Ice Cream Update: Jeni's

You can stop worrying now; I made it back to Jeni's! I know you were like, "Is she ever going to try that Salted Caramel??" This time we went to the Dublin branch (I know I could say "location," but "branch" makes it sound like I was there on official business. Which I was. Official Ice Cream Business.) and it was just as charming, possibly more so, than the location of our previous visit. Downtown Dublin will make you overdose on "quaint." Seriously, it was so cute it was almost too much. This time I got a half scoop of Salted Caramel and a half scoop of Bourbon Butter Pecan. The Salted Caramel had a really wonderful, almost burnt taste. I loved it so much. And the Bourbon Butter Pecan actually tasted like alcohol! Also I'm pretty sure our ice cream scooper was this guy:

Pretty sure.
Perhaps most importantly, this happened:

If I had better/any Photoshop skillz, I would make sure La-duh-loo was sitting right where my purse is. You'll be glad to see that H. is still wearing that hat! He's worn it everywhere for the past two weeks. I'm really not kidding; he's actually worn it every single place we've gone.

Pizza Galore

I made a lot of food for H. this weekend because, clearly, I am the best girlfriend ever.
Saturday night I made a pizza. This was my first attempt at pizza dough and I was pretty nervous, probably more nervous than I should have been, seeing as pizza-dough-making is a relatively small stakes game. But I'm almost as afraid of yeast as I am of drifters, and I spend a LOT of time thinking about drifters. I've never been able to make yeast "work," no matter how many "no-fail" recipes I've tried. I ended up using the recipe from How to Cook Everything, also known as one of my favorite cookbooks ever. It turned out pretty well! This was the pizza before it went in the oven.

H's half is covered in pepperoni, olives, and a cheese substitute called Veggie Shreds, which is made mostly of soy and lots of other things. I was a good sport and ate this on my pizza about a week ago, but in general I don't like to eat anything that isn't made of real ingredients. So, basically anything that's called a "food product" instead of, y'know, food. I can definitely see the benefit of this for people like my boyfriend, though! My half is green peppers, olives, and sliced mozzarella. When I pulled this puppy out of the oven, H said, "It looks like a real pizza!" I'm not sure what he thought I'd been working on; fake pizza? I went ahead and took it as the compliment it might've been intended as. We both really enjoyed this, especially the crust! Mark Bittman was right. He always is.
This morning, I got up early to put together breakfast. You should probably just hire me to come to your house and make breakfast while you sleep, because I am an early riser; I usually wake up a good two hours before H. Today I made pancakes that were unintentionally vegan; I mean, neither of us are vegans, but H doesn't stock dairy products and he didn't have any eggs since he's trying to clear out his fridge before his move. I used this recipe for vegan oatmeal pancakes, and honestly, I didn't expect them to be very good. But, surprise, they basically tasted like regular pancakes! To go along with them, I made some "homefries" that weren't actually fried. I used the "crispy potato" technique discussed in one of my favorite podcasts, Spilled Milk. Basically, you boil the potato chunks awhile, rough 'em up a bit, then put them in the oven with lots of oil (or goose/duck fat, if you happen to have any of that lying around, but H doesn't seem to stock that, either).
Ta-da, breakfast!


I also sautéed some kale to go with mine, but H didn't have any. That boy doesn't eat greens with breakfast. Get outta town.

Ice Cream Obsession: Jeni's

This weekend I "helped" H look for apartments. Mostly this involved me complaining about how ritzy everything was. I just don't like things that look too new, shiny, or uniform. I like character, age, a slight shabbiness, perhaps outdated wood paneling...oh, is that last one just my apartment? Well, the point is I'm not a very useful apartment hunter. But that's okay, because the high point of the day was stopping for food in a cute neighborhood.
I'd wanted to try Jeni's Ice Cream forever. I read about it in magazines, gazed longingly at it in the Dean and Deluca catalog my bosses get in the mail, and pressed my hand forlornly against the freezer case at Whole Foods. Somehow driving, like, 50 miles to get some was out of the question? No longer! I finally had Jeni's ice cream and it was delicious.

Jeni's is famous for flavors like Salted Caramel and Bourbon Butter Pecan, but when it's hot, I need fruit. I wanted to get a scoop of something a little strange and a scoop of something normal that I thought H might try. He refuses to tolerate lactose, but I thought a nice Lemon Blueberry might tempt him. For the wildcard, I chose Wildberry Lavender. The description promised a "complex" flavor. I don't know what that means! It was good, though.

I ate it all. H wouldn't even try it.

I've begun a series of photos of H saying no to dairy. Like this one:

I would highly recommend Jeni's. It's on the pricey side, sure (four dollars for two pretty large half scoops), but they have unusual flavors you can't get anywhere else--Sweet Corn & Black Raspberry, Cayenne Pepper, Pistachio and Honey--and, remember, this is a treat! You don't have ice cream everyday, so when you do you might as well go all out. Don't be like the bitchy lady who exited the store with her four year old and sniped, "Nevermind. We're not getting ice cream. They don't have vanilla. What kind of ice cream shop doesn't have vanilla?" Um, the kind that sells specialty flavors? Also, there was a Coldstone down the street, and I know you can get the Papa Winfrey Special there (vanilla with chocolate chips). I can't wait to go back and get something weirder!