Just Needed A Little Inspiration

Hi! Remember me? It has been quite a while since I've made the time to sit down and blog. Even my mommy blog has been completely ignored for months. Of course I have been cooking, since my family has to eat, and I've even tried taking a few pictures, but over all nothing has really inspired me to blog.

Well that is no longer the case. I went out with the girl's last night and had some AWESOME coffee ice cream with oreo pieces mixed in from Coldstone! I have not quit thinking about how perfect it was. I even went on a quest today for a simple coffee ice cream recipe and came across this blog. It was like destiny because it only called for 3 ingredients and I had them all (pretty much).



Thankfully I have the wonderful Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker that is so simple I can do it while corraling a one year old. And Yes, my baby turned one last weekend. Another reason I've had no time to post. Baby plus building a business doesn't leave much time for blog writing or blog stalking. To those of you I used to regularly stalk...I've missed reading about your adventures!

And here is the awesome coffee icecream recipe with my additions in italics:



Homemade Coffee Ice Cream
Source: Eat At Home , Italic additions by me

1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups half and half (I only had whole milk for Logan, so I used whole milk)
4 tbsp brewed coffee, strong
1/3 package of oreo's crushed


Pour everything except the oreos in the ice cream maker and let it do it's thing until it is almost done. Add the oreo's at the last minute and let them combine. YUM!!!!

Coffee. Not Just An Amazing Beverage!

I love coffee, but I rarely brew it. I even have an awesome coffee maker. It's just that I am really the only one who drinks it. The hubs can be persuaded every now and again to have some, but usually it is just me. And I hate to brew just one or two cups at a time. So, my awesome coffee maker sits unused and my coffee sits in my cabinet.

Well, that coffee did not sit unused tonight! However, the poor coffee maker will have to wait a little longer. That is because this recipe uses coffee grounds, not the brewed concoction. On my quest to find a roast beef recipe I LOVE I made a coffee and cocoa crusted beef roast. I've heard of this combination used with beef before and finally found time to try it myself. I scoured the internet and read several recipes and decided I'd just use those as jumping off points. None of them actually called for roast beef. They were usually for a beef tenderloin or a ribeye steak.

So here is what I came up with:

Coffee and Cocoa Crusted Roast Beef

1 2lb. eye of round beef roast
1/4 cup coffee grounds, finely ground (I used a mortor and pestel to get mine more finely ground)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tbsp sea salt
1/2 tbsp ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat a sautee pan over high heat. Mix all ingredients except roast. Pat all sides of the roast with the mixture. Using tongs, sear each side of the meat in the hot pan. Then place roast in a roasting pan and cook covered for an hour and 20 minutes for medium well. Remove from oven and let rest of 10 minutes. Remove meat to a cutting board and slice. Pour pan juices over the sliced meat.

It had a nice flavor and we really enjoyed it. We had twice baked potatoes and biscuits to go with it. Now I plan to find something new to make with the leftover roast because the one thing I dislike more than plain roast, is leftover roast.