Gluten free Ice cream cake with caramel sauce

We often indulge when we are on vacation, don't we? I had gone up to Lynnwood, Wa, to visit my cousin Emily and we decided to treat our selves. This is one of two posts I have from the trip, but this one is the sweetest one and I like dessert  first whenever possible.

Now my photo recording isn't the greatest this time. We shared the cooking duties so I mainly have  pictures of making the caramel sauce, because that was my job. Emily made the whipping cream and assembled the sandwiches.  We cheated a little and bought pre-made Ice cream cookie sandwiches made by Julies Organic. 

I cooked down some organic sugar and butter... which took awhile on her stove. I had to constantly keep stirring, letting it all melt and cook down.

All melted, but not done in this picture, after this I put in a little cream  and continued stirring. It took about 20 minutes total from start to finish.

Emily whipped the cream in her kitchen aid, which is located right next to the stove, so I was able to take pictures.

When the whipping cream was done Emily took the sandwiches (3 of them,  4 sandwiches come in the box but her boyfriend had already eaten one, he could wait), she split one of the sandwiches in half and put each half on a whole cookie, that way they looked like a layered cake. She then covered them with whip cream, just like you would frost a cake. When they were done she put them in the freezer. 

When the caramel sauce was done, I let it cool for a bit before drizzling it over the cakes.

We were good and the cakes stayed in the freezer until after dinner.

These cakes were rich and almost too big for us to eat (I'm sure they aren't meant to be one serving anyway, oops). The whip cream balanced out the sweetness of the caramel and ice cream nicely. It was a perfect treat for my vacation

Could you say no to eating that?

Hollandaise sauce & Gluten Free Eggs Benedict

Have you ever gone to shopping and found several thing you just had to buy and afterwards one of them got forgotten about? I had gotten several books in my buying splurge, and when I got home I put all but one on the shelf and went off to read. This was years ago mind you, I did pick up the book, but not with the enthusiasm that I had when I bought it.

This book had a companion book of sorts, about cooking ingredients, one which I love to look through for cooking ideas. I also looked through this one, I even book marked recipes that I wanted to try, but I never got around to cooking any of them, until now.

I wanted Hollandaise sauce to make Eggs Benedict and I knew this book had a simple recipe for it.  I wasn't originally planning on using this cooking session for a post so the pictures are a little messy, they were an afterthought in the middle of cooking, I decided that I had to share this with you guys.

I got the ingredients together and pretty much just whisked for a while, the recipe was super simple.

Whisk, whisk, melt, melt....

Golden tangy goodness.

I roasted the broccoli and cauliflower in the oven while I got everything else ready. My toast was toasted and buttered. My ham slices (I didn't have Canadian bacon, so I had to make do) were browned in my frying pan next to my eggs. The most challenging part was doing all this while still whisking the hollandaise! Thankfully I prep everything before I actually start cooking, so everything I needed was in arms reach. I pre-crack my eggs in little dishes and salt and pepper them so I can just pour them into the pan when ready.

I made this for dinner and scarfed up everything, the hollandaise was so good. Because it was just me eating I had a lot of left over hollandaise sauce and had to keep it warm so it wouldn't separate. The book suggests variations for the sauce, one of which is to make it a Mousseline sauce by adding cream to it once it cooled slightly. I decided to try it, hoping that it would keep it from separating once it cooled. It mellowed out the flavor nicely and made it even creamier. And guess what? It allowed me to reheat the sauce the next day, without it separating, and I made a wonderful breakfast for Mr. Beam and myself. I will definitely be using this recipe again.

Spring rolls

I love spring rolls, they are a super easy way to eat vegetables and lets face it, fun to both make and eat.
My problem is that Mr. Beam doesn't like them, there is something about the texture of the rice wrapper that he doesn't like, so I make them when he's not home.

I had the chicken in the fridge from when I made chicken stock the day before. I use stewing hens (older laying hens that become dinner when they stop laying), and their meat isn't as tender as the younger birds most people are used to eating. They need to be cooked longer and slower for them to have the best texture, which makes them perfect for chicken stocks and soups.

I also cut up some carrots and green onions into matchsticks.

I try different brands of rice paper every time I go to Uwajimaya, this is what I had on hand, I really haven't found too much of a difference in brands.  I didn't think to get a picture of it but, I fill a pie pan (or something similar) with hot water, when I'm ready to assemble the rolls I take one of the dried wrappers and submerge it in the water for a few seconds, how fast it softens depends on the paper and the water temperature, but it is usually 5 to 10 seconds, you don't want it to get mushy or it will tear before you can wrap it into a roll.

You lay the softened paper down and clump your other ingredients on to one side, I do the chicken first, then the carrots, green onion, and finally my lettuce (which is spinach this time).  To wrap it you fold the closest edge over the top of the veggies and meat. You then roll it to the middle and fold each side inward to seal the sides and continue rolling to the end. Then repeat with the next roll. I hope that's not confusing, I might have to do a picture tutorial for you next time.

I make a quick peanut sauce with peanut butter and  soy sauce (and a few other things) and I enjoy. Spring rolls are super versatile, you can put anything you want on the inside and just roll them up. I use whatever vegetables I have on hand, and have even made them vegetarian on occasion. You can also make them a little ahead of time, but I wouldn't keep them longer than 2 or 3 hours or the rolls will start to dry out,  I'll have to experiment with different containers to see if you can keep them till the next day, maybe a moist paper towel in a zip lock would work.

Tuna fish with Vegetables

There are days when I'm too tired to cook anything, you know the ones, where you've been pulled in too many directions and do not  have enough time to finish everything.
Mr. Beam was working, I had finally gotten home and just felt like crashing into bed, until my stomach cramped. I needed to eat something, preferably something with vegetables, as I hadn't really eaten much all day. Over the passed few years I've been trying to eat better, cutting out excess sugars and junk food but, it can be hard when you want something fast and simple.

My solution? Tuna Fish sandwich with added veggies.

I've got grated carrots, chopped celery, green onion, dill pickles, canned tuna, mayo, and Dijon mustard.  I couldn't think of anything else to put in there (at least from what I had in my fridge) but I'm sure you could add different vegetables to it as well.

I probably wouldn't add as much carrot next time, it turned out very sweet and carrot-y (And orange- Orange tuna fish is a little weird).

I like my Gluten free sandwich bread toasted, and I piled on the tuna-veggie concoction. It was tasty and filling and, other than the Mayo, good for me. 

Lemon meringue pie

Just a quick post.

I made lemon meringue pie today, but not your typical lemon meringue, I only had brown sugar instead of white. Other than it looking a little brown, both inside and out, it tasted amazing...

This is the only picture I have of it, taken with my phone and sent to Mr. Beam as a tease.
It's on my list to make again, maybe then I'll get the recipe and more (good) photos for you :)