by Sam Tackeff | Nov 11, 2013 | Ice Cream
Most of the time around here our food is home cooked, organic, locally sourced. I pride myself on cooking a glut of vegetables on a daily basis. I try to bring my lunch into work. I rarely bake at home, and junk doesn’t make it into the house. I do have one weakness…. okay, yeah, no, let’s scrap this entire intro here. Seriously, just ignore any attempts to set the idyllic scene. I don’t need to apologize, nor do I feel guilty for this important truth:
I love Ben & Jerry’s. Love it. I’d eat pints and pints all day long if I could. In fact, I really miss the days where I could pack back an entire pint with ease. Now, unfortunately, I care about not getting sugar high and a stomach ache. Oh, good old days of gluttony, I do miss you! But why Ben & Jerry’s? It’s the creaminess. And the flavors. And the puns. And mostly the delightful mix-in prizes you get with every scoop. It’s the romance of scooping bowls for yourself and your partner, and making the conscious decision to equally share the crags of chocolate toffee, or the cookie dough, or the brown sugar swirls. A few years ago when Molly’s book ‘Season to Taste‘ came out, one of the most fascinating parts was her mentioning that Ben Cohen had anosmia (a loss of smell, and corresponding loss of taste), and that was the impetus for all of those excellent textural additions. It makes total sense.
I’ve tried a lot of ice cream in my day, but for me Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is the total package for a supermarket brand. While it may not be BiRite Salted Caramel, it’s much more than the sum of it’s parts. The caveat: it’s not small batch, and the ingredients aren’t always as wholesome as I’d like, and technically they are owned by a major blood-sucking corporation – the man. But man oh man, do they have consistency down. I’ve never met a flavor that I didn’t like.
So here we are tonight.
The ice cream aisle. All of the options. It’s the most important decision of the day. I love asserting this to strangers in the ice cream aisle. They all nod, knowingly. I’m only being partially facetious. Tonight, Pistachio Pistachio sang the loudest siren song. Sometimes we can’t make a single choice in agreement, so we get two pints. “We’re going for a balanced meal here!” I joke to the cashier. It’s one of my “regular jokes,” the kind that when I have children they’ll roll their eyes at.
Tonight this pint is coming home, and I’m going to watch Top Chef episodes that I’ve fallen behind on, and the world will be good.
Also: while doing “research” tonight, I came across this masterpiece – 2dips. 2 Dippers Kris and Fred would sit down with a pint and write their own reviews – the Siskel and Ebert of food blogging, with fierce enthusiasm about their frozen adventures. 500 words about a pint of ice cream? Yes, indeed. After reading through dozens of reviews, I was horrified to find that they stopped updating in 2011. How could this happen? So, 2dips Kris, 2dips Fred: this scoop is for you, wherever you are.
Other flavors of Ben & Jerry’s I enjoy:
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Chunky Monkey
- Cinnamon Buns
- Coffee Caramel Buzz/ Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz/Coffee Heath Bar Crunch
- Chocolate Therapy
- New York Super Fudge Chunk
- Mint Chocolate Cookie
- Greek: Strawberry Shortcake
And from the scoop shops: Coconut Seven Layer Bar and White Russian. I wish this was sold by the pint!
Do you have a favorite flavor?
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 10, 2013 | Photography
(Until we resume our regularly scheduled programming around here.) It’s 9pm, and I have an early date with my pillow. It’s going to be epic.
But wait! I won’t leave you empty handed – here’s something related to tide you over: one great gem from the New York Times archives. Not to be read if you are squeamish. There’s more on the topic (hint… gefilte fish and tapeworm) here. Science!
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 9, 2013 | Challenge
I’m quite fond of lazy Saturdays – but rarely do they actually happen. Too often we’re working, or have errands, or have commitments that take precedent over quality lounging time. Today was different. Slower. We woke up reluctantly and watched “Shut Up and Play The Hits” – a superb documentary about the final concert of LCD Soundsystem. It’s one of the better films I’ve watched in a while – beautifully shot and paced, and made even better by the breakout performance of James Murphy’s shockingly adorable Frenchie Petunia. It’s on Netflix streaming, and I highly recommend it.
After the film we brunched. Rox in Newtonville is always a good bet – they make eggs how I like them, breakfast is inexpensive, but many of their ingredients are locally sourced. My only complaint is that the coffee, which is perfectly serviceable, isn’t nearly as good at George Howell down the street. But I haven’t figured out a way to smuggle it in without being rude about it. I wish B.Y.O.C was acceptable around these parts.
In the afternoon we headed to You-Do-It Electronic Center, where we browsed the aisles of tubes, capacitors, dremels, led strings, and wires. If you have any inclination to build something interesting, this is probably the place to start.
Then, Newbury Comics, where new records were acquired, and New England Mobile Book Fair, where I spotted my friend Stephanie’s new stunning book Melt on the shelves (I’ve been cooking out of it all week), and uncharacteristically left empty handed. I wanted no less than ten cookbooks, and couldn’t choose one, so in exasperation I gave up. This happens occasionally, and is better for my wallet.
