The Loozy-Anna Dawg: Andouille w/Cream Cheese & Pepper Jelly

We’ve been doing some “market research” as of late, testing out different recipes for possible use at the shop.  Because we’re more than just ice cream.  We have sandwiches and hot dogs and smoothies as well.

I’m not really sure where the inspiration for this came from…I think I was just trying to think of something “different” that would go well on an andouille link, but not require a huge heap of extra product on our part.  A “jambalaya dog” or a “red beans” dog both sound fantastic and I have no doubt they’d be completely deelish… but it would also require us (i.e. ME) to find the time to cook up batches at home for them to use at the shop, because we don’t have a stove top at the ice cream parlor.

And then, I had an epiphany.

If you’ve ever been to a party in the south, you’ve probably seen this included in the spread:

A true classic.  No Southern party is complete without a brick of cream cheese smothered in Tabasco pepper jelly (or homemade pepper jelly, if you’re that advanced).  I thought it was completely weird and looked disgusting when I first moved to Louisiana.

And then…I tried it.  And probably ate half of it all myself.  I was completely hooked.  I’m not usually huge on cream cheese, but in this combination, there’s no better pairing.  The sweet-hot bite of the pepper jelly is balanced perfectly by the silky smoothness of the cream cheese.  Add the crisp, salty crackers, and you’re just in heaven.

So…why not try it on a hot dog? But of course, not a regular hot dog.  No.  That’s just silly. We need an andouille link to make this properly.

Ingredients:

Johnsonville Andouille New Orleans Style Sausage links (or more authentic andouille links if you can get them, but I like the Johnsonville since they’re close in size to a regular hot dog & have good flavor)

Hot Dog buns

Light Cream Cheese (about 2 teaspoons per sausage)

Tabasco pepper jelly (or other brand if you can’t find Tabasco, but the Tabasco texture is much more smooth & less “jelly-like”… compare the photo of the dip to the photo of the dog—I had to use Reese’s brand for this demo because I couldn’t find Tabasco brand) – also about 2 tsp per sausage

 

Directions:

Grill the andouille links for a nice smoky flavor, and toast the buns if you have the option.

Scoop a couple tablespoons of cream cheese into a ziploc bag and squeeze down into one corner of the bag; then snip off the corner to use it as a piping bag.  Do the same for the jelly.

Drizzle the cream cheese & the jelly across the sausage link.

Devour.

 

I was pretty impressed with this concoction.  The flavor on the Johnsonville sausage is really wonderful; a good amount of spice without being overkill.  And the cream cheese & jelly combo, mixed with the saltiness of the sausage made a really wonderful combination.  My husband who is a spicy-food-fanatic, thought it wasn’t quite spicy enough, but I thought it was about perfect for most taste buds—however, if you have a hot food freak in your house, you could always throw a few jalapeno slices on there as well for more heat (and a pretty color combo to boot).

 

Serve with a side of Zapp’s chips, or a nice salad.

 

NutriFacts (per dawg):

Calories 412.5

  Total Fat 24.9 g

  Saturated Fat 9.1 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g

  Cholesterol 55.6 mg

  Sodium 1,018.8 mg

  Potassium 0.0 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 33.0 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.0 g

  Sugars 13.3 g

  Protein 13.8 g

May the Fourth be with You: Wookiee Cookie Ice Cream Sammies!

Happy Star Wars Day!!!

Yes, yes, my favorite holiday.  Along with Pi Day and Christmas, of course.  And Thanksgiving.  Or, essentially any holiday that can be combined with food.  But yes, this day in particular appeals to my deep-seated inner geek.

Particularly now that I own an ice cream shoppe, because I can force my geekiness upon other people.

When we were still just thinking about the idea of purchasing the business, the idea for these sammies popped in my head.  I’m just glad that the craziness died down in time for me to find the time to make them.

Ingredients (makes about 20 cookies / 10 sandwiches):

1 cup almonds, toasted & chopped

3/4 cup light butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup flour (if you’re wanting to be gluten-friendly, grind oats in your blender or food processor and use that “oat flour” instead)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 cups rolled oats

Chocolate chips

1 square of white baking chocolate

2.5 cups vanilla ice cream (cinnamon or coffee flavored would also be good)

 

Directions:

Heat your oven to 350, and toast the almond for about 10 minutes. Then chop in a food processor & set aside.

