Cereal Milk Ice Cream It's Grrrrreat!

As a kid I remember only having sugar coated cereal not only for breakfast, but as a very special treat while watching Gilligan's Island - Wait, did I just age myself? I think my mom always felt that the sugar content of those cereals garnered as much, if not more, than a dessert, so that's how we treated them.  I would let the cereal soak for about 2 minutes and then I would gobble up the flakes while they were still crunchy just so I could get to the best part - that sweetened milk that pooled at the bottom of the bowl. Oh, it was glorious!

Slurping Drinking that wonderful sweet milk was such a treat and still to this day, I can close my eyes and taste it.

When Momofuku Milk Bar of New York City introduced their version of using cereal milk for ice creams and cookies and other yummy dishes, I was blown away by the genius behind the idea. Who doesn't love a bowl of cereal for dessert, or maybe breakfast, if you grew up with it? The problem was that their recipe had quite a few more steps than my patience would allow. So I decided to take my trusty and true, no cook, no egg ice cream recipe and tweak it using cereal. It came out pretty good. After I made it, I thought I would Instagram it to the new #austin360cooks to see if any other cereal milk ideas would pop up. Boy did they ever! Besides people asking for the recipe, I got some great tips from others using cereal milk. @jeffamador has been using cereal milk as a sweetener for his coffee and he also enjoys it in a White Russian where he sometimes adds a bit of amaretto. This got me thinking of all the flavor concoctions that could be made. These days cereal is a low priority in our house as the sugar and preservatives are high on my health radar, but for a special dessert to bring back those memories? Why not! After all, if tvland can bring back the reruns I grew up on than I think it's perfectly acceptable to bring back a favorite taste memory, I'm jus' sayin'!

Simple Cereal Milk Ice Cream

In a bowl Combine the following:

1 1/2 cups of whole milk
3 Cups of heavy cream
3 Cups of cereal (I used Frosted Flakes)
 Soak for 15-20 min.

Strain the cereal over a clean bowl to get only the sweetened cream. I used the back of a wooden spoon to really push all of the liquid through, so very little was left in the soggy cereal. Discard soggy cereal (unless that's your thing, in which case by all means feel free to chow down). At this point taste your liquid, mine tasted sweet enough so I did not add any more sugar or vanilla. It should taste just like the cereal milk you remember but a little thicker as there is so much cream added. That's it, pour it into your ice cream maker and follow its regular directions. I thought I would add a fun crunch by making corn flake candy, but that called for peanut butter and my husband is allergic so I went simple again and just tossed some cereal flakes on top. Perfect. If you try another flavor of cereal, please let me know how it comes out - or if you have a favorite old tv show you want to talk about I'm up for that too!

House Guest Mambo #5

"If it were not for guests all houses would be graves." ~Kahlil Gibran

Growing up and spending the better part of my adult life in California, I rarely had the chance to entertain house guests or travel a whole lot. When I moved to Texas that all changed and my family and friends from California started to come to visit on a regular basis. I can safely say that I have had my share of unique house guests. Some picky and quirky, some easy and low maintinance. All equally enjoyable whether coming or going. It's because of these frequent visitors that I have been able to collect ideas and tricks along the way that insure a happy guest. Now before you start rolling those eyes and thinking "Not another Martha, trying to make me feel guilty," give me a minute to explain! I've stayed at some very nice 4-star resorts, some quaint little bed & breakfasts, motels, hotels and a few friend's couches now and again. From each, I have carefully tried to find "the little touches" that made my stay there so wonderful and incorporate them into my hosting. I'm not going to tell you to go purchase Egyptian sheets and install a room service bell in your guest room - heck, you might not even have a guest room (I didn't for many years). What I will share is that it's the little personal touches that make a guest feel welcome. So if you take "A little bit of Martha on your tv", "A little bit of hotel memories", "A little bit of friends with good ideas", "A little bit of B&B history", "A little bit of books & pinterest"... then you too will be doing the House Guest Mambo in no time. I'm jus' sayin'!


