Dairy-Free Ice Cream with No Ice-Cream-Maker

All you need is a blender to make your own dairy-free fruit ice cream. This easy recipe is from How It All Vegan, by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer (1999) and the photo is of the recipe made with frozen unsweetened strawberries. But any fresh or frozen fruit goes. Try peach!

"Anything Goes" Fruity Ice Cream (4-6 Servings)

2 cups soft tofu (or 1 aseptic nonrefrigerated package)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/3 cup oil
1 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup packaged sugar-stevia blend)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1-1/2 cups "Anything Goes" fresh or frozen fruit (your choice)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
dash of salt

In blender, combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup of the fruit, and blend together until very smooth and creamy. Place in a sealable container and freeze. Remove from freezer and defrost for 20-40 minutes. Place back in blender and blend again. Spoon back into the container and add the remaining fruit. Re-freeze. Remove from freezer 5 minutes before serving.

Kitchen Tool Review: The Lamson Mini Potato Masher

Here is my new favorite kitchen tool, designed in the 1800s, that works great today.

My 20-year-old nylon potato masher had a circular "waffle" head 3-1/4 inches wide, looked dishwasher-battered and maybe toxic. At the local kitchen store I saw only a small masher with an oval 2-1/4-inch head and blades set like fish bones. That's a fey little avocado masher, I thought, when I'm a serious masher of big pots of potatoes, apples, squash, turnips and beans. I complained to the store owner. She actually uses her merchandise and I trust her. She said a food magazine had reviewed and praised this mini-masher, made by Lamson of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, as the best all-purpose masher. The store had ordered a couple of dozen to keep pace with demand. They were very cheap, too, about $8.

I thought the Lamson Sharp Mini Masher was too small and too different. Its steel tines are sharp-edged, and it won't stand on end because the tines are set on a slightly convex curve. The owner reassured me and said to return it if I didn't like it.

As it turns out, this Mini Masher was copied from a kitchen tool used in the 1800s. Surprisingly, its smaller size is a plus, not a minus. Advantages:

• Fits better in the kitchen drawer
• Oval head design is a super-efficient cross between the circular head and the serpentine-wire head
• Sharp edges mash the foods quickly and thoroughly
• Potatoes are extra fluffy because the tines act like a ricer
• Reaches into the corners and sides of pots or bowls
• Unlike a larger masher, it is as usable in a one-quart saucepan as in eight-quart kettles (see photo)
• Forceful mashing won't bend or break it
• Stainless steel is non-toxic for sure
• The handle is comfortable

These traits combined make it one of my favorite kitchen tools, superior for potatoes. Lamson & Goodnow, established in 1837, manufactures knives from vintage designs and also a line of walnut-handled "Granny Tools." I appreciate USA-made items. My only complaint about the LamsonSharp Mini Masher (my model has three rivets in its handle that look like brass, but aren't) is that its edges are TOO sharp. Although not enough to cut flesh, the tines could scrape pans. The steel is stamped, not forged. Elegant it's not. A good tool it is.

Lavender Scones: Recipe

A nearby lavender farm served these scones (and also lavender whipped cream over strawberries) and then I ordered from Etsy.com a bag of culinary lavender, one of many types of the herb. The lavender to cook with is called "Provence" lavender. Just spoon the whole buds into the batter. Yes, the buds stay bluish-purple, and the taste and the fragrance are lordly. This quick recipe makes 4 scones and can be doubled.

Lavender Scones

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 or 2 Tablespoons of white sugar, to taste
2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of whole milk or evaporated milk
2 level teaspoons culinary lavender

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.
2. Whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and sugar. Cut in the butter using a food processor, pastry blender, or two knives.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour-butter mixture and pour in the milk and spoon in the lavender. Use a rubber spatula to mix the ingredients into a soft, wet dough.
4. Pinch off 1/4 of the dough (it helps if your hands are floured) and make a patty about 2-1/2 inches across. Make 4 of these and space them on the baking sheet.
5. Bake them 10 to 12 minutes until they're lightly browned. If desired, sprinkle them with sugar [pictured]  or powdered sugar, or glaze them lightly with a powdered-sugar-and-water glaze.

Scones are best eaten while still warm. I make only 4 at a time because if I made 8 I'd eat them all.

Breakfast Pizza with Eggs & Bacon: Recipe

Ordinary breakfast ingredients reconfigured and more tempting. One 9-inch pizza serves 2 heartily or 3 more moderately. Fruit and coffee complete the meal.

