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 | Jul 26, 2013 | Holidays, Ice Cream, Photography, Travel
I’ve been thinking about what to post all week, and finally decided to pull together some photos from the fourth of July weekend. “Thinking about” is not “doing”, and lately I’ve tried to re-commit to “doing” in all aspects of my life.
This week my focus has been on photography. It was one of my summer to-do’s, and just the act of writing out that I wanted to improve launched me into doing something about it. I upgraded to the new Lightroom (I was working on version 3, and it was slow loading), and invested in two Creative Live courses (50% off sale!) Food Photography with Andrew Scrivani, and Food Photography with Penny De Los Santos. I watched the majority of these courses when they were free (Creative Live airs all of their courses free while live), and the amount I learned in less than a few days of class time was priceless. A few years ago I also had the incredible privilege of taking a real live in person class with Penny, and it was thrilling. I wish I had been even a tiny bit more knowledgable about manual shooting at the time – I would have gotten so much more out of it on top of the massive amount that I learned.
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A few weekends ago, Devon and I drove up to Byfield to spend the weekend with our friend Alison for the 4th of July. It was just the three of us – her family was in North Conway, mine was at a very crowded house in Maine, and we decided that we’d make a go at a bit of a quieter 4th. On Wednesday we drove up late, after getting in my mile run at 8:45 at night, the earliest that I found it bearable in the heat wave. We arrived to air conditioning, and promptly passed out. We spent the next two days eating, sitting, talking, laughing, and trying not to pass out from the heat. We went to Newburyport to the record store, and to Jabberwocky, and T.J.Maxx. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.
:: Stephanie’s Village Pancake House, in Rowley, for some down home comfort. I’m not quite what happened with the focus or the white balance in this photo. I’m evolving, but still trying to get a hang of my camera.
:: The Farm: after breakfast we headed over to Tendercrop Farm, to pick up some staples for dinner – hot dogs, potatoes, corn, green beans, tomato – and say hello to some farm friends. 
:: And then there was ice cream. As a teenager, Alison worked at Bensons, hulling buckets of strawberries every day for their famous native strawberry ice cream. We picked up a half gallon of strawberry, another of mint chip, and would have called it a day, but after stuffing ourselves to the gill at breakfast, we couldn’t help eating just a little bit more. I think it’s how it ends up going on vacation. I went with a New England classic – Grapenut ice cream. It’s what you think it is – cream infused with the classic cereal, and then studded with it. (The New England version of Momofuku’s cereal milk soft serve…)
:: Dinner. I wish I had a picture of dinner – but we ate it in the dark, on the porch, with the mosquitos, until the mosquitos drove us inside to sit around the table off the kitchen. After dinner we watched hours of Boston’s Finest, and followed it up with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
:: Breakfast. Alison is a delightful hostess. Freshly baked beer bread muffins… and cornbread. Clearly I need to be on top of my breakfast game.
:: And sunset. I could deal with this view every day of my life.
Here’s to setting intentions, and doing more “doing” than “thinking”. What are you going to be doing the rest of this summer?
by Sam Tackeff | Aug 5, 2011 | Ice Cream, Local stores, Restaurants
I had very few reservations about moving back across the country to New England. There is so much here I love passionately, and so much I missed when I was away. My family is here, I have dear friends that I’ve known my entire life. I love walking on the beach that I grew up on, a five minute walk from my childhood home that my parents still live in. I love driving into Boston just to amble through the Common on a sunny day. I love a spontaneous trip to New York to load my car full of smoked fish and bread and coffee from Zabars.
One reservation I had was bringing my partner Devon back to New England with me and the chance of him hating it. He was born in Southern California, and has lived all his life in the Golden State. I worried about the lack of air conditioning, the blizzard season, the drivers in Massachusetts, and the fact that our home basketball team is not to his liking. (Although that won’t really matter given that we don’t appear to have a season shaping up…Grumble.) But, despite all this, he, being a wonderful stand up fellow (or maybe just a little crazy), came with me. And I couldn’t be more ecstatic.
It’s not going to be the easiest transition, but he seems to be doing well so far. And we’ll make sure that we make a trip to L.L. Bean shortly to acquire proper gear for our arctic adventures.
In the past month, Devon has been learning a lot of intriguing (not quite true) facts about New England. Did you know that New Hampshire has the highest per capita rate of vanity plates? Well, everyone has been telling us this, and yet we are actually #2 after Virginia. What is also not true, is that we consume the largest amount of ice cream per capita. That award goes to the hardy citizens of Alaska. (No fewer than 4 people have claimed that fact to him as well.)
This affectionate rumor is not actually surprising when you consider the amount of people in line at any given time of the day at any of the dozen or so home made ice cream shops in my home town. One of my greatest pleasures these past few weeks has been to introduce Devon to some of these local havens, so that he has an objective view of his options.
The best of these, in my opinion, is Annabelle’s. Annabelle’s has been open since 1982, and I’ve been going there pretty much since I was born. (My grandmother first fed me ice cream when I was five and a half months old. Before you scream out about negligence, she was eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream, I tasted it, determined that it was mine, and face-planted.)
The vibe in Annabelle’s is a certain rustic, hippy charm, and you feel like there might be a milking cow out back. You can come in and sit for a while, but most people don’t . You can order from a takeout window, and right outside are benches where you can overlook the water and the tugboats, and everything screams old-town charm.
The ice cream itself is superb. Rich, thick, and high in butterfat. They have a good selection of classic flavors, and some non-traditional ones as well. They make a small fuss out of the fact that they don’t have mint chocolate chip ice cream – instead they have two mint-loving options: Mint Summer’s Night Dream (Mint Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks), and Minty Mint Cookie (Vanilla based Ice Cream with Mint flavoring and Mint Cookies).
