The Funky Kitchen

Normally, I wouldn’t make something so tart to talk about an anniversary. We are certainly much more sweet than sour; the pucker you experience from all the lemon is  fitting though.

xoxoxo

Happy anniversary my dear handsome Mister. The last four years have been the best, and here’s to hopefully at least 60 more. I think we’re going to be adorable old people together. There isn’t a better best friend, or person to be in love with, I could ask for.

Blackberry Lemonade Popsicles

1 punnett blackberries

1/3 Cup sugar

6 ice cubes

2 lemons

water

Directions

• Put the blackberries and sugar together in a small saucepan.
• Mash the berries (a potato masher does the trick nicely), and place the pan over medium-low heat. Cook until the juices are bubbly and the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Remove the pan from heat, then add the ice cubes. They will cool the berry syrup quickly so that the flavor stays more fresh.
• While the ice cubes are melting, juice the lemons into the berry mixture.
• Blitz everything through the blender to break up any chunks, and then pour it through a fine mesh sieve to strain out the seeds.
• Add enough water that the recipe will fill your popsicle molds (~1/2 Cup).
• Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Mister makes appearances more often than I thought he would, here at The Funky Kitchen. His hands show up in photos, volunteering to pour things for me in action shots, or taking pictures for me while I cook. Mostly he plays a part in the stories being told, or by giving his very important mister reviews, which give you all an additional opinion on the recipes I’ve been making.

He’s a pretty special guy, my Mister. He’s more culinarily inclined on the eating side of things rather than the cooking side, but he’ll rarely miss the chance to get his hands dirty and help out with whatever it is that’s going on in the kitchen on a particular day. He’s the man who brings a portable spice wheel to the field with him when he goes out on exercises, to help make the IMPs more palatable and exciting. It really helped when they were up in the Arctic and made a moose stew. One person had a spice wheel, and it was my Mister!

I’m talking about him today because on the 15th of the month, just about two weeks ago, we celebrated our relationship turning three! Three years! On one hand it feels like three years is a really long time, but on the other hand it feels like he’s been my best friend since, well, forever. We postponed the anniversary because the 15th happened to be a day sandwiched between two exams. When we finally got around to days where we had time to celebrate us a little bit, I baked for him something that combined some of his most favorite flavors: cinnamon, brown sugar, and bacon.

Now he’s gone on an exercise, which has given me time to write about it. I’m missing him to death already, but he’s only going to be gone for a week and a bit. It’s so terrible when leaves, but there is little else in the world that feels as good as when he comes back home. I can’t wait until you come home Mister!

Cinnamon Bacon Buns

(recipe adapted from Whipped)

1 Cup of milk, warmed

1/4 Cup warm water

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 Cup butter

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 Cup sugar

6 Cups flour

3 tsp yeast

15 slices of bacon

1/2 Cup butter

1 Cup brown sugar

5 Tbsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

• Combine the milk, water, vanilla, butter, eggs, salt, sugar, flour and yeast.
• If using a mixer, mix with a dough hook for 10 minutes. If kneading by hand, combine the above ingredients in a bowl, mix them together until they form a ball, and then knead for about 10 minutes.
• Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let it stand for an additional 10 minutes.
• Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Try to keep it relatively rectangular, but shape really doesn’t matter that much.
• On a small cowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, forming a paste. Spread this paste evenly over the rolled out dough, leaving the last 1/2 inch of one of the longer sides bare so that you can pinch the roll shut.
• Cook the bacon in a pan until some of the fat is rendered, but the bacon is not overly crisp. You want the bacon to remain pliable. Cut each rasher into half longitudinally.
• Roll the dough up into a roll, trying to keep it tightly coiled.
• Cut the long roll into 1 1/2 inch slices, the individual cinnamon buns.
• Unroll each bun by a couple of inches, so that you can thread in one of the longitudinally cut bacon slices and then roll it back up.
• Place the cinnamon bacon buns into a baking tray or pie plate with a little bit of space between them.
• Allow the buns to rise for 30-40 minutes.
• Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes, until the cinnamon brown sugar filling is oozing and melted and the bun dough is golden brown.

Serve warm to a happy mister (or other intended). Mister says these were: awesomely bacony, and a combination of many things he loves.

Give them a try, they are almost sinfully good.

Dear Mister,

Today the two of us being a we has reached a second birthday.

I love you ever so much and to save the internet a long mushy speech about all of the ways in which I love you, I’m going to keep it simple: you are my best friend, you make me the happiest girl in the world, and you are the perfect man for me. I am so lucky to have found you.

I love you more than raspberries, and I love those a whole lot.

Love always,

Dana

(So, I made you Raspberry Eskimo Pie, because you love it and I love you. And I didn’t even change it in any way, I followed the recipe very strictly because I don’t want to mess with your childhood memories of this pie.

Now come home so we can eat it!)

Raspberry Eskimo Pie

(from the 1996 Philadelphia Cheesecake Calendar)

1 Cup chocolate wafer crumbs

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 – 250 g package cream cheese (I used light)

1 – 12 oz can raspberry juice concentrate, thawed

2 Tbsp icing sugar

1 – 1 L container of whipped topping (once again, I used light)

raspberries for garnish

• Combine chocolate wafer crumbs and melted butter with a fork.
• Press crust into the bottom of a pie plate (I pushed it part way up the sides, because I found it more visually pleasing, but that left the crust pretty thin). Put it in the freezer while you make the filling.
• Blend the cream cheese, juice concentrate and icing sugar until smooth, and then fold in the whipped topping.
• Pour filling over the prepared crust and pop the pie back into the freezer.
• Freeze until firm (~4 hours), and remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving.
• Garnish with raspberries and serve.

This pie is so ridiculously good, the raspberry flavor is so intense, and it is so very easy to make.