Potato Bacon Chowder

I had this at a friend's house the other night and HAD to have the recipe! Seriously yummy stuff!

1 onion, diced
1 lb. Bacon
2 cans cream of chicken soup
16 oz. sour cream
1 cup water
2 baked potatoes
¼ c. milk
salt and pepper
garnish with parsley

Cook bacon. Set aside, keeping a little of the bacon grease in the pan to sauté the onion in. After the onion is done, add diced potato and water. Boil for about 5-10 minutes, just make sure the potatoes are soft and cooked all the way through.
Add sour cream, soup, salt, pepper and use milk to reach desired consistency. Add crumbled bacon before serving. Garnish with parsley.

Persimmon Cheesecake

I have been getting some fruit from Bountiful Baskets. I had a bunch of persimmons, which I didn't know existed, but I found a recipe online for persimmon cheesecake. So, I gathered ingredients, and this is what I got. I didn't know what a spring form pan was, so I just used a Pyrex pie pan. I only used half the filling in the pie so I made up another crust. I used a square Pyrex pan for that one.

Ingredients

· 2 cups chopped walnuts

· 1/3 cup brown sugar

· 3 tablespoons melted butter

·

· 2 cups pureed persimmons

· 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

· 1 1/4 cups white sugar

· 3/4 cup sour cream

· 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

· 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

· 6 eggs

·

· 1 1/4 cups sour cream

· 3 tablespoons white sugar

· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. Chop the walnuts in a food processor until fine. Mix together in a bowl with the brown sugar and melted butter. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.

4. Combine the persimmons, cream cheese, 1 1/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup sour cream, cinnamon, and ginger in a food processor. Blend in processor until smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape edges of food processor bowl with a spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, and process until fully incorporated. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust.

5. Bake in the preheated oven until mostly set with the center being slightly jiggly, 60 to 75 minutes.

6. While the cheesecake is baking, whisk together the 1 1/4 sour cream, 3 tablespoon white sugar, and vanilla extract. Spread evenly over the cheesecake while still hot and return to oven another 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Loosely cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate 4 to 8 hours or overnight before serving.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille
my adaptation of this youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFZqufAajN8

Ingredients

• thinly sliced eggplant (I used 1 medium to small)
  
• thinly sliced cucumbers (I used 4 pickling cucumbers)
  
• thinly sliced zuccini (I didn't use this)
  
• thinly sliced carrots (I used 4-6 short stubby ones.. I recommend using the carrot *bums* where the slices make the largest circles if possible and they're usually too fat around to want to eat without cutting anyway)
• 2 large tomatoes sliced
  
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups chopped mushrooms
• 2 cans tomato sauce
• 2 tsp basil (we used fresh basil so the measurement was different)
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp thyme
• salt & pepper to taste
• 5 Tbsp olive oil

Prepare sliced veggies. In a sauce pan add 2 cans tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and thyme and cook over medium low heat while cooking the rest of the food. In a skillet or fry pan, saute onion, garlic, carrots in 2 Tbsp of oil over medium heat until onions are white and translucent. Add eggplant, zuccini, cucumber and remaining 3 Tbsp of oil to the onion mixture. You may cover if desired and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes. Check carrot tenderness. When carrots are almost your desired tenderness add mushrooms and tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until mushrooms and tomatoes and carrots are done. Spoon vegetables into a bowl or plate and top with sauce. You can always add more sauce if you start out conservatively. Enjoy! Most of the time to make this meal was spent prepping the vegetables. So simple and so easy with a lovely earthy dish as a result that your family will love. Sorry moms...you can't hide the fact that there are servings of vegetables in this dish. :)

Changes I made to the video's recipe:
*added carrots... you could probably also add potatoes but having tasted it I think it matches better without.
*cut in thin slices instead of chopped veggies... the texture is more pleasing but chopping might be faster. I recommend a mandolin or food slicer if you slice.
*added 2 small cans of tomato sauce and cooked spices in the sauce instead of adding to veggies directly.
*substituted cucumber slices for zuccini... zuccini would be closer to the eggplant texture so if would be fine,.. i think the cucumber added a nice different texture and freshness that wouldn't otherwise be there so I'm keeping them in the recipe.

** We did not eat this as presented in this photo. We just spooned it into a bowl and poured the sauce over it to serve.
** The changes I made were to match closer to the presentation made in Disney's Pixar's Ratatouille so I cannot take credit for the ideas I tried my best to imitate.

Homemade Ice Cream

4 quarts Half and Half

3 cups Sugar

2 Tablespoons Vanilla

Combine all ingredients, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. To avoid sugar settling to the bottom of freezer some of the half and half can be heated with the sugar over low heat until completely dissolved and then mixed with the rest of the half and half, with this method though the ingredients must be cooled in the refrigerator prior to freezing. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Makes 6 Quarts frozen ice cream, you can divide recipe to fit the size of your ice cream freezer.

Note: Most ice cream makers produce soft-serve ice cream which you can firm, if desired, by placing it in your refrigerator's freezer in an airtight container for about 2 hours.

Caramel Sauce

3 cups Brown Sugar

1 cube Butter

1/2 pint Heavy Whipping Cream

Put in a double broiler all ingredients, cooking over medium low heat stirring until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved, continue cooking for 1 hour stirring occasionally. Sauce will have thickened slightly and be a caramel color. Serve over ice cream, homemade ice cream is especially good! Store in refrigerator, sauce may become somewhat crystallized but will smooth out when heated.