Ice Cream and Frozen Treats

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Posted on by cartooncravings

Episode: The Banagic Incident
Banagic Ice Cream

Star vs. the Forces of Evil promises a little weird, a little wild, and a good time. I’d have to say it delivers. If a magic-wielding, monster-fighting princess from another dimension living as a foreign exchange student on Earth doesn’t fit that description, I don’t know what does. How does this even happen anyway? Well, Star isn’t what one would call a “typical princess.” She’s reckless and irresponsible and sets her kingdom on fire shortly after receiving a great family heirloom, The Royal Magic Wand. Her parents send her to Earth to train and she takes up residence in the Diaz household. This was done as a safety measure, but Star still finds plenty of ways to get into trouble. When she’s not narwhal blasting some ill-intentioned monsters or cutting her way into other dimensions, she’s got to handle everyday life in a place entirely new to her.

Star lives a pretty exciting life, but even she isn’t safe from boredom. (It’s her biggest fear.) She was going to have to renounce her vow to never have a dull day until she saw a magazine ad for The Banagic Wand. It’s one of those “As Featured on TV” products that you see in those late night commercials. “Designed by leading freeze-ologists, The Banagic Wand uses state-of-the-art molecular ice-stronomy to frostulate your sizzle zones and chill you out.” (It makes banana ice cream.) Star can’t resist this “Earth Magic” and insists on immediately finding a “Better Store” where it’s sold. (Supplies are limited.) But Marco refuses to skip his karate class, so Star’s on her own. She wasn’t doing too badly until she mistook the staff of a pirate-themed restaurant for real pirates and trashes the place. They chase her all the way to the store and corner her right in front of The Banagic Wands. Star tells them that they need to “chill out,” so everyone does just that. Banagic Wand Party at Marco’s house!

Recipe makes one 2-cup serving

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas

Yellow food coloring

Directions

Peel and thinly slice the bananas. Freeze the banana slices for at least two hours. Place the frozen banana slices in a food processor. Blend, occasionally scraping down the sides of the processor, until the bananas become creamy. Add a little yellow food coloring and blend a few more seconds. Scrape out of the food processor. (You can fill a piping bag with the banana ice cream and pipe into a bowl to give it more of a soft serve look.)  Enjoy immediately!

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Star completes her quest, conquers her boredom, and feels like she’s mastered Earth. Marco is impressed and admits that he underestimated her. Star’s not too happy to hear that though and she pushes Marco’s Banagic ice cream out of his hands. I wasn’t surprised that Star found a Banagic Wand, but I was surprised that it actually worked. I’ve gotten sucked in by enough infomercials to know that they can’t all be trusted. Well Banagic Wand or not, banana ice cream is pretty magical. “I’m totally chilled out!”

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Monsters, Inc.

Posted on by cartooncravings

Snow Cones

Yes, you read that right. Snow cones. In January. Hey, this is the time of year for snow and ice, so I’m just using what’s on hand. And if your brain works like mine, when you think of snow cones, your thoughts immediately go to Monsters, Inc. (Which is one of the best Pixar movies ever!) Who’d of thought that monsters scare children because their screams are used to power everything? They just go to work and scare like it’s no big deal. Okay, well there’s one big deal. Scaring is considered dangerous work because monsters are afraid of the toxic kids. They believe that just one touch by a human child could kill them. (Actually, I think there’s a hint of truth in there. Kids are scary.) But I like Boo. She’s cute and harmless. Just like most of the monsters in Monstropolis. There’s no way they could scare me. Except for Mr. Waternoose. (*Shivers.* That guy’s icky.) Well, forget Mr. Waternoose. He’s not important. (Actually he’s very important, but I much more prefer Mike and Sulley.)

The stress of finding and hiding a human child and trying to safely send her home without being caught or tangled in a secret plot can be quite taxing on a friendship. Throw banishment on top of all that and Mike and Sulley are splitsville. I hate seeing them mad and hurt and I would just fast-forward through this part of the movie if not for the Abominable Snowman. When I’m not running around shouting, “Mike Wazowski!” or saying something like Roz, I’m yelling, “Welcome to the Himalayas!” I love the poor, messed up Yeti. He’d rather be referred to as the Adorable Snowman or the Agreeable Snowman and for good reason. Does a yak milk drinking, snow cone making monster sound abominable? And it’s awfully hospitable of the Yeti to offer Mike and Sulley snow cones, but the yellow color would concern anyone. (“No, no, no, don’t worry. It’s lemon.”) I’m pretty sure the Yeti, of all monsters, knows not to eat the yellow snow.

Recipe makes 1 cup snow cone syrup.