Here are a few tricks I've learned along the way that have helped me keep a house guest happy, without breaking your bank account or stressed with guilt.

"We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Homework - If you get the chance to have your guest give you a heads-up that they are coming, that's the best. You can ask them if they have any dietary needs. (Remember, it's a lot easier for you to supply the soy milk then for them to have to buy it when they get there or bring there own.) Don't stop at dietary. Weave into your conversations that you like to snack at night and ask them if they do and if so, what kind - sweet or savory? This way you can make sure you have a few of their favorites on-hand. I also like to use this opportunity to introduce some local snacks too. Don't have that "heads-up" as they just called the night before? No worries! Read on.


Stock Up - Stock up your pantry with non-perishables that you can "go to" in a pinch. Cereals, grains, and pastas. I keep a shelf always ready with tapas ingredients. On this shelf I keep jars of salsa, chips, tapenades, pickles, olives and crackers. Having these items ahead of time will save you money from having to purchase a ton of last minute gourmet and besides, you have other things to do like making cocktails! In the fridge I like to keep enough produce to throw a big salad together or small side salads. I don't like to go crazy here because in case we decide to eat out I don't like to have my produce "expire" if you know what I mean.

Breads - For some reason this has been the one thing that I go through a lot of when hosting. Bagels are great for a "fix it yourself" kind of breakfast but I have also been known to slice them thin in a pinch, dabble with olive oil and bake crisp for an afternoon tapas plate. Plus, bagels freeze well and lets face it - if we can freeze stuff for later it makes life a whole lot easier. Tortillas are another great bread. I always have corn and flour on hand in the fridge (longer shelf life). I use them for breakfast tacos, quesadillas, fried or baked into chips and wraps for lunches or filled and sauced as enchiladas for dinner. Very versatile! Having several loaves of bread provides me with many options from toast to sandwiches to french toast to garlic toast to turning day old left-overs into a bread pudding or bread crumbs. The idea is to think how many uses you can get out of one item if it does not end up being the item you intended on when you first purchased it.

Cheese - I have had to cut back for my own sake but when guests come to town, I like to have a few cheeses available to munch on in between meals. No need to go crazy buying expensive cheeses, just a few different varieties is all that's needed. I like to have something to spread, something to slice and one or two that I can cube.

Beverages - This is the most important - you want to make sure your guests are always hydrated. I drink water that is tap to filter ready. However, I have noticed over the years that tap water tastes quite a bit different in other cities, states, etc. So along with my Brita pitcher, I purchase a couple cases of water bottles when guests come. This way they can grab a bottle when headed out to site-see, or I can place bottles by their bed (so they are not stumbling in the middle of the night to take care of that dry mouth). It's an inexpensive little touch and this is what it's all about. Now in this house we have the opportunity to have a second fridge (I know this is not the norm and I do consider it a luxury). However with that said, our "hospitality fridge" is famous for hosting many guests if you know what I mean. The spring and the SXSW music festival tend to bring many guests to our house. We take pride in stocking this fridge with every cold beverage we can find, from local beers and sodas to fresh juice and sports drinks. It's one of the first things we tell our house guests about. Trust me, if you stock it they will come!

Coffee - A must-have when hosting guests. Over the years I have tried several ideas at trying to find the quintessential way to make a coffee bar both easy for me and the guests. I have a small kitchen, not much counter space but lots of cabinets. After moving my coffee machine around in all kinds of places I found that putting it on the counter at the entrance of the kitchen allows the guests to come freely to pick up their coffee without crowding you from cooking breakfast. I also made it a "station" if you will. The cabinet right above the coffee stores coffee and tea cups as well as juice pitchers and juice cups. Easy to pull out when the guests are here as well as they know where to go to help themselves. *HINT: Setting up the coffee bar by putting out the sugar and spoons and having the machine ready at a push of the button or on a timer the night before will make your life so much easier in the morning, trust me. Oh, and those early risers? No worries! Tell them they can push the button (if you don't have a timer on your machine) and it's ready to go.


