We stashed the leftovers in the fridge, with plans to bake it more the next evening. The swiss steak was delicious as always - mom fries the steak, then adds the gravy (usually McCormick's Brown Gravy, but she only had one packet, so she used one Brown and one Pepper gravy packet) and lets it simmer as long as she wants - the more it simmers, the better it gets!
Saturday morning, I baked some lovely frozen croissants. They didn't rise all the way, however, they were beyond delicious when topped with a little butter. Add in Melita One to One Parisian Blend coffee, and I was a very happy girl.
Since breakfast was late, I skipped lunch, and headed over to my parents house about 1:30pm. They are having a 4th of July party, and it was also my sister's birthday, so we had a phonecall to make (my sis lives in Cali) and some shopping to do. Dad is cooking beef brisket and a boston butt in the oil-less turkey fryer for the 4th, so we hit the sale at Food World to pick up the meat.
After shopping, we watched the movie "It's Complicated". That move is dangerous - the main character owns a bakery, and OMG the food is deadly! One of the foods mentioned in the film was Lavender Honey Ice Cream. The tingling in my tastebuds at the name instantly compelled me to find a recipe!
Having been collecting iPhone cookbooks lately, I went to the Epicurious app and seached for the ice cream recipe. Jackpot!
To make Lavender Honey Ice Cream, you need:
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of half-and-half
2/3 cup honey
2 tbsp lavender flowers
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
You mix the cream, half-and-half, honey, and lavender flowers in a pan, and just bring it to a boil. Remove from heat, and let steep 30 min. Strain out the flowers, put it back i the cleaned pan, and warm it up. As it's warming, whisk the eggs and salt in a bowl, then slowly whisk in 1 cup of the cream mixture to temper the eggs. Whisk the egg mixture into the cream, and bring it up to 170 degrees for about 5 minutes, until the mixture clings to the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat, cover, and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate for 3 hours, then freeze it in your ice cream machine.
Mom pulled out some fantastic honey from the pantry - it tasted like the essence of clover flowers in summer - and we have lots of lavender as we planted a Spanish lavender plant there a few years ago. (I have a white lavender plant and a cutting from the Spanish lavender plant growing in my flowerbed at my apartment.) I actually missed a lot of the second half of the movie, as I was busy mixing up the ice cream, however I did manage to watch the scene where they make chocolate croissants from scratch. *drools* One day I will try that!
After the movie, mom and I started on dinner. (Well, she started - I mostly observed, chatted, and took pictures, as well as changing out the burned out lightbulb in the kitchen) I had purchased extra eggplant on Friday to coax mom to make Eggplant Parmigiana, and was very successful!
Mom's Eggplant Parmigiana recipe comes out of the Gourmet Magazine cookbook, with a few alterations. The original recipe call for a freshly-made marinara tomato sauce - mom cans tomato sauce in the summer from the tomatos up on Chandler Mountain, so she uses her own, or a mixture of commercially prepared and her own. Last night was the latter, as she made two casseroles so that we all have leftovers for a meal later in the week.
For Eggplant Parmigiana, you need:
2 medium-large eggplant, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds
2 cups of italian breadcrumbs
1 cup of shredded parmesan
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp parsley, minced
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 pkg mozzarella, shredded
approx. 1 cup olive oil for frying
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
Place the eggplant in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let soak 5 min.
Mix together breadcrumbs, parmesan, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and set aside. Brown eggplant in hot olive oil. Layer in a casserole dish in the order eggplant then bread crumb mixture then marinara sauce, until ingredients are used up, ending with marinara sauce. Top with mozzarella, then bake at 375 until cheese browns. Serve immediately.
This came out incredible as usual, and dad served up some chianti red as compliment. As we were eating the first dish, the second dish went in the oven with the previous nights ratatouille, to which I added a little more olive oil, as the first time I made it I added a full 1/2 cup to the 1.5 size recipe. Both dishes came out fabulous, and were packed and frozen for late consumption. (I ended up with 1 container of Eggplant Parmigana and 2 containers of ratatouille.)
Later in the evening, we froze the ice cream, which came out creamy and rich and yummy, although it was a bit too sweet. Next time I will try using only 1/2 cup of honey, to see if that tempers the sweetness. I have another recipe for Honey Ice Cream, that I will post when we make it again, which uses less honey but comes out perfect. We paired the ice cream with fresh made cups of Starbucks from mom and dad's Tassimo coffee machine (one of which I will own someday - just not yet. I have a lot of coffee pods for my current inherited Mr. Coffee Home Cafe.)
I haven't had breakfast yet this morning, although I plan to have some of the cantelope in the fridge with some of the Greek yogurt mixed with honey and pecans, as well as the remaining black berries from the Farmer's Market trip on Thursday.
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