Polka Dot Ice Cream Pie

My daughter Holland turned 10 yesterday! We can't believe she is double digits! We are big chocolate lovers here and often have some form of chocolate for birthdays, but Holland is also a sherbet/sorbet lover and this year asked me to surprise her with some kind of ice cream cake/pie. I have been saving this recipe for years and been meaning to try it -- Holland's birthday seemed like a perfect time and it was a HUGE hit.

Scoop balls of 3 different flavored sherbets, whatever your preference is (we used lemon, raspberry & blood orange) and freeze.

Soften 2 pts of vanilla ice cream and spread 1 pt. in a graham cracker crust. Push frozen sherbet balls into ice cream. Spread another pt of ice cream on top. Refreeze. Top with additional sherbet balls before serving.

Waffle Cones

Waffle Cones! While at the ice cream shop today, Erin asked could we make waffle cones at home? I found a recipe on-line and thought we might try it but first wanted to check if anyone has tried it? If so any tips or suggestions?  If not here is what I found if you are interested.

http://www.waffle-recipe.com/recipes/waffle-cone-recipe/

Ho-Ho Surprise

Eileen just asked me for this recipe. She and I discovered it a few years ago and it is indeed a favorite with kids, and most adults enjoy it as a guilty indulgence. I can't find the exact recipe, but I think I can recreate it pretty easily. You could also replace the Ho-Hos or Yodels with Twinkies for a non-chocolate version. Eileen -- if I have done anything out of order, feel free to correct me. One of the nice things about this is you can re-create to suit your tastes.

Slice Ho-Hos in half lengthwise and layer in the bottom of a 9X9 pan (or bigger). Spread a layer of any flavor softened ice cream on top and a layer of chocolate syrup and refreeze. Sprinkle with chopped oreos and another layer of ice cream, same flavor or different. Refreeze. Top with Whipped cream and refreeze or serve. It is fantastic!

Birthday cakes galore

In our family, June, July, and August are lousy with birthdays and anniversaries. I think my sister, Bridget counted 24, but that doesn't include my husband's side of the family, and we've got 8, I think. Anyway, we make a lot of birthday cakes in the summer.

My sister, Eileen, is planning for her hubby's 40th birthday tomorrow. Brad eats the craziest, sweetest things you can imaging, and he is the thinnest man I've ever met. Mind you, he never stops moving, biking, running, hiking, boating; he coaches track and skiing at the high school where he teaches. Funny that he married the least outdoors-y sister, but I digress (and she's adapted quite nicely BTW) ...

Brad is famous for his breakfast of oatmeal with peanut butter and chocolate chips mixed right in. So, Eileen found a recipe for a peanut butter ice cream cake at http://www.recipes4cakes.com/icecream/peanut_recipe.htm, but she wanted to add chocolate to the recipe. I had just made a great, dense chocolate cake with chocolate icing for my son, Jude's 10th birthday, so I suggested adding that layer. I made the cake today (for Jude's 2nd birthday celebration, because really, you're not 10 if you don't have more than one birthday party, are you?), here's the recipe I ended up with after making some modifications from the original.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice-Cream Cake

2 cellophane packages of graham crackers
3/4 c salted peanuts
1 stick butter
4 t sugar
1 qt vanilla ice cream, softened (Have you noticed that "half-gallon containers" no longer contain 2 quarts of ice cream? The Hood New England Homemade Vanilla ice cream I have contains 1.75 quarts, so you'll need a little more than a half of a "half gallon.")
1/2 c peanut butter
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate
8 oz heavy cream
1/2 c salted peanuts, chopped, for garnish

Preheat oven to 375°. Process crackers and peanuts in a food processor or blender. Melt butter in 8" x 11" baking dish. Combine cracker crumbs, nuts, sugar and butter into baking pan, mix and press down for crust. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool, place in refrigerator to chill.

Meanwhile, in a Pyrex bowl over simmering water, melt chocolate. When chocolate is melted, combine heavy cream, let sit to cool slightly. Combine softened ice cream with peanut butter until blended.

Spread ice cream over chilled crust. Top with chocolate, and sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Freeze 6 hours or until firm.

This will be delightful when we come in from a hot August day at the beach today to celebrate Jude's birthday and my in law's 44th wedding anniversary.

Happy birthday, Jude. Happy birthday, Brad. Happy anniversary, Nonni & Nanno.

HOT! HOT! HOT!

Not! How ‘bout Rainy! Rainy! Rainy! — and at the worst possible point in the summer for me and mine. We went to Hampton Beach for 4 days, rain. We were trying to end the baseball season, rain. We went to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Foxboro Stadium, rain. We went camping at Old Orchard Beach, rain. But I’m not complaining, in fact, I’m turning it to inspiration ... that, combined with the National Blog Posting Month topic of “Hot,” has turned me to “hot” recipes — some new ones and some tried-and-true.

This is one I’ve always loved at a party. They take a little time, so make them up ahead of time, then just heat them at the last minute, and enjoy your guests. Beware, they’re hot!

Cheesy Chicken Pepper Poppers

1 jar hot cherry peppers in vinegar, stems and seeds removed
2 chicken breasts, poached and shredded
6 green onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
12 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 eggs
3 T heavy cream
1 c Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1 T cumin
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine chicken, onions, garlic, cream cheese, eggs, cream, cheese, cumin, salt, and pepper; mix well. Stuff each pepper and place on a baking sheet. (Peppers can be covered and refrigerated at this point, or packaged in an airtight container and frozen for later use.)

