Oreo Cheesecake Ice Cream

It has to be said, I love ice cream. Luckily I have a morsel of self control when it comes to eating my ice cream. I can bring home a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and it will last a number of days in the freezer. Usually day one and two are pretty good. Once you get to that third day, and there is half a container left, that it gets a little tricky. Leaving just a bit in the bottom seems silly, so day three I eat it all.

The same cannot be said about all ice creams. If I buy a pint of Blue Bunny ice cream, it is difficult to only eat a single portion. The reason behind this must be the quality of the ice cream! Ben & Jerry’s is so rich, just a bit will do. Blue Bunny is what, a dollar for a half gallon? Cheap ice cream requires more to satisfy!

Homemade ice cream is the most satisfying of all. Not only do you control the quality of the ingredients, but you get that satisfaction that you made it! You invite people over and serve them some ice cream, proudly saying “I made this!” You tell your coworkers that you made ice cream this weekend. Ooo’s and Ahhh’s follow, pride fills your body.

So dust off your ice cream maker and whip up a batch of rich, delicious Oreo cheesecake ice cream. Enjoy it with some friends and feel all warm and fuzzy when they compliment your churning skills.

Oreo Cheesecake Ice Cream

1 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup milk
1 ½ cup heavy cream
1 cup crushed Oreos

- Beat sugar, cream cheese and egg together
- Bring the milk to a boil on the stovetop then slowly beat into the cream cheese mixture
- Return to the stovetop and cook on low, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened
- Remove from heat and pour through a mesh sieve into a clean bowl
- Add cream
- Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight
- Freeze in your favorite ice cream maker, adding the Oreos when the ice cream is semi-frozen, then transfer to a container and freeze solid

Spanish Chicken with Mustard-Green Onion Sauce

As a child, I thought that raw chicken looked like so much fun. It was all slimy and wiggly. It also looked pretty tasty in my younger self’s opinion. I imagine that it would have a similar texture to chewing gum, which, as a child, sounded pretty interesting. Chicken chewing gum. Perhaps I’ll work on that idea for another post. Luckily for me I never decided to taste test the raw chicken and have thus lived to adulthood.



Over the years I have discovered many better ways for eating chicken. I am a huge fan of coating it is Buffalo sauce and eating it in many forms (as I exemplified in my recent two week visit home). It is also quite excellent right from Wegmans. Buying one of those whole roasted chickens from the grocery store is a fantastic plan when you have no plan. However, after eating a lot of chicken, I have discovered my favorite recipe. It’s quick and easy, the only thing holding you back from making it now is probably a lack of one of the spices.

This dish consists of a spice rub, a mustard-green onion sauce and chicken. The sauce is a simple vinaigrette which is also wonderful on salads. Sometimes I make it just to pour over lettuce. The spice rub is a combination of six spices, three of which you probably already own. Since this is such a simple dish, this post will also be a simple one. So here it is, my go to meal, Spanish Chicken.

Spanish Chicken with Mustard-Green Onion Sauce
From Bobby Flays Restaurant – Bolo

Mustard-Green Onion Sauce
½ cup white wine vinegar
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
½ thinly sliced scallions
3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Spice Rub
1 ½ tbsp Paprika (Spanish if you have it)
½ tbsp cumin
½ tbsp ground mustard seeds
1 tsp fennel
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt

4 Chicken breasts

To make the sauce, whisk together the vinegar and mustard, slowly add in oil until emulsified (combined). I used my fancy salad dressing blender, but you can do this by hand. Season with salt and pepper then add scallions.

To make the rub, combine all the spices and mix thoroughly. You can use the seeds; just grind in a coffee grinder!

Heat your grill to medium (I used a grill pan since I live in an apartment; I imagine that using an outdoor grill would only produce even better results!).

Brush a little olive oil on both sides of the chicken and rub each side with the spice rub. (You should use all of your rub) Place on the grill and cook for 5-6 minutes before flipping. Cook for another 7 minutes or until cooked through.

Spoon some of your sauce onto a plate (and on your salad!), then place the chicken on top. Enjoy!

