Down for the Count

I am down with a nasty cold & Matt is off to California for a business trip so the only cooking happening around Chez A Good Appetite is the reheating of chicken noodle soup from the deli. We'll be back soon with a recap of all the yummy things we ate in New Orleans & of course new recipes.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

We Have a Winner!

The winner of the Where in the World at Kat & Matt Contest is Bookworm88. Bookworm, I have no way to contact you so please use the email link at the left here to email us with your address. Here is what Bookworm has won...

If I don't hear from this winner within a week I will pick a second winner.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

This Ice Cream is Bananas-B A N A N A S

Last week Elle from Elle's New England Kitchen was chatting about this amazing banana ice cream made from only one ingredient, yes you read that right one ingredient. All it takes to get this creamy sweet dessert is bananas, a freezer & a food processor. She had seen the idea for it on Apartment Therapy The Kitchen & had great success with it.

Of course, being foodies a bunch of us started talking about different flavorings to add to it & decided to all post our creations this week. Matt & I decided to go the alcohol route & flavor our "ice cream" like a daiquiri.

This treat could not be easier to make & really gives you the ice cream experience without all the stuff that makes ice cream not exactly the healthiest treat. Making it doesn't require a recipe just a few directions.

1. Peel & slice the banana into coins. The banana should be ripe but not overly soft. We used some that had just started to get a few brown spots. We used 4 bananas & got 4 small servings.
2. Freeze banana coins on a plate until solid, ours took about two hours.
3. Put frozen banana slices into a food processor & start processing. You'll need to keep stopping to scrape down the sides & push the bananas down. It will look crumbly at first but slowly turn into creamy goodness.
4. Add your flavorings of choice & mix in. For our flavor, we added a tablespoon of Grand Marnier and a tablespoon of rum. If I had had some on hand I would have also added a little lime juice, Matt thought it didn't need it with the Grand Marnier. You are not cooking anything here so remember this will have alcohol in it.

Right out of the food processor the texture will be a lot like a soft serve ice cream or frozen custard.

I thought it was very much like ice cream. Matt said it wasn't ice cream but it was really good. The picture at the top of this post is how it looked after spending a night in the freezer. It had firmed up a bit more but was still soft enough to scoop easily (the alcohol probably aided with this). I think if you served this to guests or your kids no one would know it wasn't ice cream & you we're just giving them blended, frozen fruit.

Visit these other Banana Bloggers to see what they did...
Elle's New England Kitchen
Flamingo Musings
HeCooksSheCooksWeCook

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

Cottage Pie

I wasn't planning on posting this dish because the picture wasn't particularly good but when Susi over at Craftroom saw it on Flickr she asked me to post it A.S.A.P. I think she's always looking for taste-of-home dishes for her English husband.

When I was planning our weekly menu I thought I had ground lamb in the freezer & planned a shepherds pie. Then I realized the lamb was actually chozio which Matt was saving for chorizo & potato tacos. Luckily I have plenty of grass fed ground beef in the freezer so I just changed from shepherds to cottage. Mainly I was making this to use up some more of the parsnips in the fridge & we both really liked the flavor they added to the potato topping.

This recipe makes 2 individual cottage pies but you could easily double it & cook it in an 8" x 8" baking dish to serve 4.

Simple Cottage Pie

8 baby yukon potatoes, peeled & halved
2 medium parsnips, peeled & cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 T vegetable oil
1/2 lb ground beef
2 scallions or spring onions, sliced
4 crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 T all-purpose flour
3/4 c chicken or beef broth
1/2 t dried rosemary
salt & pepper
1/4 - 1/2 c peas, fresh or frozen
10 pearl onions, fresh or frozen, sliced in half
1/2 T unsalted butter
1 T milk + more if needed

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Put the potatoes & parsnips into a large pot of salted water. Bring to a boil & cook until tender. When done, drain & return to pot.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef & cook until browned through. Add the scallions & mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms had released their liquid & most of it has cooked away. Reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle with the flour & stir while cooking for 1 minute. Add the broth & stir until thickened & bubbly. Stir in the rosemary. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Add the peas & onions & cook until just heated through.

Add the butter & milk to the cooked potatoes & parsnips. Mash until creamy, adding more milk if needed. Season with salt & pepper.

Divide the beef filling between two two-cup ramekins. Top with the mashed potatoes & parsnips spreading to cover all the beef filling. Bake for about 30 minutes until the topping is golden brown.

2 servings

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

Where in the World are Kat and Matt

****This contest is now over. We'll announce the winner on Friday, May 7th****

Matt & I both have birthdays this week (they are only a day apart) & have decided to take a little trip to celebrate.

We'd would love to bring back some culinary souvenirs for one of you but first you'll have to guess where we are. Here's a couple of hints...
The restaurant Matt chose for his birthday is Luke.
Our hotel is named after a president & is on Baronne St.
We'll be toasting our birthdays with martinis at the Bombay Club

This trip will not require a passport.

We'll chose one winner from the comments to this post that contain the name of the correct city & send that person a selection of food gifts from our trip. Please make sure if you are entering this contest to leave your email address in your comment or a way to get it.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski