We’re going to be converting Food Follies to a WordPress site, so there may be a little dust as we go through the process. When we finish, the RSS feed will have a different link (so if you’re reading this via RSS, this may be the last post you see until you grab the new RSS link we’ll make), and all of the recipes will (hopefully) be integrated in with the posts, all in their separate categories. Wish us luck!
John did a wonderful and horrible thing over the holidays – he gave me an ice cream maker! *grin*
The ice cream maker is a Donvier (made in Canada), and has a metal cylinder you freeze in the freezer (no rock salt required) and has a manual handle to churn the ice cream, which is very satisfying, and easy to do while watching tv or reading food blogs.
Since we’ve acquired this magical piece of kitchen equipment, we’ve been doing a lot of experimentation, and I’m finally getting around to posting about it – sorry it took so long – ice cream coma!
We’ve learned that we definitely prefer the ice cream that’s made with the cooked custard-like base with eggs, as opposed to the non-egg recipe that’s also not cooked. The custard-base ice cream turns out SO smooth and creamy, and while the non-cooked, non-egg one is also very good, it’s a little more ‘ice crystally’ and not as smooth and creamy – your mileage may vary.
The first cooked ice cream that we made was based on a basic ice cream recipe we found on the internet and adjusted to our own taste: Homemade Ice Cream Recipe – that link is a vanilla recipe with options to make chocolate instead (adding cocoa, basically).
For this batch, though, we went overboard, and instead of JUST adding cocoa, we also added 3 ounces of finely chopped dark chocolate, which melted into the custard base before it cooled. The ice cream was ALMOST (I said ALMOST), if there is such a thing, TOO chocolatey, but was magnificent and decadent!
Needless to say, it didn’t last very long.
Stay tuned for more ice cream experimentation results, including frozen yogurt, and what to do with leftover fudge (wild guess?).
[Tags: ice cream maker, recipe, ice cream, chocolate, photos]
Since we just got new, high quality aprons in our shop (31″ long, in three colors now too – white, khaki, and yellow), and today is the first day of December, it seemed appropriate to showcase one of our original aprons, for the holidays!
“Warning – I have a cookie gun and I’m not afraid to use it!
(Click the apron picture to buy one for your favorite cookie maker.)
I mainly use my cookie gun for the classic butter cookie recipe (offsite link – apparently I never got our family butter cookie recipe online here, but it’s pretty common) and when I want color and flavor, I use our jello cookie recipe.
You can also check out our entire selection of funny aprons and food-themed aprons just by clicking here. Happy December! Now get baking! 
[Tags: cookie recipe, christmas cookies, funny aprons, baking, food follies]
Blue Sky Cola was one of the first ‘colas’ we’ve run across in a LONG LONG LONG (long!) time that had any HINT of the origins in it – namely the cola nut. Now, Blue Sky Cola has ‘cola nut flavoring’ and we’re not sure EXACTLY what that means, but the important thing is that it tasted like what we thought it should taste like!
We were very happy with the cola-y flavor of this soda and will be getting more of it next time we find it on the grocery shelves. Now, it doesn’t have any caffeine, and it doesn’t have any phosphoric acid, and perhaps it’s this lacking combination that gives the texture of this drink a ’softer’ feel than coke/pepsi or even Jones cola, which are sharper in the mouth. Still, the ’softer’ feel doesn’t detract at all from the experience. So we can heartily recommend Blue Sky Cola – they also have a root beer and maybe some other varieties. In any case, we were just very happy to find a locally available cola made with much tastier CANE SUGAR (Jones cola doesn’t seem to be in stores in Upstate NY yet – alas!) instead of high fructose corn syrup. Go Blue Sky!
[Tags: cola, cane sugar, blue sky soda, high frustose corn syrup, caffeine]
Since moving to New York from California one of the hardest to find food items for us has been cane sugar colas. When we saw Virgil’s in a local grocery store we were thrilled! We love Virgil’s Root Beer with it’s unique spices and figured their cola would be equally distinct.