By the time we left the bookstore it was dark – I’m trying to get used to the fact that my daylight is being robbed. We made a quick trip to Target, where I made an impulse purchase of a running hat and gloves for tomorrow’s race, and then picked up some Northern Thai food for dinner before tucking in in front of the television to catch up with this season of Luther.
Tomorrow, I’ll be picking up the pace. For 13.1.
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 8, 2013 | Writing
Sit down with me a second over this steaming mug of coffee. We have important things to discuss.
When I started this site, way back when, it seemed like such a big upgrade over my years of LiveJournal. I was going to write about food. Finally, I had a purpose!
LiveJournal was emotional and snarky, and one large inside joke. It ranged from inane “I keep forgetting to get my vaccination”, to angry rants, to moody song lyrics – apparently I felt the need to post Panic at the Disco lyrics. (It was a moment.) There were lists of classes I was taking, scribbled notes from trips to New York. There was food, too. Beets with butter and pistachios at Lupa! Quick recipes from my dorm kitchen, meals out with friends.
There were stories – weird, rambling ones.
“And, the guy who came in at 11:30 pm with a hat on and sunglasses, asked for a shot of rum, and then asked to pay with a cashiers check, then after he couldn’t pulled out a thick wad of cash. Mind you, after it was pouring and we couldn’t get a cab and we had one umbrella and there was a party on the subway (with tequila shots, a drunk dressed up Irish woman, a PDA drunk couple, etc….)I think that [memory] might actually be a combination of a few of the T rides that weekend, oh including the serenading poet man.”
I stumble across weirdos. Often.
Posts were most often uploaded at 1:36 a.m.
And there were hundreds of posts – 400? Maybe more?
Here I was with this quirky public offering that people could read – strangers even. My friends read my LiveJournal, my mother did not. It wasn’t good, but it was free flowing. It wasn’t edited. Nobody cared, so neither did I – sometimes it was messy, but often I’m surprised at my own observations. Sometimes I captured things perfectly – and that’s awfully special.
So, back to this space. It always feels a little ridiculous writing about the blog. After transitioning from free form to “blogging with a purpose”, I started to stagnate. I got boring. I got bored. It took me years to figure out that food blogging didn’t have to be a “quick few paragraphs + recipe”. I could write about food, I could write about a run, or a friend’s new business, or the novel I was reading. I could write about whatever I wanted.
Now forgive me for the following analogy. No seriously, please, please forgive me. If you’ve ever watched The Biggest Loser, there’s a week midway through the season that every contestant looks forward to – makeover week. They’ve lost the weight, and now they get the look to match. That’s kind of how I feel about this blog. I’ve finally made it a place I love to be, but the look, well, it’s a little shabby. It could use a bit of a facelift. So I’m going to start thinking about it. A header. Cleaner. Streamlined. And soon, I’m going to grab hold of this newness, and have it match the way I feel inside. And I think it’s going to be a lot better for all of us. Stay tuned.
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 7, 2013 | Photography, Random
Staring up at that sign – pretty much the only time hearts swell for a petroleum company. Just thinking about our World Series win last week. Still feeling warm and fuzzy.
I like the stillness of this Thursday night. No different from most other Thursday nights, except:
I went for a manicure. My nails are pink, shiny, and girly. I’m not really a pink, shiny, or girly person, but I’m all over this shimmery business today.
I picked up my race packet for my half marathon on Sunday. This is my first half marathon. Not counting last weekend when I ran a 10 mile race, and then ran an extra 3.1 because I had badly coordinated with my ride home. And also, I got locked out of the house, so I paced the block several times to keep warm until I realized that I could break in and solve my own problem.
A stranger casually mentioned to me how he had found a Jawbone (step-tracking bracelet) on the ground at an establishment and taken it home without bothering to turn it in. Made me cringe. He then proceeded to animatedly tell me how much he loved the device. It’s still stealing, dude. (But yes, I love mine too.) Also made me curious as to whether or not these self trackers can be remotely shut off.
I spent a few hours looking through old photographs. So many of them made me smile. Old friends, summer meals, weekend trips, dogs now in heaven (I’m more sold on dog heaven than I am people heaven. Something about that excessive tail wagging that makes me think that if there is an afterlife, it’s inhabited by puppies.)
I turned down a sample at Trader Joe’s. Because technically I was there yesterday and they had the same sample, and thus it felt like I’d be taking seconds. And even though they let you do it, taking seconds at Trader Joe’s seems morally wrong.
I wasted several brain-stabbing minutes reading the interview on Eater with the asshat editor at Time – yes, that’d be the editor who put together the “Gods of Cooking” piece and neglected to include any women…Which, in itself, I mean, whatever. I grumbled. The interview though… yeah, wow, champion of asshattery. Here’s the link, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
And now, to bed with a book!