Breakfast Spread - Think you might need to put on a whole champagne brunch? Oh heck no! Take the one thing you like to make for breakfast and just make it a little more fancy. I mean, if you like cereal, offer a couple varieties. Stack bowls and spoons and milk out with maybe some fresh fruit to sprinkle on top. You will not be going through that much more trouble but your guests will think cereal never tasted so good. *HINT: Don't forget to put a bright table cloth down at the breakfast table. Nothing fancy, just something vintage from your grandma or a local thrift store works perfect. It will make that breakfast table look oh so inviting!

"The ornaments of your house will be the guests who frequent it." ~Author Unknown

I like breakfast casseroles. I can whip them together the night before and just throw them in the oven in the morning and you can custom make them for tastes and quantities. Here is a link for some great ideas. My daughter got a donut maker for Christmas and she loves making them. In the above pic, I let her make the donuts and I just made the sides. When you use that pretty glassware or mis-matched china and put out linens, I promise your breakfast table will make your guests feel like they are eating in the cutest little B&B and they will want to sit and have that second cup. *if you get the daily paper, bring it in and have it on or near the table as guests are always interested in local news!

Make sure that whether your guests are sleeping in the guest room, on a couch, or on an air mattress, that they have a small basket nearby with fresh towels, a box of kleenex and a water bottle or two. I like to add a little mason jar either with one of there favorite chocolates or snacks in case they get that midnight hunger pang. During SXSW I like to add local magazines and highlight areas of interest. Many guests come with a laptop, Give them some great sites that they can get local info about what's going on in town. Here is the one I'm using this year for my SXSW guests. Also, if your just wanting to visit the food scene here in Austin, check out these sites as they offer a wealth of inside info and I'm proud to call them local friends.



And for some lovely ideas on setting a warm hearth for your guests may I suggest http://hipgirlshome.com/blog/tag/dinner-parties

Remember, it's the little touches that make your guests remember their stay. Keep them fed and relaxed and the rest shall come easy.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action. ~Mother Teresa

SNAP! Two Great Causes Come Together

What if I gave you $16.00 and told you that you could spend it anyway you see fit? Would you spend it on a nice lunch for yourself? Maybe buy an extra latte and surprise a co-worker? How about a couple extra gallons of gas in your tank? Now, what if I changed that and told you that you could have that $16.00 only after you filled out an 11-page application with all of your personal family information? Oh, and by the way, that $16.00 needs to be used to buy food for that week since the basket you just received from the food pantry may or may not stretch as far as you'd hoped. Sounds crazy, right? Well this is the reality for many families as they try to make ends meet right now. It's a balancing act and unless we’ve walked in the shoes of that person, how can we truly understand what they face?

Last year, I took part in my first food bloggers’ challenge where I got an inside look at my local food bank, the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. It was through this project that I was able to re-educate myself and truly put to rest the stereotypes that I had held to be true about who the actual face of hunger was, and more importantly, still is. Something I will never get my head wrapped around is how wide-spread hunger is in this "milk & honey" country. Like so many others, it’s my heartfelt desire to see an end to this and I will continue to educate myself and try to make a difference.

Making a difference seems to fall right into place with this next bit of news. I am proud to say that I’m now a member of an amazing new non-profit, the The Austin Food Blogger Alliance (AFBA), which was formed to bring our local food bloggers together and where one of our tenets is to support our community through social, educational and philanthropic outreach events. I have accepted the role of Philanthropy Committee Chair and consider it both a privilege and honor to work closely with local charities in our community.

For the AFBA’s first Philanthropy event, it made perfect sense to return to the CAFB one year later and do an Anniversary Challenge Project. This time we are focussing on the Texas SNAP initiative (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), or more commonly referred to as food stamps. SNAP provides qualified applicants with a minimum of $16 per month and the average family of four receives $306 per month in SNAP benefits.. The only problem with this program is that it's not at all a snap to get. Though changes continue to happen, it seems more and more that clients need to rely on other sources, like the food banks, to help them get through all of the application paper work. Hopefully, in time, this will change along with the growing number of children that leave for school hungry and end up going to bed hungry as well.

