A Confession via Lobster Tracks

I have a confession, I've been on a diet since March, so I have not been able to eat or post any evil food delights for your reading pleasure.  That being said, I did go on vacation this past month and fall off the wagon.  After losing 39 pounds and counting, I decided that eating ice cream from a little rustic general store in Maine would be alright.  Of course, that was the first day of daily ice cream for the week, but hey, at least I have something to write about and have since bravely stepped back on the wagon.


Here's a photo of myself and my girl having ice cream at The Granite Hall Store in Round Pond, Maine, which features Gifford's Ice Cream.  Gifford's Ice Cream was born and raised in Maine, and now stretches as far south as New Jersey.  I've had their ice cream religiously on every trip up North, so I honestly can't tell you how it stacks up against Ben and Jerry's - mostly because when I eat it I'm about 100 yards from a harbor and I'm always on vacation.  This means it will always be the best ice cream on the planet.

This time around, because I hadn't eaten ice cream in 4 months, I tediously examined the many many choices at the ice cream stand and opted for Lobster Tracks.  The description hysterically says (smartly so) "This product contains NO lobster. Vanilla ice cream, lobster-colored chocolate cups filled with caramel all swirled with a unique éclair crunch."  I figured this is something worth doubling my daily calorie count for.  Yes, it was good.  The bright red color was a little distracting, but I thought it was definitely worth trying since they made the effort to match the food coloring to the actual color of a lobster. 

So if you were in my shoes, or on a desert island and walked up to the ice cream order window, what would you get, and... cup or cone? 



 

Fabio's Ultimate Donuts

My husband happened to be curious about a recipe for the ultimate donut, as I surfed Facebook I couldn't help but be sucked into watching the hilarious Italian host, and yes, a surprise ingredient in the donuts. Donut fans - check out the video!

Fizz Pop goes the Firecracker Chocolate

My trusted supplier of many culinary adventures, the lovely and talented Dana Isenberg, brought in a Firecracker Chocolate. It's made by Chuao Chocolatier, and consists of premium dark chocolate, chipotle, salt and popping candy (to you normal people that means POP ROCKS). I've been a huge fan of the "dark chocolate and salt with [insert anything here]", so true to form I snapped me up three small sections of the chocolate.

At first I started just chewing it, when Dana suggested I just leave it sitting in my mouth and enjoy the show. I think the show was watching the victim eat the chocolate, as she said the best part was watching my face while I ate it. The chocolate was smooth, the chipotle had this subtle kick, the salt rounded it all out. Then came the pop rocks. Fizzzzzzzzzzzzz. I opened my mouth and could hear that signature semi-unholy sound of strange bubbles escaping from a mad scientist's lab. I really could have just eaten one small section. But no, I had three small pieces to see if I could get past the pop rock flavor and see if it melded with the other ingredients. Nope. By the end of the third piece, my throat felt like I had been on an all night vomit-fest, with this weird bitter burning in my throat.

It was time for my afternoon tea, and no one was more surprised than me to drink my black tea and feel like it re-activated the pop rocks in my throat, it started burning all over again.

So, don't you want to run out and try it now? My advice, buy one bar, and share it with 8 friends, you'll be fine! It's worth the flavor experience, complete with the fizzy novelty.

Beware the Recipe Chain!

Here it is, a few weeks before the big holiday season, and in pops an email about a Recipe Exchange from the mother of one of my best friends. Now, I don't know if was before my 2nd cup of caffeine, or after a particularly satisfying breakfast that made my brain complacent, but at the time this seemed like a mighty fine idea to follow the instructions and send a recipe exchange request to 20 of my friends. After all, I need to go to holiday parties, and I might just end up with the killer savory ricotta fritters as an appetizer or bring a tasty Apple Cinnamon Crostada to the brunch. When I heard recipe exchange, this is what was pouring into the inbox in my brain.

My first recipe that arrived was painfully simple, and seemingly includes an illegal amount of sodium, and was probably a favorite of every kitchen in Main Street USA circa 1961:






OK, as it was the first one, I did not make any judgements. I am also fairly positive that for a million dollars, I cannot identify what CHUCK ROAST is when I go to the grocery aisle with all the meat in it. (they really should have pictures of what the stuff looks like cooked so I can ID it). It sounds like a big piece, versus the wavy meat they call hamburger.

The second recipe pops in, with an attachment, and the email reads:



I do not like clams, and I did not open this email.

Still, I was not officially discouraged, after all, I've gotten 2 out of many many amazing recipes to come my way, come on Number 3!

Later that evening, all hell breaks loose when I get this one. I even threw up a little in my mouth while reading it.











I am a veritable well of optomism when it comes to food, so I will be waiting patiently for other fantastic treat instructions to arrive. My goal is to actually read something I would consider making, versus making me lose my appetite. My neighbor's mom always made ambrosia in that huge glass footed bowl, it was great when you were under ten years old.

