Entries Tagged as 'ice cream'

Hanging Out in Sausalito

November 29th, 2011 · No Comments

Dallas and I have each travelled around the Bay Area for work and have done all of the standard touristy things and have seen many of the sights. For something different one day Billy & Ging took us to Sausalito, which is just north of San Francisco. Sausalito is an area I always wanted to check out anyway, so it worked out good.

For lunch we went to Bar Bocce, a place that Billy and Ging had been with friends before. The weather was a little chilly, but Bar Bocce’s great outside space had a lot of heaters, so that was not a problem. I had the shrimp po’boy made with Bay shrimp and Dallas had some New England-style clam chowder. Dallas had leftover Thanksgiving kalbi and katsu for breakfast and wasn’t that hungry so he only had garlic bread with his soup. Oh, I also had some salt cod fritters with aioli.

I thought all the food was good. And the view of the piers with the sailboats docked was awesome. The cool thing about Bar Bocce is that you can play bocce while you wait for your food. So we did. Except Dallas. Party pooper. I discovered a secret bocce skill, though, and won 3 of 4 games against Billy & Ging.

After lunch Ging stayed with Damien to nap in the car, but Billy, Dallas and I went for a walk around Sausalito. What a charming little waterfront town with the houses all built up onto a hill and a nice little commercial area that attracts a lot of tourists.. like us.

Yee Tock Chee Park is a cute little area with great views of Angel Island and San Francisco. The last time that Ging and Billy were in Sausalito they kayaked from the shore to Angel Island. Sounds like something fun to do.

After we passed by not one, but two, Lappert’s Ice Cream shops (started on Kauai) and a Crazy Shirts store (based out of Honolulu), Dallas joked that he must be back home in Hawaii. We, of course, had to stop at Lappert’s. It’s not the same in California as in Hawaii, but they still had Kauai Pie ice cream, so it was fine with me!

We strolled around a bit more and then headed back to meet up with Ging and Damien, who’d just woken up from his carseat nap.

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Forever Yogurt

October 25th, 2011 · No Comments

Remember that Cold Stone Creamery that was located across the street from my gym? Well, it closed a long time ago. Maybe a year or two? And Forever Yogurt went into the space. Seemed like a good match. People might actually go and get some frozen yogurt after the gym, but not Cold Stone ice cream! I started staring at big photos of fruit on the building while using the treadmill instead of thinking about Cold Stone. Still, I never went til I got the nudge from Groupon.

Here’s how Forever Yogurt is different from other frozen yogurt spots:

So, it’s totally self-serve. You take as much yogurt as you want and you take as much of the toppings as you want and then it just gets weighed. There are about a dozen flavors of yogurt and endless toppings. I liked it, but just like a salad bar, it’s hard to really gauge how much you have til you’re at the end weighing and paying. I’d go back, though. Unlike the Cold Stone that I tried my hardest to avoid.

My only complaint is that their logo looks like two steaming piles of poo.

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Nice Cream

August 10th, 2011 · 1 Comment

I was just reading about how the government wants to shut down Nice Cream (fresh, organic, local, handcrafted ice cream made at Logan Square Kitchen), when I stumbled upon it at the Logan Square Farmers Market. I guess to say that the government wants to shut them down is incorrect. They’re adding so many regulations that it will not be possible for Nice Cream to stay in business. I think that’s a more accurate description of what’s going on. Read more about it here.

Anyway, my brother and I went to brunch at Dunlay’s on the Square and walked through the market afterwards. I was pleasantly surprised to see Nice Cream selling there and we each sampled a few flavors. This is their summer line up (from their site):

Blueberry Pie Our Blueberry Pie ice cream is like a warm slice of pie with vanilla ice cream on top – except the other way around! How do we make it so delicious? Easy. We get blueberry pie from Bulldog Bakery here in Chicago and smash it right into our vanilla bean ice cream, crust and all!

Cashew Crunch For our brand new Cashew Crunch ice cream we take chunks of cashew peanut brittle from Mama’s Nuts in Chicago and mix them into creamy vanilla bean ice cream. And here’s the best part: the brittle melts a tiny bit when we mix it, forming pockets of gooey caramel with a nutty crunch. This might be the best thing we’ve ever made.