Another amazing resource that our CAFB offers is a CHOICES Nutrition Education Program. From after school snack classes with kids to adult education healthy choice classes, the food bank is showing clients that they can take that $16.00 SNAP money and make healthy "stretchable" meals. As AFBA members, our challenge was to come up with some healthy recipes that the CHOICES group could add to there reprotoire. Since breakfast seems to be the meal that is all-so-important to get our brain functioning in the morning, I thought I would start there. Cause after all, if you’re in a hurry, at least breakfast should be a SNAP... I'm jus' sayin'!


Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Shake
1 cup milk
1 packet instant oatmeal
1 banana (the riper the better)
1 cup orange juice

Cut banana into chunks.
Place all ingredients in blender container.
Blend until smooth.
2 servings


Breakfast Cookies (a cross between banana bread and warm oatmeal)
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
2 ½ cups quick oats (Gluten free Oats work well in this)
1/3 cup honey OR ½ cup sugar
1/3 cup oil OR applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet, flatten into cookie shape.
Bake for 20 minutes or until brown.
About 3 dozen cookies.
VARIATION: Add 1 cup of chopped dates & reduce the oats to 2 cups.
TIP: If your kids like to eat raw dough, this dough is yummy and it’s safe to eat this way (no eggs)



Cinnamon Orange Yogurt
4 oranges peeled and sliced
1 carton of plain or vanilla yogurt
2 tbs. Orange Juice
2 tbs. Lemon Juice
1 tbs. Sugar
1/4 tsp. ground Cinnamon
Combine the juices, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Toss the syrup with the oranges. Arrange in individual bowls and serve with plain or vanilla yogurt on top.

Food for Thought

If you've been following my blog recently, then you're probably aware of the little adventure that I took on just over a week ago. To sum it up, I, along with a fairly large group of other Austin food bloggers, agreed to live off of a typical bag of groceries one would have been given at a local food pantry, supplemented by a few dollars typically available from the food stamp program and some dairy from the WIC program. My family's week of following along with this project is now over and you might be wondering how we did... First and foremost, we certainly are not comparing the daily plight that the food pantry's clients face to our week-long experiment - nothing can simulate that real-world experience that these people face. Looking back on the week, nobody in my family complained, tossed out the "I'm starving" comment or went to bed hungry, like so many others that face hunger daily. I was able to put together good meals and make the food last all week, and my family went right along - maybe not eating what they might normally have, but not complaining either.

So what did I learn from this project? Mainly, that my preconceived notions were wrong, this project was an eye-opener for me both personally and socially. My awareness that the hunger situation in our nation is so much larger than I thought and that we seriously need to step up to the plate and rally against it. We can do this in big or small ways. You know that $5.00 latte you get every morning? Take just one of those away ($5.00) and give it to your local food bank where they will turn that into $25.00 worth of food. Amazing, right? Or sending out an e-mail to all your neighbors that says, on this particular day, I'm going to the local food bank - clean out your pantry and set aside anything that is still good, but that you never use and I'll come by to pick it up to donate. Or how about planting a few extra veggies in your garden this spring and donating that extra produce to your local food bank (surprised about this one? I sure was). How about donating your time, because that is just as precious. If you can donate even once a month to your local food bank or food pantry, I promise you your life will be forever changed. You will have a one-on-one chance to be a blessing in someone's life and here's the extra icing on the cake - you will be blessed beyond measure for having had the opportunity to look hunger in the eye and know you made a difference.


