Mango Pie with Vanilla Bean & Cardamon Ice Cream

What to do you do when you've half a dozen of seriously ripened mangos in your hand and there's only 2 adults and 1 toddler to eat them all up before those luscious mangos spoil?? Solution= Mango Pie!

It's actually a twist on the traditional Apple Pie which the apples are switched with mangos instead. Not a bad idea and apparently a lot of cooks out there think so too seeing the amount of mango pie recipes!! ehhehe.... I used Ina Garten's Deep Dish Apple Pie's pie crust recipe for this pie and as for the filling, I sliced the mangos thickly and mixed them in a mixing bowl with sugar (amount varies on the sweetness of the mangos), cinnamon, a dash of freshly grated nutmeg, and some cornstarch (to absorb the mango jucies).

Now we all know that everything taste better with a dollop of ice cream! In this case, I've added some of my homemade Vanilla Bean-Cardamon Ice Cream. I don't know if there's any recipe out there for this ice cream but I came up with it myself, inspired by my favourite Indian dessert, Kheer, or rice pudding. I love the flavours of cardamon, the creaminess, the richness of that dessert with a hint of vanilla. I don't know if the original recipe of Kheer comes with Vanilla but I felt it would taste real good with it. And I wasn't wrong! I used Wiliams-Sonoma's Classic Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream recipe for my Vanilla Bean-Cardamon Ice Cream except that I added some cardamon seeds into the steeping process as well. This combination is the bomb! If anyone out there loves Kheer, try this ice cream, it's easy and it's fantastic (yes, I'm tooting my own horn here...) Oh and crush the cardamon seeds to release their aromatics. I had tried (in an earlier version) using them whole and they didn't quite give out as much cardamon flavour as I thought it would. I also steeped them longer, both the beans and pods. Plus I also used less yolks than called for in this recipe (4 yolks only) and used a fat-free half and half. A pretty easy recipe to follow and great tasting to add. My two in house food "critics" love the ice-cream (on the other hand, it IS ice cream...*sigh*)

PC problems!!

Ok...life has been a standstill for me. It was one thing after another. First it was the screwy cable connection and we got that fixed....eventually. Then comes (the very next day!) the wireless router; which means, I didn't have any connection STILL....thhheennn..eventually got that fixed, that took a little longer coz Linksys needed to send us a patch to have it fix. And now, my laptop doesn't have enough memory!!! I think my laptop is about to perform its swan song....*sigh*...it have served me well...but according to Ed "there just wan't enough memory to do all the stuff I was doing". Meaning, I "killed" it. Right now it's so slow that I could bake some banana bread, cook dinner, bathe Ethan and get back to where I was before I started all those chores and it's still uploading....*sigh*... Basically I sucked the life out of my machine... Ed says that he could add more memory but it wouldn't help much since it can only help sustain it for a little longer before I encounter the same problem AGAIN!!! I feel so helpless....I know I would have to give this machine up for a better faster one but I just can't part with it!!!! AARRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile I'm still using Ed's pc and hating it...this is seriously messing me up! Let's hope that we can find a better solution when we get back from our vacation. Oh yah, did I mention that I'm crazy enough to sign up for a cooking class while I'm vacationing in Thailand! Yes I'm insane! And for some reason unbeknownst to me, I can't even upload pics via blogger either!! Yes...the pc gods are against me....LOL I guess I would just have to accumulate the mass and wait for an oportunity.......*waiting* *waiting*

Grilled Chicken Bulgoggi

Made this some time ago, one of my older post that never got posted. The reason for posting now is that I can't upload new pics to the blog since my wireless router went kaput on me! Yes, first was the cable connection, then (for real, no kidding)the router died the next day after the cable was fixed. Went to get a new router and then my laptop decided that it didn't want to recognize a new router!! So there it is, lying dead! Meanwhile had to use Ed's pc which I'm not used to (I HATE HIS ERGO KEYBOARD!!!). Anyway, for those who are wondering...yes, I'm still alive and *peep* *peep*, yes...still alive......

I make beef bulgoggi all the time and decided on something new, so had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs on hand and used them instead. What I like about this is that on chicken, the grill marks are more distinguished. The beef I used are so thin that you can barely see the marks. And I like this more (yes, I like chicken) coz it's also a little tastier, definitely something to make again! Plus, my boy loves it (well...he'll eat it as long as it's not broccoli!!! Hmmm...wonders if I grill broccoli this way would he eat?????).

Ingredients
4 Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
3 stalks Spring Onions, chopped finely
4 pieces of garlic, minced finely
3 TBLS honey, amt varies based on prefereneces
2.5-3 TBS Low Sodium Soy Sauce
Dash of Black Pepper
1 TBLS Seseame Oil
1 TBLS Seseame Seeds, toasted lightly to release oils

Method
-Mix everything except chicken in a bowl, taste and check for the "right" flavor THEN add the chicken to marinate for at least 2hrs or better yet, overnight.
-Set your grill (I used an indoor electric grill set on 400F)and place your chicken diagonally to get grill marks.
-DO NOT MOVE THE CHICKEN WHILE GRILLING ON ONE SIDE!! Only move when you have to turn over to grill the other side!

Note: All the flavors are added to each individual's liking; if you like it sweet, add more honey....so on and so forth...:) just have fun!