Ice cream is a must with pumpkin pie, if I do say so.  Try this cinnamon ice cream recipe from Pure & Yummy–it would be the perfect pie accompaniment!

Cinnamon Ice Cream

Here is Yummy & Pure‘s recipe for Cinnamon Ice Cream with product suggestions by me!

1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
Ten 3″ cinnamon sticks, broken up
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks and 1 cup of the cream on a medium saucepan (try the Revere 2-qt Covered Saucepan). Once warm, cover and remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

Rewarm the cinnamon infused milk mixture. Remove the cinnamon sticks with a slotted spoon and discard them. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl, whisk in the ground cinnamon (optional) and set a mesh strainer on top.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly (try this Williams Sonoma 10″ Flat Whisk) , then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as your stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.  Pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

One huge perk of working at an internet company is the access to unlimited cereal via our cereal bar. But, when you’ve eaten cereal everyday for the past year, all you yearn for in the morning is a substantial REAL breakfast. Enter, from stage right: smoked salmon. I saw this image on JessicaLettuceTomato, and knew it was a winner. Smoked salmon, creme fraiche, scrambled eggs and toast. Simple, delicious and fast.

Don’t forget a really sharp knife when slicing smoked salmon–you want the paper-thin slices to melt in your mouth! It’s also safer!

Chroma Salmon/Ham Slicer type 301 by FA Porsche

WMF Spitzenklasse Salmon Slicer, 17-inch

Arcos Color Prof 12-in Salmon Knife with Granton Edge

It’s the holiday season… you know what that means… Turkey Time!  My family is really small–there are just three of us, so it never makes sense to make a large turkey, but we do need something substantial to remind us that it is the holiday season!  These Turkey Meatloaf Muffins from blogger, For the Love of Cooking are perfection!

Find the recipe here.  Some items you may need before you get started:

1. Skillet like this Le Creuset Cast Iron 12-Inch Skillet.

2. Muffin tray like this Faberware Muffin Pan

3. Ice cream scoop like this Crate & Barrel Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop

There are so many uses for microplanes–grating anything from garlic, fruit peels for zest, cheese and even chocolate for dessert!  Here are some of my favorites:

Microplane ® Grater-Zester

Crate & Barrel

$15.95

Microplane Premium Spice Grater, 9

Sur La Table

$10.00

Microplane Rotary Grater

Target.com

$19.95

Blogger, Everybody Likes Sandwiches put up a recipe for Apple & Sour Cherry Pie with crumb topping and I just about licked the computer screen. So beautiful, earthy, and screams autumn.

Here is Everybody Likes Sandwiches‘ recipe with kitchen recommendations by me!

apple & sour cherry pie with crumble topping

pie crust:
(crust adapted from Simply Recipes)
2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 t salt
2 T sugar
3/4 c unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
1/2 c all-vegetable shortening
6-8 T ice water (Tovolo Perfect Cube Ice Cube Trays)

filling:
3 apples, peeled & sliced (Peel Away Apple Peeler)
2 c sour cherries
1 T rum
1/2 c sugar
2 T flour
2 t ground cinnamon
large pinch of ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves

crumble topping:
1/4 c flour
1/4 c oatmeal
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
3 T cold butter, cubed

1. Combine the flour, salt & sugar in a large bowl and give everything a good stir with a whisk. Add in the butter and use your fingers to break it down into a coarse oat-looking concoction – the largest butter lumps should be the size of small small peas. Add one tablespoon of water at a time, using a wooden spoon to start to gather the mixture into dough. Stop at 6 tablespoons (Williams-Sonoma Collapsible Measuring Cups and Spoons). Use your hands to create a ball. Too dry? Add one more tablespoon and try again. You don’t want the dough to be sticky or wet. It should be fairly dry but should hold together. Divide dough into 2 equal sized balls and wrap each ball of dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap. Flatten each dough ball with your palm into a 4 inch disc and refrigerate 2 hours. You’ll only need 1 pie dough circle for this recipe. You can use the other remaining pie dough to create another pie or freeze a well-wrapped dough for up to 3 months.

