Thin Mints vs. Grasshoppers

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It’s Girl Scouts Cookies season again! Nationwide, the Girl Scouts outsource their cookie production to two different companies, Little Brownie Bakers (LBB) and ABC Bakers.

I live in an LBB region, and LBB is a subsidiary of Keebler; ostensibly, Girl Scouts licenses their recipes to Keebler via LBB for their actual cookie production. Two of their cookies, Thin Mints and Samoas, have supposedly-identical equivalents available from Keebler, namely Grasshoppers and Coconut Dreams, respectively.

Whenever the Girl Scouts aren’t selling cookies, or whenever joyless grownups want to enjoy their cookies without actually funding the Girl Scouts, common knowledge is that you can satisfy your cravings by buying the Keebler equivalents. But is that true?

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Turkey kale meatloaf

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Thanksgiving dinner

This is what I made for my Thanksgiving entrée this year, what with having Thanksgiving all on my own. It turned out pretty good.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 1 large shallot, finely minced
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbps of minced sage
  • 1 tsp each of minced thyme and rosemary
  • ½ cup toasted bread crumbs
  • 1-2 cups kale leaves, finely minced
  • 4 ounces thinly-sliced prosciutto (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the turkey, shallot, egg, sage, thyme, rosemary, bread crumbs, and kale, thoroughly mixing with your fingers if possible. If no prosciutto is being used, also add some salt. And, of course, add pepper to your preference (and maybe some garlic).

Form the turkey mixture into a loaf, and wrap it in the prosciutto (if desired).

Bake until the internal temperature reads at least 155°F, approximately 45-60 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes.

Slice and serve.

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Easy ice cream

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There are a lot of recipes for ice cream out there, but a lot of them involve making large amounts of custard creme and therefore large batches of ice cream. But sometimes you just want to make a small amount at a time, especially with a small ice cream maker. And portion control is important, too!

So, here’s a simple way to make a small amount of what’s essentially ice cream, without a lot of fuss or process:

  1. Combine 120 grams of half and half with 30 grams of agave nectar or corn syrup or other liquid sweetener (Torani flavor syrups might work well for this too)
  2. Add a pinch of salt
  3. Add a few drops of whatever flavor extract you want (4-5 drops of vanilla, peppermint, or orange extract) and any other flavorings you’re interested in
  4. Stir thoroughly (I use a milk frother or a tiny whisk)
  5. Churn until smooth

At this point you could also add small chocolate chips or fresh fruit or whatever other mix-ins you want.

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Home-brewed root beer

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Base recipe for 1 liter of root beer: half a tablespoon of root beer extract (I use Zatarain’s) and half a cup of sugar (raw/turbinado sugar is especially nice).

For typical root beer, make half a cup of simple syrup by combining the sugar with half a cup of water and heating until the sugar is dissolved, then add it and the extract to 750mL of sparkling water.

However, for home-brewed root beer, which has a more complex flavor (and a slight amount of alcohol), combine the sugar, extract, 1 liter of water, and 1 teaspoon of yeast (baker’s yeast is fine, champagne yeast is better) into a clean 1-liter plastic bottle. Squeeze the air out and cap, and allow to sit at room temperature until the bottle has expanded and become firm to the touch, and then move it into your refrigerator to chill. This process depends on the temperature, and can be sped up or better controlled using a sous vide circulator set to around 90°F which should make the fermentation take only a few hours.

NOTE: Be absolutely careful not to let this stay out past the time it has gotten firm, or else you run the risk of the bottle exploding and making a mess! And, for that matter, only use a flexible plastic bottle (I use leftover seltzer bottles) and not a firm bottle like a SodaStream or, worse yet, a glass bottle, as those will be very difficult to use safely and are very likely to explode on you.

Anyway, the nice thing about brewed rootbeer is that the flavor will continue to develop over time in the refrigerator, and it won’t easily go flat, as the yeast will continue to ferment and carbonate it even while cold. (This will also increase the alcohol content over time.)

I highly recommend storing the bottle upright, if possible, as the yeast will form a sediment on the bottom of the bottle and this doesn’t have a very good taste or texture. Keeping it upright makes it easier to pour off the root beer without ending up with the yeast slurry.

Piña Colada mix

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For a simple piña colada mix, combine two 16-ounce cans of crushed or chunk pineapple (including the juice) and one 12-ounce can of coconut cream and blend until smooth. Then add a few tablespoons of lime juice.

This can be used for a whole bunch of things:

  • Make it into an actual piña colada by combining 1 shot of rum, 1 cup of mix, and a bunch of ice in a blender and blending until smooth
  • Combine with a splash of unflavored seltzer to make a virgin colada
  • Make vegan pineapple-coconut ice cream by putting this in an ice cream maker (rum optional)
  • Freeze into popsicles using popsicle molds (don’t add rum if you do this or it’ll never set)

Perfect eggs over-easy

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There’s a bunch of things out there about the way of making eggs perfectly over-easy, with fully-cooked whites but nice and runny yolks. Most of them involve either basting the eggs with oil, steaming them with a lid, or flipping them with much trepidation.

But my favorite way: heat the oil to medium-high, crack the eggs, wait for the whites on the bottom to set (1-2 minutes), and then set the remaining whites with a culinary blowtorch (Amazon affiliate link).

Perfectly-cooked whites, perfectly-runny yolks, and no breakage in sight!