Well, it was distinct, there’s no doubt about that, but I’m sorry to say that I didn’t like it at all. The first sip seemed mediciney at first and after a while I realized that it reminded me of carbonated Listerene. It’s either the clove bud oil or the cassia oil (or both) that coat your tongue when you drink it, slightly numbing it and drowning out the other flavors. There are also lemon, orange and lime juice extracts which you can barely taste but when it does come through it hits like orange juice right after you brushed your teeth. Bleh.
I’m very confused as to why they called this a cola, as it is not like any cola I have ever tasted. And like most, it has no mention of cola nuts in the ingredients. So where did they get the idea that this is a “real cola?” Maybe the marketing department thought calling it a cola would attract more buyers. (It worked on us.)
We’ve actually found one brand of cola that has “cola nut flavor” in the ingredients, but that’s the subject of another post.
[Tags: Soda, Cola, Virgil's, Root Beer, Beverages]
Since we’ve moved to Upstate New York we’ve been trying to find some good local wine & liquor stores to browse for wines. We found this riesling at a little store who’s owners had trained their little white dog to greet customers and also bring them their change – it was very cute.
This white wine was from Germany; a pleasantly sweet riesling with such citrus and apple-ish overtones it reminded me of the hard apple cider I also like. But the finish was much dryer, which was an excellent combination. It’s easy to drink for people who aren’t sure they like wine much, and goes well with crackers and cheese. We had it with a smoked provalone and lappi, which is swiss-ish. We’re thinking about getting another one just to have on hand. Oh, and as you can see it comes in a bright blue bottle, with a cool modern label!
Price: $9.99.
[Tags: wine, wine review, white wine, riesling, german wine, food follies, food blog]
I enjoy a good chicken sandwich as much as the next guy. In fact I generally won’t order grilled chicken at a restaurant because they’ve usually been on the grill for several hours and taste more like warmed over shoe leather than anything resembling meat.
The new Double Down by KFC though, while I have not tried it, quite frankly repulses me. The “sandwich” consists of two breaded chicken fillet patties in place of bread or a bun, filled with cheese, bacon and the Colonel’s sauce. I freely admit that I’m not much of a KFC fan to begin with. They use way too much MSG in their food so when I eat it I end up with an insatiable thirst, a headache and sometimes my hands break out in a rash.
This entry to me is not a sandwich though. Sandwiches start with bread and good sandwiches start with good bread. One of my favorite chicken sandwiches used to come from the old Wolf’s Deli in downtown Manhattan. It had a breaded chicken breast on a kaiser roll, with bacon and swiss cheese and barbecue sauce. Not too different from the entry above in terms of ingredients, but in my mind far more appetizing and attractive than that greasy monstrosity above.
[Tags: KFC, Chicken, Sandwich, Food, Restaurants]
Well, we’re on the road, on our way to our new home in Upstate NY. We haven’t had much of a chance to eat at independent restaurants along the way (a bit hard to find along interstates although occasionally we luck out), but tonight we did, when we stopped in Chesterton, Indiana! We ordered pizza from a place called Gelsosomo’s Pizzeria (the other two choices were Pizza Hut and Little Caesars) – and it’s delicious! We got a simple sausage pizza and although the round pizza was cut into a grid pattern instead of the classic slice formation, it’s still extremely tasty. It arrived hot, and in fact, I’m going to get another slice now and stop writing this post. Tah!
[Tags: food, pizza, indiana, road trip]
We were driving into town and got passed by an ambulance, then a police car, then two more police cars, all going in the opposite direction. They were headed into the country, towards the vineyards by us. Turns out that a wine truck overturned and lost 4800 gallons of Paso Robles wine! It drained into the dry creek bed near the road – alas! Click here for the full article.
In other news, we haven’t been doing much cooking lately because we’re moving, and all of our cooking stuff is pretty much in cardboard boxes, ready to make the move to Upstate NY, home of coneys, salt potatoes, and half-moon cookies! So, while we won’t be posting for a while, we’ll have a whole new culinary landscape to investigate once we get there, plus a new kitchen to break in, so stay tuned!
[Tags: wine truck, vineyards, moving, food, cooking]