I’m a sucker for classic New England flavors: Maple Walnut, Pumpkin Pie, Grape-Nut. Yes, there is an ice cream flavor that is Grape-Nut, like the cereal. My absolute favorite is the Raspberry Chocolate Chip. Real raspberry ice cream, with generous chocolate-y shards. I eat it pretty much every other time I go.
On the past two trips, Devon has had the White Pistachio – pure pistachio ice cream with whole pistachios, and he has sworn allegiance. I think this coast may be growing on him.
Annabelle’s Ice Cream
49 Ceres Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
(603) 436-3400
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 13, 2010 | Beer, Ice Cream
A beer lovers dream? I think so! This week is San Francisco Beer Week, with hundreds of venues all over the bay area jumping in to join the fun. Beer dinners, tastings, get together’s, brew-nerd-fests, and wild and crazy parties abound. Nobody has been sitting around drinking crappy beer and feeling sorry for themselves – this is a celebration of the best of the best.
It was SF Beerweek and all I got was lousy t.shirt…wait…this…nevermind, ok, this amazing beer ice cream at Humphry Slocombe. Beer? Ice Cream? Actually, it’s a natural flavor combination. Even Ben and Jerry’s was on board a couple of years back with their Black and Tan. And why not create small batches of the highest quality ice cream using the highest quality beers and creams?
After testing six flavors, I ended up with this one: the Iron Springs Rye, with rye and caraway brittle mixed in. I’m a caraway seed junkie, so this tasting experience was a heavenly one. Another favorite was the Magnolia Four Winds beer ice cream. Frankly, I’m not sure why I haven’t been making beer ice cream myself. It’s possibly the most satisfying thing I’ve eaten in some time.
And hold on a second, why didn’t they make awesome t-shirts?? I’d tap that. Get it? Keg? Tap that? Ok, yeah, I know, fail.
Related fun:
:: Humphry Slocombe: Creative ice cream on 24th and Harrison in the Mission.
:: Beer and Nosh’s Beer Photography Show at Humphry Slocombe
:: The Designers behind SF Beerweek stylishness: Gamut.
by Sam Tackeff | Aug 24, 2009 | Books, Ice Cream
I have the most marvelous news to share:
David Lebovitz is coming to visit us at Omnivore Books in San Francisco from 6-7 pm on September 28th. This is possibly the greatest thing that could ever happen, because, well, it’s David Lebovitz! DAVID LEBOVITZ!!!!!
I’ve been gushing about it since Celia found out! And I nearly died when he became friends with the bookstore on Twitter.
If you don’t know who he is well, in quick summation – he’s a most amazing man who used to live in San Francisco and do pastry at Chez Panisse under Lindsey Shere, until he decided to take his chances on living a fabulous life in one of the most beautiful and dare I say delicious cities in the world – Paris.
And he blogs about it, and he tweets about it, and he captures the idiosyncrasies of the French quite perfectly in his new book: The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious – and Perplexing – City. It made me giggle the entire way through. And then I went to the store tout de suite to recreate the well chosen recipes in each chapter.
Ever since I got my new Kitchenaid Icecream Maker attachment last month (THANK YOU MOM!), I’ve been working through David’s recipes from his book “The Perfect Scoop”.
His recipe for nectarine sorbet has been a favorite, because we have been blessed with delicious crops of nectarines and peaches here in California – so I’ve made this twice now. I used really, really ripe fruit – almost on the verge of turning, and the final products were so painfully delicious.
I’m posting the recipe verbatim (something I never do), only because it’s really quite perfect, and I think it captures his personality quite well. (My only notes are – that I skipped the skinning step when making peach sorbet, and it still worked out just fine – also, do make sure to put the kirsch or lemon juice, because it helps to form a smoother sorbet and avoid ice crystallization).
Nectarine Sorbet
makes about 1 quart (1 liter)
There’s a curious custom in Gascony, a region in the southwest of France known for its full-bodied red wines (it’s famous neighbor is Bordeaux). When they’ve just about finished their soup, the locals tip a little bit of the red wine from their glass into their soup bowl, mingling the wine with the last few spoonfuls of the broth.
I later discovered that this custom is equally good with a goblet of sorbet when I was scrambling to figure out a way to make this rosy nectarine sorbet a bit more special for an impromptu dinner party. I simply scooped sorbet into my guests’ wine glasses at the table and let them pour in as little (or as much) red wine as they wished. It was a big success. If you have time to think ahead, prepare a big bowl of sweet, juicy berries and sliced nectarines, and let your guests add some fruit to their sorbet too.
6 ripe nectarines (about 2 pounds, 1kg)
2/3 cup (160 ml) water
1/4 cup (150 g) sugar
1 teaspoon kirsch, or 1/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Slice the nectarines in half and remove the pits. Cut the unpeeled nectarines into small chunks and cook them with the water in a medium, nonreactive saucepan, covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they’re soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add a bit more water if necessary during cooking.
Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar. Let cool to room temperature. When cool, puree the mixture in a blender or food processor, until smooth. Stir in the kirsch or lemon juice.
Chill thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Variation: For Peach Sorbet, substitute 7 large, ripe peaches for the nectarines. Remove the skins prior to cutting them into chunks.
Perfect Pairings: If you like the idea of red wine with Nectarine Sorbet, pair it with the Raspberry-Rose Sorbet (page 130), or simply serve it in goblets and pass a bottle of fruity red wine, such as Beaujolais, Brouilly, or Merlot.
