Kickstart Summer with 3 Scoops

What's more fun that hanging out with an old friend, our families, and eating ice cream? Not much - except for the thrill of trying some cool flavors and treats. My clan and I went to 3 Scoops in Brighton Mass and met up with blogmate Brian Grossman (that's a picture of us) and his family. By the time we got there (late sorry) there were an array of empty ice cream cups and a mini apple pie being sampled. It was so good, we went home with four of the pies.

Brian gave me some of the background of the place, where the ice cream gets shipped from (one of the original Herrell's guys splintered off and is making amazing stuff himself), but I was more taken with the artwork on the walls. Being a photographer and foodie, I loved the collection of work on the walls, especially the old bathtub in the yard photos and the butterfly "thing" (this is an invitation to go there to see what I'm talking about, but it's on the wall in the photo).

I rolled up my sleeves and got to the ice cream. After difficult consideration of the many inventive flavors, I went with mudpie. It is coffee ice cream, chocolate chunks/chips, oreos, and fudge swirl. Supreme. The other flavors that were engulfed were black raspberry, pistachio, and a sample taste of peanut butter and jelly (yep). The pistachio got high ratings from my super picky husband who said that the ratio of pistachios in the ice cream was perfect (you don't even understand how 5 star a compliment this is), and that they were soft and not crunchy.

Since this was the first weekend in April, there weren't a lot of fruit options available, which is OK by me but I'd imagine that would ebb and flow with the weather/humidity. The one fun treat I saw was this insane ice cream cookie sandwich that another food blogger was eating. In a bout of jealousy, I ambled over to his table and ogled his vanilla ice cream sandwiched between large chocolate chip cookies. This was like Thanksgiving! I think this would be a fantastic dessert if it was half the size, but it is fun to watch some guy eat the whole thing.

Head on over to 3 scoops, you won't be disappointed!

I'm just a Dark Chocolate Peepster for your Love

It's not all that often that I go crazy over a new candy, but I'm in love. I walked into work today and found the candy bowl at the front desk included a rolo-shaped foil wrapped candy called a PEEPSTER. I grabbed two and figured I'd try them after lunch.

The dark chocolate is creamy, and inside the little delightful chocolate barrel is a little glob of marshmallow. The inside marshmallow consistency is borderline Cadbury Creme Egg and Peep. I'm not a big marshmallow fan, but the combination of the ratio of chocolate to the Ka-Pow sweet treat inside is amazing! As soon as I ate one, I wanted to eat one hundred... luckily they're rich enough that you can't.

Peepsters just launched last week, and boy, am I excited. I highly recommend the dark chocolate ones, although they do sell milk chocolate which I'll have to try. I'll be sad when Easter is over, unless I can't fit into my clothes anymore.

Banana Bread to the 9th Power

I've been inspired by a couple yummy desserts I had recently -- Sticky Date Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream and Butterscotch Sauce @ KO Catering and Pies and Bread Pudding, White Chocolate, Banana, Raspberry with Toffee Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream @ The Regal Beagle. They both feature creamy, sweet cold ice cream over a warm, soft, starchy center drenched in a sweet sauce. The contrast of the warm center and sauce delivers everything you love about apple pie a la mode, only substitute the sweet and sour of the apples with sweet and more sweet.

Here's how Idid it:

1. Cut a slice of my mom's banana bread recipe (or any banana bread recipe you have) in thirds and arrange the pieces on the bottom of a bowl.
2. Cover with about two tablespoons of butterscotch sauce (recipe)
3. Microwave about 20-30 seconds on high. Spoon the sauce over the banana bread to soak it.
4. Cover it with a healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream (recipe)
   

Ritz's Attempt at a Dessert Cracker

One of my co-workers (the lovely and talented Dana) is a major strange food supplier in my network of foodies. Dana brought the Ritz Fudge crackers in, with wonderous tales of trying them many years ago when they were limited edition covered in dark chocolate. They even have a facebook presence designed to generate buzz to bring back the fudge covered crackers.