Combine the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla with your mixer.

Add in the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix for a few seconds, then slowly add the flour; mix until well combined & smooth.

Slowly mix in the oats and the almonds.

Lightly coat two cookie sheets with cooking spray or use parchment paper.  Portion dough into ~1/4 cup balls on the tray, and pat flat with wet hands (a small ice cream scoop works well to make sure your cookies are evenly sized).

On HALF of the cookies, add chocolate chips for the eyes and nose—press into the cookie slightly so they attach during baking. (The other side will be blank, since it’s the back of the “head”.)

Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are brown.  Then remove from the oven & let cool.

Once the cookies are cool, melt the white chocolate in your microwave (takes about 1:30 minutes), then transfer it into a small plastic baggie.  Snip the tip off of the baggie, and BAM—instant piping bag!

Pipe the mouths onto the Wookiee faces.

To assemble the sammies, scoop about 1/4 cup of ice cream onto the bottom cookie, and pat flat.  Then place the face cookie on top.  And there you have it---Wookiee Cookiee ice cream sandwiches!!!

Thirsty Thursday: Strawberry Beer Float

Two posts in one week?  Yes, I know, I’m shocked too.

As we discussed earlier in the week, it is Abita Strawberry Lager Season!  My favorite seasonal in their repertoire by far.  It’s light and refreshing and just slightly fruity, but not overly sweet. 

And the other day, as I found myself bogged down in paperwork for the ice cream shoppe, I knew I needed something.  More than just a beer.  Something fun.  And seeing as how we now have ice cream on the brain p.much 24/7, thinking of a way to make beer more fun wasn’t difficult:

Yes, it was time for another beer float!

In an ideal situation, you would probably use strawberry ice cream for something like this.  But we had Yoplait Greek Strawberry Frozen Yogurt in our freezer, which I had previously been using to make some rather yummy ice cream cookie sammiches:

Ingredients:

Strawberry froyo or ice cream (the sweeter the better—it cuts the acidity of the beer)

Abita Strawberry Lager

 

Directions:

Easy-peasy, as always.  Ice cream goes in the glass, beer goes on top.

Add a straw and BAM, you’re done.  Kick back on your patio & enjoy.

Or, finish your paperwork, ya bum.  That inventory isn’t going to type itself, now is it???

Abita Strawberry Beer Pancakes!

This is my favorite time of year.  I’ve probably said that at other times, like when Mother’s Winter Grind comes out, but seriously.  Abita Strawberry Lager season.  It makes me happy.  Especially since our local brew emporium has decided to sell it.  Oh, and our favorite watering hole is also featuring Abita as their Brewery of the Month, which means on Wednesdays, my toughest choice is “TurboDog or Purple Haze?”

And in a segue that makes no sense whatsoever, one of my LEAST favorite breakfast items on the planet is pancakes.  I prefer waffles, given the choice. Actually, given the choice, I would choose to eat biscuits & gravy every morning if there was a Biscuits & Gravy Fairy in my house.  But I digress.  It is VERY rare that I actually want pancakes.  You have to add something to them to make me want them—like when my cousin/former roommate Primo would make chocolate chip pancakes…those were good days.  Or my pumpkin pancakes.  Or the Red Velvet pancakes that IHOP had a while back. MMMmmmmm…

But in this particular instance, I decided that beer pancakes sounded good.  Strawberry beer pancakes, to be exact.  And what could go better with strawberry beer pancakes than Abita’s Strawberry Lager?

Ingredients: (makes 4 short-stack servings—aka, 2 per person)

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 cup Abita Strawberry Lager

2 Tbsp light butter, melted

4-6 strawberries, washed & diced, plus 4 for decorating

 

Directions:

Pretty easy here.  Combined your dry ingredients.  Then add egg, beer, & butter and mix well.  A few lumps are okay.  Mix in diced strawberries.

Heat a skillet over medium and lightly coat with nonstick butter-flavored cooking spray.  When the skillet is hot, use an ice cream scoop to portion batter into the pan.  When bubbles start to appear on top, use a spatula to flip.