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup fresh lemon juice

Zest of ½ a lemon

Yellow Food Coloring (Optional)

Ice or Fresh, Clean Snow

 

Directions

Combine sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small saucepan. Place over medium-high heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Once the syrup begins to boil, remove from heat. Pour the syrup through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl. Let syrup cool completely and add yellow food coloring.

Crush your desired amount of ice using a blender, snow cone machine, or other device. If using snow, just collect it from a clean area. Scoop ice or snow into a paper cup and drizzle with your desired amount syrup. Dig in!

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It seems like the Yeti’s not taking his banishment too badly. (At least he’s handling it better than Bigfoot, a.k.a. King Itchy.) Maybe the snow cones have something to do with it? He can’t escape the snow and ice, so it’s best just to have some fun with it. (He does think the snow is fabulous.) Hey, that’s not a bad idea. I think I just found my way to survive the winter. I’m going to need a lot more syrup.

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving

Posted on by cartooncravings

Hot Chocolatey Ice Cream

Thanksgiving is kind of a big deal for my family because stuffing ourselves silly surrounded by our loved ones is essentially living the dream. And do you know what else (Who else actually.) is a big deal for my family? Winnie the Pooh. We’ve all fallen in love with that silly old bear and his friends. So writing about A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving just seems like a no brainer. Thanksgiving is a pretty important day in the Hundred Acre Wood too. It’s Pooh’s most favorite day of all. Most of the residents get together to share a feast and each one contributes something special to it. Pooh brings honey, Piglet haycorns, Gopher lemonade (52.6 gallons of it!), Owl biscuits, Eeyore thistles (Although he says no one will like them but him.), and Tigger brings hot chocolatey ice cream! It’s not the traditional Thanksgiving fare, but they’re happy with it. Then Rabbit shows up. He considers a Thanksgiving Day without turkey, cranberry dressing, the “once a year” plates, and pumpkin pie nothing more than a chilly Thursday. He then assigns duties and responsibilities to everyone in order to have a properly organized celebration. (Rabbit really expects Pooh and Piglet to catch a turkey?!)

My family does the standard turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie thing, but that’s because we want them, not because we’d be celebrating wrong without them. Before Thanksgiving every year, each of my family members gets to choose one dish for our meal. Think of it like our own contributions, except only my mom, sister, and I do the cooking. (We’d prefer not to have Gophers in the kitchen.) What we eat is important to us, but we’re just thankful that we can eat together. Even a Hundred Acre Wood Thanksgiving would be fine by me. There’s nothing wrong with honey, haycorns, and hot chocolatey ice cream. (Leave it to Tigger to bring ice cream!) Actually, I think some hot chocolatey ice cream would be a perfect addition to my Thanksgiving feast. Pie shouldn’t have all the glory.

Recipe makes 1 quart of ice cream.

Ingredients

½ cup hot chocolate mix

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

1 ½ cups heavy cream

¾ cup milk

¾ cup sugar

4 large egg yolks

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Directions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together 1 cup heavy cream and the hot chocolate mix. Once combined, add the rest of the heavy cream and the milk and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the unsweetened chocolate until fully melted and smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and whisk until light and thickened. While constantly whisking, pour small amounts of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolks. Once 1/3 or so of the chocolate mixture has been added, pour in the rest of the chocolate mixture. Pour the new mixture back into the saucepan and place over low heat. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon and reaches 170 degrees F. Pour the mixture through a mesh strainer and into a bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Allow mixture to sit for at least 30 minutes to come to room temperature. You can set the bowl over an ice bath to cool the mixture quicker. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator until the mixture is fully chilled, 4 hours to overnight.

Pour the mixture in an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Remove the ice cream and store in an airtight container in the freezer until fully hardened, about 4 hours. Enjoy!

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If hot chocolatey ice cream was the only thing to eat on Thanksgiving, I’d still have a very good day. (I’m about as obsessed with it as Tigger is.) But Rabbit believes that Thanksgiving is all about tradition and custom, habit and routine. He’s half right, but everyone has different traditions and can change them whenever they want. Turkey isn’t the most immensely important part of the holiday. And having enough food to calm the most ferocious of beasts is just a bonus. So if your food and decorations are ruined, you can’t just call off Thanksgiving and say there’s nothing to be thankful for. (I’m talking to you, Rabbit!) Don’t worry. Pooh helps Rabbit see the error in his ways once he rounds everyone up again to share Thanksgiving. Rabbit realizes that all he needs for Thanksgiving, or any other day, are the friends he has. That’s because Thanksgiving is truly about friends and family gathering together to give thanks for how things are and what they have. After all, the grandest thing we shall ever have is one another, or so it was said by a bear named Winnie the Pooh.

 

I’ll be taking a break next week.

Tune in next, next week for more Cartoon Cravings!