2. Preheat oven to 400F.

3. Place one chilled dough disc onto a very lightly floured silpat mat or piece of parchment paper. Place another silpat mat or parchment over top and roll out your dough. No need to flour your rolling pin (Sur La Table Rolling Pin) since your pin won’t touch the dough. When the dough is about 1.5-2 inches wider than your 9″ pie plate, stop rolling. Remove the top layer of parchment/silpat and gently grab the bottom layer and place into pie plate so that the dough is roughly centered. Remove the remaining paper/silpat and tap the dough into place

4. Using the end of a butter knife (Charlemagne Butter Knife) , create a decorative edge using 2 fingers pointing inwards to the pie and the knife end pointing out in between your 2 fingers. This creates a scalloped edge. You may have to trim your edges and patch up any tears with the remaining scraps. Or you can crimp with a fork. Place pie dough in the fridge. Phew! That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now let’s get started with the filling!

5. In a large bowl, combine all the filling ingredients, giving everything a good stir. Set aside.

6. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour to the cinnamon. Cut in the butter cubes and use your hands to blend the butter into the dry mixture. Create nice sized crumbs. If the mixture is too greasy, add in more flour. If it’s too dry, cut in some more butter. Set aside.

7. Remove chilled pie crust from the fridge and add in the apple/sour cherry filling. Lightly pack topping over the filling and place pie on a baking sheet covered with silpat or parchment. Bake pie on baking sheet until topping is golden, about 35 minutes – cover the crust edges with foil if necessary to prevent over-browning. Reduce oven temperature to 350F. Bake until apples in center are tender when pierced and filling is bubbling thickly on the edges, about 25-35 minutes longer. Cool until warm, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream or whipping cream.

Palak Paneer is one of my favorite Indian dishes comprised of spinach and cheese. I love both, so there is no better dish for me than this one. It’s creamy, pungent and so comforting. Blogger Indian Simmer was lucky enough to have her significant other make this for her on her birthday! Here is here recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh green spinach
8 oz packet of paneer cut into cubes
1 cup red chopped onion
1 cup tomato pureed
3-4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 inch ginger
2-3 thai green chili
1 tsp fennel seeds
3-4 cloves
1/4 cup heavy cream or 2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
3 tbsp olive oil/cooking oil
Salt

Method:

Boil spinach in a big pot (Rachel Ray Cast Iron Casserole Dish) adding fennel seeds and cloves to it. Let it cool and then blend it in a blender (Cuisinart SmartPower Blender from Crate & Barrel). Save the water in which you boiled your spinach.
Grind onion, ginger, garlic and thai chili making a thick paste. Heat oil in a medium sized pot and add the ground paste of onion, garlic and the other ingredients. Cook everything until the paste starts changing color from light pink to darker pink and then slowly towards golden. Then add salt.
Stir for a minute and you’ll see onion loosing some oil that’s when you have to add coriander powder & curry powder.
Mix it all together and add pureed tomato.
Cook everything until the paste is thicker and all the liquid from the tomato is cooked. Then you have to add the pureed mixture of spinach, fennel seeds and cloves. Fennel seeds and cloves here are the secret ingredients that I add to my spinach. This gets rid of the spinachy (if there’s any word like that) smell of the greens.
Don’t forget to turn the heat to lowest because as soon as spinach hits the hot pot it would start bubbling and jumping. So continuously stir it on low heat for a minute or two and then cover it with a lid to let it cook. If you think the gravy is too thick for you add a ladle or two of the saved boiled water from the spinach and then cover it.
In a separate sauce pan boil salted water, turn off the heat and then add the paneer cubes. Let it stay in hot water for 2-3 mintes while your curry is being cooked. This helps drain all the excess fat from the cheese making it softer.
Then add cream or sour cream whatever you are using to the spinach curry. Mix well.
Drain our paneer cubes from the salt water and add it to the gravy.
Give it one quick boil and your Palak Paneer is ready. We ate it with some char grilled butter naan (grill with Sur La Table Stainless Steel Flexi Grill Basket).