 

Meanwhile, prep your strawberries for the top decoration.  Pick the prettiest ones for this—your ugly strawberries can be chopped up to go into the pancakes. If you wanna be all fancy-like, use a good paring knife to make slits across the strawberry almost all the way (but not quite) to the stem.  Then splay the slices thusly:

(One of those random things I learned at Martin’s which has remained useful.)

 

When you’ve got a stack o’ pancakes, portion them out, pour maple syrup over top (or strawberry syrup, if you feel so inclined) and decorate with a strawberry.

 

Totes yummy.  And you get to have booze for breakfast that isn’t in a mimosa.  Though, FYI…mimosas go great with these.  Next time I make a batch, I think I want to try it with brown sugar instead of regular sugar for some extra richness.

 

NutriFacts:

Calories 222.8

  Total Fat 3.9 g

  Saturated Fat 1.2 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.6 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.9 g

  Cholesterol 40.9 mg

  Sodium 473.9 mg

  Potassium 91.4 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 38.9 g

  Dietary Fiber 1.3 g

  Sugars 13.6 g

  Protein 4.9 g

Checking in from Ice Cream Land…

Hiya folks!  So, the “soft open” for the ice cream shop was this weekend, and we had a really great turnout.  Things were pretty insane for a while…We got slammed for about 3 hours while shifts were supposed to be changing, so our openers ended up having to stay an hour or so late.  Oh, and a lady quit on her second day.  Yeah.

But we survived, and Sunday was an awesome day with fewer kinks.  I mean…aside from that whole “one missing person” thing. 

So, I thought I’d share a few pics with you guys!

This is our bid-ness.  New sign & all.  (The sandwich board out front now also says “Coffee & Pastries”…otherwise that’s pretty much it.)

Here’s the interior, all tiny & kewt & stuff:

And our ridonkulous AmyCakes cinnamon rolls, and killer blueberry muffins:

 

An assortment of toppings… (take THAT, OrangeLeaf.)

Oh, and…here’s some food porn for you.  On the left: our “Bear Paw”.  On the right, chocolate dipped waffle cone.

 

And just in case you’re not in the mood for ice cream, we have smoothies, hot dogs, & sandwiches too. Like this “Taste of Louisiana”: our “Cajun Dog” with, what else?  ZAPPS, of course!

Aside from the insanity and hassles that go with owning a business, I’m really enjoying this venture.  I’m not necessarily enjoying being exhausted all the time and having nightmares about forgetting to make deposits or bring in the cinnamon rolls… but I am enjoying making our customers happy & dreaming up specialty concoctions.  Like our Bear Paw up there, that was listed as one of Springfield’s “7 Good Things” in this week’s 417 Magazine Table Talk email.

 

We have our Grand Opening this weekend, which I have high hopes for…I mean…assuming it doesn’t rain…and that we find a replacement employee…and don’t run out of anything…and don’t go insane.  Yeah.  Assuming all those things go okay, it should be awesome!

BBQ Nachos!

Hi Friends!  Taking a quick break from the chaotic world of business ownership.  Seriously…it’s a bit ridonkulous.  Between the operating licenses and re-programming the cash register and doing price comparisons with other local businesses and redesigning the wall menu (and take-away menu) and logo/sign design and writing an employee handbook… it’s nuts.  I am utterly exhausted.

But the NICE thing about owning a food establishment—eating is now “market research”.  So when the Hubs’ sister recommended this pulled pork from Sam’s, we decided to buy some and taste test it out.  On the fancy-schmancy rolls that our prospective food vendor gave us as samples, no less.

It’s actually pretty tasty—especially when you add some extra Sweet Baby Ray’s to it.  And a couple pickle slices.  YUM.

However…when your household consists of only two people…do you have any idea how long it takes to go through 64 oz of BBQ pork?  Yeah.  Like, two weeks.  We’ve been eating BBQ pork for TWO WEEKS.

I’d had my fill of BBQ sandwiches, but you can’t just let it go to waste.  So, I did what I do best… KITCHEN IMPROV!

 

Ingredients: (serves two)

two handfuls of tortilla chips (one handful per person)

8 oz pulled pork (with 2 tbsp of extra BBQ sauce mixed in)

1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped

1/4-1/2 fresh tomato, diced

1/2 cup shredded 2% fiesta-blend cheese

2 tbsp bacon crumbles (optional—this is just another thing we bought as “market research” for the shop to go with one of the other sandwiches we’re testing out.)

