 degrees. (You don't want it to be too hot because the heat will kill the yeast.)
- Add the milk mixture to the flour and yeast. Stir it all together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go, until it all comes together and starts to form a sticky dough.
- Gradually add more flour in (I added about an extra cup or so total) until the dough becomes workable.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 6 to 8 minutes) It should feel smooth in your hands and no longer be sticky.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl, turning it to coat all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

- Punch the dough down and turn it out again onto a lightly flour surface.
- Divide the dough in half, then cover and let it rest another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease a baking sheet with oil.

Ok, here's where it gets a little fancy. Feel free to bake these off as round rolls (just portion them out and let them rest on the baking sheet for half an hour before baking them), but if you'd like to make the knot rolls:

- Divide each portion of the dough into smaller pieces, however many you'd like - I got 16 rolls out of mine. Then roll each piece into a 12-inch long rope.
- Tie each rope into a loose knot, like a pretzel, leaving two long ends.
- Tuck the end on the top under the knot and the end on the bottom into the top center of the knot.












- Place rolls about two inches apart on your greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in a warm place until they've just about doubled in size, it took about a half hour for me.
- If you'd like a brioche-like brown and shiny crust, brush the rolls with a little milk or melted butter. I originally intended to brush the tops of mine, but forgot to in the whole proofing process, and they came out looking just fine regardless!
- Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes (the rolls should sound hollow when lightly tapped) Immediately remove them from the pan and cool on wire racks.

Indulge while they're warm! The flavors really come together once they've cooled down a bit though.

These were really delicious! I even froze a few of them to bake them off the next day and they were just as tasty as the first batch. Expect to see more bread recipes, for sure!

Saturday Night Dinner Party

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend; ours was both enjoyable and more eventful than usual! Saturday night my friend Alina and her boyfriend Ryan came to visit us for the first time! We had our first small dinner party in the apartment - Alina made stuffed bell peppers, I made some herb&garlic dinner rolls, Ryan took the awesome photos that you see in this post, and Shawn took it easy for the night and enjoyed not having to cook.




tomatoes, mozzarella & basil + tabbouleh - 2009

Alina and I have known each other since our early high school days. We met during lunch period freshman year, and then we had Biology together sophomore year (where we made homemade yogurt to the tunes of Madonna and we also dissected a fetal pig together!) and we've been friends ever since! So you might not believe me when I tell you that she and Shawn had never met each other prior to Saturday night... I know, I'm ashamed. They've both known of one another for years, but Shawn's elusive and other things always got in the way. Or maybe it's me and I'm just an awful friend because I only see most of my friends about two or three times a year... I think that's just what happens to everyone over time though.



double couple trouble! oh, so corny.

It was also the first time Shawn and I met Alina's boyfriend Ryan - he's such a nice guy! And his camera puts both Shawn's and mine to shame.




Alina stuffed the peppers with ground beef and rice, then topped them off with some shredded cheddar and jack cheese. Then she filled the pans with diced tomatoes and green chilies, a little olive oil and some water - this made the peppers so incredibly soft and moist when they finally came out of the oven over an hour later!












Our kitchen table is only big enough for the two of us, so we gathered around the coffee table in the living room instead - no one seemed to complain. It was a late night because after getting stuck in traffic and making a trip to the grocery store, we still had to wait for the peppers to cook, but we had some great wine and some herb&garlic bread rolls while we waited. Thanks to great friends, delicious food, and good times, our weekend was a hit!

Check out the full set of photos on our Flickr!

Did someone say "Food Recap"?

Sometimes you need less words, more pictures! We'll start with what I'm good at and work our way through Shawn's awesome dinners from the past week!



Mini s'mores tart - graham cracker crust, shaved chocolate, marshmallows, more shaved chocolate - and then you throw it in the oven to melt the marshmallows, and right back into the fridge to solidify the tasty goodness again.




Marine makes perfect pancakes!




Shawn's first-ever meatloaf, served with mashed potatoes and stuffing. You wouldn't even know it was his first time making meatloaf!




Mini grilled cheese sandwiches...




.... and homemade hot wings...




... equals an awesome Football Sunday Dinner!






And on another night, homemade fishsticks, rice, heirloom tomatoes and sweet peppers - yum!



Also, our friend Christine introduced us to Virgil's Rootbeer - it's micro brewed! And it's the greatest rootbeer ever! Beats any rootbeer I've ever had prior to this straight out of the bush (and I'm really not a fan of rootbeer!)

Have a great weekend, everyone!