I watched the Vow tonight. A very chick flick indeed and I didn’t force MDP to sit through that. I liked it on some levels (if Channing Tatum tells you he is your husband tell him okay…and then ask him to see him with his shirt off ). I didn’t like it for the fact that it once again sets women up for the idea that men are supposed to repeatedly pledge their undying love for them and do quirky soap opera type love gestures and that somehow their relationship is horrible if this doesn’t happen.

But what I liked was that through it all, the memory loss, she may have reverted back to her old self at first, that in the end what she was before the accident occurred started to shine through. As I start my journey into a new decade in the coming months it often comes with reflection. And while some may say I might have had a mid-life crisis of sorts getting divorced, starting a new career, etc ( I left out the 5K to marathon/triathlon and eating Paleo that the rest of my mid-life crisis friends are doing) feel in some ways it’ s more of returning to what I was as a kid.

If I think back to when I was a kid, I was always known as a creative writer. When I was in 4th grade my best friend Jenny N and I wrote a book. They put in the library, it had its own bar code and you could check it out. I used to write and draw all the time when I was younger (though anyone who plays DrawSome against me knows that drawing is not my talent). I always loved to cook…and mix cocktails apparently. I remember when my dad’s friend would come over and for some odd reason they would always let me mix them drinks which yes is odd for a 14 year old kid to be doing but hey, I never tasted them…that was their job. Bloody Avocado was the best one ever my dad told me but my Cantaloupe Rum Surprise recipe never made a repeat appearance. Anytime my dad’s friend came to visit, I got to get my mixology on. I was always doing weird food combos…you haven’t lived until you have had a Frito with cream cheese wrapped in a grape fruit roll up. And while you are making a face right now if you really think about it I knew some flavor profiles when I was just in grade school…grapes always go well with cheese…and back then no one was wrapping things around appetizers. I was ahead of the curve.

I’m going to be doing some work for General Mills, they run a blog called Tablespoon and I will be contributing. And while they wanted me for recipes they also wanted me for writing. And at first I went to my place of why on Earth would they want me for my writing and then quickly reminded myself that at some point I should probably realize that I am a writer. Not in the, oh I run therefore I’m a runner sense but in the people pay me money to write stuff for them (while their technical editor hates them for doing so) kind of writer. I have more people tell me they want me to write a book-book than a cookbook.

So maybe start to look within yourself and think back to what you used to love to do when you were younger. And while we can’t all be pant less firefighters running through the sprinklers or Batman there probably was something you did as a kid that is wanting to come out of you again and rise like a Phoenix.

I was too unbearably hot these last few days and if this is a preview of summer I am less than thrilled. When it’s hot I break out the ice cream maker. As previously mentioned I am trying to barrel through a 5 pound tub of mascarpone cheese and having little luck using it all up. My friend mentioned tiramisu which is no bake as well but I was set on ice cream. Adding the mascarpone creates a lovely texture that almost coats your mouth as it goes down. I did not add any coffee to this so it’s not really tiramisu…but Kahlua is coffee flavored so I feel it counts. Feel free to buy store bought pound cake if it’s too hot to bake. I personally had a vanilla pound cake lying around (yes, I need help) and chopped that up. If this were a cocktail I am sure my dad and his friend would have approved.

Kahlua-Misu Ice Cream

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
2 TBSP. corn syrup
1 ½ cups whole milk
4 TBSP. Kahlua (I used the Mocha Kahlua)
4 tsp. Cornstarch
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
Pinch of salt

Start by whisking in a small bowl the cornstarch and ¼ cup of the milk until cornstarch dissolves completely into the milk.

In a medium size sauce pan add the cream, remaining milk, sugar, corn syrup, 2 TBSP Kahlua, and pinch of salt and bring to a rolling boil.

Remove from heat and add cornstarch slurry and put back on burner and bring back to a boil. Remove from heat.

Whisk in mascarpone and the remaining Kahlua.

Pour into a container with an air tight lid and place in fridge over night or for at least 8 hours.

Remove from fridge and prepare ice cream following your machines instructions.