A smattering of pickled jalapeno slices

 

Directions:

Heat the BBQ pork in the microwave for about 1:30 minutes.  Meanwhile, chop your cilantro & tomatoes, and cover your plate with the tortilla chips.  I like to spread them out so that you don’t end up with “naked chips” toward the end.

Use a fork to drop your heated BBQ evenly across the chips, and then immediately cover with cheese.  Heat the plate for an additional 20-25 seconds if you like to get the cheese really melty.

Then scatter your cilantro, tomatoes, bacon and jalapenos across the top. 

And voila!  A delicious, fun, quick & easy meal.  And quick & easy is DEFINITELY necessary when you’re also filling out credit applications for food service vendors with one hand while you stuff your face with the other.  And it’s a great way to get some fresh greens and veggies into your system…especially when you’ve been eating pre-packaged pulled pork for two weeks. :)

(As a note—we’re not 100% sure if we’re going to be offering this pulled pork at the Shoppe, as the pieces of meat in it were kind of small and overly shredded, making the texture almost mushy, even though the flavor is delicious.  The texture was actually perfect for these nachos, though.  So we may just step it up and get some pre-smoked pork butt & shred & sauce it ourselves.  We were trying to keep it simple, but I don’t necessarily want to sacrifice quality for convenience.)

And as always, I’ll throw it out there, if you’re interested in following the progress of our ice cream shoppe, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!  (I update Facebook most—I’m still getting the hang of the whole “tweeting/instagrammy” thing.)

Hi There!

*head hung, kicks the dirt* Soooo…. I’ve been a little absent lately.  And I TOTES apologize for that.  Things have been massively chaotic at home & at work.  I know, I know, a blogger’s never supposed to apologize or make excuses, but I’m just leading up to something here.  Because I want to share with you all what’s been going on, and what I’ve been doing instead of blogging:

WE BOUGHT AN ICE CREAM SHOPPE!!!

(Sorta like “We Bought A Zoo”, but smaller and with less animals.)

If you’d have asked me a month ago “Hey Feaux, do you think you’ll be a business owner next month?”  I’m pretty sure I would’ve laughed.  But here we are, it’s March, and we own an ice cream parlor.  It’s sort of a funny story…the Hubs texted me & asked, “you wanna buy Emack & Bolio’s?”  (that’s the parlor’s former name—they just dropped the franchise last year, so that’s what most people still know it as).  I thought he was talking about a Groupon, so I said, “Sure!”  We laughed about it for a while once I realized he meant the ACTUAL ice cream shoppe.  The owners wanted to retire, and the price was just too good…and the rest is, as they say, history.

It’s the cutest lil’ place, right across from Sequiota Park.  The building was constructed in 1937.  I’m still working on uncovering the history of the building, but I’m about 75% sure that it used to be a ticket booth.  There’s an old section of railroad that runs from the park across the street up to the main part of town, and back in the day when Galloway was still a village of its own and not just another part of southeast Springfield, an electric train ran from Springfield to the Park (which was then a fish hatchery).

This is one of my favorite parks in Springfield, mainly because of the three caves:

(From left to right: Crawl-All-The-Way Cave, Walk-All-The-Way Cave, and Sequiota [Fischer] Cave)

 

While I’m really looking forward to this new adventure, the Hubs & I are both still keeping our regular jobs and will be managing this from afar…and with all the business licenses and whatnot, we are up to our ears in CHAOS right now!  But here in a few months once we get the store open and find our routine, things should get back to “normal” so that I can resume blogging, because believe me—I haven’t stopped cooking, and I have a HYYYOOOOOOJJJ backlog of posts to write.

All the same…I’m super excited about this.  My blog here is for fun—I love sharing with all of you and being a part of this community.  But there are times when I find myself in my science-y “real world” and wish there was more cooking and creating going on.  With our new biz, I’ll be concocting fun new specialty sundaes/cones to feature each month, and my creative gears have been churning!  (Bacon, anyone?)

So, if you’d like to show our fledgling new biz some love, we’re on FB, Twitter, and Instagram.  There’s also a webpage of sorts in the works (set up on Blogspot); I’ll post a link later once it’s more fleshed out.

Stay tuned for some actual cooking related posts…sometime… :D