Some Sweet Culinary Adventures

I love working in the kitchen. Cooking comes pretty naturally to me (must run in the family) but baking has always taken some work. I am on an endless quest to make the perfect brownie...still working on that. I have perfected my cookie recipe and a few types of loaves but I am always on the look out for fun and easy new desserts to try.

I have great memories of my mom making ice cream with my sister and I when we were young. So when I inherited the old hand crank ice cream maker a few years ago I knew I had to perfect my ice cream technique. Well I never really got around to it until I had some leftover cream in the fridge and an ice cream loving daughter. So I made some fresh mint ice cream. Oh my goodness, was it perfection! I am a great lover of lemon so sorbet will be my next endeavor...I also may need to hint at my hubz for the ice cream attachment for the Kitchen Aid. The hand crank takes FOREVER! Thank goodness I have a strong left arm from holding Daphne all the time.

I also had some chocolate lying around my cupboards (how in the hell did that happen?) so I froze some banana slices, sandwiched them with peanut butter and topped them with melted chocolate. They need to be kept in the freezer but they are a great little snack to pull out when you need a little sweet treat mid day...and so goshdang easy!

 Remember that Millionaire Shortbread I posted a while back that just fell completely apart? Well my dad still talks about how good it was so I think I'm gonna have to attempt it again. Worst case I make the caramel and pour it on store bought shortbread, or commission my mother to make a pan for me to use. Although the shortbread did taste great so it may be worth it to make another go at it myself before throwing in the shortbread towel. I will let you know how that goes.

I'm sure there will be lots of baking in the next month. What is Christmas without lots of goodies? Truffles, peppermint squares, nanaimo bars...I'm excited! What kind of baking do you do around the holidays?