When ready to serve, preheat oven to 350°. Place peppers on baking sheet in preheated oven. Bake until filling is puffed and peppers are soft, about 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Summer desserts

I was bringing a dessert to a friend's poolside gathering yesterday, and it was just too hot to cook (not to mention that there was no time between morning baseball games and afternoon party), so I made a Peach Melba in a Pail. (My husband wasn't so sure about my using the sandpail as a serving vessel, but I assured him, it had only ever been used for food, it's a great way to celebrate the season, it's fun, and it makes an impact.)

Peach melba in a pail

1 half gallon black raspberry ice cream
1 jar Trader Joe's Peach Sauce (or 3-4 sliced peaches)
1 pt of heavy cream, whipped with 1/4 c powdered sugar and 1/2 t vanilla extract (or 2 c Cool Whip)
2 c crushed Oreos
1 pt raspberries
1 clean beach sandpail

Layer ice cream, peach sauce, Oreos, raspberries, whipped cream, until you've used all ingredients. Store in freezer until ready to serve. May be made the day ahead.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

31 Days of Blog: Day 5. When my husband and I met 23 (yikes! how did that happen?!) years ago, the first thing we found that we had in common was our devotion to Bruce Springsteen (we’ll attend our 20th (I think) show together this August); the second was that we had worked our teenage years in ice cream stores — mine in Baskin-Robbins in Tarrytown, NY, his at his father’s seasonal ice cream stand, Super Swirl in Methuen, MA. I guess it was kismet.

This morning in the Boston Globe, there was a great article about small ice cream stands and how they are so much a part of summer. The article seems to say that we’re luckier here in the northeast than in other parts of the country: We have more ice cream stands. Anyway, this article touched me, and I thought I’d share it with you.

Bliss arrives in icy, creamy scoops

By Tania deLuzuriaga / July 5, 2008
At Jay Gee’s in Methuen, it was straight coffee. Across town at Findeisen’s, it was cookie dough. And at Benson’s in West Boxford, black raspberry.
But my favorite, the ice cream I dreamed about all winter and drooled over all summer, was the coffee cookies ‘on’ cream at Hodgie’s Ice Cream in Amesbury. Always in a cup. Always with a sugar cone on top.
Forget Memorial Day, shorts weather, or the end of the school year. Summer starts in New England when the ice cream stands open.
After the desolate days of winter, that first cone is a sweet promise of balmy, carefree days to come.
It doesn’t matter that you might need a jacket while standing in line or have to turn on the heat in the car as you eat it. Ice cream is summer.
“That first cone of the year? That’s heaven,” said Joyce Wright, a grandmother from Plaistow, N.H., who’s been enjoying Hodgie’s ice cream for more than two decades.
For a child in New England, the mom-and-pop ice cream stand is bliss after a winter of franchised frozen milk.
During the winter, my sister and I would have to agree on a flavor and commit to a half-gallon at the supermarket. In the summer, I could have my pick of 40 flavors.
And while my mother rationed out the treats into a Dixie cup in the winter, Hodgie’s and the like had far more generous hands that precariously piled scoop upon scoop, even for the “¼-kiddie” size.
“Don’t order a small, it’s huge,” I have advised more than one boyfriend uninitiated in the nuances of local ice cream.
Growing up in Methuen, I made it my business to know every mom-and-pop stand within 20 miles of my house; I knew which place was on the way home from the beach and which was on the way to my grandparents’ place. In the summer, I tried to eat ice cream at least once a day. On a good day, I would have it twice.This apparently isn’t uncommon. Hodgie’s owner Jason Regis said he eats ice cream every day in the summer, and many of his customers do, too.
“It’s a staple of my diet,” the father of two said with a sheepish smile.
I took this all for granted until I went to college in the Midwest, where ice cream was called “custard” and was too soft, too smooth, and too boring. Most places had only a couple of flavors, and they were rarely something you’d want to eat. Pecan turtle? Banana? No thanks.
When I moved to Florida, I thought my ice cream prospects would improve in the land of endless summer. Sadly, ice cream there is like much else in the Sunshine State: franchised in a strip mall. Most places don’t make their own ice cream or have handmade signs advertising frappes. None ever offer a lime rickey.As I stood in line at some air-conditioned chain waiting for an overpriced scoop (literally, a scoop), I longed for Hodgie’s squat red-and-white building with the wood-planked porch and order window. Where Florida had parking lots, Hodgie’s has a pine grove in the back with picnic tables.
“It’s not the most glamorous place, but it’s got character and those places are few and far between,” said Scott Laing, who said he's been frequenting Hodgie’s with his wife, Karen, for at least 20 years.
That’s just the way Regis wants it. He fell in love with the place in high school when he worked as a scooper there and set his sights on buying it one day.
“It's just a great job,” he said. “People who come up to get ice cream usually have a smile on their face.”
When former owner Peter Hodge was ready to sell three years ago, he called Regis and his wife, Kelly, also a former Hodgie’s scooper. The couple vowed not to change a thing.
And they haven’t. A lot has changed in the years since I started eating Hodgie's ice cream. I’ve moved eight times, had three different jobs, and lived in four different states.
But the coffee cookies ’n cream is always the same. Always in a cup. Always with a sugar cone on top.

After fireworks tonight, I’ll be stopping at Hodgie’s for a ¼-kiddie Peanut Butter Cup (chocolate ice cream with peanut butter ribbon, Baskin-Robbins calls it “Peanut Butter and Chocolate”) in a sugar cone. Yum!