Thin-Crust Breakfast Pizza with Ham and Bacon

1 9-inch thin-crust pizza shell, unbaked (don't thaw if it's frozen)
1 pat of butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon oil
2 eggs, beaten
3 ounces of cooked ham, chopped into small dice
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (more if desired)
7 strips of cooked bacon, cut small
jalapeno peppers, sliced (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the 1/4 teaspoon of oil in small to medium skillet and spread it around. When the skillet is hot, pour in the beaten eggs. Let them sit and cook in the pan without scrambling them, like an omelet. If the eggs stay wet on top, flip them over until they are fully cooked. When done, let the eggs cool on a plate. Then slice them in strips and slice them again crosswise until you have squares of one inch or less.

Brush the pizza shell to the edges with the melted butter. Sprinkle on the pieces of egg and the chopped ham. Dot with jalapeno peppers if desired. Blanket the pizza shell with cheddar cheese. Sprinkle the bacon on top. Bake on a pizza pan for 20 minutes or until the cheese bubbles. Then let the pizza rest for about five minutes before cutting into it, because that will make slicing easier.

Shrimp Boil Carolina Style: Recipe

Fresh corn in the stores before grilling season...what to do? A Carolina Low Country shrimp boil using a bag of "shrimp boil" herbs and spices is just about the easiest possible way to make a hot tasty meal. I like my shrimp boil dotted with the mustard seeds and herbs, but if you don't, leave the purchased "crab boil" seasoning in the little net bag it comes in.

Carolina Style Shrimp Boil (serves 4)

-3 ears of fresh corn, cleaned and cut into 3 pieces each (frozen corn on the cob will work)
-1 pound raw shrimp in the shell (thawed if frozen)
-1 pound smoked sausage, cut in 2-inch segments
-1 packet of "Crab Boil" seasoning, such as McCormick's or Penzeys

Slit the "Crab Boil" seasoning bag and pour contents into a pot with a 3 quarts of water. Heat the water and boil for 20 minutes until it is fragrant. Over medium heat, put the corn and sausage in the pot to boil for 20 minutes. Five minutes before you want to serve, put the shrimp in the pot. Set a timer (if you cook the shrimp too long, they will get mealy) for 5 minutes. When time is up, use a slotted spoon to dish up the ingredients into bowls. Serve with hot sauce.

Good Vegan Quiche Recipe: Yes, It's Possible

Searching the fridge for food I found a vacuum-sealed box of tofu, and thought for half a second about my first tofu quiche that so traumatized me I never made another. But the fridge offered little else: asparagus, a quarter of a bell pepper, and four elderly flour tortillas which I olive-oiled and used to pave a pie plate and pre-baked for about 8 minutes as a crust. Everything else went into the blender. Knock me over with a feather, the result was good enough to serve to female company born after 1946, although if I was really serving company I'd use a normal piecrust. The original recipe from Allrecipes.com uses broccoli. Adding nutritional yeast to enhance the "cheese" flavor is my idea.

Tofu Asparagus Quiche

1 9-inch piecrust, prebaked until lightly browned
1/2 to 3/4 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch segments
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
1 Tablespoon oil
1 chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
12-ounce package of firm or extra firm vacuum-packed tofu, drained
1/2 cup soymilk
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground red or black pepper
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. While the piecrust cools, saute the chopped onion in the oil until softened, add the garlic and cook some more, and in a separate pot, steam the asparagus well. (Leave it too crisp and it will release water into the quiche.) Drain the asparagus dry and put it in a large bowl with the chopped bell pepper. Dump all other ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour this mixture over the asparagus and bell pepper and mix well. Turn this mixture into the prepared crust and bake for 35 minutes. Allow the quiche to stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Vegetarian "Chicken Soup" Base Recipe: Make Your Own

Boiling a whole chicken for two hours just to get broth--no. Buying premade chicken broth in cans or boxes is expensive; it's mostly water anyway. Bouillon cubes have sodium off the charts and other yuck. So I make my own all-natural chicken broth powder, have made it for years, cheaply. Good for all uses.

Meatless Chicken Soup Base

(makes 1.5 cups)

1-1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
3 Tablespoons of onion powder
2-1/2 Tablespoons sea salt
2-1/2 teaspoons of granulated garlic or garlic powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Blend all ingredients in a dry blender.
Use 1 Tablespoon of soup base per cup of water. I keep it in a shaker that used to hold Parmesan cheese.