4th of July

As far as 4th of July goes, this was a pretty SWEET 4th of July. I got an insane amount done today! I made three belated-birthday cards for my nieces, Megan and Erin and my nephew Sean. I hit the gym and ran 5K...without slowing down...except for the time I accidentally hit the stop button when I was peeling some tape off the tread mill...SERIOUSLY!!! I signed up for a web site http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.com/ (thanks Mindie!) that shows you the grocery deals around town and then went shopping! After dinner Alex and I hit the fireworks in Layton.

The recipes for today: Cedar Grilled Salmon Tacos with Mango Salsa & Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches on Chocolate Cookies.

I started with the Ice Cream so it could spend some time in the refrigerator before putting it into the ice cream maker. I always skip that step because I am so excited to have yummy ice cream! It definitely benefits the recipe to cool it before throwing it into the ice cream maker...it makes it thicker and more custard like.

I shaved a bitter sweet chocolate bar with a potato peeler...which irritated Alex because he wanted 'Big Chips' of chocolate in his ice cream. I don't like 'Big Chips', so we did it my way.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
4 Egg Yolks

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Mint Extract

2 cups Heavy Cream

2 cups Half and Half
½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 pinch Salt

1/2 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Green & Blue Food Coloring

Beat the egg yolks, sugar, and mint extract together in a small bowl until smooth and pale yellow. Set aside.

Set aside 1/2 cup milk. Combine the cream, remaining milk and vanilla in a saucepan heat to not quite a boil and stir frequently for 5 minutes.

Prepare an ice bath by placing ice cubes in a large bowl and adding enough water to cover them. Set aside.

Whisking constantly, pour a small amount of the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture. Then pour all the egg/cream mixture back into the remaining cream mixture. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until thickened. It should coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 1/2 cup milk.

Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and immerse it in the ice bath. Stir until completely chilled. Stir in the green and blue food coloring a few drops at a time until the mixture reaches the desired color (blue food coloring will give mixture a darker color of green). Chill the mixture for 4 hours….or less if you are impatient.

Transfer mixture to ice cream maker and follow manufacturer directions.

I found a great recipe for chocolate cookies at Christmas time and decided to use it for the cookie part of my ice cream sandwich. Since we were going with Mint Ice Cream, I thought it appropriate to add smashed candy canes left over from Christmas for added flavor. The only draw back from these cookies is that they don't spread out while cooking. I made this same mistake when I made them at Christmas...so I should have remembered, but they turned out stocky versus the flatter cookies I was hoping to turn into Sandwiches. When we tried to put the sandwiches together...yeah, it didn't work they way I wanted, so they will make a nice side to the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

1/4 teaspoon salt1 cup sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1/4 cup crushed red-and-white-striped candy canes or hard peppermint candies (about 2 ounces)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt in medium bowl and set aside. In a separate larger bowl, beat sugar and butter until well blended. Beat in egg. Add dry ingredients; beat until blended. Refrigerate dough 1 hour. Cook for 10-12 minutes.

Cedar Grilled Salmon Tacos with Mango Salsa

Normally when I make these fish tacos, I use tomatoes instead of mango, but Alex wanted mango salsa so I thought I would indulge. I also changed up the heat I normally use. I combined both red jalapenos and green jalapenos for some serious heat! But the flavor was HEAVEN!

Cedar Grill Salmon

2 pieces Salmon

Cedar Plank

Soak Cedar Plank in cold water for 20 minutes. Spray plank with pam to keep salmon from sticking to the plank while grilling. Put soaked plank on grill and cook for 12 minutes until salmon cooked through.

Mango Salsa

1 Mango cut into small pieces

1 small Red Onion diced

1 Red Jalapeno diced (with or without seeds)

1 Green Jalapeno diced (with or without seeds)

1/4 cup Cilantro roughly chopped

Juice of 1 Lime

Pinch of Salt

Combine all ingredients and let flavors meld together for 30 minutes.

Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in frying pan and put corn tortilla into pan. Heat the tortilla through on both sides. Fill tortilla with cooked salmon, breaking into bite sized pieces and scoop salsa on top. ENJOY!!!