The first day of Spring here in Northern Indiana gave us a beautiful 87° day. It was awesome and while I planned our garden, Jeff was headed to hike the Appalachians and this amazing weather would be perfect for him and I alike.

Instead the temperature dropped and it rained and our garden had to wait. And Jeff? Well he hiked in the pouring rain and slept in the blustery wind and froze in 20° nights and threatened to throw himself off a cliff so they would air lift his frozen carcass home to me.

Heck just last night we had yet another hard freeze warning.

Mother Nature is f*&#ing with us.

However ice cream don’t care if your freezing. It waits for no one. And even if you are hypothermic, ice cream always manages to make you feel better. And let’s face it eventually this weather will break (this week is the rumor, but I will believe it when I see it) and you will want this recipe in your dessert arsenal. Because to be quite honest and to try not to break my arm while I pat myself on the back, it turned out amazing.

The beer used in this is called Wild Blue. It is an odd beer which I liken more to a fruity wine then a beer. Maybe a combination of wine and beer. (Now THERE’S an idea…) There is no hop aroma and very few end hints of malt. It is however VERY blueberry tasting. And if you like blueberry, you will like this. Plus it packs a punch at 8% alcohol by volume.

Wild Blueberry Beer Cheese Cake Ice Cream

One Bottle of Wild Blue blueberry lager
1 8 oz block WHOLE FAT cream cheese cut into chunks and softened.
1 C half and half (WHOLE FAT) (Heavy cream can also be used)
1 egg
3/4 C sugar
1 heaping C frozen blueberries

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat pour 1 bottle of Wild Blue Blueberry beer. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and mix in the cream cheese. Stir till cream cheese is melted and blended. Remove from heat.

Combine the half & half, sugar and egg.

Stir into warm beer mixture and mix till well combined.

Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, get your ice cream maker ready before you remove the beer cream mixture from the fridge. Stir in 1 heaping cup of frozen blueberries and pour the mixture into the ice cream maker. Follow your makers instructions till ice cream is set. Move ice cream to a container and let set up in freezer overnight.

Enjoy!

It should be noted that this beer is not boiled long or is it reduced. Therefore the alcohol content does remain and this is NOT an ice cream for children.

I would assume that this recipe would also work with other strong fruit beers like lambics. Just change the frozen fruit you add accordingly.

By the way this is ALSO part of Elle’s New England Kitchen and my plan for WORLD DOMINATION thru ICE CREAM also affectionately known as SCOOPAPALOOZA. More details to come but head on over to her blog and check it out.

Ah yes, nothing like planning a dinner party for 8 when you really wish you were curled up on the couch in a blanket with some hot tea and Jack Daniels watching bad TV. Instead we were doing fun things like chopping piles of garlic and grating fresh horse radish. To clarify, Jeff and I were unlikely advancees in the FoodBuzz Project Food Blog Cage Match Championships. Which was really cool and yet really disturbing. Because I didn’t realize how many of you LIKED SPAM! (And were willing to admit it on a public forum like this here blog.) But YAY we made it to round 3 (partially thanks to YOU dear readers) and now get to cook for our friends. Because we hardly never ever do that more the 3 times a week… This time we were tasked to introduce them to “new tastes and exotic flavors.” Jeff and I agreed almost immediately that maybe we should just make them eat vegetables…

We entertain a lot. Truly, A L O T!!! We’ve both said it many times before – it is what makes us tick. Good food and good friends and good drink are the cornerstones of our life. This challenge was going to be right up our alley. We just wanted to make it a little different and a little special.

So Rule 1) We wouldn’t smoke or grill anything. I knew that was going to be a stretch, but we are always using the grill or the WSM whenever we have friends over. We don’t call it a cookout for nothing. This time they were going to enjoy food prepared the way you rich folk with appliances make food.

2) Different yet close to familiarity. Flavors they knew and wouldn’t shun yet taste combination’s that would test their taste buds. And they would have to say the last part of that line 5 times really fast.

and finally 3) They would drink some really good beer.

That being said – we concocted our menu and got to work:

We were pretty damn excited that for the first time in many months we would NOT be serving chicken wings or chicken thighs or chicken feet. You were looking for a recipe link on that last one weren’t you? HA! No. We would be slow roasting a delicious prime rib with a beautiful horseradish and garlic crust.

Horseradish Encrusted Standing Rib Roast.

6 pound standing rib roast
1/2 cup of freshly grated horseradish
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 T of fresh rosemary
1 T of fresh thyme
2 T of smoked kosher salt
heavy pinch of freshly crushed black pepper
heavy glug of olive oil

Allow rib roast to come to room temperature.