Say it isn’t so! I’ve never seen croissants so perfectly baked at home,  but Tracey from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures did just that! I’m so jealous and terrified that if I ever attempted this recipe my croissants would go up in flames. For you brave bread souls:

Find the formidable recipe at Tracey’s Culinary Adventures!

Some things you’ll need:

Rolling Pin (J.K. Adams High Roller Gourmet Rolling Pin Individual Pieces Cookware)

Ruler (12-1/4″ long x 2″ Wide Aluminum Ruler)

Knife (Harold Import Company TBCL Cooking Knife 15 Centimeters)

Next time I play hostess, I think I’ll make some of these homemade hostess cupcakes that was posted by Sassy Smith on The Family Kitchen.

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl sift together sugar, Dutch process cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla and then add into the dry ingredients. Whisk in the hot coffee (Keurig Gourmet Mini Plus Personal Brewer).

Fill lined muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees F for 18-20 minutes (Rachel Ray 12 Cup Muffin Pan). Remove from oven and allow to cool.

For the filling:
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup marshmallow creme

In a medium bowl, beat together all filling ingredients. Fill a large piping bag (Ateco Plastic Coated Pastry Bag 18 Inch). When cupcakes are cool, press tip into the center and squeeze 1-2 tablespoons of the cream filling into the center. Repeat for all cupcakes.

For the ganache:
3/4 cup cream
7 ounces chocolate

Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat stirring frequently until the cream is hot and just starts to boil. Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Spread warm but slightly cooled ganache over the tops of the filled cupcakes.

For the icing:
1/2 stick butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2-1 tablespoon milk

Once the ganache is set, whip together all icing ingredients until smooth, adding more milk if necessary. Fill a piping bag and pipe on the curls or write fun messages on your cupcakes.

I Want That Kitchen is an AMAZING blog with pictures of really great kitchens. I mean, I could get lost in this blog for hours. I love the view of this kitchen:

My current view from my kitchen is my neighbors door. Yeah, not so lovely. I suppose I can start collecting the things in this photo until I get to this view!

First, a tall wooden pepper grater!

American Metalcraft Wooden Pepper Mill

Metal racks to store all my kitchen goodies!

Small Grey Ceiling Pot Rack

And some really cool jars!

Store All Canisters with Lids

I’m on my way!

What kind of candy do adults eat for Halloween when the normal, store-bought candy doesn’t cut it? Erin from Erin’s Food Files has the right idea with her Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles.

Here is Erin’s recipe adapted from Whole Foods

“Ingredients:

½ cup white chocolate chunks
2 cups white chocolate almond bark (I think I used around 4-5 cubes)
1/3 cup gingersnap cookie crumbs, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup canned pumpkin purée
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of fine salt
2 ounces cream cheese, softened

Directions:

Melt 1/2 cup of the chocolate in a double boiler over medium-low heat or in the microwave for about 1 minutes.

Sur La Table Basics Stainless Steel Double Boiler

Stir often to keep the chocolate from burning. Transfer to a large bowl. Add gingersnap crumbs, pumpkin, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, zest, cinnamon, salt and cream cheese and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Transfer to a shallow bowl, cover and chill until just solid enough to roll into balls, about 2 hours.

Line a large sheet tray with parchment paper.

CIA Bakeware 9-1/2 x 13 inch Non Stick Baking Sheet

Melt remaining 2 cups white chocolate almond bark and transfer to a small, deep bowl. Roll 1 heaping teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture into a ball in your hands, then drop into the chocolate. Working quickly, gently spoon chocolate over to coat. Using a small spoon or fork, lift the truffle out of the chocolate, shake off excess and transfer to prepared sheet tray. Dollop a bit of extra chocolate on any parts that remain exposed, then sprinkle a few gingersnap or graham cracker crumbs over the top, if you like.

Repeat process with remaining pumpkin mixture and chocolate, then chill truffles until chocolate is completely set, about 1 hour.”

Plate and serve. This Waechtersbach plate is funky!

Waechtersbach Halloween Ghost Plate