The hard thing for me is that the only food I have ever made is not one I read about in an email, but one I sampled at a party, freaked out, and begged for the recipe. I am publicly admitting that these recipes in this exchange have a very low chance of ever seeing the light of my oven. At least they see the glory of cyberspace as they are posted here for all to read. If anyone wants the clam recipe, please say so - however, I'd recommend reading Poor Girl Gourmet (the blog or the book) by Amy McCoy for actual real yummy food on a budget. Bon Appetit!

Dinner and a Cup of Coffee? What Were They Thinking?

I was just sitting down to a post-lunch cup of tea and thinking about the movies from that era of Hollywood when people would belly up to the counter and order lunch or dinner with a cup of coffee. Growing up as an offspring of that culture, I never thought much about it... it was in so many movies, plus parents and seniors would still eat meals and drink coffee. As a 40-something adult, I shudder to think of sipping a coffee alongside a ham sandwich, or tipping the java down the gullet next to my spaghetti dinner and salad. On the flip-side, a diner breakfast is not complete without sipping coffee all the way through. Why has drinking coffee during other meals fallen out of favor and habit among subsequent generations such as mine?

Health: we have learned over time that something like water is a better alternative to drink with or after a meal. Here's an article from Raw Food Explained that discusses the impact of different types of foods and liquids in conjunction with each other, some wreaking havoc and blocking the proper ingestion of important nutrients.

Glam: perhaps drinking coffee with meals is falling off the hip charts, like smoking in the movies used to be. I found this neat blog about the history of everything to do with restaurant-ing, if you are a fan check it out. I'm also currently reading Appetite for America by Stephen Fried, about how businessman Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant business, the chain hotel business, and the chain bookstore business all while building the nation's growing railroad system. I can imagine riding the rails for hours across the midwest, hot and arid, smoke and dust, stopping at this snappy clean eating establishment and eating meals only found in fancy restaurants in Chicago or New York. Harvey exclusively used Boston area Chase and Sanborn coffee. I bet you I'd be drinking coffee with my salmon after that rail tour.

I'd love anyone who does drink coffee with non-breakfast meals to tell me why, what is the allure?

A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich, and You (1925)

Ommm, no, more like Ummmm....

I was at Whole Foods and they have a pretty stellar tea selection. Today's choice was HEAVENLY LEMON TULSI from Honest Tea. It's a caffeine free tea, and I'm usually hurting myself with the amount of caffeine I drink, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. I did not read the back of the bottle till I started to drink it, and started wondering what herb farm fell into my bottle. Looking at the small print, Tulsi means "Holy Basil", and the clever folks at Honest Tea put a quick disclaimer on the back that says "Basil in tea? Don't worry..." with a long explanation that it's not really basil, yadda yadda, likening it to meditation (hence the Ommm reference).

My personal tea preference is a good strong black tea with lemon, so this does not fit that bill. Every so often, I'm up for a more herb-based tea, which is usually a 50/50 herb to tea taste. This tea does taste nice, but it's quite aromatic and not strong enough in the tea camp for my taste.

That note aside, for those who are into herbal teas, it is somewhat refreshing. I was hoping for a go-to caffeine-free tea option, but I'll pass.

On the flip side, I did start drinking Sweet Leaf Tea last week. I was at CVS on the 101 degree day and ran to the fridge section to find something good for my hour long ride home in my husband's jeep without AC. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was because I left work early, but boy, this tea went down fast and joyously. It had a nice hefty tea flavor with a hint of sweet that was fantastic.

Earlier this week on a Whole Foods salad run, I grabbed another bottle and, not finding the ORIGINAL flavor pictured here, found a blue label that was LEMON. Also good. I do like the Original best so far, and they had many other flavors to try. I used to drink Lori's Lemon Honest Tea the most, but I dare say that Sweet Leaf has bumped Honest Tea out of my top spot. There are lots of Iced Tea's out there, which is YOUR favorite?

Tis the Season for Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

This past weekend my family was running a few errands and just so happened that my other half had to do an estimate across the street from my co-blogger Brian's house. My daughter and I knocked on Brian's door and lo and behold, Brian was home with his youngest, and he was making guacamole. The guacamole was stellar, but that's not why I'm writing today. Brian unveiled a recent masterpiece, homemade ice cream sandwiches!

I'm a HUGE fan of ice cream sandwiches. The sandwich cookie part and the ice cream have this nice rhythm as you eat them - the ice cream melts, so you clean up the edges, the cookie starts to sculpt and bend to the ice cream, it's a delicate dance that's different everytime. Sometimes you end up with the ice cream thinned out and the cookie intact, or you eat it proportionately down into a small square, which is fun too. Ice cream sandwich flavors are always worth trying, like mint or coffee, although the traditional vanilla is king.

I'm penning this post so that Brian will be urged to share his recipe, since it was lovely and this batch was quite svelte. I believe next time he was going to stuff more homemade vanilla bean ice cream into it. Aside from myself, we had junior taste testers from the Grossman and Morton Test Kitchen on hand, as you can see here, they are both studying and enjoying the homemade ice cream sandwiches.

I'll be making peppermint ice cream later, and depending on when Brian posts his recipe, I might end up with peppermint ice cream sandwiches.