Combine horseradish, garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper an olive oil and smash until a pesto like paste is formed.

Slather that gorgeous hunk of meat (top and sides) with the horseradish mixture till well coated. Note: The bottom of a standing rib roast is the side with the bones. It acts as a built in rack of sorts. I know you know this but my college English professor once told me to write as if who you are talking to has never seen what it is you are talking about before so I did. But just this once because seriously, how obnoxious IS THAT?

Place prime rib in a heavy bottomed pan and roast in a 250° F oven until the internal temperature reaches 115° F. (Approximately 30 minutes per pound).

Remove prime rib from oven and raise to highest temperature setting. (For us that was 500° F)

We interrupt this prime rib recipe for an appetizer…

While we cranked our oven up, we put our jalapeno cream cheese stuffed prawns wrapped in bacon, in the oven. Normally this would take 20-25 minutes at 400° F oven, but given that we have only one oven which was already in somewhat use with the prime rib, we made due.

I think they turned out SWIMMINGLY !

Bacon Wrapped Prawns, Stuffed with Jalapeno Cream Cheese and Drenched with Tupelo Honey (from all natural free range bees)

16 Prawns
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 jalapenos diced
1 serrano diced
1 T honey plus more for drenching during baking.
16 slices of bacon

Shell, de-vein and butterfly prawns.

Combine cream cheese, jalapenos, serrano and 1 T honey.

Lay a spoon full of the cream cheese mixture down the middle of each prawn.

Wrap prawn with slice of bacon.

Place on a rack in a baking pan, bacon ends down.

Bake in 400° F oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until bacon begins to crisp up.

Drench each prawn with a teaspoon of honey and bake for 5 additional minutes.

Serve immediately.

WE INTERRUPT THIS APPETIZER FOR A MENU EMERGENCY!

Where the FREAK were we going to BAKE the POTATOES? The matchstick carrots were made stove top but ugh the hasselback potatoes!

So we broke rule 1. It was a stupid rule anyway. When we took the prime rib out of the oven and slid the prawns in, the potatoes went straight on the grill, which we attempted to keep at 425° for 35 minutes.

Oh let me go back to that INSANE prime rib:

Once the oven has reached your highest temperature, place roast back in and cook for about 15 minutes or until crust is nice and… well… crusty.

Remove and let sit for 20 minutes before carving.

Jeff’s smile went from ear to ear when he sliced into that roast. And I swear our friends all gasped. Which may have been because Jeff almost took off his thumb on that first slice, but then again it may have been the pure utopia that is known as perfectly roasted beef.

The hasselback potatoes were crunchy and garlicky and the matchstick carrots complimented the roast with sweet delicateness.

(Recipes coming soon! Promise.)

But we were hardly finished. We wrapped up this culinary adventure with Crispin “The Saint” hard cider simmered pears, which were served with mascarpone, a drizzle of maple syrup caramel and crushed puff pastry. (Recipe coming soon! Promise.)

Paired with a really nice surprise from Jeff. Some Boulevard Brewery’s Quadruple Ale which I have been absolutely DYING for for some time now.

He knows the way to my heart is with some really good meat and a strong tasty ale.

…

I honestly think that the success of this night was summed up perfectly with the title of this post; “Tonight, during dinner, our friends were oddly silent…” Normally, as we stand around the grill sucking down wings and brats and burgers and beers we laugh and joke and tell stories and plan our next get together for as soon as humanly possible. But tonight, they were so engaged with what we were feeding them that the only sounds we really heard were mmmm’s and sigh’s and the occasional “oh wow.” But mostly they were silent.

That was the best compliment we could have ever received.

I hope you enjoyed living vicariously through our photos and cold medicine induced dissertation written word…. and maybe you felt like you were here with us. If so I am really sorry that I flicked that spoon full of mascarpone at you. But you deserved it.

And if you didn’t MIND the mascarpone in your hair – kindly throw a FoodBuzz Food Blog of Crazy Ass INCREDIBLE vote our way. Thanks!

How Santa even came to our house that year is beyond me.

Oh yea that’s right. He smelled the oh so delicate, fresh baked kolacki that my baby brother’s little hands ever so lovingly (HA! Right…) set out for him. Then I snuck him some Stoli and Case Dismissed! Put this girl BACK on the “Nice” list. But alas. I never stayed there for long.

Kolacki are Polish filled cookies that taste like little perfect bites of puff pastry with a touch of sweet filling. This filling can be cherry or cheese or apricot or plum or nut or blueberry… do I really need to keep gong here? You get the drift right? You can fill them with whatever your wittle ole tummy desires. Make your own filling, or buy it in a can. Solo makes some EXCELLENT fillings for Kolacki. I wouldn’t recommend them if I have not used them and been thrilled with them myself. I actually L O V E their cherry filling. And we already know, cherry is one of my favorites!

