Cooking
You'll never forget your birthday or your social security number. As long as I live, I will never forget that Tuesday's were hot dog day in elementary school. While not a huge fan of hot dogs, the real appeal of the day was the choice of chips and ice cream.
For years I stuck with Fritos corn chips and an orange creamsicle. At some point I moved on to ice cream sandwiches, before ultimately settling in with fudgesicles. Honestly, I couldn't tell you the last time I had a fudgesicle. But I do remember my last few ice cream sandwiches.
One of my favorites is a local specialty the It's-It. As you would expect from the Bay Area it's a non-conformist treat, made from oatmeal cookies and filled with vanilla, chocolate, cappucino or mint ice cream. But another ice cream sandwich has impressed me as of late, Blisscotti. Sadly, neither did particularly well recently with the tasting panel at the San Francisco Chronice.
"The fifth-ranked Blisscotti ($3.99 for three, Mollie Stone's) was the only non-traditionalist in the top five. Instead of a thin wafer, they feature thick biscotti-style cookies coated in chocolate, sandwiching vanilla ice cream. The panelists all liked the cookies' taste and crunchy texture, but found them so hard to bite through that the filling all gushed out. The ice cream had a strong vanilla flavor. Three panelists might buy these; two wouldn't."
Oh my. Must I now teach the panel how to eat ice cream? I guess I must. Allow the darn thing to soften just a tiny bit before munching into it and you will have no difficulty. And forget about the vanilla one. The chocolate on chocolate and the coffee flavored ones are divine!
You wouldn't think biscotti would pair so well with ice cream, but lo and behold, it does. Blisscotti are the creation of a couple who helped launch the Dove bar, so you know they understand the ice cream and chocolate connection. In fact, the dark chocolate versions of Blisscotti use 65% cacao chocolate. This is a very adult treat but quite delicious and waaaay better than the conventional ice cream sandwich. That's what MY panel* says.
*me and my husband Lee, who by the way, liked the raspberry version best of all
FOOD
- Somebody's Mother's Chocolate Sauce: Favorite Things
Considering that I'm the kind of person that likes nothing better than left-over pizza or pasta for breakfast, this past week was a tough one. The dietary restrictions associated with Passover prevented me from eating either bread or pasta so I...
- Mondays With Maida - Caraway Sour-cream Cookies
Page 178 in the old book / page 210 in the new book The recipe for these cookies is very similar to the Tropical Sour-Cream Cookies from last week, the differences being in the flavoring (caraway vs. lemon and orange), the sugar (white vs. brown), and...
- Mondays With Maida - Butterscotch Thins
Page 138 in the old book / page 173 in the new book These cookies were exceedingly thin and very crunchy. They were fairly average cookies, but even so, they were hard to stop eating. It's sort of like potato chips - there's so little to each...
- Mondays With Maida - Wienerstube Cookies
Page 128 in the old book / page 166 in the new book Zarah and Martin left Friday morning and are now somewhere between here and San Francisco. We had a really wonderful visit capped by a meet-up with several illustrious food bloggers in NYC: Julie, Jen...
- Mondays With Maida - Key West Chocolate Treasures
Page 24 in the old book / page 41 in the new book No need to adjust your set. Yes, these cookies do look very much like last week’s cookies. In fact, if you compare the list of ingredients they are very similar. Both recipes have the same amounts...
Cooking
Favorite Things:Blisscotti
You'll never forget your birthday or your social security number. As long as I live, I will never forget that Tuesday's were hot dog day in elementary school. While not a huge fan of hot dogs, the real appeal of the day was the choice of chips and ice cream.
For years I stuck with Fritos corn chips and an orange creamsicle. At some point I moved on to ice cream sandwiches, before ultimately settling in with fudgesicles. Honestly, I couldn't tell you the last time I had a fudgesicle. But I do remember my last few ice cream sandwiches.
One of my favorites is a local specialty the It's-It. As you would expect from the Bay Area it's a non-conformist treat, made from oatmeal cookies and filled with vanilla, chocolate, cappucino or mint ice cream. But another ice cream sandwich has impressed me as of late, Blisscotti. Sadly, neither did particularly well recently with the tasting panel at the San Francisco Chronice.
"The fifth-ranked Blisscotti ($3.99 for three, Mollie Stone's) was the only non-traditionalist in the top five. Instead of a thin wafer, they feature thick biscotti-style cookies coated in chocolate, sandwiching vanilla ice cream. The panelists all liked the cookies' taste and crunchy texture, but found them so hard to bite through that the filling all gushed out. The ice cream had a strong vanilla flavor. Three panelists might buy these; two wouldn't."
Oh my. Must I now teach the panel how to eat ice cream? I guess I must. Allow the darn thing to soften just a tiny bit before munching into it and you will have no difficulty. And forget about the vanilla one. The chocolate on chocolate and the coffee flavored ones are divine!
You wouldn't think biscotti would pair so well with ice cream, but lo and behold, it does. Blisscotti are the creation of a couple who helped launch the Dove bar, so you know they understand the ice cream and chocolate connection. In fact, the dark chocolate versions of Blisscotti use 65% cacao chocolate. This is a very adult treat but quite delicious and waaaay better than the conventional ice cream sandwich. That's what MY panel* says.
*me and my husband Lee, who by the way, liked the raspberry version best of all
| READ MORE Over at Bay Area Bites are some insider tips for Eating Asia |
FOOD
- Somebody's Mother's Chocolate Sauce: Favorite Things
Considering that I'm the kind of person that likes nothing better than left-over pizza or pasta for breakfast, this past week was a tough one. The dietary restrictions associated with Passover prevented me from eating either bread or pasta so I...
- Mondays With Maida - Caraway Sour-cream Cookies
Page 178 in the old book / page 210 in the new book The recipe for these cookies is very similar to the Tropical Sour-Cream Cookies from last week, the differences being in the flavoring (caraway vs. lemon and orange), the sugar (white vs. brown), and...
- Mondays With Maida - Butterscotch Thins
Page 138 in the old book / page 173 in the new book These cookies were exceedingly thin and very crunchy. They were fairly average cookies, but even so, they were hard to stop eating. It's sort of like potato chips - there's so little to each...
- Mondays With Maida - Wienerstube Cookies
Page 128 in the old book / page 166 in the new book Zarah and Martin left Friday morning and are now somewhere between here and San Francisco. We had a really wonderful visit capped by a meet-up with several illustrious food bloggers in NYC: Julie, Jen...
- Mondays With Maida - Key West Chocolate Treasures
Page 24 in the old book / page 41 in the new book No need to adjust your set. Yes, these cookies do look very much like last week’s cookies. In fact, if you compare the list of ingredients they are very similar. Both recipes have the same amounts...