Serving red flannel hash and colcannon.
Category Archives: Food
Daily Prompt: 32 Flavors
Vanilla, chocolate, or something else entirely?
When you say 32 flavors I think ice cream, I think Baskin-Robbins ice cream. However when I checked their website there are more than 32 flavors. Additionally their “fun facts” page states that the
Baskin-Robbins “31®” was created to represent a different ice cream flavor for each day of the month. The “31 Flavors” concept was introduced into marketing efforts in 1953.
I did find a web page for the Dairy Palace in Canton, Texas with a menu of 32 Flavors of Hand-Dipped Blue Bell Ice Cream. Here, in alphabetical order, are those 32 flavors: Banana Nut, Banana Pudding, Black Walnut, Bubble Gum, Buttered Pecan, Cake Batter, Caramel Fudge Pecan, Cherry Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Coffee, Cookies and Cream, Cotton Candy, Country Vanilla Yogurt, Dutch Chocolate, Fudge Nut Brownie, Happy Tracks, Homemade Vanilla, Lemon, Mint Chocolate Chip, Moo-lennium Crunch, No Sugar Added Vanilla, Peaches and Homemade Vanilla, Peppermint, Pistachio Almond, Pralines and Cream, Rainbow Sherbet, Rocky Road, Strawberries and Cream, Strawberry, Strawberry Cheesecake, Tin Roof, Triple Chocolate, and White Chocolate Almond.
Normally Dutch Chocolate would probably be my first pick followed 
closely by Caramel Fudge Pecan, Mint Chocolate Chip or Fudge Nut Brownie. But today, given that it is not that long after Christmas and I did not have a single candy cane during the holidays I would select Peppermint. Ideally I would like some hot chocolate sauce drizzled generously over it. Other flavors that sound appealing include Buttered Pecan, Caramel Fudge Pecan, Triple Chocolate, and White Chocolate Almond. I am not quite sure what Moo-lennium Crunch, Happy Tracks, Tin Roof flavors are.
Given the choice which flavor of ice cream would you order?
Six Word Fridays – Instant
Slow cooked food over instant anytime.
Wacky Wednesday – Johnny Appleseed Day
John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, was born on September 26, 1774, in Leominster, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1802 he wandered through northern and Midwestern states planting apple nurseries. Many of his seeds were collected from cider presses in Pennsylvania. His trees fed many settlers and legend says he was loved wherever he went.
So enjoy a fresh apple in his honor, or perhaps some applesauce or a slice of apple pie.
Travel Tuesday # 21 – Molly’s in Hanover NH
I remember this restaurant as Molly’s Balloon went it first opened. It replaced a clothing shop and at the time there were other places to eat along Hanover’s main street that I preferred. That was back in the mid 1980s. Now the other places I knew are long gone. So while making a day trip to the “Upper Valley” Molly’s is where we stop for lunch these days. It is pretty typical of a New England college town hang out, take your parents establishment. The decor is wise crack comments on wooden plagues, old back and white photos of Dartmouth doings, and other memorabilia.
So when we stopped there this past Sunday I enjoyed a house salad, a cranberry spritzer, and the 4 oz maple glazed salmon with snow peas while my husband had a house salad, a Sam Adams Pale Ale, and a cheeseburger with fries. Because I had no starch I asked if my husband wanted to share a piece of carrot cake with me. Well I am sorry to say I failed to take a photo of the carrot cake but it was a gigantic slice. We both ate all we wanted and still had about half of it left to bring home.
Six Word Friday – 5/11/2012
Topic: BRING 
Bring a dish, pot luck meal.
Travel Tuesday – Return to Summer Shack
As I mentioned yesterday, my husband and I made a day trip to Boston on Sunday. We returned to Summer Shack for a second time and were very pleased with the experience. My appetizer was an item off the specials board, corn fritters with maple syrup. The fitters were on the spicy side but the a deep dunk of each bite into the saucer of mid grade syrup helped balance that fact. The rest of our meal was off the standard menu — with the exception that I was able to sub a side for my grilled shrimp: I opted out of french fries and enjoy a sticky almond coconut rice that was part of an entrée special.
Travel Tuesday # 15 – You do not have to go far
Sometimes you only need to go down the road a few miles for a few hours to get away and feel treated. Family gatherings for the holidays did not exist in my husband’s family, and on my side they had been important but they fell apart about 12 years ago. So we have done many a trip at holiday times. Sometimes it doesn’t work out to go away, like this past Easter. We went to a favorite restaurant in Brandon, VT - Cafe Provence. It is not far away but it felt like a holiday. For me it was a big holiday off from counting calories and limiting sweet treats. This plate of mini desserts was heaven –
Clockwise, starting with the baby chick cookie, a lemon square, chocolate cake, chocolate case with raspberry mouse, and vanilla cheesecake with kiwi. Believe it or not there were a few more dessert choices that I passed on (fruit tart, flour-less chocolate cake, & tiramisu that I can remember.)
Thoughtful Thursday # 14 – Be a Critic
Would you rather be a food critic, a book critic, or a film critic?
Food critic, no doubt about it. I like books but I have no desire to dissect them. I have even less desire to dissect films. But food, dissecting food is fun. And I believe I already have a better knowledge base when it comes to food then I do in the other two subjects.
Now I am not truly aspiring to be a food critic but if you are then you would find this interesting — Rita Connelly lucked into becoming a food critic/writer when she noticed an ad in a local newspaper for a restaurant reviewer. She has a great tips to share.
The one strength she mentions that you need which I don’t possess is
“You cannot be a timid eater and be a
food writer.”
I knew there was a reason I was not really serious about becoming a food critic.
Travel Tuesday # 14 – Fish and Seafood in Boston
As the only landlocked state in New England there are not many (any) Vermont restaurants that focus on serving fresh fish and seafood. So when we make a trip to Boston we want what we can not find at home. Usually that means a meal at one of the Legal Seafood Restaurants. They are good, moderately price for city eating, but also pretty predictable. Now my husband loves predictable but me, I like something different now and then. We had planned on trying Jasper White’s Summer Shack on Sunday. It did not disappoint and the prices were right in line with what we normally shell out to eat at a Legal location.
I started my meal with one of the blackboard special appetizers, a trio of mini seafood salad rolls, one each lobster, crab, & shrimp. Very tasty, although I would note that the bread part of the roll was cute but not special - served cold & dry. My husband enjoyed his crab cake appetizer from the regular menu that was accompanied by a corn & bean salad. I ordered the “lazy man” lobster casserole entry which featured the meat of a one pound lobster in a Newburg sauce (?- different from the Newburg sauces of my past), topped with garlic crumbs and cheese. My reasoning was I wanted lobster but did not want to fuss with the shell but I would not order the lazy lobster again. There was nothing wrong with it except that it was quite rich (caloric) and the lobster did not need it (OK, me either). Eating it without splashing sauce, given that the tail & claws were whole was not that simple either. My husband also select a regular menu item for his main, crisp fried Ipswich whole belly clams with fries and coleslaw. Now one little oddity occurred with making this order. The online menu said you could sub sides for $2. One husband did not want his coleslaw but would have been happy to pay the $2 for broccoli. Our waiter said he could not sub the coleslaw. So I piped up that my husband could have the broccoli side I had ordered, and I would take my husband’s coleslaw. All and all Summer Shack was a nice change. The decor and atmosphere are casual. The waiters wear some clever T-shirts: one said Lobster, oysters, and clams, Oh my” while another said “We don’t gamble with our clams”. I am sure we will go back to Summer Shack, but that we will also continue to patronize Legal Seafood too.