Chocolate Basil Think Chocolate Mint, but a little bit more…adventurous! For our Chocolate Basil ice cream we infuse freshly picked organic basil leaves from hereTM in Chicago, Illinois and mix in 72% dark chocolate for a rich, sweet taste, straight out of the garden.

Strawberry Cupcake We took last year’s Fresh Strawberry ice cream and made it even better! Strawberry Cupcake has delicious bites of cupcake and buttercream frosting from the renowned Southport Grocery in Chicago. And the strawberries? We still pick ‘em ourselves (really!) at Susie’s Garden Patch in Garden Prarie, IL.

We ended up purchasing cute tiny baby cones, which was just enough sweet after our savory brunch at Dunlay’s. I got the cashew crunch and my brother got the blueberry pie. Delicious! Save this business!

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Happy Birthday, Quinn

April 12th, 2011 · 1 Comment

Last week was Quinn’s birthday and on Sunday was the celebration. He and all his friends went to The Little Gym and then after that we met up with everyone for dinner at Village Tap. It is quite remarkable how healthy and awesome Quinn is, given that four years ago he was born 15 weeks too early, weighed about a pound, had 2 holes in his heart and had barely functioning lungs and kidneys. Talk about a miracle kid! Four years later he is a perfectly healthy, smart and rambunctious little boy!

Quinn is still a huge fan of Dallas’s. Even more now, I think, because Quinn is starting to like comic book characters and Dallas always knows everything about comics. It’s about time that all those boxes of comics in our closet paid off in some way. Whenever Quinn points to a comic book character and asks Dallas who it is, Dallas always knows.

We noticed Quinn was into comics a few weeks ago when we saw him at The Piggery. In his little backpack he had sticker books of comics. He played with the book and talked to Dallas about it for so long! So, for his birthday we got him some popup comic books. One was DC Super Heroes and one was The Amazing Spider-Man Pop-Up, because Quinn especially loves Spidey.

Some of the pop ups in the DC comics book were so big and elaborate. They were way taller than Quinn when he was sitting down with the book open in front of him. And, if that’s not enough, this book even had a battery in it and the Batman spread had a lit up bat signal coming out of it! I think he liked them. I know I did! haha

As I was posting this, I realized we had a few more photo so of Quinn from the last few weeks. We hadn’t seen Quinn since New Years Eve with all of the wedding planning and wedding trip, so it was nice to hang out with him these past few weeks.

Here’s from a different night at the Village Tap. After dinner Dallas took Quinn next door and got him a chocolate ice cream cone.

As if Dallas wasn’t already Quinn’s favorite, now he was really his buddy! Of course this all looks innocent, but Dallas is always teaching Quinn such nice habits. …. like telling people they STINK! I’m sure Quinn’s preschool teachers are loving that one. Quinn doesn’t forget either. The last two times we saw him he made sure to tell me I was stinky!

Finally, one from The Piggery, where Quinn had the biggest brownie & ice cream sundae ever!

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Hanalei Valley & Lappert’s

March 17th, 2011 · No Comments


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From Queen’s Bath, Jess, Ted, Richard, Amanda, and Stephanie went to Kilauea Lighthouse to watch the sunset. Paul Baker, Kate, Tien, Shannan and I decided to check out the Hanalei Valley Lookout….

…. and then, more importantly, stop for Lappert’s ice cream. As if there would be any doubt about it, I got the Kauai Pie, my favorite ice cream ever! It’s Kona coffee ice cream swirled wtih chocolate fudge, coconut flakes, macadamia nuts and vanilla cake crunch. Someday I will try another flavor, but not this day! This was my only Lappert’s on the whole trip!

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On the first day of the trip some friends made a Costco run and we had them pick of several bottles of white wine and several of red. We were buying the wine for our wedding and needed to know which to buy cases of. During the week we had wine tastings and chose a white wine, but somehow we never tasted or picked a red wine.

Well, Jen didn’t go ziplining and just hung out by the Ho’Onani pool all day, so I assigned her the task of tasting the reds and picking one! Tough day for her! So, Jen texted me her choices and on the way home from the North Shore we met up with Dallas, Matt and Ross at Costco in Lihue where we bought a case and a half of our chosen white wine (Menage a Trois California White) and our red (Mirassou Pinot Noir). Yes, everyone had a menage a trois at the wedding!

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