Cookies and Cream (Icebox Cake)

BEST OF TASTY CHEAPSKATE

If a river of cream marries a cloud of sugar and they hop into a bed of chocolate, well then, not to be too graphic, but you get this baby.

Today is my mother's birthday. Generally, I try to make something she loved on her birthday. I can't think of a better way to remember someone you loved than through food. You could try this wacky cake or these cookies. But I think that probably what she loved most of all was this here dessert. We called it Cookies and Cream, and everyone always thought it was ice cream. But it isn't. Since then I've heard it called an icebox cake because you layer the whipped cream with the cookies and leave it in the refrigerator for a day. The cookies get soft and you just get a pillow of creamy, chocolate-y sweetness.

The great news about this is that it's crazy easy to make. The bad news is that it probably contains approximately ten million calories per bite. The other bad news is that the cookies you really need to use are often hard to find. This recipe requires Nabisco chocolate wafers. And it really isn't as good with any other substitute (not Oreos, not chocolate graham crackers; trust me; I've tried it all). Nabisco chocolate wafers tend to be in the gourmet cookie section and I can often find them at Christmastime (and then I stock up like a chocolate-addicted lunatic). They can also be expensive. Which makes this not as cheap as most of the Best of the Tasty Cheapskate recipes are going to be. But I do find the cookies on sale every once in a blue moon, so I'm going for this. For the sake of my mom's legacy and all.

 Now, let me say that I made this pretty for you, but it's not super practical to put it on a pedestal cake display thing because you've got to shove this bad boy in the fridge for a full day. What we honestly usually do is throw it in a big salad bowl with a lid (just to spite salad and all) and then put that in the fridge and just scoop it out when it's ready).

For some tips on laziness and/or making this look nice without having to shove the pedestal cake holder into some corner of your fridge go HERE. For some really dreadful pictures and more self-indulgent stories about this dessert in our family, go HERE.

Cookies and Cream (Icebox Cake)
Serves: Um, my family of 6 (but it should serve more; it really should; we have issues)
Prep time: 15 minutes
Fridge time: 24 hours
Cost: $6.40 (about $1/serving)
(cookies: $4, cream: $2, sugar: .12, vanilla: .28)

1 box Nabisco Chocolate Wafers
1 pint cream
3/4 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Beginning by whipping your cream. Pour it in a bowl and blend it until soft peaks form. When they do, add the sugar and vanilla. Whip or beat until firmer peaks form.

Put a blob of it on the bottom of a salad bowl and spread that around. Make one layer of cookies, breaking some if you need to so they don't overlap. Add more whipped cream and spread. Add another layer of cookies. Repeat until you top it off with a thin layer of whipped cream.

Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours or until the cookies are perfectly soft.

Announcing the BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE!!!

Happy New Year, sweet friends!!! 

I hope you've made your resolutions (or not, if one of your goals is to defy things like that).

Here at the Tasty Cheapskate, I've got a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!! (obviously, since I put it in caps with exclamation points).

Over the last few years, I've had less and less time for this lovely little food blog as my writing career has taken me in some other different directions. (For a taste of that, have a look HERE and HERE.)

Because of that, I've made a decision: Throughout the rest of the year, I will be posting the very best, very cheapest, very tastiest recipes each week on Monday. I'll use this year cataloging what I think are the BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE recipes. They'll be the things I make regularly, the things I think will save you some big bucks, and the things that just taste good. I'll be re-photographing ugly pictures as well as updating recipes with all the tweaks, simplifications, and perfectionisms that I've added to them. In addition to Monday recipes, I'll sometimes be posting on Thursday with special posts, articles, tips, book recommendations, and non-food recipes. I hope you enjoy those too.

Then when all the best recipes have been re-posted, The Tasty Cheapskate will offer a cookbook with all those recipes for your to keep and love and give to your friends. This will happen at the end of this year, or the end of next year, depending on how many "best of" recipes I find. And then The Tasty Cheapskate will close it's doors. Not completely, mind you. If I make a fantastic recipe, it will still get posted here. But I won't be promising any kind of regularity.

So, log on, folks (and tell all your friends). Because it's going to be a wonderful, beautiful, tasty, cheap, amazing year!!!