I've been fortunate enough to never have experienced true hunger. Because of this project, however, my mother shared some very personal stories with me about how programs like this helped our family. Growing up, I always thought my mom was so good at taking a few groceries and turning them into loaves and fishes for our family. So I was shocked when she told me that there were so many times that my father's business did not produce enough revenue to cover groceries and he had too much pride to except food stamps or handouts. It was feast or famine in his business, and in the down times, she would get groceries supplemented from our church pantry, shop at day-old bakeries, pick fruit from local orchards and go in with another family to purchase a side of beef. Somehow, she made us kids all believe it was just another field trip or adventure as we visited various ethnic stores and farms, not realizing it was just where the sales were that week. In the process, she saved my father's pride and taught us to appreciate food for the soul. The bonus was that she always managed to turn that food into some good eats. I am forever grateful because out of that came three foodie children, now grown, who appreciate any kind of food whether it's a bag of beans or filet mignon. We won't hold our nose up to what's placed in front of us if it's placed with love and I find myself now trying to teach my children this same theory.

We have been blessed to have been able to support our own family over the years, but like so many others, we could easily be a missed paycheck or two away from not being able to make ends meet. The difference now is that I know that my local food bank is there to catch me and not allow me to go hungry. They are there to educate us on nutrition and show us that we can eat thriftily and still serve tasty meals. In the end, this project gave me a new awareness to something I honestly - and shamefully - never gave a whole lot of thought to, and equally important, revealed a bit of my past that I may never have known about. If there is a reason for all of this hunger, I will never understand it. But I will be making some serious changes. I will start living more out of my pantry instead of "buy, cook, put away, then buy more instead of use what I have" and I will investigate and educate myself with more organic, sustainable foods. I will be volunteering with my mom and daughter (3 generations) at our local food bank. And I will be sending my extra Meyer lemons and blood oranges from my backyard each year to the food bank.

Every night at the dinner table, I am more than grateful that I get to share dinner with a quirky, loving family and that I get to prepare food with love for each of them. This week, I realized that whether it's a pot of beans or a high-dollar steak, when it comes right down to it, it's about the family and the love and the sense of community that feeds me and keeps me sustainable, and not that fancy new recipe I just have to try - I'm jus' sayin'!


Breakfast for Dinner

I found that using the fresh herbs in my garden all week really made a difference in flavor. It costs very little to start an herb garden and you can grow inside an apartment or in a pot on your patio, or section off a portion of your backyard. This particular night, we had herbed omelets and spicy candied bacon.


Spicy Candied Bacon

Arrange bacon on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with brown sugar and any spices you would like. I used chili pepper flakes and ground cumin. Bake 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, keeping a watchful eye so that the sugar does not burn.


Gnocchi in Sage Brown Butter

One of the items in our pantry bag was potatoes. I had tried making gnocchi once before and it was a complete flop (picture paper mache, but worse) SO I decided to try it again, but this time, I would go with my gut on how to tackle it.

I start with 4 small baked potatoes. You can use your microwave or oven, whichever you prefer. I peel the baked potatoes and run them through my ricer. I then put them in a large bowl, sprinkled with salt and pepper. Drop in one egg and start adding flour while mixing until I get the right consistency to knead into a rope. Roll into a rope about the thickness of your index finger, and slice into sections about 1" in length. I then drop them in salted boiling water, and wait for them to rise to the surface before taking them out and placing them in a skillet to toss with browned butter and minced fresh sage (from the garden). This time it worked! They were perfect little pillows. Dinner was served and I felt so proud of myself for accomplishing this dish. I think I even did a little "gnocchi jig", if there is such a thing!


Morning Oatmeal

I have always been a bit of a oat snob. I like texture so I would purchase steel oats to accomplish this. Addie Broyles convinced me in her article to try making oatmeal with plain old rolled oats (which was in our pantry bag). I did and I am hooked! I took a handful of oats in a bowl, poured some milk - just a tad bit over the top of the oats - and placed in the microwave for about 2 minutes (this depends on how much your making as well as your microwave so you may want to play around with it). When it was done, I sprinkled a little cinnamon, brown sugar and dried crannies and nuts on top. This had all the texture of steel oats with a much smaller price tag. It also held me over all morning 'til lunch. Hats off to Addie!