Once made into ice cream, take half the batch and spread it out in a rectangular shaped freezer accepting container. Throw some chopped up pound cake and drizzle some chocolate sauce. Then cover with remaining ice cream and again throw on some pound cake and chocolate sauce.

Place lid on container and let freeze for at least 4 hours. Serve cold.

This is where I say a goodbye to many of you. Oh it’s not a permanent goodbye for most of you, as you tend to all come back around Valentine’s Day, but many of you flee this time of year. Many people write or comment that you won’t be coming to my site for a while, that it’s too much temptation while you make your “lifestyle change”.

Let me be the first to assure you that if you can’t look at photos of food without setting off some sort of trigger, than you are not on a lifestyle change, you are on a diet. If you can’t figure out how to fit in a brownie once in a while then you aren’t going to last. If you have always had a sweet tooth, which if you come to this site you probably do; it is quite unrealistic I hate to tell you to give up sugar for the rest of your life. I should know, on a dare I once did Sugar Busters for a year. Did I lose weight? No, in fact I gained 12 pounds. Why, because I never lost my sugar craving. I lost my craving for bread, but never sugar. I got horrible migraines and was pretty much a miserable b!tch to anyone and everyone that came my way. My doctor told me to go back on sugar (how many do that?) and sure enough it cleared up my migraine problem.

If you want to change your diet, the more power to you. But all I ask is that you think about not doing anything extreme. You will lose weight at first, probably quickly. Every one of my friends to go low carb has always lost weight…and always found it again. You don’t even need to spend money on books or going to meetings or eat prepackaged foods. It’s always been a simple formula…take in less calories than what you put out. There is a website (that has an app as well) called My Fitness Pal.com (no they aren’t compensating me in any way) that is not only free but will scare the crap out of you if you are honest with it. If you plug in all your food and click done with the day it will tell you how much you will weigh in 5 weeks if you ate like that every day. It works both ways, have a crazy eating day it will probably scare you into not eating that much. Eat within reasonable calorie range for your weight and height and you will probably like the number that will show up in 5 weeks. Either way it’s up to you. It doesn’t matter if you don’t put it down that you ate it…your body knows you did and will make your jeans tight all the same.

You will not see diet recipes on here. I won’t be doing any low fat desserts (the least selling cookbooks ever FYI are low fat desserts). Which means some of you will leave sadly. But I believe in staying true to myself and that means not putting up sugar free, fat free pudding as a dessert. Because it’s not. In fact I’m pretty afraid to even know what is in half that stuff. Yikes.

For those who have learned to indulge once in a while I offer up my Brownie Tart and Hot Chocolate Ice Cream. This is a rich tart and a little slice will go a long way. Perfect for those in a lifestyle change.

Brownie Tart with Hot Chocolate Ice Cream

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Grease and flour a 9-inch tart pan with removable sides. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a bowl set over simmering water. Add 2 cups of the chocolate chips, remove from the heat, and stir until the chocolate melts. Set aside to cool completely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, yolk, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the cooled chocolate. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips.

Fold the flour mixture into the batter until just combined. Pour into the pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the center is puffed (the top may crack). The inside will still be very soft. Cool to room temperature before removing the sides of the tart pan.
Adapted from Ina Garten Foodnetwork.com

Hot Chocolate Ice Cream

1 cup milk
4 tsp. cornstarch
2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup hot chocolate mix
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
¼ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. cream cheese, softened
1 ½ cups mini marshmallows

In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup milk and the cornstarch; set slurry aside.

In a 4-qt. saucepan, whisk together remaining milk and the cream, sugar, hot chocolate mix, cocoa powder, and salt; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Cook for 4 minutes; stir in slurry. Return to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Place cream cheese in a bowl and pour in 1/4 cup hot milk mixture; whisk until smooth. Then whisk in remaining milk mixture.

Place into a container and place into the fridge for at least 6 hours, even better if you do over night. Make sure that you ice cream bowl for your machine has sat in the freezer for at least 24 hours.

Pour mixture into an ice cream maker; process according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add marshmallows just as ice cream is finishing. Transfer ice cream to a storage container and freeze until set.

Adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

So most of you know my buddy Jessie from Cakespy, but you might not know she came out with a whimsical and fun cookbook as well! It’s just quirky and magical, just like her. I was asked to join her Tour de Sweet and jumped at the chance!

Jessie and I think a lot alike and without every discussing what the other one is making we literally will have often made almost the same thing…great minds. Minus the fact that she can also draw and well…I make some really lovely blobs and squiggles that I call drawings. Just like most artist, my art won’t be appreciated until I’m dead, or so I keep telling myself.

If you love Jessie you will love her book. If you don’t know Jessie, head over to her blog and take a look. Her book is of course somewhat like her blog…but a little more unicorn action (not that action) and who can’t use that?
I decided I would interview her for my portion of the blog tour she is doing. My interviews are usually less than traditional and I think you will get quite a kick out of it. So without further ado, here is Jessie:

Where does your obsession with unicorns originate? I blame my parents, who had rules against me and my two sisters doing all of the best things from the late 1980s: watching Full House, eating Cool Ranch Doritos, and buying Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers. Basically, I am making up for lost time now. And yes, I am watching Full House and typing with one hand as the other is in a bag of Doritos as I type.

Why did you choose the name CakeSpy? I chose the name because I liked the idea of myself as a sweets sleuth, finding all of the best sweet stuff and presenting my “findings” to the world. Kind of like your own private detective, but for high-fat sugary deliciousness.

In an ultimate death match between the Keebler Elf and the Pillsbury Dough Boy, who wins and why? The Elf, no question. That Dough Boy is just begging to be poked too hard one of these days.

Which of the baked goods in your cookbook are the most aerodynamic for a food fight? I believe that the cakes baked in orange shells would fly through the air beautifully and offer a most supremely satisfying smack as they hit their intended target.

Are you genetically blessed? I know you eat as I saw you inhale quite a few cupcakes at your birthday party one year, yet you are the size of my leg. If you are genetically blessed, do I have your permission to secretly loathe that about you? Oh, you can loathe me for a variety of reasons, but not for not-eating. My two “secrets” I guess are that first off, if I want a dessert, I don’t deny myself, because that always seems to end up with me eating an entire bag of Oreos and then feeling bad about myself. Better to just let yourself have some of the good stuff because it satisfies your mind as well as your cravings. Second, I walk everywhere. Like, everywhere. I once clocked how much I walk in an average day and it’s usually 6 or so miles.

What do you think is the most overrated dessert trend right now? The new wave of tart frozen yogurt shops leaves me deeply unsatisfied and underwhelmed.

Which dessert do you think gets overlooked the most? Nanaimo Bars. I consider myself a Nanaimo Bar ambassador: too few people know what they are, and I want the world to know about this treat.

Chocolate chip cookies….nuts, no nuts? I love nuts.

Other than the obvious choice of me, who is your blog idol? There is no other you, Peabody. Three other sites I love are Joy the Baker, Cookie Madness, and Baking Bites. I’m only saying three because there are so many others, and if I listed them all you’d get bored reading all the words.

If someone were to build you a shrine and it couldn’t be made out of cupcakes, what other sweet/dessert would you want it to be made out of? Example…I want mine made out of Swedish Fish. Crumb cake, the east coast style with fat brown sugar crumbs on top of a buttery cake, which is possibly the world’s most perfect food. Second choice, Magic Cookie Bars.

Who is your celebrity chef crush? Dorie Greenspan and Paula Deen are high on my list. Very different, but both so reverent about butter.

Best dessert you ever ate that was homemade? That was from a restaurant? Homemade: my mom’s birthday cake. From a restaurant: I freaking love the Hummingbird cake at Kingfish Cafe in Seattle.

If you got stuck singing at Karaoke, what song would you choose to sing and why? Total Eclipse of the Heart, because I’m so soulful and romantic.

Let’s get morbid; what do you want your tombstone to read? Butter made it better.

Favorite kind of donut? Vanilla Kreme from Dunkin’ Donuts. So bad, but so good.