For now, let's get started. Today's recipe is traditional New Year's food called Polska Kielbasa. Why is it traditional? Or considered good luck? Well, a quick internet search revealed that... no one really has any idea at all. Most likely, when we're honest with ourselves, it's because cured, salted pork and pickled cabbage were available at one of the coldest points in the year (tradition). And people who had them felt fortunate (luck).

And you are lucky. Because this is one of the easiest recipes on the planet (seriously, it's right up there with "boiled water" in the difficulty department). It has two ingredients (one of them is even a vegetable). It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. And the kielbasa has a salty, sweetness to it when cooked that combines with the punchy sauerkraut to hit all the right flavor points for driving away winter blues. So you're welcome.

Polska Kielbasa
Serves 4 (if you've got crusty bread on the side; otherwise it serves 2-3)
Prep time: 1 minute
Cook time: 7-10 minutes
Cost: $2.50 (about $.67 per serving)
kielbasa: 2.00, sauerkraut: .50

1 package Polska Kielbasa sausage, cut into "coins"
1 15-oz can sauerkraut, mostly drained

Cut the kielbasa and cook on a skillet at just over medium heat until it starts to brown and get some color and caramelization.

Add the sauerkraut and cook until it's hot.

Serve. It's not the prettiest thing on earth, but that sweet, sour, savory thing is really rocking in this food.

Happy Fourth of July

Pizza Style:

Big Easy Ball o' Cheese and Ham

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

You know what I like about this recipe. Well, a lot. It's easy. It's quick. It's really really good. Plus, it will work for the casual Christmas party you're throwing tonight for a few friends, or the New Year's Eve get-together next week when you don't want to go all out. And if you're one to eat a ham for Christmas dinner, this is an awesome way to use up some of your leftovers.

All that I ask is that you don't underestimate it for its simplicity. These few ingredients pack a mighty tasty punch. You can make it with deli ham, but if you've got that leftover whole ham, that will really take this up a notch.

Big Easy Ball o' Cheese and Ham
Makes 1 big ball
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cost: $3.50-ish
(cream cheese: 2.00, mayo: .15, nuts: .50?, ham: 1.00?--okay, I'm a little sketchy on the costs here, since I used leftover ham and may or may not have forgotten to measure my nuts)

16 oz. cream cheese
1/4 C mayo or Miracle Whip (I used mayo)
1/4 C onion (it gets pureed if you're not into onion-y texture, but if it's the taste that really bothers you, I must warn you, the onion taste is detectable--not overpowering, but yes, it's there)
5 oz. ham
1 C chopped pecans (or walnuts if you happened to be the unprepared type who has no pecans lying around and is not willing to go to the store on Dec. 23rd)

If you're pecans/walnuts are not pre-chopped, put them in a food processor and give them a go until they're good and fine.

Take them out and put them in a different bowl. Wipe or rinse out your processor.

Now put in your cream cheese, mayonnaise, and the onion. Blend until it's smooth and creamy.

Add the ham and pulse or run it on low until the ham is in small bits, but not pureed. This is the part that kind of makes this cheese ball for me. If you get the ham nice and small, the taste and flavors it has are distributed beautifully throughout the cheese ball, but there's enough texture left that nobody feels like they're dipping their crackers in ham-flavored baby food.

Shape your cheese ball. (Confession: I'd never done this before and was a little nervous. It was easy. You just begin plopping it on your serving vessel and shape it into a ball with a spatula.) Sprinkle/pat nuts on until the entire ball is covered.

Serve or cover and refrigerate for later.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

And Merry Christmas from Snowbeard the Pirate here:

Clearly my sense of the aesthetic is defunct.

Some Memorial Day Inspiration

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

In case you're desperately scouring the web in need of a couple fabulous backyard party ideas, here are a few for you.

1. Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Cake. I haven't tried it, but it's in the oven now (I did half barley flour and half white flour) and boy oh boy did it look pretty.

2. Potato Salad.

3. Kip's Chocolate Chip Cookies. Just sub in some red, white, and blue M & M's.

4. Pioneer Woman's Layered Salad. Simple, pretty, and very good.