It may be a modest goal, but it’s an important one to me: I’d just like to try Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola once in my life, preferably soon.

Does anyone know (specifically!) where I can find it in the San Diego area this year?

I teach at a Jewish school, so I already have all of the staff and students on the lookout for me. They assure that it’s simple to find and seem confused about why I care so much to try it. So far, I’ve heard whispers about the Ralph’s in La Jolla. I’m headed there ASAP.

Unfortunately, the special, somewhat-elusive Kosher for Passover Coke only comes in 2-liter bottles around here. At hotels and in cities with bigger Jewish populations, it’s apparently possible to find cans. If you’re looking for the bottles, look for the yellow cap.

I’m also just now realizing that Mexican Coke also uses sugar instead of HFCS and San Diego’s really close to the border, so maybe that could be another year-round source for me. Interestingly, there’s some controversy brewing about this bootlegging trend lately. I better try not to get caught. Ha ha…

So, if you’re not a Coca-Cola-enthusiast like me, you might be wondering what this is all about. Basically, Coke is now made with High Fructose Corn Syrup. But it used to be made with real sugar. For Passover, a limited number of sugar formula bottles are made and distributed because you can’t eat corn products during the 8-days of Passover. You can read more about it here.

The old-fashioned real sugary formula is supposed to taste awesome and for a Coke purist like myself, I just can’t consider my passion for the beverage complete until I taste it and judge for myself.

So there you have it… my totally simple, shallow, and readily accomplish-able life goal. I will get to work on achieving it and get back to you with a full report!

After thoroughly enjoying my homemade Amaretti Cookie Ice Cream a couple week’s ago, I wondered… since I added amaretti cookie powder to an ice cream recipe with such success, what other cookies could I grind up and add to this concoction?

My question was answered as I left the grocery store a few days later and saw some sweet little Girl Scouts hawking their evil treats. Usually, I avoid eye contact with these temptresses as if they were little Medusas with the power to turn me to stone. But I not only talked to them, but I gave them $4 (Highway robbery! They were $2 per box when I was a Brownie!) and continued on my way, praying that I would have the willpower to leave the box untouched until I had time to try my Thin Mint Ice Cream idea.

Success! I not only managed to avoid chomping the crap out of the cookies ASAP, but also the recipe turned out top-notch. This one’s highly recommended, any time of year! I think that next time I’ll use peppermint extract instead of vanilla which should intensify the minty flavors to perfection.

Does anyone know… are there “thin mint-style” cookies that you can buy year-round at the grocery store? If so, then this recipe’s going into regular rotation around here.

Enjoy!

[There’s no photo because we ate all the ice cream already! LOL. Just picture light- chocolate- colored ice cream that tastes really damn good!]

Beth’s Premium “Thin Mint” Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart

3 large eggs
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (I used 2/3 to split the difference)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 t vanilla extract (or peppermint extract if you want a more minty flavor)
1 cup Thin Mint cookie powder (made from 1 sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies ground to a powder in the food processor)

Optional:
A dozen or so extra cookies cut into bigger chunks to blend into the mixture right before you take it out of the ice cream maker

1. Beat eggs with sugar until mixture is light and fluffy. Add milk and cream. Mix well and transfer mixture to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, until mixture thickens (enough to coat the back of a spoon), stirring constantly.

2. Remove from heat, add the cookie powder and vanilla. Transfer mixture to a bowl to cool completely. Keep refrigerated at least 4 hours or overnight.

3. Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and proceed according to maker’s directions. In the last 5 minutes of mixing, you can add bigger chunks of additional cookies, if you’d like chunks in your ice cream. Yum!

Just a few of my favorite recent links to start off the week…

OH MY GOD! My life was just made complete by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. Homemade, all natural Girl Scout-style Thin Mints?!?! You have to be kidding me!

Named after the Best Picture Winner… The Crash Martini from the Weekly Dish.

Chilean Sea Bass Miso-Style from Cuisineazine

Broiled Salmon with Sesame Soba Noodles and Snow Peas from one of my new finds… Two Spoons Please

If Tara’s Mother’s vaguely Asian chicken-corn soup was good enough to be one of the first blog recipes that Catherine tried, then it’s good enough for me!

Orangette’s Chana Masala

In case you can’t tell, lamb is my new thing. As a long-time vegetarian and often reluctant meat eater, no one is more surprised than me by these developments. But, lamb is undeniably damn good. There are no two ways about it.

Whole Food carries these little ground lamb packets that are about 2/3 of a pound which is the perfect amount for two medium-sized juicy lamb burgers.

As a side story… when I was learning to talk as a baby, I has some problems pronouncing a few words correctly. Most notably, I pronounced hamburgers as “ham-bahs.” So now I’ve got a new word in my vocabulary… Lamb-bahs. Sign me up!

Lamb-Bahs with Yellow Tomato Herb Salsa and Roasted Red Peppers
Recipe from Nadia Frigeri
Serves 6

1.5 pounds ground lamb (don’t buy from Ralphs or Vons… go to a specialty market!)
2 green onions, finely chopped (white and pale green parts only)
1-2 T chopped fresh mint leaves
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
1 T chopped fresh parsley leaves
salt and freshly ground pepper

6 Panini rolls
olive oil
1 large garlic clove, peeled
2 roasted bell peppers, peeled and cut into strips

1. In a medium bowl, combine the ground lamb, onions, mint, garlic, and parsley. Mix the ingredients, season with salt and pepper and mix to blend. Form six hamburger patties.

2. I cooked the burgers under the broiler on high for about 10 minutes (flipping once and checking for doneness often). Nadia suggests using a panini grill and cooking them for 4 minutes. They’d also be good on the BBQ, don’t you think? Anyway, remove from heat and keep warm while you do the next step.

3. Cut bread rolls into halves, brush with oil and grill until golden. Remove from grill and rub with garlic. Top six roll halves with lamb burgers and bell peppers and serve with Yellow Tomato Salsa (recipe follows).

Yellow Tomato Salsa

3 medium yellow tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (peeling is optional)
1/3 cup chopped green onions (white and pale green parts only) or shallots
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1 T chopped fresh oregano or 1 t dried
salt and a pinch of cayenne
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1. Combine salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Toss well and set aside to marinade 10-15 minutes or longer if possible

My husband Daniel is a hummus fiend. I regularly buy him lots of different flavors, particularly from Trader Joe’s. A lot of times, he’s content to eat pita and hummus as a complete meal. He really can’t seem to get enough of it!

Despite his passion for hummus, I haven’t put forth much effort in the area of making it for him from scratch. But this weekend, I tried my hand again with much success. My personal favorite hummus flavor is roasted red pepper, so I was happy to find this recipe from Cooking Light. I made a few changes to the formula, namely adding tahini and half and half. I learned in my recent Mediterranean cooking class that traditionally hummus has dairy in it, so I decided to add it here.

The recipe was a hit and I’ll definitely be making it again soon!

Mediterranean Hummus
Inspired by a recipe from Cooking Light
Yields 2 cups

1/2 cup chopped bottled roasted red bell peppers
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or juice from one lemon)
2 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil
2 T tahini
2 T half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2-3 garlic cloves (4 is too much! Trust me!)
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) — (15-oz) rinsed and drained (or 2 cups cooked if you make them from scratch like I did)

Place all ingredients in a food procesor; process until smooth, scraping sides of processor bowl once. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.