The Most Important Decision

by | 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? 

Here are some fish, to tide you over.

by | 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!

Weekending

by | Nov 9, 2013 | Challenge

20131109-211807.jpg

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.

20131109-211849.jpg

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.