So gather ye goods!

1 8 oz block of cream cheese. (NOT neufchatel – Full fledged CREAM CHEESE. Please.)
1 1/3 cups of butter
2 T sugar
1 t vanilla
1 2/3 cups flour, sifted with 1/2 t baking powder
powdered sugar

Follow thee directions!

Beat cream cheese & butter until creamy. Blend in sugar & vanilla. Add flour / baking powder mixture slowly and mix till combined and a nice stiff dough has formed. Press into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for several hours – or overnight.

Preheat oven to °350.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4″ thick. Now the next step you can go about a couple ways:

1) Cut into 3″ squares. Make a depression in the middle of the square with the back of a spoon or your finger or a billiard ball… and fill with about 1 t of your filling of choice. Take the opposite ends of the cookie and fold over filling, pinching the corners together. Bake for 10ish minutes

or

B) Using a 2.5″ biscuit cutter, cut out circles. Make depression in the dough using your fist or a beer bottle or your cats head… and fill with about 1 t of your filling of choice. Bake for 10ish minutes

I started out doing 1)… but we all remember my kitchen right? It is about °369 in there right now and the dough went in the oven too warm and the cookies opened and what do we do with a bunch of ugly cookies?

That is right boys and girls we EAT THEM.

gurgle…

SO I opted for B). And they look so pretty and yummy but hell no am I eating any more of these because I ate so many already I need to run about 27 miles to work it off.

But where was I… oh yea. Let them COMPLETELY cool. Then dust with powder sugar.

Then eat quickly, because once you put them out for guests. They will be gone.

Since this is my last post before Christmas, I would just like to take this opportunity to wish EVERYONE a very Happy and Jolly Holiday. Stay safe, enjoy your loved ones and eat till your hearts (or belly’s) content. And be sure to stay tuned for a very very festive post from my special guy, Jeff. I swear, he is SO FULL of holiday spirit why he could be Santa’s head elf! You do NOT want to miss it.

How did you find me? I thought I did such a good job of packing and leaving in the middle of the night… yet here you are. Hmm. You are very sneaky. Actually I have never been happier then to see your smiling faces here reading my gripping tome… Actually I should say – OUR tome. Did you notice that? Did ya? Did ya did ya??? I have become a we… He became a we. And I bet you never even noticed.

You may recall I entered into a search for the perfect Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge assistant. He needed a healthy supply of flour, fresh yeast and mad kneading skills. And folks… ha haa let me tell you – I only got ONE application. ONE! Sigh. Anyway, when we finally introduced our Kitchen Aids to one another we wasted no time baking our first breads. English Muffins & Corn Bread. And mmm they were so yummy, that I decided to hire on this assistant. And ya know – keep him. (It helped he has a killer bootie…)

We are both pretty savvy in the kitchen, but his kitchen is kinda small, and mine is microscopic! Needless to say… cooking together is usually an adventure. As is grilling, gardening, eating and drinking and most everything else we do. It has all been full of so much mockery fun that we decided to share it with you.

Aren’t you lucky…

Of course the first post here wouldn’t be a true post without a yummy goodie attached am I right? So just in time for Thanksgiving, I give you:

Carrot, Cranberry & Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Scribble.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Ingredients:

Muffins
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t salt
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2/3 c shredded carrot
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese – softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 T milk

In a bowl combine the first eight ingredients and set aside.

In the bowl of your KitchenAid (or whatever other mixer you have but realllly – don’t you think it is time to hint hint for say a KitchenAid for a simply WONDERFUL holiday gift?? Hmmm) Combine the oil, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla until creamy. Add the carrot and cranberries. Then add the dry ingredients slowly till just combined.

Line your muffin tins with paper and spray. (They will stick to the paper otherwise…) Fill 2/3 -3/4 full of the muffin mixture.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Allow to cool. While cooling take 8oz of softened cream cheese and whip the heck out of it. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 T of milk.

I then take the cream cheesy goodness and put it in a baggie, cut the tip off the end to create a make-shift decorating bag – and tada get to decorating.

This part is simple.

Zig zag frosting on a muffin.

Squeeze frosting in mouth.

Zig zag frosting on another muffin.

Squeeze more frosting into mouth.

Repeat as necessary.

I hope you all completely enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday surrounded by good friends and loving family. I will be spending mine with my family fir the FIRST time in over 9 years and I could not be more elated if I tried.