Buffalo Wing Sauce

Being a born and bred western New Yorker is a huge responsibility. When you tell the world that you are from Buffalo, they assume you are guru of all things food, sports and weather. Perhaps you have moved away from the WNY and are enduring a tough winter in your new home state. While trapped at work, the roads impassable, your coworkers simply say “Well, you’re from Buffalo, this is nothing for you.” Because we all know, Buffalo is covered in at least six feet of snow for the entirety of winter. Our Buffalo cars laugh at six feet of snow and ask for more. Buffalo plows are magical and snow flees from their paths as they careen down the highway.

Western New Yorkers are also HUGE sports fans. Home to the world famous Buffalo Bills, we know the glory of victory, and the disappointment of defeat. Let’s not forget our beloved Buffalo Sabres. They are also aware of difficult glory/disappointment cycle. You mention “Wide Right” or “No Goal” to any WNYer and they know, they have a story, they were there.

Buffalo is also world famous for its food. Well, perhaps not world famous, but you can’t go to any Americana restaurant without seeing “Buffalo wings” on the menu. Buffalo loves food. If you love food you should head to Buffalo in the summer, where you can find a food festival every single weekend. Italian, Hellenic, Allentown, German, Scottish, Polish and Canal fests are just the start to the summer festival season. The main event is always the Taste of Buffalo. Touted as the largest two-day food festival in the United States, the Taste of Buffalo is a great place to find your new favorite restaurant.

Now, I’m not sure if I can call myself a true western New Yorker. I can muster very little enthusiasm for the Bills or Sabres, even when the tickets are free, and there is free food. While I can handle a 2WD car in a snowstorm, I would be much happier on a beach. However, I do love to eat. I figure I don’t need to watch sports or live in a snowglobe, but I do need to eat. And why not eat good food?

As a kid, my dad would make the best wing sauce. It could be a hot, humid summer day or a cold blustery winter night. The chicken made with this sauce was perfect. It was never the same, but had the same notes of flavor every time. The sauce came together so quickly, and it was always a mystery. My dad is not a chef, he’s an engineer. He is very good with cooking fish, making a mean PB&J and this sauce. My brother and I would constantly ask for chicken and wing sauce, fortunately my dad wouldn’t always make it, otherwise we’d likely be 400 lbs.

While visiting home I decided that I must know how to make this sauce. If I can’t make a good Buffalo wing sauce, then I might as well renounce my WNYer card, without the love of football and snow I really would have nothing else. We decided to balance out the heavy sauce with healthy chicken tenders, which my mom breaded and baked. The sauce was a little harder to nail down. Other than the very specific one stick of butter, everything else was a squirt of this a dash of that. I’ve done my best to eyeball measurements to help you get the desired result. The quantities of every ingredient can be changed to suit your particular tastes. Play around and enjoy a little bit of Buffalo flavor!

Buffalo Wing Sauce

1 stick butter
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup ketchup
2-3 tbsp hot sauce
Dash of chili powder
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp BBQ sauce or Mustard (for a sweet, or tangy sauce)
Dash garlic powder
Dash onion powder
Salt to taste

- Slowly melt 1 stick of butter in a pan over low heat. Add lemon juice. Whisk until butter is no longer transparent and slightly thickened.
- Add ketchup and stir until the sauce changes to a bright orange color.
- Add hot sauce to your desired heat level. This is best tested by smelling the sauce. Determine how much you would like your mouth to burn by how much it burns your nose!
- Add remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth. Continue to whisk for an additional 2 minutes over low heat.

This sauce will break after a few minutes, so be sure to stir often to maintain a smooth sauce.

Healthy Chicken tenders

1 lb chicken tenders
2 cups bread crumbs (we went with a mixture of crushed whole grain crackers, wheat crackers and panko breadcrumbs)

Dash of onion powder, garlic powder, dried parsley, salt and pepper
Egg Beaters (or buttermilk for a slightly tangier tender)

- Mix breadcrumbs with spices in a shallow dish or pie pan

- Soak chicken tenders in egg beaters for a minute (30 minutes if using buttermilk)
- Coat tenders with bread crumbs and line on a cooking-sprayed foil-lined cookie sheet.
- Lightly spray tenders with cooking spray and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.

Enjoy your chicken with some carrots, celery and blue cheese!