I was pretty dubious at the start, figuring the butter would conflict with the chocolate, as others thought it would be a complement (sweet/salty). There was talk about "fudge" not being real chocolate. The tasting began.

The first taste that came through was of course the milk chocolate, a good taste. The 2nd sensation was the buttery flavor which (ironically) competed with the cracker texture. I wanted the cracker texture I guess to be more like a cookie (slightly vanilla/bland or shortbread) rather than a bright-orange-mega-Dorito-esque-level maximum butter punch. I could overlook all of those things if it weren't for the final chapter - the coating of waxy fat stuff on my teeth. You know what I'm talking about, that wax sheen that covers your teeth so that water beads off of them. Maybe it's a cavity preventative measure, maybe it's just cheap chocolate.

I'll pretty much eat anything covered in chocolate laying about, but one of these is enough for me. If anyone else has eaten them and has an opinion, please share, I WANT to like them.

Cake Pops, Oh Boy!

One of our clients sent us a box of Valentine treats today from Candy's Cake Pops. Great packaging, colorful, and laden with these mysterious delights. There's a little card that explains that the color on the bottom of the stick refers to the cake flavor inside. I swiftly tried the cherry chip Cake Pop (new!), and boy, was that good. It was enrobed in dark chocolate, and the delicate balance between chocolate, cake, and portion size was fantastic. Beats cupcakes hands down in mess factor. Give these guys a call and order a box today, you will NOT be disappointed!

Snow = eat bread and drink milk NOW

During a storm, I wonder what percentage of people actually run out to the store to buy milk and bread specifically, and what remaining number laugh hysterically and wonder why those two items are the law for people to fend off snowbound hunger. I would guess it's a solid 62 to 38 in favor of the panic attack purchase.

My mother told me on Monday that she went out and got milk and bread before the Tuesday through Wednesday storm. My mother lives alone, and actually manages to drink a gallon of milk every few days. This makes sense.

I know in my house, it takes my husband and I seven to ten days to drink one half gallon of 1% organic milk, and my toddler a half gallon of whole milk about 5 days. Have we ever been snowbound for more than 5 days? OK, the blizzard of '78 aside, no such luck.

As an adult on the occasions where I find myself wandering the food store the eve of A BIG STORM, I tend to go for more of the comfort foods or ingredients to make them with. I shop like it's the weather superbowl - special occasion snacks like tortilla chips and salsa plus the basic food group standards. Sure, there might be the occasional box of HoHo's that slip into the cart (since those last about 19 years, just in case), but there are such a finite amount of combinations I can make with bread. I have to eat sandwiches for lunch all the time, and sure, when your electric is out [your milk spoils] but PB&J is king. However, if I have a working kitchen it's omelettes or french toast or macaroni and cheese, hell, even brussell sprouts. Cooking in a snowstorm is our modern day survival instinct. Since tomorrow will be a downright mess, I will be baking muffins from scratch.

How about you? Are you a Milk and Bread Soldier tried and true (if so, defend yourself), or are you staring at the empty milk display at the store saying, "uh DUH"?

Our 100th Post - The Scary Side of Food

I thought for Fun Food Fight's 100th blog post in the pre-Halloween spirit, I'd re-share a frightening food story that youse all (as they say in my hometown) might find fascinating.

A New York photographer started The Happy Meal Project to prove a friend wrong on the claim that someone had a McDonalds burger for 12 years and it was relatively unscathed by time. In this experiment, it's been 6 months so far, and not a fleck of mold has grown on it.

I'm the hugest junk food fried food cholesterol laden bakery goods buff, but after watching Super Size Me, I cut down my fast food consumption to one or two times a year only when quickly pulling over for a rest stop dinner on road trips.

Food is fun, and with most fun things we must enjoy it in moderation. My doctor tells me the same thing, so I guess it's fair to put equal time in for the opposing team in the 1 to 100 ratio... it is, afterall, a Fun Food Fight.