Favorite cupcake flavor of all time (we are talking last meal cupcake here)? Vanilla cake with pink frosting. Vanilla flavor, but it MUST be pink frosting. It tastes better because you have a prettier visual, I think. So yes, I am telling you my last meal cupcake would be to eat my own cupcake character.

I love your idea in the cookbook of the Pop Tart Ice Cream Sandwiches…what is your favorite flavor of Pop Tarts? Tie between Frosted Strawberry (don’t even waste my time with unfrosted) and Chocolate Frosted. Although I am intrigued by their recent addition of Funfetti Pop-Tarts to the line.

What’s next on the horizon for Cakespy? My amazing book tour, and then I believe a biopic should be made about my life. Do you hear me, Hollywood?

I decided in honor of Jessie’s desire to try the Confetti Cake (think Funfetti) Pop Tarts that I would make her ice cream sandwiches from the book using them! Yay!!! Great book Jessie, so happy for you!

Confetti Cake Pop Tart Ice Cream Sandwiches

4 toaster pastries, homemade or store bought, I used the new Confetti Cake Pop Tart
4 large scoops of ice cream, softened (I used vanilla)
Multi colored sprinkles

Cut each toaster pastry in half, horizontally, so that you have two smaller rectangles.

Place a generous spoonful of ice cream on the inside of four pastry halves. Top them with the remaining pastry pieces, frosting side up. Lightly press together then gently smooth the ice cream on the sides for an even, finished look.

Place the sprinkles in the shallow dish. Roll the edges of each sandwich in sprinkles. Wrap individually in waxed paper or plastic wrap; freeze for about 2 hours or until firm.

Go and see the rest of the Tour de Sweet for Jessie!

Back in 2007 I reviewed a Vegan baking book called My Sweet Vegan for my blogging friend Hannah Kaminsky. If you don’t know Hannah, she runs the blog Bittersweet. One of the things I love about Hannah is that even though she is Vegan herself she is more than okay with others not being Vegan. While I very much liked her first book, I must say that Hannah has really grown in her dessert making in the years between. There are quite a few vegan books out on the market these days but very few dessert ones.

As many of you know I have a slight dairy allergy so I *try* to not have dairy all that often, usually turning to coconut milk based ice creams, as I can also not have soy as well. The first recipe I noticed right away was for Mojito cookies which I made, but you won’t be seeing them until an upcoming Farm Update post as I used the mint from my own farm for the cookies. I made them the non-vegan way and that is okay. Just like when I make something that is non-vegan and vegans come and make it their own. I did the same as well.

In her new book, Vegan Desserts: Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season, as the title would suggest, the desserts are broken down by season. She has many great ideas; though I must admit that fall desserts were the most appealing to me…imagine that. There is a recipe for Sticky Toffee Donuts that is screaming my name…my thighs are screaming back no. Or Stuffed Cider Donuts? Hello! Or how about the adorable Candied Apple Cookies, shaped like apples, perched on a stick, and then dipped in candy apple glaze. Seriously cute!

The ice cream I made here is not actually from the book, I figured since I was already using one of her recipes for another post that I would hold off on giving all of them away. This is super simple and dare I say good for you. Just three ingredients and the raspberries could be subbed for just about any berry you like. But I had a ton of Costco raspberries, so raspberries it was. The other two ingredients are honey and coconut milk. How easy is that? And as you can see, coconut milk makes really great ice cream!

If you are vegan, like to cook vegan from time to time, or just like dessert cookbooks, give Vegan Desserts a try!

Raspberry Coconut Milk Ice Cream

*1 can (or 13.5 oz) high quality full fat coconut milk
*1/2 cup honey
*3 heaping handfuls fresh ultra-ripe raspberries (about 2 cups)

Prepare ice cream machine by freezing mixing vessel for 8 hours prior to ice cream making.

Whisk coconut milk and honey together in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Pour into ice cream maker. Add raspberries after churning has begun.

Once contents freeze to desired consistency, (about 20 minutes) immediately scoop into bowls and serve. Leftovers (if there are any) can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer.

Adapted from HomeGrown.org